Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S1W-15823

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 May 2001
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 12 June 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance it has given to local authorities on the operation of common good funds.

The purposes for which and the manner in which local authorities can deploy the common good are set out in statute. The common good is regarded as a fund of the local authority and comes within the scope of the financial provisions in Part VII of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, including section 94 (consent to meet capital expenses). The conditions that apply to the consent issued to local authorities under section 94 include advice on the treatment of capital payments financed from the common good.

Question reference: S1W-15828

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 18 May 2001
Current Status: Answered by Angus MacKay on 12 June 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive where ministerial cars are based overnight.

Question reference: S1W-15826

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 18 May 2001
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 11 June 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what advice it has issued to NHS Trusts regarding the disposal of assets pending the implementation of resource account budgeting and the flat rate charge which will apply to all assets held.

Question reference: S1W-15532

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 May 2001
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 8 June 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what advice it has given to public housing agencies with regard to protection for tenants from carbon monoxide.

I refer to the answers given to questions S1W-15523 and S1W-15524. The Health and Safety Executive publish several leaflets on gas safety, including carbon monoxide risks. One of these leaflets is aimed at landlords to advise them that gas safety law requires them to maintain all gas appliances and flues they provide for tenants' use and to ensure that they are checked for safety each year by a CORGI registered installer.

Question reference: S1W-15552

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 May 2001
Current Status: Answered by Sarah Boyack on 5 June 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive why the central Scotland traffic model has not been applied to the proposal for an Aberdeen bypass until now, how much it will cost to apply the model to this proposal and how much of this cost it will meet.

The area covered by the Central Scotland Transport Model has been extended gradually and since 1997 has covered from Dundee to Ayrshire. It is now intended to extend the area to Aberdeen and its environs. The extension of the model is a major exercise. The most practical and economical way to carry this out is in conjunction with other planned enhancements. This will form part of the re-tendering of the contract to maintain the model. The re-tendering is due to be completed by September.To extend the model to Aberdeen requires extensive data collection in Aberdeen and its environs, followed by an extension of the structure of the model, and finally a calibration and validation exercise for the extended model. Data collection will be carried out this month and in October.I announced during my visit to Aberdeen on 14 March that the cost of this to the Executive would be around £0.5 million and work since then has confirmed that figure.

Question reference: S1W-15551

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 May 2001
Current Status: Answered by Angus MacKay on 5 June 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding each local authority has been allocated to cover the costs of implementing the McCrone recommendations in each year from 2001-02 to 2003-04.

The funding allocations to local authorities, agreed with CoSLA, to cover the costs of implementing the McCrone recommendations in 2001-02 to 2003-04 are shown in the following table:

Council	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
Council	£ million	£ million	£ million
Aberdeen City	5.903	8.971	13.384
Aberdeenshire	8.425	12.732	18.863
Angus	3.814	5.804	8.603
Argyll & Bute	3.084	4.592	6.720
Clackmannanshire	1.665	2.533	3.769
Dumfries & Galloway	5.262	7.988	11.887
Dundee City	4.731	7.155	10.583
East Ayrshire	4.248	6.424	9.501
East Dunbartonshire	4.291	6.460	9.487
East Lothian	2.961	4.564	6.873
East Renfrewshire	3.566	5.410	8.060
Edinburgh, City of	11.595	17.840	26.789
Eilean Siar	1.208	1.808	2.650
Falkirk	4.662	7.090	10.612
Fife	11.994	18.148	26.872
Glasgow City	19.233	29.258	43.693
Highland	7.906	11.998	17.777
Inverclyde	2.995	4.512	6.650
Midlothian	2.900	4.396	6.527
Moray	3.061	4.656	6.960
North Ayrshire	4.880	7.369	10.942
North Lanarkshire	11.735	17.743	26.348
Orkney	0.853	1.270	1.871
Perth & Kinross	4.257	6.461	9.581
Renfrewshire	6.181	9.399	14.100
Scottish Borders	3.615	5.504	8.235
Shetland	1.037	1.568	2.334
South Ayrshire	3.904	5.934	8.795
South Lanarkshire	10.693	16.170	23.929
Stirling	2.950	4.487	6.715
West Dunbartonshire	3.563	5.371	7.946
West Lothian	5.628	8.586	12.844

Question reference: S1W-15820

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 May 2001
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 31 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive whether any increase in the birth rate is anticipated at the end of 2001 as is predicted in Wales and, if so, what resources will be made available for the recruitment of necessary NHS staff.

Question reference: S1W-15821

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 May 2001
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 31 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive (a) how many local authorities operate public drinking restriction 'ones and (b) how many times the police have been recorded as intervening following a breach of the restrictions that apply in such 'ones and how many successful prosecutions from such interventions have there been since the 'ones were first established, broken down by local authority area.

27 local authorities in Scotland have made byelaws to prohibit the consumption of alcohol in designated areas. Relevant data on contraventions of these byelaws is in the table.Contraventions of byelaws prohibiting the consumption of alcohol in public places, number of offences recorded by the police and number of persons with charge proved

Council area¹	Offences recorded by the police²						Persons with a charge proved³
Council area¹	1990-95	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	1990-95	1996	1997	1998	1999
SCOTLAND	1,503	5,003	9,467	9,637	8,061	10,590	115	560	1,725	1,927	1,308
Aberdeen City	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Aberdeenshire	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Angus	-	-	-	-	-	12	-	-	-	-	-
Argyll & Bute	-	-	66	104	92	191	-	-	7	31	24
Clackmannanshire	-	-	-	90	14	60	-	-	-	-	-
Dumfries & Galloway	-	-	-	-	-	3	-	-	-	-	-
Dundee City	180	32	34	34	101	111	75	2	21	14	11
East Ayrshire	-	-	227	273	266	207	-	-	7	37	32
East Dunbartonshire	-	25	156	162	115	227	-	1	9	4	10
East Lothian	-	-	5	4	3	3	-	-	1	2	-
East Renfrewshire	-	-	-	114	46	156	-	-	-	18	8
Edinburgh, City of	41	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Eilean Siar	-	-	-	73	32	15	-	-	-	-	-
Falkirk	-	-	-	153	130	149	-	-	-	-	5
Fife	-	-	-	121	134	253	-	-	-	8	17
Glasgow City	1	1,692	4,884	3,818	3,355	5,359	-	2	815	674	386
Highland	-	23	43	20	10	12	-	-	6	6	2
Inverclyde	-	473	603	590	538	256	-	90	199	199	166
Midlothian	-	-	-	9	19	11	-	-	-	2	2
Moray	-	-	-	18	16	-	-	-	-	9	3
North Ayrshire	-	-	-	343	264	182	-	-	-	19	65
North Lanarkshire	998	1,423	1,131	1,622	916	947	17	150	306	357	253
Orkney Islands	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Perth & Kinross	-	-	-	-	-	10	-	-	-	4	16
Renfrewshire	-	25	192	381	403	319	-	-	9	75	60
Scottish Borders	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-
Shetland Islands	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
South Ayrshire	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-
South Lanarkshire	283	1,308	2,097	1,388	1,387	1,737	22	315	345	455	205
Stirling	-	-	-	41	36	162	-	-	-	-	2
West Dunbartonshire	-	1	-	211	152	167	-	-	-	8	33
West Lothian	-	-	28	68	32	41	-	-	-	4	8

^{1 Data for the period prior to local government reorganisation in April 19996 have been mapped to the current council areas.
2. Number of offences recorded by the police in each year.
3 Number of persons with a charge proved (main offence), by year of sentence. Data for 2000 are not yet available.
Notes:
1. The figures given in the answer on the number of offences recorded by the police have been extracted from the statistical returns on recorded crime made by police forces to SEJD. The convictions data are based on data held on the SEJD Court Proceedings Database.2. The statistics dealing with court proceedings and with recorded crime are not directly comparable for a number of reasons. A person may be proceeded against for more than one offence and it is also possible that the offence recorded by the police may be altered as a result of the judicial proceedings. If more than one offence is prosecuted in the same proceedings, the one receiving the most severe penalty is counted. The recorded crime statistics relate to the year in which the police recorded the offence; the convictions data relate to the year of sentence.}

Question reference: S1W-15819

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 May 2001
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 31 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive why hydro-electric power schemes generating over 10 megawatts are not classed as renewable while less powerful ones are.

Question reference: S1W-15825

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 May 2001
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 31 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to allow health boards to vary the remuneration rates for key NHS staff in order to attract and retain them.