Questions and answers

Question reference: S3W-39376

Asked by: David McLetchie, MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 23 February 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many secure tenancies it estimates fall under the (a) modernised and (b) preserved right-to-buy scheme and what changes it estimates have occurred in these numbers since the coming into force of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001.

The latest official figures show that there are around 285,300 dwellings owned and managed by local authorities that are considered to be normal letting stock. It is expected that all the households currently occupying these dwellings have either preserved rights, modernised rights or are serving the five year qualifying period leading to modernised right to buy eligibility. The breakdown of data for these categories is currently not held centrally. The Scottish Government is however working with local authorities to explore the possibility of collecting this breakdown and improving the information in this area.

In addition to local authority tenants, registered social landlords (RSLs) have reported to the Scottish Housing Regulator that, as at 31 March 2010, 150,600 of their 265,400 tenancies qualify for either preserved or modernised right to buy. This figure can be broken down to show that 68,800 have preserved rights and 81,800 have modernised rights. The remainder are either exempt or are serving the qualifying period leading to modernised right to buy eligibility.

The proportion of council or RSL tenants that have secure tenancies is not held centrally.

Question reference: S3O-12066

Asked by: David McLetchie, MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 November 2010
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 25 November 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what recent discussions it has had with ministers of the Government of the Republic of Ireland on the benefits of membership of the Euro.

Question reference: S3W-37015

Asked by: David McLetchie, MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 October 2010
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 12 November 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish the data received in response to questions B34 to B39 and C24 to C32 in the survey undertaken on its behalf by George Street Research as part of the interim review of the Home Report.

Question reference: S3O-11573

Asked by: David McLetchie, MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 October 2010
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 7 October 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what estimate it has made of the additional revenue and capital costs to local authorities of the policy of imposing a maximum number of 25 pupils in primary 1 classes.

The financial effects of The Education (Lower Primary Class Sizes) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2010 were addressed in the related Executive Note.

The Scottish Government consulted widely prior to introducing the regulations. The vast majority of the 24 local authorities that responded explicitly welcomed the regulations, and comments relating to resource implications referred almost exclusively to the possibility of extending the requirements to P2 and P3 classes.

Question reference: S3W-35558

Asked by: David McLetchie, MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 August 2010
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 26 August 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what (a) the housing debt has been, (b) new housing debt has been contracted, (c) old debt has been repaid, (d) receipts have been derived from right-to-buy sales and (d) the housing stock has been in each local authority in each year since 1999.

Information on housing debt, new housing debt contracted, repayment of old debt and receipts derived from right-to-buy sales is shown by local authority area in tables 1 to 4, respectively (overleaf).

For tables 1 to 3 information is available for the years 1999-2000 to 2008-09. For table 4 on right-to-buy receipts data is available for 2007-08 and 2008-09 only.

Further statistics on right-to-buy, including numbers of sales and average selling prices, are available on the Scottish Government website Although these figures do not match up exactly with sales receipts, they provide an indication of the trend over a longer time period. http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/HSfS/Sales.

HRA Gross Capital receipts are published annually in the Local Authority Housing Income and Expenditure Publication:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/HSfS/HRA2008-09. The HRA Gross Capital Receipts table shows gross capital receipts raised in the year and right-to-buy sales are the major component of these.

Local authority housing stock in each year from 1997-98 is available on the Scottish Government website through the following link:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/HSfS/StockPublicSector.

Table 1: Housing Revenue Account, Capital Debt Outstanding at Financial Year End (£000)

	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
Scotland	3,755,900	3,652,666	3,426,804	2,375,335	2,125,626
Aberdeen City	127,001	121,774	103,423	98,827	94,801
Aberdeenshire	152,975	151,854	146,590	142,279	139,862
Angus	32,916	31,005	27,446	25,088	23,373
Argyll and Bute	52,713	51,221	49,242	45,654	40,590
Clackmannanshire	28,965	28,170	24,004	21,483	19,521
Dumfries and Galloway	105,437	102,358	95,845	90,549	0
Dundee City	110,851	111,661	113,431	114,001	116,180
East Ayrshire	81,739	79,923	77,104	72,971	68,745
East Dunbartonshire	40,870	38,812	35,456	29,870	25,718
East Lothian	39,586	36,053	25,359	15,899	5,938
East Renfrewshire	25,447	24,278	22,765	21,440	20,477
Edinburgh, City of	256,758	258,744	255,742	255,219	254,030
Eilean Siar	43,284	42,484	41,076	39,405	38,373
Falkirk	91,759	88,763	77,940	66,843	57,422
Fife	196,798	189,941	178,357	168,189	151,526
Glasgow City	873,592	864,201	845,316	20,825	19,744
Highland	216,986	208,474	195,166	185,503	175,607
Inverclyde	95,029	93,718	89,640	87,437	82,773
Midlothian	22,876	21,242	17,434	12,778	6,818
Moray	49,119	48,456	47,639	46,341	45,411
North Ayrshire	87,177	83,538	75,884	73,461	67,424
North Lanarkshire	215,651	199,674	162,367	137,800	115,618
Orkney Islands	3,935	2,733	1,767	1,389	625
Perth and Kinross	47,748	44,803	39,175	34,643	28,306
Renfrewshire	141,536	142,606	142,010	139,323	137,442
Scottish Borders	67,687	67,055	64,604	292	265
Shetland Islands	59,931	57,610	56,276	54,334	53,069
South Ayrshire	59,987	58,852	58,367	55,944	53,320
South Lanarkshire	219,635	204,948	179,692	160,996	145,186
Stirling	42,283	39,254	35,019	29,033	24,958
West Dunbartonshire	92,755	91,961	89,014	85,453	80,519
West Lothian	72,874	66,500	53,654	42,066	31,985

Source: Capital Debt Outstanding returns up to 2005-06; Local Government Capital Return Final returns from 2006-07 onwards.

Table 1 continued

	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09
Scotland	2,005,708	1,965,407	1,906,583	1,862,912	1,993,493
Aberdeen City	96,946	102,150	114,325	132,515	136,741
Aberdeenshire	136,738	131,067	126,761	126,324	126,024
Angus	23,048	23,530	23,134	23,459	24,684
Argyll and Bute	37,711	35,753	0	0	0
Clackmannanshire	20,412	21,659	25,684	30,862	33,988
Dumfries and Galloway	0	0	0	0	0
Dundee City	119,939	121,139	124,601	124,319	130,969
East Ayrshire	63,199	54,691	53,025	57,635	63,249
East Dunbartonshire	23,194	21,565	16,514	15,819	16,503
East Lothian	0	4,604	16,210	20,322	36,847
East Renfrewshire	19,778	20,578	19,846	21,135	21,867
Edinburgh, City of	251,736	262,126	274,627	287,222	295,476
Eilean Siar	37,439	37,356	0	0	0
Falkirk	52,565	44,970	39,553	34,666	36,173
Fife	130,648	117,076	115,453	110,255	107,418
Glasgow City	0	0	0	0	0
Highland	168,157	160,713	153,897	146,304	140,552
Inverclyde	81,070	73,027	69,282	0	0
Midlothian	1,847	3,063	8,609	30,495	66,461
Moray	43,732	39,932	37,883	36,033	36,880
North Ayrshire	60,833	58,471	59,338	56,491	65,475
North Lanarkshire	105,992	97,106	86,996	85,487	95,659
Orkney Islands	0	0	0	0	0
Perth and Kinross	23,575	19,841	17,025	21,863	35,969
Renfrewshire	142,268	145,667	142,181	121,631	123,430
Scottish Borders	236	165	0	0	0
Shetland Islands	51,728	49,522	47,666	45,449	43,723
South Ayrshire	49,397	50,873	52,587	54,550	56,372
South Lanarkshire	130,953	130,662	132,687	130,526	130,086
Stirling	19,593	16,801	18,774	17,764	16,990
West Dunbartonshire	81,216	82,574	81,901	83,817	88,453
West Lothian	31,758	38,726	48,024	47,969	63,504

Source: Capital Debt Outstanding returns up to 2005-06; Local Government Capital Return Final returns from 2006-07 onwards.

Table 2: Housing Revenue Account New borrowing (£000)

	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
Scotland	77,730	79,996	117,778	67,799	53,073
Aberdeen City	5,557	5,426	5,293	5,293	5,293
Aberdeenshire	4,934	4,511	5,071	4,835	4,554
Angus	1,556	1,674	1,503	1,580	3,198
Argyll and Bute	2,555	2,542	4,080	2,997	3,550
Clackmannanshire	1,468	1,581	1,561	1,642	1,778
Dumfries and Galloway	77	506	50	-1,402	-1,819
Dundee City	5,762	9,448	8,616	8,876	9,863
East Ayrshire	3,552	3,552	4,028	3,131	3,876
East Dunbartonshire	2,108	2,523	2,617	2,140	2,388
East Lothian	0	-3,046	2,698	-7,507	-5,822
East Renfrewshire	0	88	-997	-1,384	-544
Edinburgh, City of	5,232	5,509	2,750	2,594	1,849
Eilean Siar	1,622	1,649	1,800	788	1,447
Falkirk	482	0	0	0	0
Fife	-2,962	-2,087	-3,233	-5,729	-12,171
Glasgow City	9,852	798	33,449	11,375	-688
Highland	-2,447	6,461	9,629	6,435	7,978
Inverclyde	4,642	3,598	4,660	4,456	1,950
Midlothian	2,122	2,119	2,262	2,122	2,122
Moray	2,241	3,124	1,848	1,848	1,848
North Ayrshire	2,916	2,548	2,486	5,982	2,785
North Lanarkshire	-2,979	-4,564	-3,417	-8,149	-4,523
Orkney Islands	222	210	260	150	220
Perth and Kinross	2,108	2,108	1,111	669	1,134
Renfrewshire	8,072	7,778	8,503	9,907	7,707
Scottish Borders	3,434	3,948	3,759	2,298	0
Shetland Islands	1,466	1,531	2,477	1,593	1,328
South Ayrshire	2,906	3,359	3,109	2,683	3,249
South Lanarkshire	5,858	6,180	5,858	5,858	5,858
Stirling	-524	1,014	134	-3,068	-1,164
West Dunbartonshire	5,898	5,908	5,813	5,786	5,829
West Lothian	0	0	0	0	0

Source: Capital Debt Outstanding returns up to 2005-06; Local Government Capital Return Final returns from 2006-07 onwards.

Table 2 continued

	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09
Scotland	63,563	102,690	130,862	149,544	239,669
Aberdeen City	11,260	15,887	11,949	20,033	23,425
Aberdeenshire	-491	4,969	4,435	0	0
Angus	0	832	0	750	1,700
Argyll and Bute	3,376	3,617	2,392	0	0
Clackmannanshire	1,714	2,118	4,946	6,298	4,448
Dumfries and Galloway	0	0	0	0	0
Dundee City	8,886	6,771	10,557	6,224	13,408
East Ayrshire	3,567	0	353	5,274	6,415
East Dunbartonshire	0	440	1,141	1,770	2,770
East Lothian	-63	4,604	11,615	4,383	16,835
East Renfrewshire	-224	1,381	-48	2,076	1,674
Edinburgh, City of	5,974	19,721	22,319	23,380	19,707
Eilean Siar	1,582	2,286	1,488	0	0
Falkirk	0	0	0	660	7,032
Fife	142	8,298	14,891	12,538	13,613
Glasgow City	0	0	0	0	0
Highland	136	40	84	0	1,179
Inverclyde	2,189	0	1,297	3,719	0
Midlothian	4,483	1,263	5,609	21,973	36,367
Moray	1,848	366	1,156	1,626	2,972
North Ayrshire	0	25	5,481	0	11,281
North Lanarkshire	1,095	2,667	0	10,837	21,832
Orkney Islands	0	0	0	0	0
Perth and Kinross	4,065	0	0	7,574	16,068
Renfrewshire	8,830	10,388	8,500	1,106	6,981
Scottish Borders	0	0	0	0	0
Shetland Islands	571	0	501	0	218
South Ayrshire	0	1,324	1,178	1,270	966
South Lanarkshire	0	0	0	0	1,012
Stirling	-2,612	0	4,002	133	382
West Dunbartonshire	6,606	7,819	6,656	9,112	12,413
West Lothian	629	7,874	10,360	8,808	16,971

Source: Capital Debt Outstanding returns up to 2005-06; Local Government Capital Return Final returns from 2006-07 onwards

Table 3: Housing Revenue Account, Repayment of Capital Debt (£000)

	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
Scotland	184,506	218,710	209,643	1,122,620	307,127
Aberdeen City	10,784	18,473	10,597	9,889	9,319
Aberdeenshire	6,055	7,272	7,574	9,146	6,972
Angus	3,467	3,883	2,854	3,938	4,913
Argyll and Bute	4,047	3,776	4,830	5,310	7,091
Clackmannanshire	2,263	4,421	2,887	4,163	3,400
Dumfries and Galloway	3,156	3,403	3,666	3,894	88,730
Dundee City	5,004	8,489	7,803	8,540	7,684
East Ayrshire	5,368	5,471	4,928	7,264	8,102
East Dunbartonshire	4,166	3,924	4,417	7,064	7,843
East Lothian	3,533	2,474	7,872	1,953	4,139
East Renfrewshire	1,169	284	320	369	419
Edinburgh, City of	8,179	8,016	7,813	7,776	7,942
Eilean Siar	2,422	2,419	2,438	2,459	2,479
Falkirk	3,478	5,357	5,466	10,972	9,421
Fife	3,895	2,540	3,724	4,439	4,492
Glasgow City	19,243	33,781	19,351	835,866	393
Highland	6,033	14,664	14,660	16,099	17,874
Inverclyde	5,953	6,444	5,892	6,659	6,614
Midlothian	3,751	3,649	4,540	6,778	8,082
Moray	2,904	3,238	2,552	3,146	2,778
North Ayrshire	6,555	6,117	6,571	8,405	8,822
North Lanarkshire	12,998	14,105	15,221	16,418	17,659
Orkney Islands	1,424	690	746	528	984
Perth and Kinross	5,053	4,102	4,745	5,201	7,471
Renfrewshire	7,002	6,603	10,211	12,594	9,588
Scottish Borders	4,066	5,444	4,714	66,610	27
Shetland Islands	3,371	3,105	2,653	3,535	2,593
South Ayrshire	4,138	3,209	3,744	5,258	5,873
South Lanarkshire	19,520	18,827	18,467	24,554	21,668
Stirling	2,505	2,562	2,821	2,918	2,911
West Dunbartonshire	6,630	6,806	7,882	9,287	10,763
West Lothian	6,374	5,162	7,684	11,588	10,081

Source: Capital Debt Outstanding returns up to 2005-06; Local Government Capital Return Final returns from 2006-07 onwards.

Table 3 continued

	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09
Scotland	166,965	144,041	195,431	178,562	90,698
Aberdeen City	9,015	10,294	644	973	868
Aberdeenshire	2,633	10,640	8,742	438	300
Angus	325	350	396	425	475
Argyll and Bute	6,280	5,575	37,724	0	0
Clackmannanshire	823	870	921	1,120	1,322
Dumfries and Galloway	0	0	0	0	0
Dundee City	5,127	5,573	5,926	6,505	6,757
East Ayrshire	9,113	8,508	2,019	664	801
East Dunbartonshire	2,524	1,814	6,192	1,788	2,086
East Lothian	5,875	0	9	271	310
East Renfrewshire	475	545	684	788	943
Edinburgh, City of	8,509	9,331	9,818	10,787	11,452
Eilean Siar	2,516	2,369	38,745	0	0
Falkirk	4,857	7,595	5,216	5,547	5,726
Fife	23,611	23,886	20,569	16,661	16,450
Glasgow City	0	0	0	0	0
Highland	7,521	7,199	6,926	7,056	6,931
Inverclyde	4,433	8,043	5,134	72,081	0
Midlothian	9,454	47	63	183	401
Moray	3,527	4,166	3,205	3,476	2,125
North Ayrshire	6,591	2,387	4,997	2,654	2,297
North Lanarkshire	10,716	11,553	10,109	10,866	11,659
Orkney Islands	625	0	0	0	0
Perth and Kinross	8,796	3,734	2,816	2,736	1,997
Renfrewshire	4,004	6,988	11,986	19,644	5,181
Scottish Borders	29	71	0	0	0
Shetland Islands	1,912	2,206	1,939	2,243	1,943
South Ayrshire	3,923	-153	-479	-693	-1,149
South Lanarkshire	14,233	291	1,246	2,161	1,452
Stirling	2,753	2,792	2,235	1,735	1,158
West Dunbartonshire	5,909	6,461	6,587	7,196	7,777
West Lothian	856	906	1,062	1,257	1,436

Source: Capital Debt Outstanding returns up to 2005-06; Local Government Capital Return Final returns from 2006-07 onwards.

Note: Includes stock transfer repayments as follows:

2002-03 - Glasgow City and Scottish Borders.

2003-04 - Dumfries and Galloway.

2006-07 - Argyll and Bute, East Dunbartonshire, Eilean Siar, Moray.

2007-08 “ Inverclyde.

Table 4: Housing Revenue Account, Receipts from Right to Buy sales (£000)

	2007-08	2008-09
Scotland	207,444	110,171
Aberdeen City	18,331	7,914
Aberdeenshire	10,587	6,358
Angus	3,578	1,843
Argyll and Bute	0	0
Clackmannanshire	3,087	1,172
Dumfries and Galloway	0	0
Dundee City	6,170	3,441
East Ayrshire	7,109	2848
East Dunbartonshire	2,742	1,694
East Lothian	6,923	3,369
East Renfrewshire	1,238	900
Edinburgh, City of	10,765	8,512
Eilean Siar	0	0
Falkirk	11,010	6,006
Fife	15,306	9,674
Glasgow City	0	0
Highland	9,476	6,065
Inverclyde	1,898	0
Midlothian	5,409	4077
Moray	4,530	1,963
North Ayrshire	9,790	4,430
North Lanarkshire	20,541	11,632
Orkney Islands	548	216
Perth and Kinross	5,520	2,218
Renfrewshire	5,946	3,028
Scottish Borders	0	0
Shetland Islands	1,728	1,653
South Ayrshire	3,301	3,026
South Lanarkshire	22,291	7,932
Stirling	4,570	2,363
West Dunbartonshire	5,278	2,584
West Lothian	9,772	5,253

Source: Local Government Capital Return Final returns.

2007-08 is the first year for which this information is available.

Question reference: S3O-10883

Asked by: David McLetchie, MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 June 2010
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 10 June 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what its latest and best estimate is for the total liability still to be met by local authorities in settling equal pay claims.

Question reference: S3O-09865

Asked by: David McLetchie, MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 March 2010
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 18 March 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide a briefing to opposition spokespersons on the implications of the judgements in cases C-197/08 Commission v France, C-198/08 Commission v Austria and C-221/08 Commission v Ireland for the legal competence of the Scottish Government’s use of mechanisms referred to in those cases.

Question reference: S3W-29938

Asked by: David McLetchie, MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 December 2009
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 15 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list every (a) non-departmental public body, (b) Executive agency and (c) associated department for each year since 1998.

Details of public bodies which are the responsibility of the Scottish Government and/or the Scottish Parliament are published on the public bodies web pages of the Scottish Government website at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Government/public-bodies/about/Bodies.

Prior to the establishment of the public bodies web pages in 2002, detailed information on non-departmental public bodies was published in the annual Cabinet Office publication Public Bodies. Copies of this document are available from:

http://www.civilservice.gov.uk/about/resources/ndpbs.aspx.

The Scottish Government public bodies web pages have recently been re-launched and the content of the site continues to be developed. Historical information listing public bodies will be added to the site and I will write to the member as soon as the information is available and place a copy in the Scottish Parliament''s Information Centre (Bib. number 50054).

Question reference: S3O-07966

Asked by: David McLetchie, MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 October 2009
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 1 October 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what action is being taken to develop Scotland’s waste infrastructure to ensure that it is sufficient to meet the demands of current and future waste policy.

The Scottish Government has allocated £42 million from the Zero Waste Fund direct to local authorities for the period 2008-10 to deliver waste management infrastructure. The Scottish Government intends to allocate further funding for 2009-10 and 2010-11. This money is in addition to record levels of funding provided to local government over the period 2008-10.

The Scottish Government, through capital grant schemes administered by the Waste and Resources Action Programme, is supporting development of infrastructure to treat organic waste and reprocess plastics.

The Scottish Government is currently consulting on the zero waste plan. The final plan will identify how to facilitate future development of waste infrastructure in Scotland.

Question reference: S3O-07894

Asked by: David McLetchie, MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 24 September 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what recent discussions it has had with COSLA regarding the provision and funding of personal care services.

Chamber and committees