Questions and answers

Question reference: S2W-21302

Asked by: Des McNulty, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 15 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of the additional capital and revenue funding allocated to East Dunbartonshire Council in February 2002 for local roads has been spent on local roads maintenance.

East Dunbartonshire Council were allocated an additional £338,000 in February 2002. All of this funding was put towards maintenance of local roads and bridges.

This funding was part of the £20 million given to local authorities across Scotland to help them tackle the backlog of repairs and maintenance on local roads and bridges. The award was in revenue form to allow local authorities to target the cash to bring improvements forward quickly.

Question reference: S2W-21301

Asked by: Des McNulty, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 15 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of the additional (a) £70 million capital and (b) £60 million revenue funding allocated to local authorities in February 2002 for local roads was allocated to East Dunbartonshire Council.

An additional £70 million of general capital consent was allocated to local authorities as part of Spending Review 2000, of which East Dunbartonshire’s additional allocation was £1.189 million, bringing their total un-hypothecated consent under section 94, Local Government in Scotland Act 1973, to £5.722 million for 2001-02.

£20 million was allocated to local authorities in February 2002 to help tackle the backlog of repairs to roads and bridges. East Dunbartonshire Council’s share of this additional funding was £338,000.

Question reference: S2W-21303

Asked by: Des McNulty, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 15 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of each local authority's budget was spent on local road maintenance in the last year for which figures are available.

The figures provided in the table below were notified by councils in their latest Provisional Outturn Budget Estimates (POBE) return for 2005-06.

	Roads Maintenance (£000)	Total Net Expenditure (£000)	Roads Maintenance as % of Total Expenditure
Scotland	192,395	10,245,362	1.9%
Aberdeen City	4,789	386,306	1.2%
Aberdeenshire	9,859	424,141	2.3%
Angus	3,584	208,989	1.7%
Argyll and Bute	6,363	210,264	3.0%
Clackmannanshire	1,272	91,005	1.4%
Dumfries and Galloway	9,121	304,431	3.0%
Dundee City	2,190	305,720	0.7%
East Ayrshire	4,174	231,524	1.8%
East Dunbartonshire	2,381	199,497	1.2%
East Lothian	2,667	174,639	1.5%
East Renfrewshire	1,525	171,855	0.9%
Edinburgh, City of	10,334	828,938	1.2%
Eilean Siar	3,494	103,457	3.4%
Falkirk	2,614	271,900	1.0%
Fife	12,346	664,517	1.9%
Glasgow City	18,007	1,384,237	1.3%
Highland	10,056	465,157	2.2%
Inverclyde	2,840	184,509	1.5%
Midlothian	3,196	159,676	2.0%
Moray	5,498	167,307	3.3%
North Ayrshire	5,899	270,171	2.2%
North Lanarkshire	8,738	605,080	1.4%
Orkney Islands	3,160	61,478	5.1%
Perth and Kinross	6,432	259,623	2.5%
Renfrewshire	8,153	340,535	2.4%
Scottish Borders	6,676	221,454	3.0%
Shetland Islands	4,275	90,803	4.7%
South Ayrshire	3,524	216,346	1.6%
South Lanarkshire	18,845	566,618	3.3%
Stirling	3,048	176,831	1.7%
West Dunbartonshire	2,626	202,179	1.3%
West Lothian	4,709	296,175	1.6%

Question reference: S2W-21296

Asked by: Des McNulty, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 15 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how much was paid in compensation by each local authority in the last year as a result of claims by motorists for accidents or damage to vehicles caused by the structural condition of the road.

Question reference: S2W-21298

Asked by: Des McNulty, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 15 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of roads, by distance, in (a) Scotland and (b) the west of Scotland is classified as (i) motorways and (ii) A class, (iii) B class and (iv) C class roads.

Question reference: S2W-21300

Asked by: Des McNulty, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 15 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of the additional (a) £70 million capital and (b) £60 million revenue funding allocated to local authorities in February 2002 for local roads was allocated to West Dunbartonshire Council.

An additional £70 million of general capital consent was allocated to local authorities as part of Spending Review 2000, of which West Dunbartonshire’s additional allocation was £987,000, bringing their total, un-hypothecated consent under Section 94, Local Government in Scotland Act 1973, to £5.259 million for 2001-02

£20 million was allocated to local authorities in February 2002 to help tackle the backlog of repairs to roads and bridges. West Dunbartonshire Council’s share of this additional funding was £221,000.

Question reference: S2W-21350

Asked by: Des McNulty, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 December 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 15 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of its commitment for Caledonian MacBrayne employees to receive actuarially equivalent pension funds, whether the Executive or the operator of the Clyde and Hebrides lifeline ferry services will be responsible in the long term for ensuring the value of the pensions.

The Scottish Executive is working closely with the Caledonian MacBrayne and the Trustees of the Caledonian MacBrayne Pension Fund in an effort to finalise this aspect of the proposed restructuring of the company in preparation for the tendering exercise. These discussions are on-going and being taken forward in a constructive manner to ensure that the pension provisions for transferring staff are protected.

We are committed to adopting the policies set out in HM Treasury Guidance, “Staff Transfers from Central Government, a Fair Deal for Staff Pensions”. We will make clear the detail of the proposed changes to the pension arrangements once we have concluded our discussions with the trustees and the company.

Question reference: S2O-08495

Asked by: Des McNulty, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 December 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 15 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many new agencies and non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) have been created since May 2003; what the total cost has been, and how many people they employ.

Question reference: S2W-21168

Asked by: Des McNulty, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 14 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what grants were awarded for the provision of mobile CCTV cameras in crime and vandalism hotspots in the (a) West Dunbartonshire and (b) East Dunbartonshire local authority area in each of the last eight years.

Question reference: S2W-21167

Asked by: Des McNulty, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 13 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of children have had access to quality care and early learning before entering school in the (a) West Dunbartonshire and (b) East Dunbartonshire local authority area in each year since 1996.

We cannot provide figures of the percentage of children in school who have had quality care and early learning before entering school, but we can provide estimates of the percentage of three, four and five-year-olds who are registered for pre-school education at a particular time of the year.

Local authorities are required to offer every child a part-time pre-school place from the term following their third birthday. Pre-school provision is not compulsory.

The percentage three, four and five-year-olds registered for pre-school education in each year since 1996 where available in the (a) West Dunbartonshire and (b) East Dunbartonshire local authority areas are given in the table below.

Registrations for Pre-School Education as a Percentage of the Estimated Number of Children in the Local Authority

	West Dunbartonshire			East Dunbartonshire
	Ante Pre-School	Pre-School	Deferred Entry	Ante Pre-School	Pre-School	Deferred Entry
January 2005	76%	94%	7%	94%	96%	6%
January 2004	82%	90%	8%	94%	99%	8%
January 2003	83%	99%	6%	91%	95%	4%
January 2002	56%	77%	4%	90%	97%	9%
September 1999	19%	25%	2%	8%	30%	1%
September 1997	15%	54%	1%	9%	30%	0%
September 1996	16%	33%	1%	9%	23%	7%

The following points should be noted:

Ante pre-school registrations are calculated as the percentage of all children aged three in January or September of a given year. Children become eligible for pre-school education in the term following their third birthday and therefore census figures relating to the first or second term of the year will normally be less than 100% as they do not count children who start pre-school in the spring term. Children may be enrolled early at the discretion of the local authority and the ante-pre-school figures are likely to include a number of such children.

Pre-school registrations are presented as a percentage of the estimated number of four-year-olds, and deferred entry registrations are presented as a percentage of the estimated number of five-year-olds.

The local authority is that in which the pre-school education is provided rather than where the children are resident; children may attend pre-school centres in local authorities other than that in which they are resident.

Children are counted once for each pre-school registration they have. It is possible there may therefore be double counting of some children.

In September 1996 and September 1997 the census excluded centres providing pre-school education in partnership with the local authority.

Chamber and committees