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-14647

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 March 2001
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 15 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it will take to ensure that children identified by a children's panel as being in need of supervision are allocated a social worker within 14 days.

Local authorities have a legal duty to give effect to supervision requirements made by children's hearings in their area.Inter-agency guidance on national standards for the processing of cases through the children's hearings system sets a maximum target of 15 working days from the issue of a supervision requirement for allocation of a social worker. The Scottish Executive will be monitoring performance against the standards. In individual cases it is for the local authority to be satisfied that it is meeting its statutory obligations.

Question reference: S1W-14780

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 April 2001
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 15 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what the current level of unemployment is among young people leaving care.

Question reference: S1W-15410

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 27 April 2001
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 11 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what criteria were used in selecting tenants' representatives to serve on the board of Glasgow Housing Association.

Question reference: S1W-15411

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 27 April 2001
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 11 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many Glasgow City Council staff it expects to transfer to the Glasgow Housing Association in the event of stock transfer, broken down by current department.

Question reference: S1W-15412

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 27 April 2001
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 11 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive whether a vote of no confidence in a tenants' representative member of the board of Glasgow Housing Association by that individual's tenants' association ensures that person's exclusion from the board and replacement by another tenants' representative.

Question reference: S1W-15357

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 April 2001
Current Status: Answered by Wendy Alexander on 10 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive why output in the Scottish service sector in the four quarters to the third quarter of 2000, as reported in Lloyds TSB Business Monitor Issue 13-Winter 2001, grew by less than half the United Kingdom average and what steps are being taken to ensure Scotland's service sector grows by at least the UK average.

he following table gives a breakdown of official Scottish and UK GDP growth rates in the four quarters to 2000 Q3, compared with the preceding four quarters, for the published sectors within services.Scottish & UK 4 quarter on 4 quarter GDP growth rates to 2000 Q3¹

	Scotland	UK
Total Services	1.6	3.4
Retail & Wholesale	5.1	2.5
Hotels & Catering	-1.0	-1.6
Transport, Storage & Distribution	-2.6	8.0
Financial Services	5.3	2.6
Real Estate & Business Services	2.4	4.2
Public Administration, Education & Health	1.5	1.3
Other Services	1.2	3.3

Sources: Scottish Executive, Office for National Statistics

Notes:

1. The data for Scotland were published on 7 February 2001. Revised estimates

were published on 2 May 2001.The Way Forward: Framework for Economic Development in Scotland, published last June, describes the Scottish Executive's approach to improving the performance of the Scottish economy, including the service sector. This has been supplemented by the enterprise strategy set out earlier this year in A Smart, Successful Scotland, which emphasises the central issues for economic success: growing businesses; ensuring Scotland is globally connected, and lifelong learning and skills development.

Question reference: S1W-15336

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 April 2001
Current Status: Answered by Angus MacKay on 9 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it recommends an optimum level of local authority balance at the close of each financial year for (a) the general fund, (b) the housing revenue account and (c) any other balances and, if so, what this level is, as a percentage of total expenditure from the relevant fund or account, in each case.

Question reference: S1W-15334

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 April 2001
Current Status: Answered by Jackie Baillie on 9 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what each local authority's housing revenue account balance was, in cash terms and as a percentage of total housing revenue account gross expenditure, at the close of each of the last three financial years for which figures are available.

The information requested is contained in the table:

Housing Revenue Account closing balances as at 31 March
	1998-99		1999-2000		2000-01
Local Authority	Balance (£ million)	% of Gross Expend	Balance (£ million)	% of Gross Expend	Balance (£ million)	% of Gross Expend
Aberdeen City	9.4	15.1	5.0	8.2	1.6	2.8
Aberdeenshire	9.3	26.4	10.1	25.3	8.1	20.8
Angus	1.7	9.7	1.3	7.5	0.7	3.9
Argyll and Bute	3.3	18.0	2.2	12.9	2.0	12.2
Clackmannanshire	3.3	23.1	2.0	13.6	1.3	9.9
Dumfries & Galloway	8.9	26.6	7.2	21.2	3.0	9.5
Dundee City	0	0	0	0	0	0
East Ayrshire	0	0	0	0	0	0
East Dumbartonshire	0	0	0.2	1.6	0	0
East Lothian	0	0	2.1	10.8	0.4	2.0
East Renfrewshire	0.3	4.1	0	0.1	0	0.3
Edinburgh, City of	0	0	0	0	0	0
Eilean Siar	0.3	3.4	0.4	4.8	0.3	3.7
Falkirk	8.8	19.2	0	0.0	8.6	17.1
Fife	4.7	5.8	3.3	4.2	4.7	6.2
Glasgow City	0	0	0	0	0	0
Highland	21.8	35.0	22.0	34.5	19.4	30.3
Inverclyde	0	0	0	0	0	0
Midlothian	1.5	11.3	1.7	12.4	1.1	8.1
Moray	2.6	18.4	2.0	13.5	1.3	9.3
North Ayrshire	2.4	7.4	1.7	5.3	0.9	2.8
North Lanarkshire	1.1	1.2	2.0	2.1	0.4	0.4
Orkney	0	0	0	0	0	0
Perth & Kinross	8.2	35.0	8.4	32.7	5.0	19.2
Renfrewshire	1.2	2.9	4.3	8.7	0	0
Scottish Borders	1.3	8.3	0.6	4.0	0.5	3.5
Shetland Islands	0	0	0	0	0	0
South Ayrshire	4.4	19.8	0	0	2.2	9.2
South Lanarkshire	3.0	3.8	0	0	0	0
Stirling	1.4	8.1	2.1	11.5	1.8	9.6
West Dumbartonshire	1.4	4.6	0	0	0	0
West Lothian	0	0	1.2	3.6	1.5	4.2
Total	100.3	7.9	79.1	6.3	64.8	5.1

Source: 1998-99 - HSG1A 1999-2000 - HRA extract of audited accounts 2000-01 - HRA Form (near actual)

Question reference: S1W-15335

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 April 2001
Current Status: Answered by Jackie Baillie on 9 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive, for each local authority, what the total value was of non-general fund and non-housing revenue account balances at the close of each of the last three financial years for which figures are available, expressed in cash terms and as a percentage of annual expenditure from such sources.

Question reference: S1W-15330

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 April 2001
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 9 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will make available details of the transfer of functions, assets, contracts and staff from Glasgow City Council to the Glasgow Housing Association.