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-15509

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 May 2001
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 15 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide additional resources to local authorities to improve community relations and develop strategies to encourage awareness and understanding between local residents and asylum seekers.

Question reference: S1W-15508

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 May 2001
Current Status: Answered by Iain Gray on 15 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on whether heroin addicts on methadone should be gradually weaned off the drug or remain on it for life.

Clinical guidance issued to all medical practitioners involved in treating drug misuse in 1999 acknowledges that some people can become drug-free in the short term, others require support over a long period of time.Substitute prescribing of methadone should not be delivered in isolation, however, but as part of a wider social care programme which will assist drug misusers to address the difficulties which drug use causes to them, their families and the wider community. The Executive has provided an additional £20.4 million to local authorities for rehabilitation services over the next three years for that purpose. It has also allocated a further £6.5 million to assist reforming drug misusers prepare for training and employment.

Question reference: S1W-15507

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 May 2001
Current Status: Answered by Iain Gray on 15 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how much is being spent on heroin addicts on methadone programmes in the current financial year, broken down by health board area.

Information on the total cost of treating heroin addicts with methadone is not held centrally.Total costs include the cost of the methadone, fees to pharmicists to dispense methadone and to supervise consumption, the cost of counselling and social support and fees to GPs participating in shared care schemes. There are also costs of providing specialist drug services.Current resources for treatment services in this financial year total £14.352 million. This includes £2 million from the £100 million package of additional resources provided through the 2000 Spending Review.

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-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-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-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-15333

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 what each local authority's general fund balance was, in cash terms and as a percentage of total general fund net expenditure, at the close of each of the last three financial years for which figures are available.

The information for 1997-98, 1998-99 and 1999-2000 is contained in the table.

Closing Balances	1997-98 (£000)	% of Total Expenditure 1997-98	1998-99 (£000)	% of Total Expenditure 1998-99	1999-2000 (£000)	% of Total Expenditure 1999-2000
Aberdeen, City	6,892	2.80	3,096	1.24	1,363	0.52
Aberdeenshire	3,937	1.54	7,400	2.79	5,000	1.79
Angus	600	0.47	3,400	2.60	3,600	2.59
Argyll and Bute	-871	-0.65	401	0.29	801	0.56
Clackmannanshire	-891	-1.52	103	0.17	970	1.56
Dumfries and Galloway	9,190	4.93	3,872	1.98	4,863	2.40
Dundee	2,246	1.05	2,411	1.10	1,152	0.51
East Ayrshire	1,684	1.14	1,984	1.30	600	0.38
East Dunbartonshire	-2,653	-2.30	-1,898	-1.55	998	0.76
East Lothian	1,912	1.86	955	0.90	412	0.37
East Renfrewshire	0	0.00	1,232	1.25	2,300	2.18
Edinburgh, City	2,988	0.54	8,305	1.49	13,078	2.23
Eilean Siar	3,608	4.95	292	0.37	1,058	1.33
Falkirk	-905	-0.56	5,719	3.49	5,021	2.93
Fife	11,058	2.66	9,546	2.24	4,874	1.10
Glasgow	0	0.00	13,999	1.40	33,663	3.24
Highland	1,692	0.59	4,449	1.51	9,768	3.12
Inverclyde	3,189	2.68	4,697	3.88	1,506	1.17
Midlothian	1,730	1.72	1,037	1.01	1,618	1.52
Moray	967	0.93	1,016	0.98	457	0.42
North Ayrshire	-800	-0.49	-1,417	-0.82	-1,200	-0.67
North Lanarkshire	2,322	0.59	268	0.07	4,950	1.19
Orkney	193	0.47	202	0.47	0	0.00
Perth and Kinross	1,770	1.16	4,535	2.86	4,507	2.66
Renfrewshire	6,992	3.25	6,619	3.01	4,464	1.92
Scottish Borders	9,610	7.34	10,578	7.76	7,216	4.98
Shetland	7,237	12.23	9,918	16.58	9,918	16.16
South Ayrshire	0	0.00	0	0.00	0	0.00
South Lanarkshire	0	0.00	0	0.00	523	0.13
Stirling	6,537	6.21	3,183	2.83	5,872	5.10
West Dunbartonshire	2,494	1.83	7,195	5.11	5,330	3.63
West Lothian	407	0.22	1,408	0.75	1,500	0.76
SCOTLAND	83,135	1.27	114,505	1.70	136,182	1.93

Notes :1. Figures are net revenue expenditure which is total expenditure met from council tax, non-domestic rates and government grants excluding loan charges.2. The figures are Provisional Outturn as reported by authorities in the annual Provisional Outturn & Budget Estimate (POBE) return to the Executive.

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.