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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 2611 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S1W-20911

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 December 2001
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 11 January 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to promote and support guided busways.

The Scottish Executive has awarded £6.093 million from the Public Transport Fund to City of Edinburgh Council's West of Edinburgh Busways project. This project includes two sections of guided busway.The promotion of guided busways schemes is a matter for individual transport authorities and the Scottish Executive will consider any such proposals alongside other potential public transport improvements.

Question reference: S1W-21101

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 December 2001
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 10 January 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has made, or plans to make, to the British Airports Authority and Scottish Airports Ltd regarding the economic impact of the level of landing charges at Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Glasgow Airports.

Question reference: S1W-21102

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 December 2001
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 10 January 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive what consideration it and VisitScotland have given to the effect on tourism and the economy of the level of landing charges on air links to and from Scotland.

Question reference: S1W-21103

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 December 2001
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 10 January 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive how many children left school in the City of Edinburgh area with no qualifications in each year since 1997.

The information requested is set out in the following table.

	Leavers from Publicly Funded Schools	Leavers from Independent Schools	All School Leavers
1997-98	132	12	144
1998-99	151	19	170

It should be noted that included within these figures are any pupils who leave school with only GCSE and/or A level qualifications. Statistics on the attainment in these examinations is not held by the Scottish Executive. Data relating to 1999-2000 are not yet available.

Question reference: S1W-21112

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 December 2001
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 10 January 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has made any representations to Her Majesty's Government to seek an allocation for spending on transport initiatives in Scotland from the sale of registration plates and numbers and, if so, whether any allocations have been made and for what amounts.

Question reference: S1W-21104

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 December 2001
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 10 January 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive how many children left school in the City of Edinburgh area with literacy or numeracy problems in each year since 1997.

There is no standard definition of "literacy and numeracy problems". Information on those leaving publicly funded schools in the City of Edinburgh who had not attained Standard Grade Mathematics and Standard Grade English in academic sessions 1997-98 and 1998-99 is set out in the following table. Data relating to 1999-2000 and 2000-01 are not yet available.

Year	Total number of leavers	Percentage not attaining Standard Grade Mathematics	Percentage not attaining Standard Grade English
1997-98	3,388	10%	10%
1998-99	3,408	11%	10%

Note: These figures do not include pupils who left school with only GCSE and/or A level qualifications, as attainment data from these examinations are not held by the Scottish Executive.

Question reference: S1W-20926

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 December 2001
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 10 January 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to ensure that businesses in Edinburgh do not experience recruitment difficulties due to high housing costs.

We are not aware of any evidence to suggest that higher than average housing costs are causing significant recruitment difficulties for businesses in Edinburgh. Living costs are only one factor which can cause recruitment difficulties. Skills shortages can also have a significant impact.Scottish Enterprise Edinburgh and Lothian works in partnership with the business community to support the continued supply of skilled labour to meet company growth plans. This ranges from programmes of graduate recruitment and retention, to harnessing the potential of people currently outwith the labour market. Linking these people to known areas of demand from the private sector is a core task of programmes such as New Deal and Skillseekers.Communities Scotland offer a range of low cost home ownership schemes which provides affordable opportunities in owner occupation to meet local needs. In addition to this the City of Edinburgh Council have adopted an Affordable Housing Policy which proposes that a proportion of new homes within major development sites will be affordable.

Question reference: S1W-20250

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 November 2001
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 9 January 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has made to Her Majesty's Government regarding a proposal by Consignia to end second post deliveries.

Question reference: S1W-20745

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 December 2001
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 7 January 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive (a) what si'e of budget and (b) how many (i) staff and (ii) non-departmental public bodies, indicating the location of the offices for these staff and bodies, each Minister is currently responsible for.

Details on Non-Departmental Public Bodies (NDPBs) including budgets, staff numbers and office locations are contained in the annual publication Public Bodies. This document is considered the best means by which to present this type of information in a useful and meaningful way. The current edition of the document is available from www.cabinet-office.gov.uk/quango and the 2001 edition will be published shortly.The number of NDPBs for which each minister is currently responsible is set out in the following table. Implementation of the recommendations contained in Public Bodies: Proposals for Change is continuing and these numbers are likely to change as part of the on-going review process.

Minister	No. of NDPBs
Deputy First Minister and Minister for Justice	40¹
Minister for Education and Young People	38²
Minister for Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning	10
Minister for Environment and Rural Development	18
Minister for Finance and Public Services	2
Minister for Health and Community Care	32³
Minister for Social Justice	3
Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport	11

Notes:1. Includes 32 Justices of the Peace Advisory Committees.2. Includes 32 Children's Panels.3. Includes 15 health boards.

Question reference: S1W-20895

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 December 2001
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 7 January 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking, or intends to take, to improve air links with Brussels following the collapse of Sabena.

The Scottish Executive, in partnership with the Enterprise Networks, VisitScotland and the airport operators, continues to encourage the development of commercial and cost effective air services from Scotland to Brussels and other destinations for the benefit of the travelling public and the Scottish economy. There are currently daily services operated by BMI and British European between Edinburgh and Brussels, and daily services operated by Ryanair between Prestwick and Brussels (Charleroi).