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-13196

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 February 2001
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 22 March 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many environmental health officers were employed in each year since 1997, broken down by local authority.

Question reference: S1W-14037

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 March 2001
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Morrison on 22 March 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to promote and assist with the possible development of a super port at Scapa Bay in Orkney.

Question reference: S1W-13969

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 March 2001
Current Status: Answered by Wendy Alexander on 21 March 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) official ministerial engagements and (b) official ministerial meetings the Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning is scheduled to attend in the weeks beginning (i) 12 March 2001, (ii) 19 March 2001, (iii) 26 March 2001, (iv) 2 April 2001, (v) 9 April 2001, (vi) 16 April 2001, (vii) 23 April 2001 and (viii) 30 April 2001.

Details of future official ministerial engagements and official meetings are internal matters for the Scottish Executive. In the course of a working week, Ministers undertake a number of official engagements and attend and chair a wide range of meetings, some of which are planned and programmed well in advance while others, such as the need to be in Parliament, are arranged at short notice. It is neither possible nor appropriate to provide information in the format requested.

Question reference: S1W-13967

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 March 2001
Current Status: Answered by Wendy Alexander on 21 March 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) official ministerial engagements and (b) official ministerial meetings were attended by the Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning in the weeks beginning (i) 6 November 2000, (ii) 13 November 2000, (iii) 20 November 2000, (iv) 27 November 2000, (v) 4 December 2000, (vi) 11 December 2000, (vii) 18 December 2000, (viii) 8 January 2001, (ix) 15 January 2001, (x) 22 January 2001, (xi) 29 January 2001, (xii) 5 February 2001, (xiii) 12 February 2001, (xiv) 19 February 2001, (xv) 26 February 2001 and (xvi) 5 March 2001.

Ministerial engagements are given wide publicity: the Scottish Executive Media and Communications Group issues operational notes in advance of them taking place. However, such engagements may be subject to cancellation at any time for a range of reasons and diary records are, therefore, neither comprehensive nor accurate.

Details of Ministerial meetings are internal matters for the Scottish Executive. In the course of a working week, Ministers attend and chair a wide range of meetings, some of which are planned and programmed well in advance while others, such as the need to be in Parliament, are arranged at short notice. It is, therefore, neither possible nor appropriate to provide information in the format requested.

Question reference: S1W-13968

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 March 2001
Current Status: Answered by Wendy Alexander on 21 March 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive for how many (a) official ministerial engagements and (b) official ministerial meetings the Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning's attendance has been cancelled in the weeks beginning (i) 12 March 2001, (ii) 19 March 2001, (iii) 26 March 2001, (iv) 2 April 2001, (v) 9 April 2001, (vi) 16 April 2001, (vii) 23 April 2001 and (viii) 30 April 2001.

Question reference: S1W-13195

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 February 2001
Current Status: Answered by Wendy Alexander on 19 March 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how much was allocated and spent on the roll out of broadband communications in each year since 1997 and what the allocation is for each year until 2003, showing the budget heading each amount was and is being allocated to.

Question reference: S1W-13197

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 February 2001
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 19 March 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many prosecutions for environmental health offences there were in each year since 1997 and, of these, how many related to food poisoning, broken down by local authority area in each case.

Since April 2000, the role of collating food enforcement activities from local authorities passed from the Scottish Executive to the Food Standards Agency. The tables provide prosecution and conviction figures broken down by local authority.There is no subdivision to identify offences relating food poisoning.Figures for Prosecutions and Convictions for 1997, Broken Down by Local Authority1997

Authority	Prosecutions	Convictions
Aberdeen City	7	4
Aberdeenshire	3	0
Angus	0	0
Argyll & Bute	0	0
East Ayrshire	0	0
North Ayrshire	2	0
South Ayrshire	1	1
Scottish Borders	0	0
Clackmannanshire	0	0
West Dunbartonshire	0	0
Dumfries & Galloway	0	0
East Dunbartonshire	3	0
Dundee City	1	1
City of Edinburgh	5	1
Falkirk	0	0
Fife	0	0
Glasgow City	1	1
Highland	1	0
Inverclyde	0	0
North Lanarkshire	3	3
South Lanarkshire	2	2
East Lothian	0	0
West Lothian	4	4
Midlothian	2	0
Moray	1	1
Orkney Islands	0	0
Perth & Kinross	5	2
East Renfrewshire	0	0
Renfrewshire	2	0
Shetland Islands	0	0
Stirling	0	0
Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar	0	0
TOTALS	43	20

Figures for Prosecutions and Convictions for 1998, Broken Down by Local Authority1998

Authority	Prosecutions	Convictions
Aberdeen City	4	4
Aberdeenshire	2	1
Angus	0	0
Argyll & Bute	0	0
East Ayrshire	0	0
North Ayrshire	1	1
South Ayrshire	0	0
Scottish Borders	1	0
Clackmannanshire	0	0
West Dunbartonshire	0	0
Dumfries & Galloway	0	0
East Dunbartonshire	0	0
Dundee City	0	0
City of Edinburgh	22	16
Falkirk	0	0
Fife	0	0
Glasgow City	1	1
Highland	1	1
Inverclyde	0	0
North Lanarkshire	0	0
South Lanarkshire	8	6
East Lothian	0	0
West Lothian	1	1
Midlothian	1	1
Moray	1	1
Orkney Islands	0	0
Perth & Kinross	5	0
East Renfrewshire	0	0
Renfrewshire	3	1
Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar	0	0
TOTALS	51	34

Figures for Prosecutions and Convictions for 1999, Broken Down by Local Authority1999

Authority	Prosecutions	Convictions
Aberdeen City	1	1
Aberdeenshire	0	0
Angus	0	0
Argyll & Bute	0	0
East Ayrshire	0	0
North Ayrshire	0	0
South Ayrshire	0	0
Scottish Borders	1	0
Clackmannanshire	0	0
West Dunbartonshire	0	0
Dumfries & Galloway	0	0
East Dunbartonshire	1	0
Dundee City	0	0
City of Edinburgh	6	6
Falkirk	0	0
Fife	11	5
City of Glasgow	2	1
Highland	0	0
Inverclyde	0	0
North Lanarkshire	0	0
South Lanarkshire	0	0
East Lothian	2	2
West Lothian	0	0
Mid Lothian	1	1
Moray	1	0
Orkney Islands	0	0
Perth & Kinross	4	0
East Renfrewshire	0	0
Renfrewshire	2	2
Shetland	0	0
Stirling	0	0
Western Isles	0	0
TOTALS	32	18

Figures for Prosecutions and Convictions for 2000, Broken Down by Local Authority.Figures for the year 2000 are up to and including the third quarter. They are as follows:

Authority	Prosecutions	Convictions
Aberdeen City	3	2
Aberdeenshire	0	0
Angus	0	0
Argyll & Bute	0	0
East Ayrshire	0	0
North Ayrshire	0	0
South Ayrshire	0	0
Scottish Borders	0	0
Clackmannanshire	0	0
West Dunbartonshire	0	0
Dumfries & Galloway	0	0
East Dunbartonshire	1	0
Dundee	0	0
City of Edinburgh	4	4
Falkirk	0	0
Fife	4	4
City of Glasgow	1	1
Highland	0	0
Inverclyde	0	1
North Lanarkshire	1	0
South Lanarkshire	2	1
East Lothian	0	0
West Lothian	2	1
Mid Lothian	1	0
Moray	0	0
Orkney	0	0
Perth & Kinross	0	0
East Renfrewshire	0	0
Renfrewshire	1	1
Shetland	0	0
Stirling	0	0
Western Isles	0	0
TOTALS	20	15

Question reference: S1W-13884

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 March 2001
Current Status: Answered by Wendy Alexander on 19 March 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what the estimated loss to the economy is of smuggling spirits into Scotland.

Question reference: S1W-13885

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 March 2001
Current Status: Answered by Neil Davidson on 19 March 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many prosecutions for the smuggling of spirits have taken place in each year since 1997; what sentences were imposed, and what quantities of spirits were involved.

Question reference: S1W-13831

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 March 2001
Current Status: Answered by Sam Galbraith on 16 March 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment it has made of the likely changes to water charge levels for Band D households in the Lothians as a result of the proposed restructuring of the water authorities.