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: S2W-20201

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 31 October 2005
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 9 November 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what additional equipment has been given to fire and rescue services to deal with terrorist incidents.

Since 2004, details of equipmentprovided to fire and rescue services have been included in the Annual Reportsof Her Majesty’s Fire Services Inspectorate. A copy of the reports for the reportingyears 2002-03 and 2003-04 are available in the Scottish Parliament InformationCentre (Bib. numbers 30472 and 34686 respectively). Updated details will be includedin HM Chief Inspector’s Annual Report for 2004-05, which will be published shortly.

Question reference: S2W-20182

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 31 October 2005
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 9 November 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) uniformed and (b) non-uniformed female personnel are employed in the fire and rescue services in (i) retained posts, (ii) wholetime posts, (iii) emergency fire control rooms and (iv) volunteer and auxiliary posts.

The information requested isgiven in the table of the Diversity Profile of Scottish Fire Brigades by Sectoron page 29 of the Annual Report of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of FireServices for Scotland published in December 2004, a copy of which isavailable in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number34686). Updatedfigures will be included in HM Chief Inspector’s Annual Report for 2004-05,which will be published shortly.

Question reference: S2W-20198

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 31 October 2005
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 9 November 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what work is being carried out to improve the recruitment and retention of staff in the retained duty system in each fire and rescue authority and what support this work receives from central government.

Recruitment and retention ofstaff is primarily a matter for individual fire and rescue authorities and jointfire and rescue board. The Scottish Executive provides central funding, supportand guidance. This has included two independent research programmes on issues affectingstaff on the retained duty system, including recruitment and retention. The resultingreports were publicised in 2002 Retained Auxiliary and Volunteer Firefightersin the Scottish Fire Service by the Central research Unit, and in 2003 Part-timeFirefighters by Scottish Executive Social Research, and can be viewed at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Justice/Fire/15130/1027.

We have indicated in the Fireand Rescue Framework for Scotland 2005 that we will work with Fire and Rescue Authoritiesto implement the report’s recommendations.

The framework also states thatwe expect part-time staff to be given the same opportunities as their whole timecounterparts to participate in the Integrated Personal Development System and undertakedevelopment programmes commensurate with the requirements of individual fire andrescue authorities.

HM Fire Services Inspectoratefor Scotland is currently reviewing progress and identifying areas of best practicein the wider use of part time staff in all eight Scottish Fire and Rescue Servicesas part of their performance inspections arrangements.

Question reference: S2W-20205

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 31 October 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 9 November 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how much the police have spent investigating road accidents in each month since 1999, broken down by constabulary.

Question reference: S2W-20185

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 31 October 2005
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 9 November 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what targets the fire and rescue authorities have set for recruitment of (a) uniformed and (b) non-uniformed (i) female, (ii) black and ethnic minority and (iii) lesbian, gay and transsexual staff and when these targets must be met.

Question reference: S2W-20166

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 October 2005
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 8 November 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many fixed penalty notices for noise nuisance have been issued in each month since they were introduced, broken down by local authority area.

Monthly information is not held or required centrally until the annual report is sent to the Executive from participating local authorities on 31 January 2006. As part of the grant process associated with the implementation of the antisocial noise regime, we are provided with a quarterly progress report from those local authorities which have introduced the service which, among other things, contains information on statutory action taken. The following table gives the number of fixed penalty notices issued in the first two quarters of this reporting year by the relevant authorities.

Local Authority	Fixed Penalty Notices Issued
Local Authority	April to June 2005	July to September 2005
Aberdeen	1	8
Angus	0	0
Dumfries and Galloway	0	4
East Ayrshire	0	0
East Lothian	0	0
East Renfrewshire	0	0
Edinburgh	4	10
Falkirk	0	0
Glasgow	0	6
Inverclyde	0	0
Midlothian	0	0
North Ayrshire	0	0
North Lanarkshire	0	0
Renfrewshire	0	0
South Ayrshire	0	0
South Lanarkshire	0	0
West Lothian	0	0
Total	5	28

Question reference: S2W-20203

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 31 October 2005
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 8 November 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on the number of (a) public and (b) private sector workers who have left Scotland for employment elsewhere in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S2W-20170

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 October 2005
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 7 November 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many fixed penalty notices for fly-tipping have been issued by police in each month since they were introduced, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S2W-20169

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 October 2005
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 7 November 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many fixed penalty notices for littering have been issued by police in each month since they were introduced, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S2W-20088

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 October 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 7 November 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has in respect of the (a) location and (b) nature of events being hosted by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to mark St Andrew’s Day 2005; what involvement it will have in such events; what requests it made for such events to be held, and what other St Andrew’s Day events, not hosted by it or the FCO, it will be involved in.

The Scottish Executive has askedall Foreign and Commonwealth Office overseas posts to advise us of any St Andrew’sDay events they are aware are happening in their country. We will make that informationavailable to you once we have received it. We are offering support to all FCO postsby making marketing materials available for use at events.

The First Minister will be sendinghis annual message to all FCO posts to be read not only at all FCO sponsored eventsbut events attended by Ambassadors and High Commissioners.

We are aware of the followingevents taking place:

(a) The Embassy in Dushanbe,Tajikistan, (Central Asia),the Embassy in Skopje, Macedonia and the Embassy in Belgrade, Serbia are holdingSt Andrew’s Day receptions.

(b) The event in Dunshanbe willbe used to mark the opening of the Residence, by inviting local expatriates, Non-GovernmentOrganisation’s (NGO’s) and other embassies. The others will also invite GovernmentMinisters, NGOs, expatriates and others.

The Scottish Executive are involvedin a St Andrew’s Day Ceilidh being held at The Hub, Edinburgh. The Scottish Executivewill provide support on branding and marketing. Posters will be circulated to universitiesto encourage international students to attend.