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-29884

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Elish Angiolini on 27 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many fiscal fines have been issued in each year since 1999.

The following table showsthe number of conditional offers of Fiscal Fine issued to accused persons byProcurators Fiscal in each year since 1999.

Fiscal Fines Issued

Year	Number
1999-2000	35,329
2000-01	34,945
2001-02	33,229
2002-03	35,353
2003-04	42,361
2004-05	41,328
2005-06	46,080

Source: Informationcollected by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service each month from itsoperational case-tracking system.

Question reference: S2W-29932

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 27 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many police officers have been in funded posts in each year since 1999, broken down by force area.

Question reference: S2W-29931

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 27 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether ownership of Addiewell prison will revert to the Executive when the 25-year contract ends and, if so, whether there will be a cost to the Executive at that time; if there will be a cost, what it will be and on what calculation the payment will be made; if there will be no cost, on what basis the prison would continue to be operated, and whether the payment rate will change and, if so, in what way.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

When the 25 year contract forHM Prison Addiewell ends, ownership of the prison assets will transfer to the ScottishPrison Service. No cost will be incurred in respect of this ownership change atthe end of the contract period.

Consideration of the most appropriatemethod of operating the prison at Addiewell beyond the expiry of the 25 year contractwill take place towards the end of the contract period. The outcome of this exercise,and any related procurement process, will determine the cost of continuing to operatethe prison.

Question reference: S2W-29886

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 22 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many children’s panel members there have been in each year since 1999.

The information requested isprovided in the following table.

Children’s Panel Membership 1999to 2006

Local Authority	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07*
Aberdeen	81	97	84	88	81	75	95	96
Aberdeenshire	85	84	90	82	85	86	70	73
Angus	32	31	35	35	34	35	29	35
Argyll and Bute	55	59	56	49	50	58	64	60
Clackmannanshire	26	25	28	27	30	31	32	33
Dumfries and Galloway	66	60	72	68	75	83	88	87
Dundee	80	73	85	87	95	98	85	85
East Ayrshire	44	48	43	43	38	42	53	60
East Dunbartonshire	23	26	26	26	24	28	25	24
East Lothian	28	32	26	30	35	40	46	44
East Renfrewshire	23	23	20	15	23	19	17	22
Edinburgh	129	121	143	147	169	131	148	138
Falkirk	64	69	64	61	65	64	60	62
Fife	82	104	101	105	103	95	92	104
Glasgow	470	462	457	519	530	514	559	569
Highland	127	125	128	130	142	127	130	136
Inverclyde	45	50	54	49	53	52	56	55
Midlothian	28	26	32	34	39	40	41	42
Moray	34	32	34	35	39	41	44	42
North Ayrshire	51	53	55	49	52	52	60	66
North Lanarkshire	145	156	144	115	149	172	146	144
Orkney	16	18	16	18	16	18	17	19
Perth and Kinross	24	22	27	25	27	21	27	24
Renfrewshire	72	79	64	78	81	74	71	76
Scottish Borders	35	38	30	37	46	50	54	51
Shetland	15	18	15	15	12	13	15	16
South Ayrshire	31	25	26	24	31	32	29	39
South Lanarkshire	81	70	77	74	80	88	69	86
Stirling	31	37	40	36	40	35	38	33
West Dunbartonshire	51	64	55	68	73	68	60	72
West Lothian	55	57	56	56	57	62	75	75
Western Isles	16	13	14	15	16	18	18	18
Scotland	2,145	2,197	2,197	2,240	2,390	2,362	2,413	2,486

Note: *As at November 2006.

Question reference: S2W-29629

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 22 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what level of support has been provided to (a) Strathclyde Passenger Transport Authority, or its successor organisation and (b) Lothian Buses in each year since 1999.

The funding provided by the ScottishExecutive to Strathclyde Passenger Transport/Strathclyde Partnership for Transportsince 1999 is set out in the following table. Lothian Buses has been in receiptof Bus Service Operators Grant, but we have no current plans to publish operator specificfigures. Such information is commercially sensitive and it would not be in the publicinterest for it to be disclosed.

1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06
£86.5 million	£76.6 million	£72.6 million	£70.2 million	£76.8 million	£112.3 million	£65.9 million

Question reference: S2W-29634

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 17 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what level of support and financial subsidy it has allocated to support and promote public transport links to the site of the new Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh in each year since 1999.

The Scottish Executiveawarded the City of Edinburgh Council £10.5 million from the fifth and final round of thePublic Transport Fund (PTF) in 2002 for its Improving Access to Employment andGrowth Areas public transport programme in the west, north and east of the city.

The programme includes theconstruction of a bus link road from the new Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh to Craigmillar.Although the PTF award was given for the whole of the programme, and noprovision has therefore been allocated specifically for the link road element,the Council’s original costing for it was approximately £1.4 million. Due todelays in progressing the project, most of the allocation remains unspent andis likely to be carried forward into financial year 2007-08.

Two bus routes serving thenew Royal Infirmary, both run by Lothian Buses, have also been allocatedfunding from the Executive’s Bus Route Development Grant Scheme. These areservice 24, Edinburgh Park to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary via Davidson’s Mains,which was allocated £116,287 in total over financial years 2005-06 to 2007-08;and service x48, Ratho to Edinburgh City Centre, to be extended to theSherrifhall Park and Ride site via Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, which wasallocated £943,000 in total over financial years 2006-07 to 2008-09.

Question reference: S2W-29632

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 17 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what consideration it has given to re-opening a railway station in Portobello; what it estimates the cost would be of opening such a station, and what its reasons are for not yet having opened a station.

Question reference: S2W-29630

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 17 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how much support and funding has been provided for bus routes and services in (a) Scotland and (b) Edinburgh in each year since 1999.

The following table sets outthe relevant figures:

	*a Support for Buses GAE (£000)
	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06
Edinburgh	1,979	1,877	1,954	2,068	2,173	2,266	2,351
Scotland	22,526	21,349	22,141	23,438	24,626	25,558	26,521

	*b Public Transport and Integrated Transport Funds (£000)
	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06
Edinburgh	800	8,468	0	18,093	0	0	0
Scotland	28,770	19,269	30,910	51,031	0	125	7,078

	*c Bus Service Operators Grant (£000)
	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06
Edinburgh
Scotland	45,196	49,262	49,512	49,641	52,740	56,121	56,636

	*d Bus Route Development Grant (£000)
	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06
Edinburgh							336
Scotland							2,986

	*e Rural Community Transport Initiative (£000)
	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06
Edinburgh	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Scotland	885	900	800	900	1,000	1,300	2,000

	*e Rural Public Passenger Transport Scheme (£000)
	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06
Edinburgh	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Scotland	3,500	3,700	4,300	4,700	5,100	5,800	6,100

	*f Demand Responsive Transport (£000)
	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06
Edinburgh					150	145	145
Scotland					600	925	895

Notes:

*a. GAE provision for Supportfor Buses is not money, budgets or spending targets, rather it is the methodologyfor allocating funding to local authorities. Local authorities receive their fundingthrough the core local government finance settlement as a largely unhypothecatedblock grant, from which they have the autonomy to allocate funding according tolocal needs and priorities while taking account of their statutory obligations.

*b. Local authorities have beenawarded capital funding for bus measures under both the Public Transport and IntegratedTransport Funds. These figures represent projects which were predominantly aimedat bus, but include elements involving other modes. Due to the integrated natureof the awards the costs for non-bus measures cannot be separated out from the totalamounts shown. Projects which were predominantly aimed at transport modes otherthan bus have been excluded on the same basis.

*c.Bus Service Operators Grant is paid to all operators of local registered bus services.Figures cannot be given below the level of Scotland as this information isvery commercially sensitive and as such it would not be in the public interest forit to be disclosed.

*d.Spend under the Bus Route Development Grant Scheme commenced in financial year 2005-06.

*e.Edinburgh does not benefit from the Rural Community Transport Initiative or theRural Public Passenger Transport Scheme as these schemes wereaimed at Rural transport authorities. The schemes support various types ofrural transport services, including buses. It is not possible to give the amountspent solely on bus services without disproportionate cost.

*f. The Demand Responsive Transportscheme commenced in 2003-04 to pilot rural and urban demand responsive transportservices.

Question reference: S2W-29631

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 17 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding has been provided to establish park-and-ride schemes for Edinburgh in each year since 1999.

The following table gives thelevel of funding allocated to the City of Edinburgh Council by the Scottish Executive underthe Public Transport Fund for rail and bus based park-and-ride schemes:

(£ Million)	2001-02/ 2002-03 Allocation	2003-04 Expenditure	2004-05 Expenditure	2005-06 Expenditure	2006-07 Allocation
Newcraighall Park and Ride (part of Edinburgh CrossRail)	1.327¹
Hermiston Park and Ride		0.037	0.034	0.963
Straiton Park and Ride²	1.386³				0.924⁴

Notes:

1. Funding was given asadditional consent to borrow; it is not possible to split between financialyears.

2. Although the Straiton Park andRide site is within the Midlothian Council area, it will mainly serve commuterstravelling into Edinburgh. Midlothian Council is due to complete a park andride site at Sherrifhall in 2006-07, with funding of £1 million from theExecutive, which will also serve journeys into Edinburgh.

3. The funding shown wasgiven to the City of Edinburgh Council in the form of additional consent to borrow. In viewof delays in progressing Straiton Park and Ride, this funding was allowed to be carriedforward into later years.

4. The remaining allocationis likely to be carried forward into 2007-08 and combined with separate fundingfrom SESTRAN to complete the project.

All the projects received additionalfunding from other sources.

Question reference: S2W-29446

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 15 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many residential drug rehabilitation places there have been in each year since 1999.

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-24528 on 11 April 2006 which set out the number of residentialfacilities, beds and admissions from 2001-02 to 2004-05 as reported by Alcohol andDrug Action Teams through Corporate Action Plans. The figures include services treatingonly drug misusers and services providing treatment for both drug and alcohol problems.All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facilityfor which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.