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-30614

Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 14 October 2002
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 21 November 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-15676 by Sarah Boyack on 11 July 2001, what steps it has taken to establish the views of the road haulage industry on measures to modernise the industry; what modernisation initiatives it has launched, and what resources have been allocated for such modernisation in (a) 2000-01, (b) 2001-02 and (c) 2002-03.

The Scottish Executive is in regular contact with the Road Haulage Association (RHA), the Freight Transport Association (FTA) and the Road Haulage and Distribution Training Council (RHDTC) to ensure that initiatives to be funded by the Scottish Road Haulage Modernization Fund (RHMF) will meet the needs of the industry.The CleanUp Scotland initiative was launched this week. The initiative, part-funded with £1 million from the Scottish RHMF, will help improve Scotland's air quality and will also reduce costs for vehicle operators. It is expected that further schemes aimed at attracting new drivers to the industry, and improving efficiency across the sector, will be announced before the end of the financial year.No final decisions have been taken on the funding requirements for the training element of the RHMF.

Question reference: S1W-30078

Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 September 2002
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 14 October 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will give injury accident statistics for each of the last six years for the A7 trunk road south of Galashiels, broken down to show statistics for the sections at Boleside and in the vicinity of Groundistone that are under consideration for inclusion in improvements to be recommended in the A6091/A7 Route Action Plan.

Injury accident statistics for each of the last six years (Jan 1996 - Dec 2001) for the A7 trunk road south of Galashiels, broken down to show statistics for the sections at Boleside and Groundistone are as follows: A7 Galashiels to Border

Year	Fatal	Serious	Slight	Total
1996	1	5	27	33
1997	0	2	19	21
1998	1	2	16	19
1999	0	6	15	21
2000	2	7	12	21
2001	0	4	14	18
Total	4	26	103	133

A7 at Boleside

Year	Fatal	Serious	Slight	Total
1996	0	1	3	4
1997	0	0	1	1
1998	0	0	3	3
1999	0	0	0	0
2000	0	1	0	1
2001	0	0	1	1
Total	0	2	8	10

A7 at Groundistone

Year	Fatal	Serious	Slight	Total
1996	0	0	1	1
1997	0	0	1	1
1998	0	0	0	0
1999	0	0	0	0
2000	0	2	1	3
2001	0	1	2	3
Total	0	3	5	8

Question reference: S1W-29489

Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 September 2002
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 14 October 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-24752 by Lewis Macdonald on 16 May 2002, whether it will issue an updated profile of its projected trunk roads programme and identify all proposed additional projects, in the light of the revised budgetary allocations set out in Building a Better Scotland - Spending Proposals 2003-06: What the money buys.

Question reference: S1W-28235

Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 August 2002
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 2 September 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive when it plans to issue any proposals on updating the law in respect of compulsory purchase.

Question reference: S1W-28234

Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 August 2002
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 2 September 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will publish the A6091/A7 Galashiels to Hawick route action plan study.

Question reference: S1W-26488

Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 June 2002
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 22 July 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the advertisement for an agri-environment officer funded in part by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, whether it will identify all posts in its establishment which are part-funded by non-Executive bodies and whether it will publish its guidelines for the creation and filling of posts which are jointly funded with lobbying groups, pressure groups and other external bodies.

Currently there are three posts in the Scottish Executive where a contribution towards funding is made by other bodies. These are:

Post	Contribution From
Senior Policy Officer, Community Planning Taskforce	Strathclyde Police
Team Head, 21^st Century Government Unit	Audit Scotland
Review Team Member, Environment Protection Unit	SEPA

The Civil Service Management Code governs all appointments to the civil service. The code is publicly available. All individuals working within the civil service operate within the framework of conduct, propriety and impartiality provided by the Civil Service Management Code and the Civil Service Code.

Question reference: S1W-26489

Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 June 2002
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 20 June 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive how many houses were started and completed in each of the last 10 years and what the estimated starts and completions will be in the current year, broken down into houses for rent, shared ownership or other forms of low cost home ownership, and where grant funding was provided by Scottish Homes or Communities Scotland or directly by it through new housing partnerships or any other initiatives.

The information requested is set out in the following tables:Approvals

Year	HA Rent	LCHO	GRO OO	GRO Rent	RHOG	I&R	Total	NHP	GrandTotal
1992-93	5,307	1,249	1,617	309	34	-	8,516	-	8,516
1993-94	5,179	1,390	1,534	586	63	-	8,752	-	8,752
1994-95	5,182	1,178	2,149	586	72	-	9,167	-	9,167
1995-96	5,164	1,561	1,768	547	67	-	9,107	-	9,107
1996-97	3,661	920	2,117	251	66	-	7,015	-	7,015
1997-98	3,084	668	1,391	133	45	-	5,321	-	5,321
1998-99	3,518	549	1,558	135	44	-	5,804	-	5,804
1999-2000	4,381	301	1,817	138	50	-	6,687	834	7,521
2000-01	4,751	193	890	120	51	-	6,005	1,673	7,678
2001-02	4,865	318	1	113	55	-	5,352	1,777	7,129
2002-03	3,789	61	618	104	59	62	4,693	2,000	6,693

Completions

Year	HA Rent	LCHO	GRO OO	GRO Rent	RHOG	Total	NHP	GrandTotal
1992-93	2,799	754	-	-	-	3,553	-	3,553
1993-94	Included in 1995-96					-	-	-
1994-95	Included in 1995-96					-	-	-
1995-96	5,959	1,100	946	258	67	8,330	-	8,330
1996-97	3,625	592	1,806	571	66	6,660	-	6,660
1997-98	4,216	659	600	172	45	5,692	-	5,692
1998-99	2,080	543	547	12	44	3,226	-	3,226
1999-2000	3,547	639	940	44	40	5,210	920	6,130
2000-01	4,209	504	1,481	104	48	6,346	1,409	7,755
2001-02	4,570	245	1,253	59	52	6,179	1,321	7,500
2002-03	3,914	213	906	150	64	5,247	2,000	7.247

The figures quoted in 1995-96 take account of completions in 1993-94, 1994-95 and 1995-96 for which individual records are not available.KeyHA Rent = Housing Association RentLCHO = Low Cost Home OwnershipGRO OO = Grants for Rent or Ownership - Owner OccupationGRO Rent = Grants for Rent or Ownership - RentRHOG = Rural Home Ownership GrantsI & R = Improvement and RepairNHP = New Housing PartnershipsNote: The units shown above relate to Scottish Homes/Communities Scotland development programme and the New Housing Partnership Regeneration and Development programme.

Question reference: S1W-26466

Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 June 2002
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 20 June 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive which of the 65 notified cases affecting trunk roads and special roads, as listed in Table 6 of the 2001 Fourth Annual Report of the Planning Audit Unit, were called in by ministers for determination; what the outcome was in each case, and what steps it takes in cases cleared back to local authorities for determination to ensure that consents are refused or conditioned in order to reflect the consultation responses given by it on matters affecting trunk roads and special trunk roads.

The 65 notified cases listed in Table 6 of the Fourth Annual Report of the Planning Audit Unit were not all correctly attributed to the appropriate local authorities as a result of a printing error. The table in the report has now been corrected in line with the undernoted, which also provides the additional information requested.When a planning application is cleared back to a planning authority for determination it is for the authority to have regard to any consultation responses received. Once an application has been cleared back in this manner, statute does not provide the Scottish ministers with any further powers to intervene.Notified Planning Applications Affecting Trunk and Special Roads April 1996 to March 2001

Council	Notified	Called-In	Call-In Revoked	Application Withdrawn	Granted	Refused
Aberdeen City	1	1		1
Aberdeenshire	4	2			2
Argyll and Bute	3	1				1
Dumfries and Galloway	7	3			1	2
Dundee	1	1			1
Edinburgh	1	1			1
Highland	29	22		2	11	9
Midlothian	2	1				1
Moray	2	2			1	1
North Ayrshire	1	1	1
North Lanarkshire	2	2				2
Perth and Kinross	2	1				1
Scottish Borders	8	5			1	4
South Ayrshire	1	0
Stirling	1	1				1

Question reference: S1W-26467

Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 June 2002
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 20 June 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-12749 by Mr Sam Galbraith on 21 February 2001, whether it has completed its consideration of how best to make information available as referred to in respect of paragraph 75 of National Planning Policy Guidelines No.1 (revised 2000) and, if so, how the information will be made available.

Since Mr Galbraith's reply, the Planning home page has been launched on the internet:www.scottish-enterprise.com/about/what/operating.This provides access to an array of planning information including links to legislation, circulars, National Planning Policy Guidelines, Planning Advice Notes, research documents and consultation papers. It also provides information on planning applications which come before the Scottish ministers showing, on a weekly update basis, the current status of each case.In addition, as indicated in Ms Margaret Curran's letter of 5 June to all MSPs, the Executive's Inquiry Reporter's Unit launched their own website on 5 June:www.scotland.gov.uk/planning_appeals/seiru. This site provides ready access to information about the unit, the various types of planning and other appeals and their respective procedures. Within the site, links are provided to appeal forms, relevant legislation, circulars, national policy and advice. Work has already started on an enhancement of the site to provide a search of delegated planning appeals and to view progress on these. It will also be possible to view and retrieve appeal decision letters online and without charge. It is expected that this additional facility will become available in the autumn although the timing is dependent on data protection issues being resolved.The use of ICT to provide and receive planning related information is constantly under review and further refinements will be introduced as appropriate.

Question reference: S1W-26490

Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 June 2002
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 20 June 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive what its targets are for the completion or conversion of affordable houses for rent through registered social landlords in the current and future years.