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-19115

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 October 2001
Current Status: Answered by Wendy Alexander on 13 November 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many shops there have been in Scotland in each of the last three years showing the percentage change year on year.

Question reference: S1W-19465

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 29 October 2001
Current Status: Answered by Angus MacKay on 12 November 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is its policy to purchase fair trade products, where appropriate.

Question reference: S1W-19470

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 29 October 2001
Current Status: Answered by Wendy Alexander on 12 November 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment it has made, or plans to make, of the impact of economic globalisation on the Scottish economy and whether it will publish the results of any such assessment.

Assessments of trends in the global economy are published regularly in the Executive's Scottish Economic Report. An assessment of the economic impact of the terrorist attacks was published by the Executive last month. Our policy approach was recently set out in Scotland: A Global Connections Strategy. It makes it clear that we want to see Scotland recognised as the most globally connected small nation in Europe.

Question reference: S1W-19464

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 29 October 2001
Current Status: Answered by Angus MacKay on 12 November 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how much each department spends in its catering budget on fair trade products, expressed also as a percentage of total expenditure for each department and of overall Executive catering expenditure.

Question reference: S1W-19463

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 29 October 2001
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 12 November 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how much was spent by each of its departments on television advertising in each of the last three years and this year to date, broken down by the television areas covered by (a) Grampian TV, (b) STV and (c) Border TV.

Spend by department on television advertising in each of the last three years is listed in the table. Breakdown by television areas is not held centrally and cannot be collected without disproportionate cost.

1998	Scottish Office
Department	Campaign	Spend
Home	Domestic Abuse	£270,715
Home	Fire Prevention	£164,312
Health	Nursing Recruitment	£169,670
Education	Childrens Panels	£70,500
Historic Scotland¹	Historic Scotland	£112,868
Development	Road Safety	£308,862
Constitution Group	Scottish Parliament	£434,750
1999	Scottish Office/Scottish Executive
Department	Campaign	Spend
Justice	Domestic Abuse	£301,978
Justice	Fire Prevention	£143,753
Development	Road Safety	£425,365
Constitution Group	Scotland's Parliament	£280,108
Historic Scotland¹	Historic Scotland	£148,649
2000	Scottish Executive
Department	Campaign	Spend
Justice	Domestic Abuse	£315,010
Health	Flu Vaccination	£175,864
Health	Prepare for Winter	£208,833
Health	Alcohol Abuse	£174,487
Development	Road Safety	£770,910
Historic Scotland¹	Historic Scotland	£260,746
2001 to Date	Scottish Executive
Department	Campaign	Spend
Development	Road Safety	£395,834
Development	Travel Awareness	£307,188
Environment and Rural Affairs	Environment	£302,016
Health	Flu	£195,309
Education	Teacher Recruitment	£238,054
Justice	Domestic Abuse	£35,563
Justice	Fire Safety	£65,581

Note:1. Historic Scotland is an agency of the Scottish Executive.

Question reference: S1W-19063

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 October 2001
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 9 November 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment has been made of the impact that the European Commission's proposed Physical Agents Directive will have both generally and, in particular, on the farming industry; what representations it has made to Her Majesty's Government and the Commission on the proposed Directive, and what response it has received.

Question reference: S1W-19042

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 October 2001
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 8 November 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many times and which police boards did not take up their full entitlement to police grant in each of the past three years and at what percentage below the grant-aided expenditure provision the budget of each board was set.

The information requested is shown in the following tables (Figures given in).

Force	GAE Available £000	Budget £000	Difference £000	% below GAE £000
1999-2000
Central	£32,913	£32,318	£595	1.8
Fife	£38,958	£38,378	£580	1.5
Northern	£37,190	£35,545	£1,645	4.4
2000-01
Central	£33,468	£33,132	£336	1.0
Fife	£41,652	£41,036	£616	1.5
Northern	£39,014	£38,214	£800	2.0
2001-02
Fife	£44,010	£43,405	£605	1.4

Note:Grant Aided Expenditure is the maximum level of expenditure supported by police grant, which covers 51% of eligible expenditure. Police authorities make up the balance.

Question reference: S1W-19395

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 October 2001
Current Status: Answered by Wendy Alexander on 8 November 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive (a) how many job losses there were and (b) how many jobs were created in the (i) Aberdeen Central, (ii) Aberdeen North (iii) Aberdeen South, (iv) Angus, (v) Banff and Buchan, (vi) Dundee East, (vii) Dundee West, (viii) Gordon and (ix) West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine constituencies in each year since 1 July 1999.

Question reference: S1W-18970

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 October 2001
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 6 November 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) police officers and (b) civillian staff are currently employed by each police force, expressed per head of population in each police force area.

The number of police officers and civilians in each force at 30 September 2001, expressed per 1,000 population is shown in the following table.

Force	Estimated population	No. of police officers	No. per 1,000 population	No. of support staff	No. per 1,000 population
Central	278,000	719	2.58	273	0.98
Dumfries & Galloway	145,800	474	3.25	269	1.84
Fife	350,400	883	2.51	311	0.88
Grampian	523,400	1,274	2.43	527	1.00
Lothian & Borders	890,500	2,646	2.97	1,033	1.16
Northern	277,700	679	2.97	351	1.26
Strathclyde	2,263,300	7,298	3.22	2,132	0.94
Tayside	385,500	1,164	3.01	504	1.30
Scotland	5,114,600	15,137	2.95	5,400	1.05

Notes: Estimated population at 30 June 2000.Number of police officer and support staff at 30 September 2001.

Question reference: S1W-18971

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 October 2001
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 6 November 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) police vehicles there are and (b) manned police stations there are per square mile, in each police force area.