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-15035

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 April 2001
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 2 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many discarded hypodermic needles were collected in public places in each of the last three years, broken down by local authority area, and what percentage of the number collected nationally each of these figures represents.

Question reference: S1W-15043

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 April 2001
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 2 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of crime has been estimated as drug-related in each of the last five years, broken down by police force.

The recorded crime statistics in Scotland distinguish crimes involving drugs, such as cultivation, importation, possession and supply. They do not identify all drug-related crimes, such as those committed to fund a drugs habit. This more general information is not collected nationally or at police force level, and is only available from criminal justice research, such as the reports listed:

Interviewing and Drug Testing of Arrestees in Scotland: A Pilot Study of the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) Methodology.

Published by the Scottish Executive Central Research Unit in 2000

The Criminal Histories of 372 Suspected Drug Offenders.

Published by the Scottish Executive Central Research Unit in 2001

Recreational Drugs and Driving: Prevalence Survey.

Published by the Scottish Executive Central Research Unit in 2001Copies of these reports are available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib numbers 7209, 12860 and 11659 respectively).

Question reference: S1W-15033

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 April 2001
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 2 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what funding was allocated to hypodermic needle exchange programmes in each of the last five years, broken down by health board area.

There is no funding exclusively set aside for the provision of needle exchange facilities.

The table sets out the funding specifically provided to boards over the last five years to assist their work in preventing the transmission of bloodborne viruses. Such work can, where appropriate, include the provision of needle exchange facilities:

	1996-97 £m	1997-98 £m	1998-99 £m	1999-2000 £m	2000-01 £m
Argyle & Clyde	0.387	0.387	0.387	0.341	0.363
Ayrshire & Arran	0.414	0.414	0.414	0.309	0.303
Borders	0.113	0.116	0.116	0.102	0.106
Dumfries & Galloway	0.178	0.180	0.180	0.132	0.106
Fife	0.204	0.151	0.152	0.225	0.358
Forth Valley	0.427	0.466	0.466	0.380	0.244
Grampian	0.271	0.271	0.269	0.386	0.601
Greater Glasgow	1.319	1.299	1.299	1.206	1.357
Highland	0.262	0.262	0.262	0.203	0.178
Lanarkshire	0.360	0.322	0.322	0.318	0.382
Lothian	1.603	1.528	1.528	1.676	2.206
Orkney	0.030	0.027	0.027	0.028	0.036
Shetland	0.037	0.033	0.033	0.039	0.054
Tayside	0.852	0.906	0.906	0.760	0.754
Western Isles	0.048	0.048	0.048	0.043	0.046
State Hospital	0.027	0.027	0.027	0.023	0.023
Total	6.532	6.437	6.436	6.171	7.117

The sum being provided to boards for prevention work in 2001-02 will be £8.119m.In addition, health boards are to receive an additional £10m over the next three years for drug treatment services, some of which may be used to provide needle exchange facilities. The Executive expects expenditure by health boards on treatment to increase those in contact with services for the first time by 50% to 16,500 by 2004.Also, in 1999-2000, a sum of £4.09m was provided to boards for them to negotiate contracted pharmacy services; pharmacy-based needle exchange was one such service. This element of funding is now included in the unified budget provided to health boards on a global basis.

Question reference: S1W-15061

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 April 2001
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 2 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive whether its legal advice is that it would be possible for the water authorities to be exempted from the Competition Act 1998.

Question reference: S1W-15026

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 April 2001
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 1 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many applications for Millennium Commission funding there have been from each (a) parliamentary region and (b) parliamentary constituency, specifying the percentage of successful applications in each case.

Question reference: S1W-15024

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 April 2001
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 1 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress is being made in controlling and eliminating infectious salmon anaemia and whether any further policy measures are being formulated in this connection.

All of the 11 confirmed farms and most of the 24 suspect farms have been restocked following clearance, disinfection and fallowing. There have been no confirmed cases since May 1998 and no suspect cases since November 1999.If further confirmed cases arise, the changes we have secured to EC and domestic legislation will enable us to vary the rate at which farms are cleared of fish according to the level of disease present and the threat to other farms. Also, at the request of the Commission, we have drafted proposals for the statutory diagnosis of ISA which includes a new provision for lifting suspicion from farms.

Question reference: S1W-15044

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 April 2001
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 30 April 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many and what percentage of cases involving dealing in class A drugs did not result in a custodial sentence in each of the last three years, broken down by (a) parliamentary region and (b) court.

Figures on the number of non-custodial convictions for dealing in Class A drugs cannot, from the information held centrally, be separately identified within the total number of convictions where the main offence was the supply or possession with intent to supply drugs. The available information relates to convictions by court and is given in the table.

Persons with a charge proved for supply of drugs (main offence), 1997-99

	Total number of persons with a charge proved			Persons receiving a non-custodial sentence (number)			Persons receiving a non-custodial sentence (% of total)
Court type	1997	1998	1999	1997	1998	1999	1997	1998	1999
Sheriff court
Aberdeen	74	96	83	58	63	58	78	66	70
Airdrie	34	33	33	20	21	13	59	64	39
Alloa	14	18	25	9	3	12	64	17	48
Arbroath	10	5	9	4	2	6	40	40	67
Ayr	16	21	27	8	11	12	50	52	44
Banff	2	3	2	1	1	2	50	33	100
Campbeltown	2	2	1	-	2	1	-	100	100
Cupar	10	8	9	3	8	8	30	100	89
Dingwall	4	6	6	2	2	1	50	33	17
Dornoch	-	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Dumbarton	24	33	28	13	16	19	54	48	68
Dumfries	43	24	20	23	13	12	53	54	60
Dundee	33	27	21	16	19	15	48	70	71
Dunfermline	26	32	26	15	19	17	58	59	65
Dunoon	3	3	5	1	3	1	33	100	20
Duns	2	2	1	1	2	1	50	100	100
Edinburgh	83	147	112	55	97	62	66	66	55
Elgin	20	11	12	11	9	5	55	82	42
Falkirk	24	29	28	13	22	19	54	76	68
Forfar	12	13	6	4	10	5	33	77	83
Fort William	6	6	5	2	-	2	33	-	40
Glasgow	370	326	357	206	166	209	56	51	59
Greenock	36	45	39	6	15	21	17	33	54
Haddington	4	6	6	2	2	2	50	33	33
Hamilton	56	65	46	30	36	38	54	55	83
Inverness	10	30	10	6	23	7	60	77	70
Jedburgh	15	6	4	7	4	-	47	67	-
Kilmarnock	40	44	38	16	23	16	40	52	42
Kirkcaldy	37	31	31	23	19	24	62	61	77
Kirkcudbright	7	3	3	2	2	1	29	67	33
Kirkwall	-	-	5	-	-	2	-	-	40
Lanark	4	7	8	3	7	6	75	100	75
Lerwick	-	1	2	-	1	2	-	100	100
Linlithgow	32	27	29	21	18	26	66	67	90
Lochmaddy	-	-	-
Oban	4	4	4	-	2	2	-	50	50
Paisley	48	57	31	21	20	15	44	35	48
Peebles	-	1	1	-	-	-	-	-	-
Perth	30	51	49	22	39	37	73	76	76
Peterhead	22	14	8	8	8	4	36	57	50
Portree	4	4	1	1	4	-	25	100	-
Rothesay	2	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Selkirk	3	8	3	2	6	3	67	75	100
Stirling	20	13	16	11	6	9	55	46	56
Stonehaven	4	4	3	4	3	1	100	75	33
Stornoway	6	3	5	3	2	4	50	67	80
Stranraer	6	9	5	2	4	2	33	44	40
Tain	2	2	4	1	1	4	50	50	100
Wick	1	2	2	1	2	2	100	100	100
Total Sheriff Court	1,205	1,286	1,169	657	736	708	55	57	61
High court	285	242	297	28	33	41	10	14	14
Other court type	-	1	-	-	1	-	100	-	-
Total	1,490	1,529	1,466	685	770	749	46	50	51

Question reference: S1W-14830

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 April 2001
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 26 April 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Deputy Minister for Rural Development or any other Minister instructed civil servants to solicit correspondence from fishing industry organisations in relation to the recently announced package of assistance for the industry and, if so, whether it will give details of which civil servants were instructed, the instructions issued and the subsequent results, and its reasons for its actions in this matter.

Question reference: S1W-15023

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 April 2001
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 26 April 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of the food consumed in Scotland in each of the last 50 years was (a) produced in Scotland and (b) imported.

Question reference: S1W-14919

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 April 2001
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 26 April 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the Ministerial statement on foot-and-mouth disease on 5 April 2001, whether it will detail those restrictions that are to remain in place and those restrictions that are to be lifted within the Provisionally Free Area.