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-03708

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 October 2003
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 14 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive how many telecommunications-related jobs have been lost to overseas competition in the last six years.

Question reference: S2W-03442

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 October 2003
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 14 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive what the level of economic inactivity has been in each quarter since 1997.

The following table showsthe level of economic inactivity in Scotland, from spring 1997 to summer 2003, which is thelatest quarter for which this information is available.

	Number of Economically Inactive People (000)
Spring 1997	715
Summer 1997	713
Autumn 1997	715
Winter 1997	697
Spring 1998	701
Summer 1998	710
Autumn 1998	687
Winter 1998	715
Spring 1999	718
Summer 1999	718
Autumn 1999	717
Winter 1999	692
Spring 2000	676
Summer 2000	673
Autumn 2000	666
Winter 2000	670
Spring 2001	674
Summer 2001	669
Autumn 2001	672
Winter 2001	688
Spring 2002	664
Summer 2002	668
Autumn 2002	661
Winter 2002	644
Spring 2003	653
Summer 2003	656

Question reference: S2W-03441

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 October 2003
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 14 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive what the level of employment has been in the construction industry in each quarter since 1997.

The following table showsthe level of employment in the construction industry, in Scotland,from spring 1997 to summer 2003.

	No. employed in Construction
	(000)
Spring 1997	169
Summer 1997	170
Autumn 1997	178
Winter 1997	182
Spring 1998	177
Summer 1998	189
Autumn 1998	188
Winter 1998	178
Spring 1999	182
Summer 1999	176
Autumn 1999	180
Winter 1999	188
Spring 2000	187
Summer 2000	189
Autumn 2000	182
Winter 2000	187
Spring 2001	185
Summer 2001	179
Autumn 2001	173
Winter 2001	174
Spring 2002	167
Summer 2002	168
Autumn 2002	168
Winter 2002	177
Spring 2003	180
Summer 2003	190

Question reference: S2W-03438

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 October 2003
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 14 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive how many manufacturing jobs have been lost in (a) Scotland, (b) Aberdeen, (c) Edinburgh, (d) Dundee, (e) Glasgow, (f) Inverness and (g) Stirling in each year since 1996.

Question reference: S2W-03795

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 31 October 2003
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 14 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress it has made on the devolved aspects of the recommendations of the Report of the Working Group on Extending the Gas Network and which areas of Scotland were identified by the working group as being suitable for extending the gas supply network.

Question reference: S2W-03713

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 October 2003
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 14 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive what the level of economic inactivity was in (a) Glasgow, (b) Edinburgh and (c) Dundee in each of the last five years.

The following table showslevel of inactivity in Glasgow City, Edinburgh City and Dundee City in the last four years. Information prior to 1999 isnot available at local authority level.

	Glasgow	Edinburgh	Dundee
	Inactive	Inactive	Inactive
	(000)	(000)	(000)
1999	138	66	21
2000	118	57	22
2001	125	56	20
2002	123	57	22

Question reference: S2W-03716

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 October 2003
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 14 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive on what occasions since 1999 ministers have accompanied Scottish firms on visits overseas to promote export marketing and sales, broken down by minister and country visited.

I refer the member to theanswers given to questions S1W-29052 on 9 September 2002 and S2W-2904 on 25 September 2003. These answers set out details ofall overseas visits carried out by Scottish Executive ministers from July 1999to March 2003. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available onthe Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.

These ministerial visitsencompass a number where ministers have undertaken a range of engagements topromote Scotland including those where ministers would have met andsupported Scottish firms undertaking visits overseas to promote exportmarketing and sales.

Question reference: S2W-03707

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 October 2003
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 14 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive how many women were employed in the science, engineering and technology industries in each of the last 10 years, expressed also as a percentage of all workers in those industries.

he following table shows thenumber of women employed in science, engineering and technology industries ineach of the last 10 years, expressed also as a percentage of all workers inthose industries.

	Number of Women Employed	Percentage of All Workers
Year	(000)	%
1994	52	24.8%
1995	46	23.0%
1996	59	26.8%
1997	60	25.0%
1998	54	23.2%
1999	57	26.5%
2000	60	25.9%
2001	61	25.7%
2002	49	22.6%
2003	49	21.9%

Question reference: S2W-03451

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 October 2003
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 12 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive how much money was (a) allocated to and (b) spent on support for carers by (i) local authorities and (ii) other organisations in each of the last four years.

The following table sets outthe pre-existing provision for carers and the total new resources allocated bythe Scottish Executive to local authorities this year and over the last fouryears under (i) the Carers Strategy and (ii) specifically to develop respiteservices. In addition, local government finance settlements for social careover the same period rose from £1.1 billion in 1999-2000 to £1.6 billion thisyear. These resources are just part of the total resources available to localauthorities. Councils make service planning decisions based on all availableresources and in the light of local needs and priorities.

Information on localauthorities’ expenditure on respite and other services to support carers is nowbeing collected centrally. Figures for 2002-03 will be available early nextyear. In addition, the Executive is working to develop outcome measures forcarers in order to provide a clearer picture of how carers are being supportedon the ground.

A great many voluntarysector organisations receive support both at a national and local level toprovide support for service users and their carers. Information on the totalresources available to such organisations is not held centrally.

Resources to LocalAuthorities to Support Carers (£ Million)

	Existing	New	New	New
		Carers Strategy	Respite	Cumulative
1999-2000	5.00			0.00
2000-01	5.00	5.00		5.00
2001-02	5.00	5.00	5.00	15.00
2002-03	5.00	5.00	6.00	26.00
2003-04	5.00	5.00	11.00	42.00

Question reference: S2W-03714

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 October 2003
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 12 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) new entrants and (b) new entrants aged over 50 to the Civil Service in Scotland were employed in each department in each of the last five years.

The number of new entrantsto each of the Scottish Executive core departments in the last five financial years isprovided in Table A. Table B provides the number of these new entrants thatwere aged 50 or over on the day they were recruited. These figures excludecasual staff. Both tables include employees that have rejoined the Scottish Executive core departments during the specified years.

Table A: Total New Starts

	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03
Centrally Managed Staff	4	12	12	17	10
Corporate Services	77	99	63	83	70
Development Department	46	44	40	66	28
Education Department	24	33	29	45	30
Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning	44	76	69	60	44
Environment and Rural Affairs Department	129	126	166	123	90
Finance and Central Services Department	40	99	50	103	71
Health Department	36	30	45	43	28
Justice Department	24	19	27	29	17
Legal and Parliamentary Services	3	10	13	14	25
All Core Departments	427	548	514	583	413

Table B: Number of Staff AgedFifty Years or Over When Recruited

	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03
Centrally Managed Staff	.	.	.	2	.
Corporate Services	10	17	10	10	17
Development Department	1	.	3	4	4
Education Department	3	5	1	1	.
Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning	4	5	6	6	3
Environment and Rural Affairs Department	5	5	10	8	6
Finance and Central Services Department	1	4	2	6	.
Health Department	2	3	5	5	1
Justice Department	6	4	2	4	5
Legal and Parliamentary Services	.	2	.	2	2
All Core Departments	32	45	39	48	38