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-32153

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 13 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many convictions related to cases of domestic abuse there were in each of the last 10 years, broken down by police force area.

Question reference: S2W-32216

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 13 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive which courts have been (a) closed and (b) opened in each year since 1997.

The Scottish CourtService has not ceased the operation of any courts during this period. Two sheriffcourts have, however, been relocated to alternative premises, shared with localauthorities, within the towns in which they operate, resulting in the closure ofold court buildings. These are Rothesay (2004) and Peebles (2005).

The Scottish CourtService has not created any entirely new courts during the period, although it hasextended various buildings and acquired annexes to accommodate increased businessin the existing courts. The new Mercatgate court building was opened in Aberdeenin 2005 as an annexe to Aberdeen Sheriff Court, and additional court buildings werealso opened in Dundee (2003) and Hamilton (2006). All other changes have been extensionsto existing buildings.

Question reference: S2W-32086

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 February 2007
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 12 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive when the Minister for Environment and Rural Development intends to reply further to my letter of 18 January 2007 (ref.2006/0040838) regarding the Scottish Agricultural Wages Board.

Question reference: S2W-32056

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 February 2007
Current Status: Answered by Sarah Boyack on 12 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-31639 by Sarah Boyack on 15 February 2007, how much was spent on consultants by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency in each of the last six years for which figures are available.

Question reference: S2W-32219

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 12 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of women non-urgently referred by their GP with a suspected breast condition were subsequently diagnosed with breast cancer in the latest period for which figures are available.

Question reference: S2W-32218

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 12 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many vacancies there were for head teachers in each of the last five years, broken down by local authority.

Information on head teacher vacanciesis not collected separately from deputy head vacancies. The following table showsvacancies (full-time equivalent) over three months for head teachers and deputyhead teachers in each of the last five years, broken down by local authority (LA):

	Primary (February)					Secondary (February)
	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
Aberdeen City	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	1	0	0
Aberdeenshire	0	0	4.2	6.8	0	0	0	1	1	0
Angus	0	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	0	0
Argyll and Bute	0	0	4	0	0	0	0	1	0	1
Clackmannanshire	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Dumfries and Galloway	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Dundee City	0	0	5	5	1	0	1	3	3	0
East Ayrshire	0	0	0	0	1	2	0	0	0	0
East Dunbartonshire	1	0	1	1	1	0	1	0	0	0
East Lothian	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
East Renfrewshire	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Edinburgh, City of	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Eilean Siar	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Falkirk	0	0	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Fife	1	1	0	6	1	0	0	0	0	4
Glasgow City	13	25	0	7	0	2	0	0	0	0
Highland	4	2	2	2	3	0	0	0	1	1
Inverclyde	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Midlothian	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Moray	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
North Ayrshire	0	0	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
North Lanarkshire	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Orkney Islands		0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
Perth and Kinross	0	5	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0
Renfrewshire	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Scottish Borders	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Shetland Islands	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
South Ayrshire	0	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	2
South Lanarkshire	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Stirling	2	1	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	0
West Dunbartonshire	2	2	5	1	2	1	0	1	0	0
West Lothian	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total Scotland	24	41	35.2	31.8	11	7	5	8	6	8
Average number of vacancies per annum	0.8	1.3	1.2	1.0	0.3	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.2	0.3

Notes:

1. Informationis from the teacher vacancies survey returned by LAs at February each year.

2.Aberdeenshire data not available for 2002 and 2004.

3. Vacanciesover three months are taken as an indicator of long-term issues whereas total vacanciesreported by Las include normal turnover of staff.

Question reference: S2W-32220

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 12 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of patients urgently referred by their GP with suspected cancer were subsequently diagnosed with cancer in the latest period for which figures are available.

Question reference: S2W-32140

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by George Lyon on 12 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many alcohol-related deaths there were in each of the last five years, broken down by (a) parliamentary constituency and (b) local authority area.

The information requested ispresented in the following tables.

(a) Alcohol-Related Deaths¹ by ParliamentaryConstituency, 2001-05

	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Scotland	1,398	1,487	1,525	1,478	1,513
Aberdeen Central	24	19	13	14	23
Aberdeen North	13	11	8	11	10
Aberdeen South	15	15	15	14	17
Airdrie and Shotts	20	26	24	29	26
Angus	15	16	19	21	17
Argyll and Bute	23	21	24	14	19
Ayr	17	22	29	23	14
Banff and Buchan	11	10	15	13	14
Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross	13	17	5	12	15
Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley	16	20	21	14	20
Central Fife	14	17	18	17	11
Clydebank and Milngavie	26	31	29	26	24
Clydesdale	15	16	22	20	24
Coatbridge and Chryston	17	23	24	17	21
Cumbernauld and Kilsyth	14	8	19	10	22
Cunninghame North	18	29	24	26	18
Cunninghame South	17	19	19	20	18
Dumbarton	15	24	29	24	24
Dumfries	11	19	14	17	17
Dundee East	23	21	37	36	24
Dundee West	25	29	27	32	30
Dunfermline East	12	17	13	11	17
Dunfermline West	11	12	10	12	17
East Kilbride	18	16	20	25	21
East Lothian	13	18	19	9	20
Eastwood	17	21	21	16	21
Edinburgh Central	29	25	21	21	24
Edinburgh East and Musselburgh	30	28	32	29	31
Edinburgh North and Leith	29	25	17	29	35
Edinburgh Pentlands	14	16	16	12	14
Edinburgh South	16	11	15	13	17
Edinburgh West	16	13	19	17	20
Falkirk East	17	14	12	19	12
Falkirk West	21	19	21	18	19
Galloway and Upper Nithsdale	12	6	17	9	14
Glasgow Anniesland	31	29	38	32	33
Glasgow Baillieston	32	28	28	30	21
Glasgow Cathcart	17	15	30	21	23
Glasgow Govan	38	31	27	37	30
Glasgow Kelvin	31	36	24	26	33
Glasgow Maryhill	38	34	42	31	33
Glasgow Pollock	25	34	38	39	28
Glasgow Rutherglen	17	23	28	25	32
Glasgow Shettleston	55	63	49	55	47
Glasgow Springburn	48	46	49	35	39
Gordon	17	4	10	10	7
Greenock and Inverclyde	46	39	38	27	21
Hamilton North and Bellshill	20	22	21	29	19
Hamilton South	19	26	18	24	24
Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber	21	27	29	20	24
Kilmarnock and Loudoun	23	16	16	17	17
Kirkcaldy	10	12	9	12	18
Linlithgow	14	20	27	20	23
Livingston	17	18	22	22	17
Midlothian	12	17	13	23	19
Moray	15	17	25	26	19
Motherwell and Wishaw	20	40	20	21	33
North East Fife	10	17	13	9	13
North Tayside	8	16	15	10	22
Ochil	12	21	11	15	13
Orkney	10	4	7	7	3
Paisley North	34	22	23	21	27
Paisley South	27	34	32	34	53
Perth	20	17	26	28	15
Ross, Skye and Inverness West	19	22	24	27	23
Roxburgh and Berwickshire	8	6	9	10	4
Shetland	5	1	3	6	6
Stirling	22	9	21	16	16
Strathkelvin and Bearsden	17	11	13	17	19
Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale	6	16	6	15	10
West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine	4	9	9	8	7
West Renfrewshire	10	20	11	11	20
Western Isles	3	11	13	12	12

Note: 1.ICD10 codes: F10, G31.2, G62.1, I42.6, K29.2, K70, K73, K74 (excludingK74.3-K74.5), K86.0, X45, X65, Y15.

(b) Alcohol-Related Deaths¹by Council Area, 2001-05

	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Scotland	1,398	1,487	1,525	1,478	1,513
Aberdeen City	52	45	36	39	50
Aberdeenshire	27	23	31	29	27
Angus	19	25	27	27	29
Argyll and Bute	26	24	28	20	24
Clackmannanshire	10	11	9	13	10
Dumfries and Galloway	23	25	31	26	31
Dundee City	48	50	64	68	54
East Ayrshire	30	29	30	22	29
East Dunbartonshire	21	20	21	21	22
East Lothian	15	20	25	13	22
East Renfrewshire	17	21	21	16	21
Edinburgh, City of	132	116	114	117	139
Eilean Siar	3	11	13	12	12
Falkirk	38	33	33	37	31
Fife	57	75	63	61	76
Glasgow City	318	319	331	308	291
Highland	52	66	58	59	62
Inverclyde	55	51	43	34	31
Midlothian	13	20	16	26	20
Moray	20	17	28	28	20
North Ayrshire	35	48	43	46	36
North Lanarkshire	87	109	105	97	115
Orkney Islands	10	4	7	7	3
Perth and Kinross	25	25	34	33	26
Renfrewshire	62	64	61	59	90
Scottish Borders	13	19	12	22	13
Shetland Islands	5	1	3	6	6
South Ayrshire	26	29	36	32	22
South Lanarkshire	69	85	84	100	102
Stirling	24	18	22	17	18
West Dunbartonshire	35	46	47	41	41
West Lothian	31	38	49	42	40

Note: 1 ICD10 codes: F10,G31.2, G62.1, I42.6, K29.2, K70, K73, K74 (excluding K74.3-K74.5), K86.0, X45, X65, Y15

Question reference: S2W-32144

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 12 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many school playgrounds were sold in each of the last 10 years, broken down by local authority.

Question reference: S2W-32141

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 12 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many vulnerable households were living in non-decent homes in (a) 1996, (b) 2001, (c) 2004 and (d) the latest year for which figures are available, broken down by tenure.

We do not collect data on vulnerablehouseholds living in non-decent homes. They are specific measures used in Englandand are therefore the responsibility of the Department of Communities and LocalGovernment. The closest comparative data for Scotland is that there were approximately460,000 households inreceipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits living in houses which failed the Scottish House QualityStandard in 2003-04. The following table shows the number of such households brokendown by tenure:

Owner-Occupier	LA/Other Public	HA/Co-op	Private-Rented	Total
121,000	200,000	108,000	34,000	462,000

Source: Scottish House ConditionSurvey 2003-04.