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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 2357 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S2W-31961

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 February 2007
Current Status: Answered by Elish Angiolini on 5 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-33051 by Elish Angiolini on 21 January 2003, what hourly rates and what grades are applied for staff when calculating the costs of individuals working in the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service on projects and tasks.

The average gross hourly ratesfor the pay bands of staff working in the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Servicefor financial year 2006-07 are given in the following table:

Pay Band	Hourly Rate Based on Gross Average Pay
B	£11.60
C	£16.19
D	£19.40
E	£26.21
E(L)	£31.30
F	£35.97
F(L)	£39.10
G	£43.20
SCS 1	£74.36
SCS 1A	£83.04
SCS 2	£102.82
SCS 3	£127.42

Notes:

1. Gross average costs includesbasic salary, employers’ superannuation contributions and national insurance payments.

2. SCS = Senior Civil Service.

3. These figures do not incorporatethe results of the 2006 pay settlement.

Question reference: S2W-31925

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 February 2007
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 5 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress is being made in reducing class sizes to 20 for S1 and S2 mathematics and English classes.

Question reference: S2W-32034

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 26 February 2007
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 5 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people are employed in running the NHS staff bank and, of these, how many are managers.

Question reference: S2W-31850

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 February 2007
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 2 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the total cost, including out of court settlements, has been of providing legal aid and compensation for claims by prisoners under the European Convention on Human Rights since its incorporation into Scots law.

I refer the member to the answer to question S2F-2723 on 15 February 2007 and confirm that the total cost toScottish ministers and the Scottish Prison Service of providing legal aid for courtactions and compensation including out of court settlements has been approximately£2.3 million.

All answers to First Minister’sQuestion are available in the Official Report on the Parliament’s website. The OfficialReport for the 15 February 2007 can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/or-07/sor0215-02.htm#Col32172.

Question reference: S2W-31893

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 February 2007
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 2 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how much it paid in bonuses to civil servants in each year since 1999.

Bonus payments made to staffwithin the Scottish Executive Core Departments since 1999 are as follows:

Special Bonus Scheme¹

Year	Total Amount
1999	£93,190
2000	£97,825
2001	£107,750
2002	£143,807
2003	£114,566
2004	£165,777
2005	£121,061
2006	£147,427

Note: 1. The Special Bonus Schemerewards staff for special contributions made over a relatively short period of time.The scheme operates independently from the performance pay arrangements and is notlinked to annual appraisals.

Performance Bonus²

Year	Total Amount
2003	£1,318,250
2004	£1,701,884
2005	£668,409³
2006	£2,198,545

Notes:

*Complete information on performancebonus payments prior to 2003 is not held centrally.

2. Performance bonus paymentsform part of the pay systems within which staff in Scottish Executive Core Departmentsand the Senior Civil Service are paid. Payments are made in line with performancemanagement standards and are in recognition of performance during the appraisalyear.

3. Performance Bonus paymentsto staff outside the Senior Civil Service are normally paid in August each year.However, bonus payments that were part of the 2005 pay award were not made until2006 due to the delayed settlement of pay negotiations.

Question reference: S2W-31890

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 February 2007
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 2 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people from ethnic minorities were recruited as (a) police officers and (b) special constables in each police force in each of the last five years and what percentage of the police workforce this represented in each case.

The information requested isshown in the following tables.

Number of Ethnic Minority PoliceOfficers Recruited and Percentage of total Strength

Year/Force	2001-02		2002-03		2003-04		2004-05		2005-06
Year/Force	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
Central	0	0	0	0	1	0.39	4	0.49	2	0.47
Dumfries and Galloway	0	0	0	0	1	0.2	0	0	0	0
Fife	0	0	1	0.53	1	0.41	1	0.6	0	0
Grampian	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0.36	0	0
Lothian and Borders	3	0.78	3	0.85	1	1.07	3	1.12	3	1.32
Northern	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Strathclyde	6	0.76	6	0.78	9	1.8	8	1.67	6	1.61
Tayside	0	0	0	0	2	0.51	1	0.42	1	0.42
Scotland	9	0.61	10	0.64	15	1.17	18	1.14	12	1.14

Number of Ethnic MinoritySpecial Constables Recruited and Percentage of Total Strength

Year/Force	2001-02		2002-03		2003-04		2004-05		2005-06
Year/Force	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
Central	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Dumfries and Galloway	1	2.08	0	0	0	0	1	3.16	0	0
Fife	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Grampian	1	0.87	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Lothian and Borders	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	2.31
Northern	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0.41
Strathclyde	1	2.55	0	0	0	0	2	0.78	3	3.27
Tayside	1	3.22	0	0	3	2.78	1	3.28	2	3.77
Scotland	4	1.18	0	0	3	1.32	4	1.1	9	1.93

Sources: The number of ethnicpolice officers and specials recruited in each year was taken from Annual StatisticalReturns submitted by forces to Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary. The percentagefigures were calculated using strength figures for each year as submitted to the Executive by forces.

Question reference: S2W-31894

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 February 2007
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 2 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average retirement age was of (a) female and (b) male police officers in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S2W-31897

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 February 2007
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 2 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many offences were committed by young people in each of the last 10 years.

The Scottish Children’s ReporterAdministration (SCRA) deals with the majority of offences committed by young peopleunder the age of 16. In addition, those children aged 16 and 17 who are still subjectto Supervision Requirements would also have any alleged offences dealt with by theHearings System. In those cases where the offence is of a particularly serious nature,the case will be dealt with by the courts.

Total Referrals tothe SCRA from 1996-97 to 2005-06

Year	Total Offence Referrals
1996-97	28,105
1997-98	27,562
1998-99	28,213
1999-2000	30,633
2000-01	26,820
2001-02	29,232
2002-03	30,129
2003-04	34,266
2004-05	36,338
2005-06	37,916

Source: Scottish Children’s ReporterAdministration Annual Reports and Statistical Bulletins.

Persons Aged Under 16 with aCharge Proved in Scottish Courts, 1996-97 to 2004-05

Year	Number of Persons
1995-96	176
1996-97	162
1997-98	150
1998-99	114
1999-2000	80
2000-01	66
2001-02	83
2002-03	137
2003-04	113
2004-05	123

Data for 2005-06 will be published21 March 2007.

Question reference: S2W-31891

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 February 2007
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 2 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average age of police recruits was in each of the last five years.

The information is shown, bygender, in the following tables.

The Average Age of Male PoliceRecruits

Year/Force	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06
Central	25	27	27	27	26
Dumfries and Galloway	26	30	27	28	30
Fife	27	29	27	28	27
Grampian	29	28	28	28	28
Lothian and Borders	29	28	28	28	27
Northern	31	31	32	31	28
Strathclyde	27	26	25	26	24
Tayside	28	28	28	28	31

The Average Age of Female PoliceRecruits

Year/Force	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06
Central	22	33	26	27	26
Dumfries and Galloway	27	23	28	26	26
Fife	27	27	27	25	25
Grampian	28	27	25	29	29
Lothian and Borders	27	26	27	27	28
Northern	30	28	30	29	35
Strathclyde	25	25	24	25	29
Tayside	23	28	28	27	25

Source: Annual Statistical Returnssubmitted by forces to Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary.

Question reference: S2W-31896

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 February 2007
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 2 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what estimate it has made of crime rates in (a) high and (b) low income communities in (i) the most recent period for which figures are available and (ii) 1996-97.