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-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-31873

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 February 2007
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 2 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether Low Copy Number DNA comparison is used in the criminal justice system.

Question reference: S2W-31874

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 February 2007
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 2 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many runs are used when reconstructing DNA maps from microscopic quantities of material and what level of inconsistency between runs is considered to be evidentially reliable.

Question reference: S2W-31794

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 February 2007
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 28 February 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what co-operation there has been in the last five years between NHS Scotland and public health services elsewhere in respect of (a) computer systems, (b) communication services and (c) other matters, where the value added from that co-operation exceeded £100,000.

There has been wide ranging co-operationwith other public health services, particularly other UK countrieswith whom we meet regularly to discuss common needs and requirements.

Where there is a match betweenthe information requirements of NHS in both Scotland and England, bothcountries can benefit from the use of computer systems procured and maintained byone country but made available, within EU procurement rules, to another. Thereare a number of such examples including:

a computer system which supportsclinical terminology and coding systems;

the national (UK) drug dictionaryused in our e-Pharmacy programme;

a financial computersystems framework which was negotiated by Scotland and hasbeen heavily used by NHS England;

the contract forNHS24’s patient management system which is a variation to the contract negotiatedby England;

enterprise softwarelicences have been purchased under contracts which were negotiated by NHS Englandand varied to suit Scottish circumstances;

servers to providecentral and local archive facilities for our picture archive and communicationssystem.

NHS Scotland communications servicesare underpinned by the N3 broadband telecommunications contract which is a UK NHScontract providing secure private network facilities and the separate NHSMail contractproviding secure email facilities to all NHS staff across the UK.

On other related matters we havecollaborated to mutual benefit with other health departments on information standards,and clinical terminology, coding and messaging standards.

Question reference: S2W-31793

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 February 2007
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 26 February 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many students completed degrees in which the principal subject was computer-related in each year since 1997.

The number of studentsgraduating from Scottish higher education institutions (HEIs) with a firstdegree in which the principal subject was computer-related is shown in the followingtable.

First Degree Graduates inComputer Related Subjects from Scottish HEIs 1996-97 to 2005-06

Year	Number of Graduates
1996-97	650
1997-98	595
1998-99	650
1999-2000	860
2000-01	910
2001-02	1,055
2002-03	1,235
2003-04	1,605
2004-05	1,560
2005-06	1,505

Source:Higher Education Statistics Agency.

Notes:

All figureshave been rounded to the nearest five.

The codingsystem for subjects was changed from the period 2002-03, providing more detailin the area of computing. This might have affected the counts to a smallextent. Bell College and UHIMI became HEIs in 2001-02.

Question reference: S2W-31547

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 January 2007
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 26 February 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many hit and run incidents there were where the driver was subsequently identified as having been (a) under the influence of (i) alcohol and (ii) drugs, (b) uninsured and (c) unlicensed in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S2W-31739

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 February 2007
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 22 February 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-32426 by Ross Finnie on 16 December 2002, whether it will provide subsequent test results for the listed groundwater monitoring sites within Aberdeenshire and Banffshire and the dates on which they were tested.

Question reference: S2W-31695

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 February 2007
Current Status: Answered by Sarah Boyack on 22 February 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-31493 by Sarah Boyack on 6 February 2007, what estimate it has made of the total cost to the agricultural sector of implementing Integrated Pollution Prevention Control measures.

The Integrated PollutionPrevention and Control (IPPC) Directive impacts on a number of activitieswithin the agricultural sector. This includes the treatment of animal andvegetable matter and milk processing. The largest impact is in the intensivefarming sector.

A Regulatory ImpactAssessment, completed in 2000, estimated in general terms the cost to industry ofcomplying with IPPC. A separate UK study jointly funded by the Scottish Executive in2006 reviewed the costs associated with obtaining PPC permits. While this didnot estimate the total cost to the agricultural sector, typical costs per intensivefarming unit in Northern Ireland were found to range between £500 and £1,000 forone-off application preparation costs, £500 to £10,000 for capital investment,and £500 to £1,000 for one-off management time costs. However, these findingswere based on a very small sample size and the figures may not berepresentative of all intensive farming sites under IPPC. In addition,operators are required to pay charges to the Scottish Environment ProtectionAgency which vary depending on the size of the installation.

Question reference: S2W-31032

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 January 2007
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 22 February 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what average earnings were in each local authority area in each year since 1999.

The preferred source for earningsestimates is the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), which is carried outby the Office for National Statistics. The latest earnings estimates available arefor April 2006.

I have placed tables from ASHEcontaining the median gross weekly full-time earnings by local authority area for1999-2006 in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 41935).

The data are based on place ofwork as place of residence statistics are not available prior to 2002.

Question reference: S2W-31604

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 February 2007
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 21 February 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive on how many occasions in each year since 1999 a minister has had duties removed to avoid a potential conflict of interest.