Questions and answers

Question reference: S2W-30486

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 December 2006
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 19 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of (a) males and (b) females have been economically inactive in each year since 1979, broken down by local authority area.

It is not possible to provideinformation on the proportion of males and females who have been economically inactivein each local authority area dating back to 1979. Information on economic activityof males and females by local authority area is only available from 1999.

The preferred source for economicinactivity is the Labour Force Survey (LFS) for 1999 to 2003 and the Annual PopulationSurvey (APS) for 2004 and 2005. The Annual Population Survey is an annualised versionof the LFS.

Table 1 contains data on economicinactivity rates for males of working age by Local Authority area for 1999-2005.Table 2 contains data on economic inactivity rates for females of working age byLocal Authority area for 1999-2005. The estimates are based on sample surveys andas such are subject to some sampling error.

Table 1 Economic InactivityRates for Working Age Males by Local Authority Area, 1999-2005

	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Aberdeen City	14.2	13.7	10.9	13.4	14.7	12.9	12.7
Aberdeenshire	11.2	9.1	#	#	10.0	9.7	11.3
Angus	15.8	#	#	20.5	16.4	15.2	14.5
Argyll and Bute	#	#	#	#	16.5	15.8	17.4
Clackmannanshire	#	#	#	#	19.9	17.4	16.5
Dumfries and Galloway	20.9	19.6	15.4	16.2	16.6	14.4	14.1
Dundee City	18.7	21.9	26.6	23.9	21.3	22.1	19.1
East Ayrshire	17.2	20.0	18.2	20.6	17.6	19.2	19.6
East Dunbartonshire	18.4	17.8	#	#	14.9	14.2	13.5
East Lothian	#	#	#	#	19.1	16.5	16.5
East Renfrewshire	#	#	#	#	13.3	13.0	12.7
Edinburgh, City of	17.4	16.5	16.3	16.6	17.2	16.7	16.6
Eilean Siar	#	#	#	#	14.9	17.6	15.5
Falkirk	17.3	13.8	19.4	18.6	15.4	15.3	16.1
Fife	14.3	14.2	16.9	18.7	17.4	15.8	14.6
Glasgow City	34.1	27.1	28.5	30.2	25.6	26.0	24.6
Highland	14.8	14.6	13.8	12.8	12.6	9.6	15.4
Inverclyde	21.0	22.7	#	26.5	25.7	23.7	23.6
Midlothian	#	#	#	#	16.9	14.1	13.6
Moray	#	#	#	#	14.2	16.0	17
North Ayrshire	19.2	19.0	22.6	22.4	22.1	19.3	18.7
North Lanarkshire	25.3	22.8	20.3	19.8	20.3	19.6	20.4
Orkney Islands	#	#	#	#	10.8	9.5	11.1
Perthshire and Kinross	15.6	19.0	14.9	#	16.1	14.2	15.3
Renfrewshire	17.1	18.0	14.5	12.7	19.0	20.4	18.7
Scottish Borders	#	#	#	18.9	12.7	12.7	12.7
Shetland Islands	#	#	#	#	9.1	9.4	9.0
South Ayrshire	20.7	16.7	18.9	20.0	17.6	17.5	17.4
South Lanarkshire	14.5	17.1	15.2	12.4	17.9	17.1	17
Stirling	21.9	#	#	#	16.3	14.6	17.8
West Dunbartonshire	28.0	24.6	21.5	20.5	21.2	19.2	18.6
West Lothian	11.9	11.4	13.7	13.2	17.9	13.6	17.6

Source: 1999-2003 LocalLabour Force Survey, 2004-2005 Annual Population Survey.

Notes:

# These figures are suppressedas statistically unreliable.

1. Working age is defined asmales aged 16 to 64 and females aged 16 to 59.

2. Data for 1999-2003 are basedon seasonal years (March to February). Data for 2004 and 2005 are based on calendaryears.

3. Proportions are calculatedon unrounded figures.

Table 2 Economic InactivityRates For Working Age Females by Local Authority Area, 1999-2005

	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Aberdeen City	19.5	23.2	27.2	22.6	26.5	25.8	21.5
Aberdeenshire	26.7	22.7	25.8	26.6	24.8	23.6	21.0
Angus	26.0	22.2	21.1	22.9	26.2	25.8	23.5
Argyll and Bute	28.4	#	22.5	#	23.4	22.2	21.1
Clackmannanshire	#	46.4	40.7	#	26.4	27.8	29.3
Dumfries and Galloway	28.3	24.5	27.4	21.0	20.8	21.8	23.1
Dundee City	30.3	27.7	20.6	24.8	27.5	27.1	27.7
East Ayrshire	35.7	35.6	32.9	24.8	30.7	27.7	29.8
East Dunbartonshire	23.0	25.8	28.3	26.8	22.1	19.5	19.8
East Lothian	23.5	31.6	26.8	25.3	24.0	22.6	21.4
East Renfrewshire	25.1	21.4	26.8	20.6	22.4	22.0	22.0
Edinburgh, City of	26.3	23.5	23.1	21.9	24.2	24.1	21.6
Eilean Siar	#	#	#	#	15.2	14.8	16.8
Falkirk	26.1	22.4	27.7	36.9	26.8	23.4	24.1
Fife	25.4	27.2	25.3	23.4	23.4	20.4	23.9
Glasgow City	37.6	35.8	36	32.8	34.5	33.0	31.2
Highland	24.8	21.8	19.6	15.6	18.7	18.5	17.2
Inverclyde	#	#	27.9	30.8	28.2	27.2	25.4
Midlothian	#	#	#	#	22.7	20.0	19
Moray	#	#	25.5	23.7	19.9	23.7	24.3
North Ayrshire	35.4	33.5	28.1	23.7	31.3	31.0	27
North Lanarkshire	36	34.7	31.8	29.3	32.9	29.6	26.4
Orkney Islands	#	#	#	#	19.5	18.0	16.2
Perthshire and Kinross	17.7	16.1	14.7	20.3	23.5	23.6	24.9
Renfrewshire	24.4	23.9	23.8	23.1	24.9	23.6	24
Scottish Borders	21.9	#	19.5	22.3	21.9	23.5	24.2
Shetland Islands	#	#	#	#	18.0	16.7	15
South Ayrshire	28.9	26.1	24.2	23.6	24.8	23.1	25.4
South Lanarkshire	21.3	27.2	25.6	25.6	25.7	24.5	26.9
Stirling	34.3	29.9	28.5	30.3	25.3	23.8	23.8
West Dunbartonshire	31.6	31.1	24.3	25.1	29.1	28.0	28.4
West Lothian	23.5	24	19.6	21.1	22.1	21.7	22.7

# These figuresare suppressed as statistically unreliable. Source: 1999-2003 Local Labour ForceSurvey, 2004-05 Annual Population Survey.

1. Working ageis defined as males aged 16 to 64 and females aged 16 to 59.

2. Data for1999-2003 are based on seasonal years (March to February). Data for 2004 and 2005are based on calendar years.

3. Proportionsare calculated on unrounded figures.

Question reference: S2W-30538

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 December 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 19 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what (a) public private partnerships and (b) private finance initiative contracts have been entered into by the Executive; what assets were transferred to the private sector as part of each deal and what the value of these assets was; what the total cost is of each contract, and what estimate was made of what the cost would have been to the Executive of traditional procurement over the life of each contract.

The Scottish Executive has enteredinto five PFI/PPP contracts: Skye Bridge, M6 DBFO, HM Prison Kilmarnock, M77, and HM Prison Addiewell.Information on Skye Bridge has not been included in this answer as it is no longera PPP contract. No assets have been transferred to the private sector as part ofeach contract.

The total unitary charges of the M6 DBFO and the M77 contracts are £758.7 million and £521.2 million respectively.The total cost for HM Prison Kilmarnock can be found in the answer to question S1W-24355 on 10 April 2002 and information on the cost for HM Prison Kilmarnock isavailable in the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) Annual Reports which can be foundat:

http://www.sps.gov.uk/Default.asp?menuid=230.

The total cost for HM PrisonAddiewell can be found in the answer to question S2W-30009 on 5 December 2006 anddetails of the cost will be published in the SPS Annual Report and Accounts oncethe prison opens.

All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website the search facilityfor which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The unitary charge is the amountpaid by the public sector procuring body to the private sector consortium for theservices it provides over the length of the contract. The services include capitalconstruction, lifecycle maintenance and facilities management and, in the case of the prisons, includes operational services.

The PPP procurement route requiresthat each project must show value for money against a conventional procurement routebefore being selected, taking all relevant costs and benefits into account.

In relation to the M6, a NationalAudit Office report was published in April 1999 The PFI Contract to Completeand Operate A74(M)/M74 Motorway in Scotland which provides information on therelevant comparisons. This publication is available in the Scottish ParliamentInformation Centre (Bib. number 21222). In relation to the estimated cost of traditionalprocurement for the M77, the NPV of the risk adjusted public sector comparator figurewas £139.914 million.

In relation to the estimatedcost of traditional procurement for HM Prison Kilmarnock and HM Prison Addiewell,the relevant comparisons are published in the Financial Review of Scottish PrisonService Estate Review which can be found at www.sps.gov.uk/Library/Keydocs/Miscellaneous.

Question reference: S2W-30539

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 December 2006
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 19 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what estimate it has made of the number of newly qualified (a) secondary and (b) primary school teachers who had not taken up full-time teaching posts one year after qualification in each of the last five years, broken down by local authority.

Comprehensive data relatingto this question is not held centrally.

The most recent and comprehensiveindication of employment status following induction stems from research in 2005by the General Teaching Council for Scotland among those who completed theirinduction year in 2005, which found that almost 95% of respondents were nowteaching in Scotland, of which 70% were in full-time permanent posts.

Data held by the ScottishExecutive allows comparison of the lists of the GTCS registration numbers ofprobationers on the 2003-04 and 2004-05 induction schemes with the registrationnumbers of teachers recorded in the September 2004 and 2005 teacher censuses. Thisshows the following:

Induction scheme year (sector)	Number of probationers on induction scheme	Number of probationers from induction scheme not recorded in the September teacher census following end of induction as being in a full-time teaching post in a local authority school
2003-04 (secondary)	929	359
2003-04 (primary)	916	392
2004-05 (secondary)	1,009	287
2004-05 (primary)	1,084	381

Question reference: S2W-30677

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 December 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 19 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many offenders are known to have reoffended within (a) 24 hours, (b) 48 hours, (c) one week and (d) one month of release from prison in each year since 1999.

The information requested isnot available. The most recent availablestatistics relate to reconvictions and are presented in the statistics release Reconvictionsof offenders discharged from custody or given non-custodial sentences in2002-03, Scotland. This release includes information on the six month,one year and true year reconviction rates of offenders discharged from custody in2002-03 and can be accessed from the Scottish Executive website via the link:http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/10/30144610/0.

Question reference: S2W-30602

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 15 December 2006
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 19 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many long-term jobs were created in each year since 1999, broken down by local enterprise area.

Question reference: S2W-31212

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 January 2007
Current Status: Awaiting answer

To ask the Scottish Executive what it considers to be an appropriate upper limit for Scottish Environment Protection Agency charges to grant permission to convert a 20 metre ditch to an enclosed pipe.

Question reference: S2W-30908

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 January 2007
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 18 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-28311 by Ross Finnie on 22 September 2006, whether it will publish the legal advice received by its Environment and Rural Affairs Department.

Our policy is not to publishthe legal advice we receive, this being covered by solicitor-client confidentiality.I am satisfied, however, that last year’s decision to set aside convictions in Scotlandunder the Cattle Identification Regulations did not undermine decisions taken topenalise farmers who did not meet the conditions of the bovine subsidy schemes.The application of bovine scheme penalties did not rely on domestic legislation;the requirement to apply penalties, and our authority to do so, was laid down inEU legislation.

Question reference: S2F-02662

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 January 2007
Current Status: Answered by Jack McConnell on 18 January 2007

To ask the First Minister whether the Scottish Executive considers it an appropriate time to rethink drugs policy.

Question reference: S2W-30836

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 January 2007
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 16 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether any special advisers have made use of an official car in the last 12 months, excluding travel when accompanying a minister.

Question reference: S2W-30537

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 December 2006
Current Status: Answered by Elish Angiolini on 15 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how much has been spent by each of its departments on external legal advice in each of the last five years.

Over the period since 2001-02,payments by the Scottish Executive and its agencies for external legal serviceshave been made as follows:

Year	£000
2001-02	159
2002-03	563
2003-04	847
2004-05	2,030
2005-06	2,300
2006-07 (to date)	2,500

It is not possible to break thesefigures down to show expenditure by individual departments and agencies withoutincurring disproportionate cost.

For later years, these figuresreflect work outsourced under the terms of a framework contract for the provisionof legal services in place since June 2003.

Chamber and committees