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-30451

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 December 2006
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 15 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people were employed in the (a) fishing, (b) farming and (c) manufacturing sector in (i) 1997, (ii) 1999 and (iii) the last year for which figures are available, broken down by enterprise company area.

1. The number of people employedin sea fishing broken down by enterprise company area for the years 1997, 1999 and2005 (latest data available) is given in the following table.

Fishermen Employed by EnterpriseCompany Area

Local Enterprise Company	1997	1999	2005
Argyll, Bute, Arran and the Cumbraes¹	702	650	571
Ayrshire	608	575	450
Borders	181	145	116
Caithness and Sutherland	373	344	220
Dumfries and Galloway	289	290	206
Dunbartonshire	-	-	-
Fife	240	182	142
Forth Valley	-	-	-
Glasgow Development Agency	-	-	-
Grampian	2,515	2,293	1,136
Inverness and Nairn	24	17	1
Lanarkshire	-	-	-
Lochaber	256	249	177
Lothian and Edinburgh	179	144	52
Moray, Badenoch and Strathspey	534	390	248
Orkney	402	342	335
Renfrewshire	11	11	-
Ross and Cromarty	213	215	132
Shetland	683	623	451
Skye and Lochalsh	205	139	183
Tayside	98	84	64
Western Isles	681	637	487

Notes:

1. In 1997 and1999, figures for Cumbraes were included in a combined return for Cumbraes and Largswhich has been assigned to Ayrshire LEC

2. The employment figures forfarming are not available by enterprise company area.

3. The number of people employedin manufacturing broken down by enterprise company area for the years 1998, 1999and 2004 (latest data available) is shown in the following table.

Manufacturing Employment by EnterpriseCompany Area

Local Enterprise Company	1998	1999	2004
Argyll, Bute, Arran and the Cumbraes	1,700	1,600	1,700
Ayrshire	27,100	25,800	17,000
Borders	8,300	9,200	7,200
Caithness and Sutherland	2,200	2,100	3,000
Dumfries and Galloway	10,000	9,800	7,500
Dunbartonshire	8,900	9,000	5,900
Fife	28,800	28,700	20,800
Forth Valley	20,900	17,700	13,600
Glasgow Development Agency	31,400	31,100	23,700
Grampian	28,400	27,900	22,800
Inverness and Nairn	3,400	3,300	3,300
Lanarkshire	44,300	43,800	31,900
Lochaber	1,000	800	900
Lothian and Edinburgh	50,300	44,600	32,100
Moray, Badenoch and Strathspey	5,700	5,700	5,300
Orkney	900	600	600
Renfrewshire	24,800	25,800	14,100
Ross and Cromarty	2,500	2,700	1,500
Shetland	1,400	1,200	1,000
Skye and Lochalsh	200	200	200
Tayside	22,400	22,700	21,000
Western Isles	1,300	800	800

Source: AnnualBusiness Inquiry

Notes:

1. Figures havebeen rounded to the nearest hundred.

2. Data for1998 and 1999 are based on 1991 census wards. Data for 2004 are based on 2003 CASwards.

3. These dataare based on a survey and are therefore subject to a degree of error. Thereforeany changes over time may not be significant.

4. Consistentdata for enterprise company areas are not available prior to 1998.

Question reference: S2W-30159

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 15 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many new jobs have been created in each year since 1997 where the contribution per job from public funds was (a) up to £10,000, (b) between £10,000 and £99,999, (c) between £100,000 and £499,999, (d) between £500,000 and £999,999, (e) between £1 million and £1,999,999 and (f) £2 million and above.

The Scottish Executive is committedto securing a more dynamic economy and recognises that public expenditure impactsboth directly and indirectly on economic performance, including positive effectson the labour market. Employment in Scotland has increased by nearly 220,000 since 1997.

Information on the directcontribution of public funds to job creation is available through the RegionalSelective Assistance (RSA) scheme. The RSA is the Scottish Executive’s mainnational scheme of financial assistance to industry, helping create andsafeguard jobs and encourage investment in the Assisted Areas (AAs) of Scotland.

The table below providesdetails of the number of planned jobs (created and safeguarded) where thecontribution per job is in the categories requested.

Calendar Year	No. of Planned Jobs
Calendar Year	Up to £10k per job		£10k-£100k per job		£100k-£500k per job	£500k-£1m per job	£1m-£2m per job	Over £2m per job
1997	7,564	3,320	6,893	871	0	0	0	0
1998	7,672	3,141	2,743	153	0	0	0	0
1999	6,999	2,806	2,869	1,087	0	0	0	0
2000	8,140	5,024	3,022	941	0	0	0	0
2001	4,134	1,221	1,163	77	0	0	0	0
2002	3,733	2,539	788	1,525	0	0	0	0
2003	2,568	3,036	714	399	0	0	0	0
2004	5,369	1,677	802	1,264	0	0	0	0
2005	6,094	1,605	897	612	0	0	0	0

Question reference: S2W-30307

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 December 2006
Current Status: Answered by George Lyon on 14 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of the population lives in a rural area, broken down by local authority area and parliamentary constituency.

Question reference: S2W-30306

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 December 2006
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 13 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive which departments were involved in determining the structure and location of intermediary delivery bodies prior to the publication on 24 October 2006 of the draft operational programme for the delivery of structural funds in Lowlands and Uplands Scotland.

Question reference: S2W-30305

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 December 2006
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 13 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what definition of rural has been used in planning for the 2007-13 European Structural Fund programme.

No definition of “rural” hasbeen fixed for the 2007-13 Structural Funds programmes. Under the proposed Priority3 of the Lowlands and Uplands Scotland European Regional Development FundProgramme, which focuses on rural development, there will need to be spatial targetingof the funding on the rural areas of the region. One of the questions posed in thecurrent consultation on this programme is how such areas should be defined. Afterthe consultation closes – on 8 January – the Executive will consider the responsesand publish a definition of rural areas before the end of February 2007 throughits Structural Funds website (www.scotland.gov.uk/structuralfunds).

Question reference: S2W-30135

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 13 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how much it has spent on external media trainers in each year since 1999, broken down by supplier.

The breakdown of Scottish Executivespend by supplier on media trainers since 1999 is:

Paddy Christie	Christina McIntyre Media
1999: £4,650	1999: £1,560
2000: £2,500	2000: £1,040
2001: £3,200	2001: £2,080
2002: £8,775	2002: £1,045
2003: £825	2003: £1,695
2004: £1,975	2004: £1,300
2005: £3,450	2005: No spend
2006: £1,000	2006: £650

Question reference: S2W-30131

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 13 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many value-for-money exercises on the use of (a) management consultants and (b) professional advisers it conducted in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S2W-30070

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 8 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many posts in prisons at (a) governor or (b) deputy governor level are occupied on a (i) permanent or (ii) temporary basis by personnel who have not met the internal Scottish Prison Service competence level for that post.

Question reference: S2W-30129

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 7 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many families were in temporary accommodation in each year since 1990.

Information on the number ofhouseholds in temporary accommodation at 31 March each year is available on the Scottish Executive website at:http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/PubHomelessTable 12 of the publication HSG 2001/5 1989-90 to 1999-2000provides information on numbers of households in temporary accommodation by typeof accommodation from March 1990 to March 2000. Table 23 of the publication HSG/2006/6 Operationof the Homeless Persons legislation in Scotland: national and local authority analyses2005-06 provides the same information for March 1995 to March 2006.

Prior to March 2001 statisticson numbers in temporary accommodation did not distinguish households with childrenwithin the total number of households in temporary accommodation. Table 23 in thesecond publication provides information on numbers of households with children intemporary accommodation in each year from March 2001.

Question reference: S2W-30130

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 7 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many homes were sold to first-time buyers in each of the last 10 years and what percentage of all homes were sold in this way.

The following table gives estimatesof numbers of first-time buyers in Scotland in each year and the number of sales to first-time buyersas a percentage of all mortgage completions. Sales with a mortgage account for around80% of all sales of residential properties.

	Number of Sales to First-Time Buyers	Sale to First-Time Buyers as % of All Mortgage Completions
1996	33,300	50
1997	35,400	50
1998	35,500	53
1999	38,100	50
2000	41,200	49
2001	47,500	41
2002	49,900	34
2003	38,700	27
2004	31,500	22
2005	34,500	32

Source: Regulated Mortgage Surveyof the Council of Mortgage Lenders.