Questions and answers

Question reference: S2W-28978

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 7 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what the termination costs were (a) before and (b) after the refinancing of PFI/PPP hospitals.

The only health related PFI projectin Scotland to be refinanced is at Hairmyres Hospital in Lanarkshire.

The difference in terminationcosts cannot be expressed in absolute terms as the actual sum paid would be determinedby the date of termination.

The proposals for refinancingwere reviewed by the HM Treasury sponsored Refinancing Taskforce to ensure compliancewith the refinancing code of conduct. The refinancing proposal was also subjectto a Full Business Case process prior to a deal being signed to demonstrate thatvalue for money was secured.

Question reference: S2W-28981

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 7 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many premature births there have been in each year since 1979, also expressed as a proportion of all births.

Question reference: S2W-28974

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 7 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what the total amount spent has been on PFI/PPP projects postponed pending further consideration or stopped in the last 12 months.

The only operational PPP projectwhich has been stopped in the last 12 months is Inverness Airport. Thisproject was bought out in January 2006 at a cost to the Scottish Executive of £27million. In addition, as part of the termination compensation package, a tax liabilityof £2.857 million has been paid.

A few PFI/PPP projects have beenput to the market for procurement by public sector bodies and then re-started afterre-scoping. I understand that in each case this action will have been to ensurethat the projects provide up-dated specifications and also value for money, forexample, by resulting in increased market competition. The Scottish Executive doesnot hold details of related costs incurred by the public sector bodies in thesecases.

The Scottish Executive has committedinternal resources by way of policy and technical advice on all of these projects,however detailed costs are not recorded separately.

Question reference: S2W-29202

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 6 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average number of (a) nurses and (b) doctors was per 100 hospital beds in each of the last 10 years, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S2W-29203

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 6 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many motorists have been (a) cautioned, (b) charged and (c) successfully prosecuted for using (i) noisy exhaust systems and (ii) loud stereo systems in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S2W-29201

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 6 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) average wage was of (i) full-time male, (ii) full-time female, (iii) part-time male and (iv) part-time female employees and (b) average household income was of working age households in each of the last 10 years, broken down by local authority area.

(a) The preferred source forearnings estimates is the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), which is carriedout by the Office for National Statistics. The latest earnings ASHE estimates availableare for April 2006.

I have placed tables from ASHEcontaining the median gross weekly earnings of full-time males, full-time females,part-time males and part-time females by local authority area for 1997-2006 in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 40813).

(b) Table 1 presents the median household income estimatesfor working age adults in Scotland based on the Family Resources Survey. Local authorityincome estimates are not available.

Table 1 Median EquivalisedNet Disposable Household Income for Working Age Adults, Scotland, 1994-95to 2004-05 (2004-05 Prices)

	Working Age Adults Median
	Equivalised Net Disposable Household Income Before Housing Costs (£ Per Week)	Equivalised Net Disposable Household Income After Housing Costs (£ Per Week)
1994-95	319	268
1995-96	307	259
1996-97	326	271
1997-98	332	276
1998-99	329	278
1999-2000	336	286
2000-01	336	285
2001-02	359	316
2002-03	367	320
2003-04	377	336
2004-05	380	341

Source: Households Below AverageIncome, DWP.

Notes:

1. Net disposablehousehold income: Total incomeafter deductions for income tax, National Insurance Contributions, council tax,pension contributions and maintenance payments.

2 Housing costs: Net disposable income but with rent/mortgagepayments, water charges, structural insurance premiums, ground rent and servicecharges deducted.

3. Equivalised netdisposable household income:“Equivalised” Income is used to allow comparisons of living standards between differenthousehold types. Income is adjusted to take into account variations in the sizeand composition of the household. This adjustment reflects the fact that a familyof several people requires a higher income than a single person in order for bothhouseholds to enjoy a comparable standard of living. The key assumption is thatall individuals in the household benefit equally from the combined (equivalised)income of the household. There are distinct equivalence scales used for income beforehousing costs (BHC) and income after housing costs (AHC).

Question reference: S2W-29194

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 6 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what total expenditure was on gene research in respect of mental health projects in each of the last three years for which figures are available.

The Chief Scientist Office (CSO)within the Scottish Executive Health Department has responsibility for encouragingand supporting research into health and health care needs in Scotland.During the period 2003-04 through to 2005-06, the CSO expenditure on research projectson genetics and mental health amounted to £160,423. Expenditure in each of the threeyears was as follows:

2003-04: £25,731

2004-05: £75,934

2005-06: £58,758.

This expenditure relates to threeresearch projects, awarded total funding of £493,546 during the period March 2000through to June 2007. Two of the projects are completed and one is stillon-going.

The CSO would welcome furtherresearch proposals in this area which would be subject to the usual peer and committeereview process.

Question reference: S2W-29204

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 6 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how much has been spent on PFI/PPP projects postponed pending further consideration or stopped in each year since 1999.

The operational PPP projectswhich have been stopped since 1999 are Skye Bridge and Inverness Airport. For the costs associated with the buy-out of the SkyeBridge, I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-14449 on 2 March 2006.All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for whichcan be found at:http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Inverness Airport was bought out in January 2006 at a cost to the ScottishExecutive of £27 million. In addition, as part of the termination compensation package,a tax liability of £2.857 million has been paid.

A few PFI/PPP projects have beenput to the market for procurement by public sector bodies and then re-started afterre-scoping. I understand that in each case this action will have been to ensurethat the projects provide up-dated specifications and also value for money, forexample, by resulting in increased market competition. The Scottish Executive doesnot hold details of related costs incurred by the public sector bodies in thesecases.

The Scottish Executive has committedinternal resources by way of policy and technical advice on all of these projects,however, detailed costs are not recorded separately.

Question reference: S2W-28941

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 06 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by George Reid on 2 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether it will conduct a cycle of repetitive tests, using the names submitted for the computerised ballot of MSPs’ names for oral questions, the results of which were published in the Business Bulletin of 5 October 2006, to establish how many such tests it is necessary to execute before a set of results is produced that includes a successful outcome for every name submitted and in doing so whether it will publish the number of names submitted to each part of that ballot.

The SPCB will not conduct acycle of repetitive tests as described as any such tests would not produceinformative results. The tests could be repeatedly run for the same sample of membersand the outcome is likely to be different every time due to the nature of theprocess. It is possible that after only a few runs all the members’ names areselected, however, conversely it is also possible that it will take many runsto select all of the members’ names within a given sample.

Question reference: S2W-28940

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 06 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by George Reid on 2 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body on what date the algorithm for the computerised ballot of MSPs’ names for oral questions was introduced and on what dates any amendments to it have been introduced.

The algorithm for thecomputerised ballot of MSPs’ names for oral questions was introduced inthe last quarter of 2000. It is a component of the Oral Questions template.

The algorithm has been enhancedtwice since the Oral Question template’s introduction:

The first enhancement wasimplemented in July 2004 in response to an anomalyidentified following a change in procedures in the way the oral questions were selectedand presented. An announcement relating to this appeared in the Business Bulletin so that all members were made aware of the situation.

The second enhancement was introducedin January 2006 to ensure that, even if the number of questionssubmitted in each category and the order in which they were submitted and bywhom was constant; the “seed” used to generate a sequence of randomnumbers each time the ballot for each category was run would be unique. Aspart of this enhancement, analysis showed conclusively that although duplicateseeds had been possible, none had occurred.

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