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-27008

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 27 July 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many faulty (a) fire extinguishers and (b) smoke alarms were identified in schools in the each of the last five years.

Question reference: S2W-27011

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 27 July 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many fires there were in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in each of the last 10 years, broken down by local education authority.

The information is not availablein the format requested.

The number of fires inschools (both primary and secondary) is shown in the following table by fireand rescue service area.

Brigade	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002¹	2003¹	2004
Central	9	5	5	4	10	10	4	0	21	12
Dumfries	2	11	6	7	6	3	0	0	0	0
Fife	8	27	13	12	10	6	17	6	12	0
Grampian	4	8	8	9	10	5	13	24	10	26
Highland and Islands	1	0	0	6	3	5	5	7	10	0
Lothian and Borders	66	34	20	1	12	6	23	17	27	45
Strathclyde	124	108	97	85	94	73	63	70	69	100
Tayside	25	8	26	8	31	11	24	7	8	12
Scotland²	238	201	175	132	174	119	149	131	157	196

Source: ODPM.

Notes:

1. Excluding incidents notrecorded during periods of industrial action in November 2002 and Jan/Feb 2003.

2. Parts may not add up tototals due to rounding.

Question reference: S2W-27220

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 July 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 27 July 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive which countries ministers and officials plan to visit on official business by the end of (a) December 2006 and (b) June 2007.

We announce overseas visitsby ministers at appropriate times in advance of the visits’ taking place,bearing in mind programme planning and security considerations, and ourdiscussions with visit hosts. We expect ministers’ visits in coming months toinclude travel to China, the United States and Brussels. Plansare of course subject to change in response to changing business priorities orif ministers have to be available for parliamentary business.

No decisions have been takenon ministerial visits after April 2007.

Officials travel in responseto Scottish Executive business needs. No central register is kept of officials’planned visits. We expect that over the next six months officials’ travel willinclude visits to Brussels and Finland to deal with EU business.

Question reference: S2W-27189

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 26 July 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) average and (b) longest waiting time has been for physiotherapy in each year since 1997, broken down by NHS board.

The information requested isnot available centrally.

The first nationalcollection of information on waiting times for services provided by AlliedHealth Professionals, including physiotherapy, was undertaken on 14 September 2005. Theresults from this census were published by ISD Scotland on 6 July 2006, in theAHP Census – Waiting for AHP Services Report and is available from:

http://www.isdscotland.org/.

Question reference: S2W-27219

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 July 2006
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 26 July 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many court orders have been issued for the repossession of homes in each year since 1997, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S2W-27223

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 July 2006
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 26 July 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what estimate it has made of the total carbon emission from each of its departments in each year since 1997.

No estimates have been madeof total annual carbon emissions from each of the Executive’s departments. Emissionsdata for Scotland are categorised by sector according to the IntergovernmentalPanel on Climate Change Common Reporting Format. These are available in GreenhouseGas Inventories for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland: 1990-2003, a copy of which is available in the Parliament’sReference Centre (Bib. number 37621).

Question reference: S2W-27104

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 26 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 25 July 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many women aged under 30 are smokers and what the figure was (a) five and (b) 10 years ago.

The following table detailsthe information available.

Smoking Prevalence Amongst WomenAged 16-29 in 1995, 1999 and 2004

Year	Estimated Population (N)	Percentage Smoking (%)	Estimated Number Smoking (N)
1995	500,300	36	180,100
1999	458,600	34	155,900
2004	437,000	28	122,400

Sources: 1995– Scottish Health Survey; 1999, 2004 – Scottish Household Survey.

Mid-yearpopulation estimates, General Register Office for Scotland.

Notes:

1. ScottishHealth Survey figures for 1995 have been used as 1994 are not available.

2. Estimatedpopulation figures are rounded to the nearest 100.

Question reference: S2W-27085

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 24 July 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what premiums are paid to medical staff of any discipline to work in prisons.

Question reference: S2W-27086

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 24 July 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) maximum, (b) median and (c) average times are to fill medical vacancies in prisons, broken down by category of medical staff.

Question reference: S2W-27088

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 24 July 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) serious assaults, (b) other assaults and (c) other criminal acts committed in prisons have been referred to the police or prosecution service for action in each of the last three years, broken down by prison and, of these, how many resulted in a decision not to proceed.