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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 2357 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S2W-22021

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 January 2006
Current Status: Answered by Colin Boyd on 27 January 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many penalty notices have been issued in each year since 1999 in respect of the illegal use of fireworks, broken down by police force area.

In England and Wales, under the penalty notice for disorder scheme, the police can issue penalty notices for certain firework offences, but this scheme does not apply in Scotland. The Antisocial Behaviour etc (Scotland) Act 2004 creates a police power to issue fixed penalty offences for certain offences associated with antisocial behaviour. The scheme is currently being piloted in Tayside, but the list of fixed penalty offences included in the scheme does not include any offence relating to fireworks.

Question reference: S2W-22428

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 27 January 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive which private finance initiative schemes (a) have reached financial close and are completed and operational, (b) have reached financial close and work has started on site, (c) are in negotiation but have not yet reached financial close and (d) have not yet placed advertisements in the Official Journal of the European Union, broken down by (i) capital value and (ii) completion or anticipated completion date.

The information requested is already within the public domain and can be accessed from the Scottish Executive’s website. PPP projects in Scotland that are either operational or signed can be found on www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Government/Finance/18232/donedeals.

PPP projects in Scotland that are in procurement or have yet to be advertised in the Official Journal of the European Union can be found on:

www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Government/Finance/18232/futuredeals.

Question reference: S2W-22425

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 27 January 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many childcare places have closed in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S2W-22155

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 26 January 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many licensed debt collectors operate in Scotland and how many complaints have been made against them in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S2W-22154

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 26 January 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) police and (b) fire stations have closed in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area.

The information requested is not held in the format requested or for all of the time periods stipulated. I refer the member to the answers to questions, S2W-9973 on 9 September 2004, S2W-10733, on 29 September 2004, and S2W-17970 on 16 August 2005.

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

Question reference: S2W-21909

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 December 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 26 January 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-21062 by Mr Tom McCabe on 20 December 2005, whether it will provide a breakdown of the cost of the mobile calls made by (a) ministers and special advisers and (b) officials in each of its departments in each year since 1999.

The cost of calls made from mobile phones purchased by the Scottish Executive and used by Ministers, special advisors and officials in each year for which data is available is shown in the table below.

Year

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

(Jan to Sept)

Cost

N/A

£90,425

£116,219

£75,711.17

Expenditure on mobile phone calls was not recorded separately from other related expenditure prior to 2003. Central records of expenditure on mobile phone calls from 2003 do not provide a separate breakdown of the cost of calls made by ministers, special advisors and other officials.

Question reference: S2W-22086

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 January 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 26 January 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people who had been placed in custody have reoffended in each year since 1997, broken down by local authority area.

The available information is given in the following table.

Persons Released from a Custodial Sentence in 1997-2001 by Approximate Local Authority Area¹: Number Reconvicted Within Two Years²

Approximate Local Authority Area	Number Reconvicted Within Two Years
	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001
Aberdeen³	185	184	175	149	163
Angus	54	55	41	57	53
Argyll and Bute	45	38	29	25	28
Ayrshire⁴	323	305	402	394	435
Clackmannanshire	26	21	25	23	21
Dumfries and Galloway	97	81	98	88	117
Dundee City	112	143	122	132	152
East Lothian	24	28	22	15	22
Edinburgh⁵	327	305	307	319	326
Eilean Siar	12	10	12	12	9
Falkirk	83	85	96	59	92
Fife	196	183	145	125	134
Glasgow⁶	1,166	1,071	1,049	909	914
Highland	101	99	74	106	110
Inverclyde	134	150	128	125	136
Lanarkshire⁷	252	245	195	216	226
Moray	37	29	28	25	38
Orkney Islands	5	*	*	*	*
Perth and Kinross	56	55	47	51	56
Renfrewshire⁸	176	172	153	131	139
Scottish Borders	36	28	34	35	59
Shetland Islands	8	*	*	*	*
Stirling	49	38	26	27	42
West Lothian	60	42	45	34	48
Scotland⁹	3,780	3,581	3,443	3,300	3,592

Notes:

1. Whilst local authority and court areas are not co-terminous, the segregation in this answer represents the best approximation to local authority data.

2. Convictions where the main offence involved was a crime in groups one to five of the Scottish Executive Justice Department’s classification of crimes and offences or the offences of simple assault, breach of the peace, racially aggravated harassment or conduct, miscellaneous firearms offences and social security offences.

3. Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire (Aberdeen, Banff, Stonehaven and Peterhead Sheriff Courts).

4. North, South and East Ayrshire (Kilmarnock and Ayr Sheriff Courts).

5. City of Edinburgh and Midlothian (Edinburgh Sheriff Court).

6. Glasgow City, East and West Dunbartonshire (Glasgow and Dumbarton Sheriff Courts and Stipendiary Magistrates).

7. North and South Lanarkshire (Airdrie, Hamilton and Lanark Sheriff Courts).

8. Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire (Paisley Sheriff Court).

9. Includes High Court and Remit to High.

*Relating to numbers less than five.

Question reference: S2W-22424

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 26 January 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many new-build affordable housing units have been built in each parliamentary constituency in each year since 1999.

I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland, to respond. Her response is as follows:

Information is only available in respect of the number of new-build affordable housing units funded by the Communities Scotland Affordable Housing Investment Programme. This information is not held at parliamentary constituency level. The following table provides the information by local authorities.

Local Authority	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05
	Units	Units	Units	Units	Units	Units
Aberdeen City	154	158	107	79	225	145
Aberdeenshire	204	206	193	302	221	147
Angus	123	112	107	93	69	46
Argyll and Bute	130	57	70	79	83	127
City of Edinburgh	699	347	319	234	453	396
Clackmannanshire	0	72	28	50	27	33
Dumfries and Galloway	120	162	96	98	154	188
Dundee City	172	406	312	87	358	281
East Ayrshire	63	72	36	0	36	10
East Dunbartonshire	81	0	10	4	8	142
East Lothian	33	18	30	0	145	47
East Renfrewshire	63	41	60	15	4	0
Falkirk	73	76	34	16	29	70
Fife	257	308	217	197	247	185
Glasgow City	1,593	1,317	1,490	1,382	1,088	1,047
Highland	149	287	176	219	236	236
Inverclyde	106	174	184	110	116	147
Midlothian	28	0	43	14	0	31
Moray	47	34	10	2	92	159
North Ayrshire	87	39	120	71	74	84
North Lanarkshire	389	327	361	179	375	331
Orkney Islands	73	52	74	41	61	43
Perth and Kinross	327	97	146	170	142	390
Renfrewshire	207	173	171	247	337	85
Shetland Islands	37	5	18	7	38	4
South Ayrshire	81	146	95	80	60	70
South Lanarkshire	116	392	127	259	281	250
Stirling	115	107	59	33	91	14
The Scottish Borders	107	107	70	63	3	52
West Dunbartonshire	221	264	55	79	308	81
West Lothian	154	102	90	65	105	54
Western Isles	16	24	34	2	39	47

Question reference: S2W-22427

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 26 January 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many diagnoses of high cholesterol there have been in each year since 1999 and how many of these diagnoses were made of people under the age of 18, broken down by NHS board area.

Question reference: S2W-22426

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 26 January 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients have been registered with a GP in each year since 1999.

The table shows the number of patients registered with a GP¹ for all Scotland; 1999-2005.

Year	Patients Registered with a GP
1999	5,365,480
2000	5,347,041
2001	5,352,543
2002	5,345,042
2003	5,347,881
2004	5,373,797
2005	5,389,979

Source: Community Health Index (CHI) extract, Practitioner Services Division (PSD), NHS National Services Scotland.

Note: 1. Figures are as at 1 October each year.