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-23775

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 10 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many employment quota schemes designed to create job opportunities for young people leaving care are operated by local authorities and whether the Executive specifically encourages, endorses or finances such schemes.

We do not hold information centrallyabout these schemes. Whilst not specifically endorsing “employment quota schemes”,the Executive has funded a number of supported employment pilots, delivered by CareersScotland. These have been targeted at young people not in education, employmentand training, of which care leavers are an important sub-group. Following a positiveevaluation (April 2005), the supported employment approach is currently being mainstreamedacross Careers Scotland.

Question reference: S2W-23525

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 February 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 10 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how much it considers that Thomas Campbell and Joseph Steele deserve as fair recompense for their wrongful imprisonment for over 18 years for the deaths of six members of the Doyle family in Glasgow in 1984, in light of the Minister for Justice’s recent comments regarding the £750,000 compensation payment to former police officer Shirley McKie that it represented “fair recompense for all that she has been through” (Official Report c. 23347).

The circumstances of each caseare unique and each must be considered independently in isolation. Scottishministers have determined that Mr Campbell and Mr Steele are entitled to statutorycompensation for a miscarriage of justice as provided for in the Criminal JusticeAct 1988.

Section 133 of the 1988 act requiresthat an Assessor is appointed to make a determination of the amount of compensationto be paid. Under section 133(4) of the 1988 act the determination of the amountof the award is entirely for the Assessor. Scottish ministers have no power to varythat determination

Question reference: S2W-23776

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 10 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has evaluated the Youthstart employment scheme for young people leaving care operated in South Lanarkshire and whether it considers that such schemes should be promoted and adopted across all local authorities.

I am aware of the excellent workcarried out by the Youthstart employment initiative in South Lanarkshire. It was previously a successful New Futures Fund (NFF) project that SouthLanarkshire Council agreed to fund from April 2005. Although the Executive has notevaluated this project, Scottish Enterprise commissioned an independent evaluationNFF that was completed in April 2005. I remain committed to mainstreaming the employabilitymodel successfully developed through NFF.

Question reference: S2O-09205

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 9 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how the First Minister¿s recent comments about a ¿lack of caring¿ and ¿stupidity¿ of social services staff will affect recruitment to social services departments across Scotland.

Question reference: S2W-23418

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 February 2006
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 3 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many children it estimates live in households with a (a) drug-abusing and (b) alcohol-abusing parent, or parents.

In Hidden Harm – Responding to the needs of children of problem drug users, published by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs in 2003, it was estimated that there were 10,000-19,000 children in Scotland living with a drug using parent. In the same document, it was estimated that there may be between 41,000-59,000 children of parental drug users in Scotland overall.

We do not have an equivalent figure for the number of children living in households with a parent who has an alcohol problem. The latest estimates, however, are that there may be up to 100,000 children in Scotland affected by parental alcohol problems.

Question reference: S2W-23417

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 February 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 3 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many children have been subject to (a) home removal orders, (b) hearings by sheriffs or children’s panels which have rejected child removal recommendations and (c) home removal orders but were unable to be removed due to a lack of suitable accommodation in each of the last five years, broken down by local authority area.

In respect of part (a) of the question, page 13 of the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration annual report for 2004-05 (Bib. SE/2005/219) provided for the first time a breakdown of the number of children who had been accommodated away from home and the types of residential Supervision Requirement. A copy of the report is available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre. In respect of part (b) of the question this information is not collated centrally. Turning to part (c) of the question, this information is a matter for local authorities and is not held centrally.

Question reference: S2W-23419

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 February 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 3 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many children have been placed on child protection registers in each of the last five years, broken down by child protection committee area.

The number of children registered on child protection registers cannot be broken down by child protection committee area, but is available by local authority area.

Local authority figures are all published information and can be found in Child Protection Statistics 2002 and 2003 and Children’s Social Work Statistics 2002-03, 2003-04, 2004-05 publications. These publications are placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre, Bib. numbers are as follows:

Child Protection Statistics for the Year ended 31 March 2001 - Bib. number 24269

Child Protection Statistics for the Year ended 31 March 2002 - Bib. number 25195

Children’s Social Work Statistics 2002-03 - Bib. number 29834

Children’s Social Work Statistics 2003-04 - Bib. number 34321

Children’s Social Work Statistics 2004-05 - Bib. number 38157.

Question reference: S2W-23423

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 February 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 3 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it accepts the estimate by Professor Arthur Midwinter that spending on children’s social work services is £135 million less than required to fund these services adequately.

No. The estimated gap is between Grant Aided Expenditure (GAE) for Children’s Social Work Services and budgeted spend in 2003-04 on these services by local authorities. GAE, however, is not intended to support the total costs of providing services and councils have considerable flexibility to allocate resources to meet local needs and priorities.

Comparison between GAE for children’s social work and budgeted spend does not take account of other resources provided to support services for children. Other resources allocated by the Executive include around £57 million from the Sure Start programme which is intended to provide more integrated services for our most vulnerable children and families and the Changing Children’s Services Fund which will provide over £65 million to support the modernisation and integration of services for children.

Question reference: S2W-23424

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 February 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 2 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people or households in Glasgow are officially designated to be living in (a) income poverty and (b) fuel poverty.

(a) The information requestedis not available.

The official source of low incomedata for Scotland is the Households Below Average Income (HBAI) datasetavailable from 1994-95. This is derived from the Family Resources Survey (FRS).The sample size of the FRS in Scotland is relatively small and can only be used to provide informationfor Scotland as a whole.

The following link provides thelatest low income headline figures for Scotland (2003-04), together with data for previous years. Thiswas published on 30 March 2005:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/03/29170611/06123.

(b) The 2002 Scottish House ConditionSurvey Local Authority report estimates that approx. 45 000 households in Glasgow are consideredas being in fuel poverty.

Question reference: S2W-23426

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 February 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 1 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many care beds are available to accommodate children removed from their homes for their own safety by social service departments and what the estimated shortfall is in respect of such beds and foster families.