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-05167

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 December 2003
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 27 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will initiate a full inquiry into the management of further education colleges, in light of the employment tribunal findings in connection with the Glasgow Central College of Commerce lecturer, Jim O'Donovan.

Question reference: S2W-05168

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 December 2003
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 27 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is satisfied with the industrial relations record of further education colleges and whether the management and industrial relations within these colleges requires a full investigation.

Further education collegesare autonomous bodies in terms of the Further and Higher Education (Scotland)Act 1992 and, as such, industrial relations issues are for the collegesthemselves to address. There are no plans to undertake an investigation into eitherthe management of, or the industrial relations within, the further educationsector. However, I do expect both management and unions within colleges topromote good industrial relations in order to ensure the continuing efficientand effective delivery of further education to students.

Question reference: S2W-05551

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 27 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what the total (a) revenue generated and (b) annual repayment would be if the loan quota entitlement for each local authority from the Public Works Loan Board was increased by (i) 5%, (ii) 10% and (iii) 25%.

Question reference: S2W-05552

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 27 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what powers it has in respect of underwriting any loan applications made by local authorities to the Public Works Loan Board and how mouch it estimatesthe total annual repayments would be if local authorities were authorised to borrow, in total, an extra (a) £500 million, (b) £1 billion and (c) £1.5 billion.

Question reference: S2W-05550

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 27 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what the debt burden is of each local authority in respect of the Public Works Loan Board and how much each authority pays annually to service such debt.

The total debt outstanding with the Public Works Loan Board on 31 March 2003,and an estimate of the total interest payments charged annually is shown in thefollowing table. These figures have been supplied by the Public Works Loan Board.

Debt Outstanding with Public Works Loan Board
Local Authority	Debt Outstanding	Estimated
	31 March 2003	Interest Payments (2003-04)
	£	£
Aberdeen City	309,142,292	24,063,636
Aberdeenshire	313,471,166	20,845,833
Angus	103,939,727	6,417,239
Argyll and Bute	195,537,882	13,648,544
Clackmannanshire	77,119,886	4,717,423
Dumfries and Galloway	225,041,525	13,833,303
Dundee City	249,774,342	16,295,278
East Ayrshire	154,653,446	10,239,605
East Dunbartonshire	100,618,267	6,852,104
East Lothian	137,670,169	7,882,994
East Renfrewshire	78,769,166	5,542,199
Edinburgh, City of	829,602,294	61,929,811
Eilean Siar	182,213,051	12,869,708
Falkirk	155,326,666	9,843,051
Fife	457,571,786	23,807,460
Glasgow City	968,344,138	66,670,494
Highland	504,177,204	30,855,645
Inverclyde	167,531,187	11,310,030
Midlothian	63,207,893	3,695,765
Moray	125,678,556	8,522,263
North Ayrshire	159,410,540	9,642,744
North Lanarkshire	408,276,256	29,444,884
Orkney Islands	0	0
Perth and Kinross	134,889,882	8,499,411
Renfrewshire	268,951,229	16,527,053
Scottish Borders	134,570,844	8,665,017
Shetland Islands	0	0
South Ayrshire	134,635,401	8,001,382
South Lanarkshire	405,280,646	31,984,749
Stirling	144,602,411	10,253,757
West Dunbartonshire	176,448,586	12,774,878
West Lothian	156,547,870	10,233,534
Scotland	7,523,004,308	505,869,792

Source: Public Works Loan Board.

Question reference: S2W-05538

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Euan Robson on 27 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-4782 by Euan Robson on 13 January 2004, whether it considers that a household income of #13,230 represents a poverty or low income threshold.

My answer to questionS2W-4782 on 13 January 2004 made clear the eligibility criteria for free schoolmeals and that the income threshold of £13,230 represents the current incomethreshold for Child Tax Credit, as prescribed by the Tax Credits Act 2002.

All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility forwhich can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search.

Question reference: S2W-05179

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 December 2003
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 26 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many households with an annual household income over #40,000 live in (a) band D, (b) band E and (c) band F and above local authority properties, expressed also as a percentage of all households in such properties.

Estimates of the number of householdsin Scotland broken down by council tax band and household incomelevel are only available for all households types together, and were reportedin the answer to question S2W-3285 on 9 December 2003.All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa. Data on household income and council tax level specificallyfor households occupying local authority properties are not available.

Question reference: S2W-05175

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 December 2003
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 26 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of the contents of Audit Scotland's report, Overview of the National Health Service in Scotland 2002-03, whether it will now consider establishing a whistle-blowing network to highlight abuses of public funds within the NHS and other public services.

NHS Scotland Counter Fraud Services has operated a free phone fraud hotline since January 2001. Originallyaimed at uncovering fraud by patients and family health service practitioners,the hotline may now be used by anyone within or outwith the NHS, includingmembers of the general public who wishes to report anonymously any incident ofpotential fraud or other irregularities in or against NHSScotland. The existenceof this number and the fact that calls may be made anonymously are featured inall publicity campaigns and material by NHSScotland Counter Fraud Services,together with a message of encouragement to make use of the free phone number,rather than turning a blind eye to NHS fraud. The NHSScotland website whichwent live during 2002-03 as part of the Scottish Health on the Web website,also allows confidential reporting of potential NHS fraud online by anyone whoaccesses the website.

Partnership InformationGuideline entitled Dealing with Employee Concerns was issued toNHSScotland employers in January 2002. This includes a freedom of speech policyand provides employees with a range of options through which they can raise anyconcerns they may have in the widest sense.

In the wider context, the Scottish Executive is committed to taking all practicable steps to prevent and detectfraud across the public sector and has a range of measures already in placewhich are aimed highlighting fraudulent activity. Within the Executive thesemeasures include the identification of an initial contact point, the fraud responseco-ordinator; to receive information about suspected frauds, either bytelephone (using a fraud hot-line) or in writing, from individual members ofstaff, who may wish to remain anonymous. The Executive also requires publicbodies to have in place fraud response arrangements appropriate to their owncircumstances.

Question reference: S2W-05174

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 December 2003
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 26 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average salary is of an (a) doctor and (b) nurse, giving average figures at different grades and levels of qualification.

Question reference: S2W-05003

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 December 2003
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 20 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-4186 by Malcolm Chisholm on 2 December 2003, what percentage of babies born in each year from 1996-97 to 2001-02 was discharged from neonatal units.

Table 1 shows the number oflive births in Scotland, babies discharged from neonatal units¹in Scotland and the percentage neonatal discharges from such aunit.

Table 1: Births^2,3and Percentage of Babies Discharged from Neonatal Units:1996-97 to 2001-02

Scotland⁴	Live Births	Neonatal Discharges	% Neonatal Discharges
1996-97	57,959	8,752	15.1
1997-98	58,088	8,348	14.4
1998-99	56,249	8,217	14.6
1999-2000	53,865	8,197	15.2
2000-01	52,233	7,765	14.9
2001-02	50,271	7,059	14.0

Source: SMR02 and SMR11.

Notes:

1. Includes neonatalintensive care.

2. Excludes home birthsand births at non-NHS hospitals.

3. From 1998, where fouror more babies are involved in a pregnancy, birth details are recorded for thefirst three babies. Prior to 1998, birth details were recorded only for thefirst two babies delivered.

4. Includes births wherehealth board of residence is unknown or outside Scotland.