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: S3W-13309

Asked by: Gavin Brown, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 3 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to tackle the number of attacks taking place on Lothian buses.

The Scottish Government attaches the greatest importance to the safety of all passengers and staff using and delivering bus services and will continue to work in partnership with local authorities, transport operators and others on a range of deterrent and enforcement measures to make public transport safer for both passengers and staff.

Lothian Buses have a number of initiatives in place including a dedicated police officer to tackle bus crime, the issuing of swab kits to bus drivers for the collection of DNA evidence, the provision of CCTV coverage on buses and public awareness campaigns highlighting both the penalties associated with unacceptable behaviour and how the public and staff can help by reporting incidents.

Question reference: S3W-13195

Asked by: Gavin Brown, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 2 June 2008

The Scottish Government plans to approve 394 affordable homes for sale in the Lothians through the affordable housing investment programme during the financial year 2008-09. This is broken down as follows:

East Lothian	50
Midlothian	45
West Lothian	55
Edinburgh	244

These properties will be available for sale in future financial years, the timing of which will depend on the rate of the build programme.

The programme for 2009-10 and 2010-11 will be announced nearer the time.

Question reference: S3W-13196

Asked by: Gavin Brown, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 2 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how much it has invested in housing in each parliamentary constituency in the Lothians in each year since 1999.

Information on all affordable housing investment in each parliamentary constituency in the Lothians is not held centrally. Data is held at the local authority level over this time period and the following table provides details of this investment.

Scottish Government - Affordable Housing Expenditure (1999-00 to 2007-08) by Lothians Local Authorities

£ Million	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
City of Edinburgh Council	18.2	17.5	14.0	14.1	17.3	28.4	33.9	55.2	58.9
East Lothian Council	1.6	1.0	0.7	1.0	1.7	1.8	3.3	7.1	8.3
Midlothian Council	0.5	0.7	0.9	1.4	0.8	0.9	4.9	4.8	9.5
West Lothian Council	3.6	3.6	2.4	2.6	5.8	7.8	6.2	11.7	8.2

Note: Figures include investment from the Affordable Housing Investment Programme and the Open Market Shared Equity pilot scheme.

Question reference: S3W-13243

Asked by: Gavin Brown, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 29 May 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-12896 by Kenny MacAskill on 20 May 2008, when the information on the number of persons proceeded against for selling alcohol to persons under 18 in Courts in the Lothians, by approximate local authority area, will be available for 2006-07.

Question reference: S3W-13194

Asked by: Gavin Brown, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 28 May 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment it has made on the additional facilities that will be required to deliver two hours of PE per week to every pupil in each local authority in the Lothians.

Question reference: S3W-13141

Asked by: Gavin Brown, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 27 May 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what the take-up to date has been of the Small Business Bonus Scheme, expressed as a percentage of all eligible businesses and broken down by (a) local authority area and (b) discount band.

Question reference: S3W-13142

Asked by: Gavin Brown, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 27 May 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to ensure maximum take-up of the Small Business Bonus Scheme.

The Scottish Government has participated in an extensive programme of publicity to ensure maximum take-up of the Small Business Bonus Scheme, involving local authorities and other bodies such as the Federation of Small Businesses. As part of that process, over 200,000 Scottish Government leaflets have been sent to ratepayers in each local authority area. Copies of the leaflet are available on the Scottish Government website at:

www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Government/local-government/17999/11199/Scheme.

Question reference: S3W-12777

Asked by: Gavin Brown, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 21 May 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) drivers and other staff and (b) passengers have been attacked on Lothian Buses in each year since 1999.

Information on the numbers of (a) drivers and other staff and (b) passengers prior to 2002 is not available. The information for 2002 onwards is outlined in the following table.

Year	Number of Driver and Other Staff Assaults	Number of Passenger Assaults
2002	96	14
2003	92	35
2004	90	22
2005	73	26
2006	91	39
2007	91	39

Source: Lothian Buses plc.

Question reference: S3W-12895

Asked by: Gavin Brown, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 May 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of people were registered with an NHS dentist in each local authority area in the Lothians in each of the last five years, broken down by age group.

The information requested is only available from March 2007. The table presents information as at March, June and September 2007.

Percentage of People Registered with an NHS Dentist; by Age Group and each Local Authority Area¹ in Lothian

30 March 2007

Age Group	East Lothian	Edinburgh	Midlothian	West Lothian
0-2	35.1	40.8	36.5	40.9
3-5	75.3	79.3	65.6	73.8
6-12	78.9	84.0	71.4	78.9
13-17	78.6	75.2	66.3	72.6
18-24	56.2	34.1	47.6	55.2
25-34	48.5	42.8	50.6	60.2
35-44	45.7	57.6	50.7	62.8
45-54	43.2	55.9	48.5	59.1
55-64	38.5	53.1	44.3	52.7
65-74	36.7	47.3	39.1	45.3
75+	30.9	31.4	24.9	31.7
Total	49.1	51.4	49.3	59.0

30 June 2007

Age Group	East Lothian	Edinburgh	Midlothian	West Lothian
0-2	35.3	42.0	35.0	39.9
3-5	75.3	80.6	64.3	74.2
6-12	78.5	84.4	72.4	77.8
13-17	78.5	76.0	67.8	72.3
18-24	56.1	34.8	50.2	56.5
25-34	46.8	43.4	53.1	60.1
35-44	44.0	57.8	51.8	62.4
45-54	41.8	57.0	50.1	59.9
55-64	36.8	53.9	46.1	53.0
65-74	35.8	47.8	40.2	45.6
75+	30.1	32.0	26.3	32.2

Total	48.1	52.0	50.7	59.1

30 September 2007

Age Group	East Lothian	Edinburgh	Midlothian	West Lothian
0-2	35.6	43.0	36.1	41.2
3-5	76.8	83.9	66.6	78.3
6-12	80.3	86.9	75.1	80.3
13-17	80.8	78.9	70.5	75.4
18-24	58.5	37.7	53.2	60.2
25-34	46.9	45.7	56.2	63.1
35-44	44.0	59.6	54.4	65.2
45-54	42.5	59.1	52.9	63.2
55-64	37.9	55.4	48.7	55.7
65-74	36.7	49.3	42.8	48.3
75+	31.0	33.9	28.6	34.6
Total	49.0	54.2	53.4	61.9

Question reference: S3W-12896

Asked by: Gavin Brown, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 20 May 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) prosecutions and (b) convictions have been recorded in each local authority area in the Lothians in each year since 2000-01 for offences under the Licensing (Scotland) Act 1976 relating to sales of alcohol to those under the age of 18 and how many prosecutions for such offences are presently pending.

The Scottish Government Court Proceedings database contains information on convictions and prosecutions in Scottish courts. The available information relating to sales of alcohol to persons under 18 is given in the following table. The database does not contain information about pending cases.

Persons Proceeded Against for Selling Alcohol to Persons Under 18¹, in Courts in the Lothians, by Approximate Local Authority Area², 2000-01 - 2005-06

Local authority area	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06
East Lothian
Persons proceeded against	2	2	-	-	-	2
Persons with a charge proved	2	2	-	-	-	1
Edinburgh, City of
Persons proceeded against	2	2	8	3	5	5
Persons with a charge proved	1	1	6	2	4	2
Midlothian
Persons proceeded against	1	1	-	-	2	1
Persons with a charge proved	1	1	-	-	-	-
West Lothian
Persons proceeded against	1	-	-	-	-	-
Persons with a charge proved	-	-	-	-	-	-
Total
Persons proceeded against	6	5	8	3	7	8
Persons with a charge proved	4	4	6	2	4	3

Notes:

1. Where main offence. Includes prosecutions under Licensing (Scotland) Act 1976 sections 68(1) and 90A(2).

2. Incorporates an approximate mapping of sheriff courts into local authority areas. Some sheriff courts will deal with cases from more than one local authority area. Some local authority areas, including Midlothian, do not contain a sheriff court.