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: S4W-18511

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 22 November 2013
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 5 December 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding the areas formerly covered by the Grampian Fire and Rescue Service receive from the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service’s budget; what proportion of the budget this represents, and how this compares with 2012-13.

Question reference: S4W-18513

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 22 November 2013
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 29 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many support staff in the Grampian Police area took (a) voluntary severance and (b) early retirement in 2012-13.

Question reference: S4W-18514

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 22 November 2013
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 29 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many support staff in the former Grampian Police area have taken (a) voluntary severance and (b) early retirement since April 2013.

Question reference: S4W-18515

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 22 November 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 28 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what the average response time is for an ambulance in the NHS Grampian area.

Question reference: S4W-17883

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 18 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 14 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many offences of wasting police time have been recorded in the former Grampian Police force area in each of the last three years.

The following table shows the number of offences of public mischief (which includes wasting police time) for the legacy Grampian Police force area between 2010-11 and 2012-13.

2010-11

2011-12

2012-13

Public mischief

(including wasting police time)

Source: Justice Analytical Services, Scottish Government

It is not possible to separate offences of wasting police time out of this aggregated category.

Question reference: S4W-17882

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 18 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 14 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many police support staff were employed in the Grampian area in each of the last three years, expressed as (a) headcount and (b) whole-time equivalent.

Statistics relating to the number police support staff (headcount and full-time equivalent) employed in the Grampian legacy police force area for the last three years, are available in Table 4.7.2 of the Scottish Policing Performance Framework Annual Report 2012-13. These figures include staff on career breaks. This is available via the following web link:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/PoliceSPPF

Since August 2013 the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) has published the total number of staff employed by both the SPA and Police Scotland in their board papers.

Question reference: S4W-17884

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 18 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 14 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many racist incidents have been recorded in the former Grampian Police force area in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S4W-17880

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 18 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 14 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) temporary and (b) agency staff it employed in each of the last three years, broken down by (i) directorate and (ii) cost.

The following information relates to the core Scottish Government.

Temporary and agency workers give the Scottish Government the flexibility to bring specific professional skills and experience into the organisation when they are needed. They are used to cover short-term pieces of work where it would not be cost-efficient to recruit and employ permanently.

The information requested has been made available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre, SPICe (Bib number 55395).

Question reference: S4W-17881

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 18 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 13 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many people injured as a result of (a) alcohol and (b) other substance abuse were treated in NHS Grampian hospitals in each of the last five years.

It is not possible from centrally held information to reliably identify how many people were treated in hospital after being injured as a result of alcohol or other substance abuse. From acute hospital discharges, it is possible to provide information on the number of inpatient episodes which had both an injury diagnosis and a diagnosis associated with alcohol or other substance use. However, such an analysis would include only those cases where there was a significant accompanying alcohol or substance abuse issue identified in the patient’s discharge letter. It is not possible to determine the extent to which the injury was attributable to alcohol or other substance abuse, nor whether it occurred as a result of the patient’s own alcohol/substance abuse or another’s. On this basis, such an analysis is not provided as it would potentially be misleading.

Question reference: S4W-17879

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 18 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 13 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what funding for bursaries it has allocated to (a) colleges and (b) universities in (i) Aberdeen and (ii) Aberdeenshire in each of the last five years, broken down by institution.

Bursary funding for higher education students is not allocated to institutions; it is awarded by SAAS to the individual student directly.

Bursary funding for further education (FE) students at colleges is allocated to institutions by the Scottish Funding Council. Bursary fund allocations for FE students at colleges in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire are shown in the following table.

Total bursary allocations for FE students at college in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire ¹(£)

Area	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10
Aberdeen	5,058,667	4,979,399	5,159,760	5,782,166
Banff and Buchan College	1,430,312	1,565,175	1,798,371	1,866,757
Aberdeenshire	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Total	6,488,979	6,544,574	6,958,131	7,648,923

continued

Area	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14²
Aberdeen	5,685,350	6,138,817	5,968,588	n/a
Banff and Buchan College	1,888,031	2,148,785	1,963,229	n/a
Aberdeenshire	n/a	n/a	n/a	8,369,973
Total	7,573,381	8,287,601	7,931,817	8,369,973

Source: Scottish Funding Council.

Notes:

1. Includes extra allocations given throughout the year such as In-year-redistribution, economic downturn, ESF, PACE, rural allocation if applicable.

2. Regional allocation was awarded for 2013-14.