- Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 October 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Alex Neil on 27 October 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive what the average rental cost is per housing unit for (a) housing associations and (b) local authorities.
Answer
(a) In 2008-2009, the average weekly rent for Registered Social Landlords was £57.76. The data are available on the Scottish Housing Regulator''s website at:
http://www.scottishhousingregulator.gov.uk/stellent/groups/public/documents/webpages/shr_statisticstables2008-09.hcsp#TopOfPage.
(b) In 2008-2009, the average weekly rent for local authorities was £50.36. The data are available from the Scottish Government website at:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/HSfS/HRA2008-09.
- Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 October 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Alex Neil on 27 October 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive what the management costs are per housing unit as a percentage of rental income for (a) housing associations and (b) local authorities.
Answer
(a) The latest available data are for 2007‘08. During this year, management and maintenance administration costs as a percentage of gross rent receivable for registered social landlords were 36%.
(b) The latest available data are for 2008-09. During this year, supervision and management costs as a percentage of gross rent from houses for local authorities were 27%. These data are available on the Scottish Government website at:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/HSfS/HRATables.
Registered social landlords and local authorities report their financial information in different returns to the Scottish Housing Regulator and the Scottish Government respectively, and accounting practices differ between the two sectors. Thus, while the figures reported above are closely related, they may not be directly comparable.
- Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 October 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Alex Neil on 27 October 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive what the management costs per housing unit are for (a) housing associations and (b) local authorities.
Answer
(a) The latest available data are for 2007‘08. During this year, management and maintenance administration costs per housing unit for registered social landlords were £988.
(b) The latest available data are for 2008-09. During this year, supervision and management costs per housing unit in the local authority sector were £719. These data are available on the Scottish Government website at:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/HSfS/HRATables.
Registered social landlords and local authorities report their financial information in different returns to the Scottish Housing Regulator and the Scottish Government respectively, and accounting practices differ between the two sectors. Thus, while the figures reported above are closely related, they may not be directly comparable.
- Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 October 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 21 October 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it made a detailed representation to the Office of Fair Trading’s investigation into the construction industry.
Answer
As noted in the answer to question S3W-13539 on 4 June 2009, the Scottish Government did not make a submission to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) prior to the issue of the OFT information note. OFT later confirmed that, in order to maintain strict confidentiality it did not disclose the emerging findings of its investigation of alleged anti-competitive practices in the construction industry, or the timing of their release, with any other public body prior to the publication of the
Statement of Objections on 17 April 2008.
The OFT has also confirmed that as the investigation related to infringements which took place in England, it did not seek or obtain a detailed representation from the Scottish Government prior to the issue of the decision on 22 September 2009.
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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.
- Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 October 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 21 October 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of fines of construction companies by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) amounting to £129.5 million, whether it made a submission to the OFT prior to the OFT issuing its Information note to procuring entities in the public and private sectors regarding the OFT’s decision on bid rigging in the construction industry.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-27928 on 21 October. 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.
- Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 October 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 21 October 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive how many construction companies fined by the Office of Fair Trading are working on Scottish Government funded procurement projects.
Answer
The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
- Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 October 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 1 October 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive whether there has been an examination of the extradition treaty arrangements between the UK and United States of America in so far as they impact on Scotland.
Answer
This question was answered in the Chamber. The answer can be viewed in the Official Report using the following link: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/or-09/sor1001-01.htm
- Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 August 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 11 September 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive how many civil servants are currently overseas on secondment, broken down by (a) directorate from which they are seconded, (b) pay grade and (c) country to which they are seconded.
Answer
We only hold information on civil servants employed by the Scottish Government. As at 31 August 2009 there were four Scottish Government civil servants on secondment overseas.
| Number | Directorate from which they are Seconded | Pay Grade | Country Seconded to |
| 1 | Culture, External Affairs and Tourism | C1 | Belgium |
| 1 | Culture, External Affairs and Tourism | B Fast Stream | Belgium |
| 1 | Business, Enterprise and Energy | B2 | Belgium |
| 1 | Business, Enterprise and Energy | C1 | Australia |
- Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 August 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 11 September 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive how many civil servants are currently employed overseas, broken down by (a) directorate, (b) pay grade and (c) country in which they are employed.
Answer
We only hold information on civil servants employed by the Scottish Government. As at 31 August 2009 there were eight Scottish Government civil servants from the Directorate of Culture, External Affairs and Tourism employed overseas.
| Number | Pay Grade | Country |
| 1 | Senior Civil Service Pay Band 1A | Belgium |
| 1 | Senior Civil Service Pay Band 1A | America |
| 2 | C2 | Belgium |
| 1 | C1 | Belgium |
| 1 | B3 | America |
| 2 | B2 | Belgium |
- Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 August 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Alex Neil on 9 September 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-25911 by Alex Neil on 3 August 2009, how local authorities are monitored to ensure that they adhere to their public sector equality duties on disability, race and gender, which require public authorities to involve, consult and engage with communities as widely as possible.
Answer
The Equality and Human Rights Commission is responsible for the enforcement of the public sector equality duties. Both the Scottish Government and councils are subject to the same public sector equality duties and we do expect all public bodies to take their responsibilities under these duties seriously.
