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-21562

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 March 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 13 March 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many full-time higher education students were assessed as being exempt from parental/spousal contribution and as income not declared/required in each of the last five years and when new statistics will be available.

The following table shows the number of full-time higher education students supported by the Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS) in academic years 2003-04 to 2007-08 who were assessed as:

1. Income not declared/required, and

2. Exempt from parental spousal contribution.

The total number of full-time higher education students supported by SAAS is also shown.

Academic Year	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
Academic Year	Number of Students
Income not declared/required	34,715	37,395	38,865	39,740	42,345
Exempt from parental/spousal contribution	19,785	18,060	17,765	18,990	18,865
All full-time students receiving support	121,020	119,745	120,400	121,200	121,775

Source: Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS).

Student numbers have been rounded up or down to the nearest five.

The income categories are based on residual benefactor income i.e. income after deductions allowed by SAAS have been subtracted.

Statistics on the assessed benefactor income of full-time students supported by SAAS in academic year 2008-09 will be available in November this year.

Question reference: S3W-21561

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 March 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 13 March 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many full-time higher education students were assessed as coming from single parent families in each of the last five years and when new statistics will be available.

Prior to the introduction of the new means testing arrangements at the beginning of the current academic year (2008-09), the income of a parent''s partner or of a step-parent (unless they had legally adopted a student) was not included in the assessment of student support. Therefore students would not need to supply details of such relationships. As a result it is not possible to say how many students came from single parent families.

From 2008-09 onwards the income of parents'' partners and step-parents who haven''t legally adopted the student will be included in support assessments and therefore it will be possible to look at how many students applying for income assessed support come from single parent families.

Statistics on higher education student support provided by the Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS) in academic year 2008-09 will be available in November this year.

Question reference: S3W-21568

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 March 2009
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 13 March 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how much was spent by NHS hospitals on courier or taxi transportation services for medical samples, products, equipment and documents, including blood products, medical products, samples for analysis, medical equipment, x-rays, patient records and other medical documents, in each of the last three years, broken down by NHS board area and hospital.

Question reference: S3W-21566

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 March 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 13 March 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many instances of restraint of a child there have been in secure units for children in each of the last three years, broken down by institution.

Question reference: S3F-01534

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 March 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Salmond on 12 March 2009

To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government will take to address student hardship among those at university.

Question reference: S3W-21585

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 March 2009
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 11 March 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what it estimates the value of intra-UK exports from Scotland to be, broken down by local authority area.

This information is not available in the format requested.

Estimates of the value of intra-UK exports from Scotland are calculated from data collected via the Global Connections Survey. This survey does not collect data relating to the local authority area of the source of exports.

The most recent published statistics relating to intra-UK exports are taken from the Global Connections Survey for the year 2005. The value of intra-UK exports from Scotland in the year 2005 was estimated to be £41,515 million.

Question reference: S3W-21584

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 March 2009
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 11 March 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what it estimates the value of international exports from Scotland to be, broken down by local authority area.

This information is not available in the format requested.

Estimates of the value of international exports from Scotland are calculated from data collected via the Global Connections Survey. This survey does not collect data relating to the local authority area of the source of exports.

The most recent published statistics relating to international exports are taken from the Global Connections Survey for the year 2007. The value of international exports from Scotland in the year 2007 was estimated to be £20,630 million.

Question reference: S3W-21539

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 March 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 11 March 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-14475 by Fiona Hyslop on 26 June 2008, how many staff were employed in (a) colleges and (b) universities in 2007-08, broken down into academic and non-academic staff, and when new statistics will be available.

The number of staff at Scottish higher education institutions and colleges during the past four academic years broken down by employment function is shown in the following table.

Number of Staff at Scottish Institutions

Academic Year	HEIs		Colleges
Academic Year	Academic Staff	Non Academic Staff	Teaching Staff	Non Teaching Staff
2007-08	16,570	22,410	12,710	8,680
2006-07	16,360	21,935	12,695	8,890
2005-06	16,020	21,845	12,780	8,725
2004-05	15,310	21,690	13,170	8,445

Sources: HESA “ excluding atypical staff; Scottish Funding Council.

Notes:

Figures in this table have been rounded to the nearest five.

Zero, one and two have been rounded to zero.

Data for 2008-09 will become available in January 2010.

Question reference: S3W-21537

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 March 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 11 March 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many houses were built in Fife by registered social landlords or Fife Council in each of the last five years and how many are expected to be built in each of the next five years.

Question reference: S3W-21538

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 March 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 11 March 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many houses were built by registered social landlords or local authorities in each of the last five years and how many are expected to be built in each of the next five years, broken down by local authority area.

The number of houses completed by registered social landlords (RSLs) or local authorities in the last five years is shown in the following table. These exclude conversions of existing buildings and Off the Shelf purchases by RSLs.

There is no centrally held source of information on projections of new registered social landlord or local authority housing.

Table 1: Social sector New Build Housing Completions, 2003-04 to 2007-08

	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
Scotland	3,368	4,024	4,698	3,237	4,125
Aberdeen City	35	47	128	11	100
Aberdeenshire	125	238	207	77	86
Angus	80	95	43	55	112
Argyll and Bute	81	47	85	69	127
Clackmannanshire	58	20	27	42	0
Dumfries and Galloway	128	81	141	63	276
Dundee City	145	328	340	0	116
East Ayrshire	0	6	10	30	80
East Dunbartonshire	4	7	142	0	26
East Lothian	30	145	35	51	80
East Renfrewshire	0	19	46	37	0
Edinburgh, City of	183	389	398	439	484
Eilean Siar	0	19	53	21	41
Falkirk	16	4	0	69	0
Fife	120	107	236	317	228
Glasgow City	1,239	802	951	821	773
Highland	139	131	145	265	375
Inverclyde	101	103	117	8	58
Midlothian	26	0	9	16	40
Moray	2	55	158	34	100
North Ayrshire	71	71	79	64	139
North Lanarkshire	144	123	442	82	65
Orkney	0	59	13	50	37
Perth and Kinross	153	150	112	68	124
Renfrewshire	78	165	278	98	115
Scottish Borders, The	41	79	50	46	69
Shetland	0	4	0	47	12
South Ayrshire	42	92	19	68	62
South Lanarkshire	111	285	136	154	134
Stirling	61	67	47	0	133
West Dunbartonshire	110	121	241	71	48
West Lothian	45	165	10	64	85

Sources:

Notes:

NB1 returns by local authorities to the Scottish Government, Communities Analytical Services (Housing Statistics).

Scottish Government Affordable Housing Investment Programme database.