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-07491

Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 April 2004
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 7 May 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what the estimated cost has been of dealing with fires in each year since 1999 and, of this, what the cost has been of dealing with fires identified as being caused by cigarettes, broken down by fire brigade area.

Question reference: S2W-07492

Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 April 2004
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 7 May 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many fire fatalities there have been in each year since 1999 and, of these, how many were the result of fires identified as being caused by cigarettes, broken down by fire brigade area.

The information requested, takenfrom the most recently published statistics, is set out in the following tables

Table 1 Fatalities fromFires¹ by Brigade Area, Scotland, 1999-2002

	Scotland	Central	Dumfries and Galloway	Fife	Grampian	Highland and Islands	Lothian and Borders	Strathclyde	Tayside
1999 Fatal	105	3	5	10	5	2	17	54	9
2000 Fatal	75	-	-	4	6	4	13	41	7
2001 Fatal	96	5	3	4	13	6	15	41	9
2002²Fatal	77	2	1	12	9	4	5	42	2

Notes:

1. Including late call and heatand smoke damage only incidents (not recorded prior to 1994).

2. Excluding a period of 10 daysof industrial action in November 2002.

Table 2 Fatal casualties in primaryfires started by cigarettes or other tobacco products by brigade area, Scotland, 1999-2002

	Scotland	Central	Dumfries and Galloway	Fife	Grampian	Highland and Islands	Lothian and Borders	Strathclyde	Tayside
1999	35	1	1	5	4	-	6	15	3
2000	24	-	-	-	1	2	4	16	1
2001	27	1	-	-	3	2	2	14	5
2002¹	31	2	-	5	1	-	3	20	-

Note:

1. Excluding a period of 10 daysof industrial action in November 2002.

Question reference: S2W-07489

Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 April 2004
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 7 May 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to introduce legislation to make all cigarettes sold in Scotland self-extinguishing, similar to that introduced by the Canadian government.

Question reference: S2W-07490

Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 April 2004
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 7 May 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many fires have been dealt with in each year since 1999 and, of these, how many have been identified as being caused by cigarettes, broken down by fire brigade area.

The information requested, takenfrom the most recently published statistics, is set out in the following tables:

Table 1 Fires^1,2 byBrigade Area, Scotland, 1999-2002

	Scotland	Central	Dumfries and Galloway	Fife	Grampian	Highland and Islands	Lothian and Borders	Strathclyde	Tayside
1999
Primary	20,656	819	363	1,136	1,838	713	3,691	10,502	1,594
Secondary	28,519	1,174	232	1,728	1,541	586	5,137	15,767	2,354
Chimney	3,452	92	292	175	527	1,074	447	592	253
Total	52,627	2,085	887	3,039	3,906	2,373	9,275	26,861	4,201
2000
Primary	20,191	834	418	1,118	1,668	643	3,636	10,229	1,645
Secondary	32,432	1,374	288	1,829	1,537	657	5,183	18,920	2,644
Chimney	3,119	86	285	147	531	1,018	333	486	233
Total	55,742	2,294	991	3,094	3,736	2,318	9,152	29,635	4,522
2001
Primary	19,738	863	355	1,235	1,601	663	3,680	9,720	1,621
Secondary	36,238	1,768	370	1,845	1,709	935	5,886	20,842	2,883
Chimney	3,440	97	314	120	534	1,239	324	587	225
Total	59,416	2,728	1,039	3,200	3,844	2,837	9,890	31,149	4,729
2002³
Primary	19,196	884	372	1,146	1,742	606	3,682	9,164	1,600
Secondary	30,937	1,589	399	1,724	1,790	836	5,373	16,839	2,387
Chimney	2,462	61	210	93	388	855	266	418	171
Total	52,595	2,534	981	2,963	3,920	2,297	9,321	26,421	4,158

Notes:

1 Including late call and heatand smoke damage incidents not recorded prior to 1994.

2 Figures from 1994 are basedon sample data weighted to the brigade totals.

3 Including estimates for a periodof 10 days of industrial action in November 2002.

Table 2 Primary Fires¹Started by Cigarettes or Other Tobacco Products by Brigade Area, Scotland, 1999-2002

	Scotland	Central	Dumfries and Galloway	Fife	Grampian	Highland and Islands	Lothian and Borders	Strathclyde	Tayside
1999	1,022	36	9	91	117	16	221	441	90
2000	801	31	15	46	66	43	183	330	87
2001	916	53	10	63	67	15	226	401	81
2002²	816	41	11	45	94	24	195	355	52

Notes:

1. Figures are based on sampleddata, including late call and heat and smoke damage incidents (not recorded priorto 1994).

2. Excluding a period of 10 daysof industrial action in November 2002.

Question reference: S2O-01992

Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 April 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 22 April 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of heightened international tensions and the continuing threat of terrorist attacks, whether funding will be made available, or other additional measures taken, such as increased police patrols, to improve security for places of worship.

Question reference: S2O-03005

Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 April 2004
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 22 April 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how it plans to ensure that Loch Katrine remains one of Scotland's most desirable fishing areas.

Question reference: S2W-06292

Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 February 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 16 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-5706 by Allan Wilson on 12 February 2004, why the cost to charities of the withdrawal of relief on water and wastewater charges for 2002-03 and 2003-04 is an operational matter for Scottish Water, given that such information was provided in the answer to question S1W-10849.

For the record and avoidanceof doubt, question S1W-10849 was answered on 8 February 2001in respect of Scottish Water’s three predecessor authorities. These authoritiesremained in existence until 1 April 2002 on which date their functions transferred toScottish Water under the Water Industry (Scotland) 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_wa.

The arrangements foranswering questions from MSPs reflect the respective roles of ministers and of theboard and chief executive of Scottish Water. Ministers provide substantive answersto questions on matters of policy. It is for the chief executives of publicbodies such as Scottish Water to respond to enquiries relating to operational matters.Scottish Water has established procedures for handling such enquiries.

Question reference: S2W-06178

Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 February 2004
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 10 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many secondary schools offer classics at (a) standard and (b) higher grade, broken down by local authority.

The term “classics” is used by the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) to refer to classical studies, Latin and classical Greek. All publicly funded secondary schools in Scotland are approved by the SQA to offer national qualifications courses in these subjects.

The number of publicly funded secondary schools, by education authority, who presented at least one pupil for these courses in the 2003 exam diet is as follows:

	Standard Grade	Intermediate 1	Intermediate 2	Higher	Advanced Higher
Aberdeen City	1	0	0	1	0
Angus	0	0	0	1	0
Argyll and Bute	1	0	0	0	0
Dundee City	2	0	2	3	1
East Lothian	3	0	1	3	1
Edinburgh City	3	0	0	2	0
Eilean Siar	1	0	0	1	1
Falkirk	3	1	2	3	1
Fife	4	1	2	5	3
Glasgow City	4	0	4	5	0
Highland	1	0	1	1	0
Inverclyde	1	0	0	1	1
North Ayrshire	1	0	1	1	0
North Lanarkshire	2	0	2	3	0
Orkney Islands	0	0	0	1	0
Perth and Kinross	1	0	1	2	1
Renfrewshire	2	0	0	2	0
Scottish Borders	1	0	1	2	0
South Lanarkshire	3	1	1	3	1
Stirling	0	1	0	1	0
West Dunbartonshire	1	0	1	1	1
Scotland	35	4	19	42	11

Question reference: S2W-06177

Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 February 2004
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 27 February 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many secondary schools there are under each local authority.

Question reference: S2W-05707

Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 12 February 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what the total cost to Scottish Water is for 2002-03 and 2003-04 of non-standard tariff agreements that do not appear on the Scheme of Charges.