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: S3O-01711

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 December 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 20 December 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether recent comments by Trevor Phillips, chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, about the celebration of Christmas will affect its equal opportunities policies.

Question reference: S3W-05306

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 October 2007
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 2 November 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many fines were issued by environmental health officers and community wardens for littering in each of the last five years.

The information requestedis not held centrally.

However, the independentenvironmental charity Keep ScotlandBeautiful (KSB) carries out a periodic survey of the local authority use of PartIV of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. The results of the last three surveysare given in the table below.

Fixed Penalty NoticesIssued for Littering (from KSB Survey)

Year	Number
2000-01	102¹
2004-05	1,737
2006-07	2,809¹

Note: 1. Based onresponses from 28 out of 32 local authorities. 2006-07 results are provisional.

Question reference: S3W-05308

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 October 2007
Current Status: Answered by Adam Ingram on 29 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) dining hall capacity and (b) maximum number of daily lunches that can be provided by school kitchens is in each local authority school in South Lanarkshire.

Question reference: S3W-05307

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 October 2007
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 11 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many pupils attend each local authority school in South Lanarkshire.

Question reference: S3W-04520

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Adam Ingram on 3 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how much was spent on (a) looking after, (b) accommodation for and (c) any other services for children in care in the most recent year for which statistics are available, expressed per child and broken down by local authority.

The information requestedis not collected centrally in the format requested.

Table 4a of the mostrecent publication of the ScottishLocal Government statistics 2005-06 breaks down total expenditure by each localauthority for Children and Families services. This is available at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Local-Government-Finance/PubScottishLGFStats.

The total expenditurefor children and families services has been disaggregated (PQ expenditure listings2005-06) using the programme lines by which local authorities report its expenditureon children and families services to the Scottish Government. A table displayingthis has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number43747).

Question reference: S3W-04519

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 2 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people charged with fire raising in the last five years have been aged (a) under five, (b) five, (c) six, (d) seven, (e) eight, (f) nine, (g) 10, (h) 11, (i) 12, (j) 13, (k) 14, (l) 15, (m) 16, (n) 17 and (o) 18 and over.

Statistics on personscharged by the police are not available centrally. The available information onpersons proceeded against in Scottish courts is given in the following table. Childrenaged under 16 are generally referred to the Children’s Hearings System for all butthe most serious offences.

Persons ProceededAgainst in Scottish Courts for Fire-Raising Offences^1,2, 2001-02 to20005-06

Age	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06
13	2	-	-	-	1
14	1	2	-	-	-
15	3	1	7	1	-
16	6	6	22	18	17
17	16	16	16	41	31
18 and over	128	143	148	172	150
Total	156	168	193	232	199

Note:

1. Where main offence.

2. Includes muirburn offences, of which there weretwo persons proceeded against in 2001-02 and two persons proceeded against in 2003-04(all of whom were 18 and over).

Question reference: S3W-04518

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 1 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many call-outs the Scottish Fire Service has had to premises growing cannabis in the last five years, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S3W-04446

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 27 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has received from the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland to join the national firearms licensing management scheme’s register of all persons who have applied for or been granted a firearm or shotgun certificate or whose certificate has been renewed and when it estimates that Scotland will be included in the scheme.

The ScottishGovernment discusses a range of issues, including firearms licensing, with the Associationof Chief Police Officers in Scotland (ACPOS) on a regular basis. While theNational Firearms Licensing Managers System (NFLMS) was being developed in England and Wales, ACPOS concluded that a national firearmsregister for Scotland could be achieved by augmenting the Scottish Criminal Record Office criminal history system and relevantinformation can now be accessed and exchanged by all GB forcesthrough the Police National Computer (PNC). ACPOS is currently evaluating thepotential business benefits to Scottish police forces from joining the NationalFirearms Licensing Managers System.

Question reference: S3W-02342

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 6 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-1497 by Stewart Stevenson on 23 July 2007, whether it will provide a breakdown of planning application appeals by local authority area.

The number of appealsreceived by the Directorate for Planning and Environmental Appeals, broken downby local authority, since 1999 and the subsequent decisions are set out as follows.

	1999-2000				2000-01				2001-02				2002-03
Planning Authority	R	D	A	W	R	D	A	W	R	D	A	W	R	D	A	W
Aberdeen, City of	39	25	12	2	32	12	17	3	45	22	19	4	25	10	13	2
Aberdeenshire	35	17	12	6	46	31	9	6	79	54	22	3	55	31	16	8
Angus	11	8	1	2	12	8	3	1	7	7	0	0	18	14	3	1
Argyll and Bute	15	5	8	2	15	9	2	2	16	9	6	1	16	11	5	0
City of Edinburgh	72	40	19	13	81	47	25	9	73	35	32	6	94	53	38	3
Cairngorm National Park	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Clackmannan	9	3	2	4	6	3	2	1	3	2	0	1	3	2	1	0
Dumfries and Galloway	10	3	5	2	19	13	3	3	9	4	5	0	7	6	1	0
Dundee, City of	23	16	2	5	10	6	3	1	20	11	8	1	18	9	7	2
East Ayrshire	17	10	5	2	11	3	6	2	21	10	5	6	18	12	5	1
East Dunbartonshire	10	1	5	4	20	8	9	3	20	9	8	3	20	12	6	2
East Lothian	14	11	1	2	23	14	5	4	5	4	1	0	17	9	7	1
East Renfrewshire	9	7	2	0	8	6	2	0	15	8	6	1	11	9	1	1
Falkirk	6	2	2	2	16	9	5	2	16	6	9	1	26	13	13	0
Fife	63	35	22	6	50	31	16	3	39	20	16	3	55	37	15	3
Glasgow, City of	23	13	9	1	41	21	13	7	32	18	8	6	33	23	8	2
Highland	27	18	7	2	33	20	11	2	37	26	9	3	33	18	12	3
Inverclyde	8	4	2	2	7	3	4	0	9	5	4	0	9	7	2	0
Loch Lomond and the Trossachs	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	8	8	0	0
Midlothian	17	11	3	3	22	15	5	3	10	5	3	2	19	15	1	3
Moray	20	12	8	0	20	17	3	0	10	5	5	0	13	6	5	2
North Ayrshire	7	3	1	3	6	5	1	0	12	8	3	1	14	11	2	1
North Lanarkshire	19	13	3	3	22	7	15	0	20	9	9	2	34	28	2	4
Orkney Islands	3	2	1	0	4	3	1	0	0	0	0	0	5	5	0	0
Perth and Kinross	41	28	10	3	35	22	11	2	31	22	8	0	36	22	12	2
Renfrewshire	32	17	14	1	21	12	6	3	29	15	12	2	32	19	11	2
Scottish Borders	17	11	6	0	26	24	0	2	17	13	3	1	24	13	8	3
Shetland Islands	5	0	5	0	3	2	1	0	1	1	0	0	1	1	0	0
South Ayrshire	27	17	7	3	9	6	3	0	16	12	4	0	15	11	4	0
South Lanarkshire	30	19	10	1	35	21	13	1	21	12	8	1	36	18	15	3
Stirling	21	8	9	4	26	20	5	1	26	18	6	2	15	10	3	2
West Dunbartonshire	10	4	5	1	7	3	2	2	10	9	0	1	7	3	3	1
West Lothian	9	5	2	2	13	9	4	0	24	21	2	1	18	12	5	1
Western Isles	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Key:

R – Received.

D – Dismissed.

A – Allowed.

W – Withdrawn.

	2003-04				2004-05				2005-06				2006-07
Planning Authority	R	D	A	W	R	D	A	W	R	D	A	W	R	D	A	W
Aberdeen, City of	43	21	20	2	29	12	17	0	30	16	11	3	29	17	11	1
Aberdeenshire	46	32	11	3	61	41	15	5	52	30	19	3	64	36	25	3
Angus	11	5	5	1	23	14	9	0	20	14	5	1	25	19	5	1
Argyll and Bute	11	7	4	0	21	18	11	2	31	22	7	2	31	23	7	1
City of Edinburgh	111	71	32	8	111	58	47	6	90	54	33	3	99	66	31	2
Cairngorm National Park	0	0	0	0	2	1	0	1	4	3	0	1	3	0	3	0
Clackmannan	5	2	3	0	3	2	0	1	5	2	3	0	7	5	2	0
Dumfries and Galloway	23	15	6	2	25	17	7	1	38	24	11	3	37	22	14	1
Dundee, City of	12	8	4	0	16	4	9	3	28	5	21	2	36	19	16	1
East Ayrshire	24	11	11	2	13	6	7	0	11	5	6	0	22	13	9	0
East Dunbartonshire	22	20	2	0	23	16	6	1	34	16	17	1	14	8	6	0
East Lothian	12	6	4	2	15	8	4	3	11	4	7	0	14	12	4	0
East Renfrewshire	23	14	5	4	20	10	10	0	32	17	11	4	26	16	10	0
Falkirk	27	5	17	5	23	12	10	1	21	14	7	0	21	17	3	1
Fife	57	40	13	4	54	34	18	2	67	35	31	1	93	53	37	3
Glasgow, City of	30	14	15	1	44	25	17	2	62	30	28	4	65	28	37	0
Highland	45	32	8	5	56	34	20	2	54	31	22	1	64	45	13	6
Inverclyde	13	11	1	1	9	4	5	0	16	6	10	0	10	4	5	1
Loch Lomond and the Trossachs	10	9	0	1	11	5	4	2	11	3	7	1	13	4	7	2
Midlothian	9	3	4	2	14	10	3	1	16	11	5	0	21	11	10	0
Moray	18	8	6	4	29	27	2	0	44	25	16	3	28	23	3	2
North Ayrshire	13	6	4	3	14	7	5	2	18	12	6	0	33	21	12	0
North Lanarkshire	19	10	8	1	31	13	13	5	38	15	21	2	36	21	15	0
Orkney Islands	4	3	1	0	2	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	3	2	1	0
Perth and Kinross	62	39	19	4	83	62	21	0	77	50	25	2	64	33	27	4
Renfrewshire	18	13	4	1	25	11	11	3	31	18	12	1	27	13	14	0
Scottish Borders	30	24	5	1	23	21	2	0	47	34	13	0	39	27	10	2
Shetland Islands	1	0	0	1	4	3	0	1	2	1	1	0	2	1	1	0
South Ayrshire	15	10	3	2	26	13	10	3	32	19	11	2	31	18	11	2
South Lanarkshire	39	28	11	0	34	23	11	0	31	17	13	1	42	32	7	3
Stirling	15	6	7	2	15	6	7	2	16	11	3	2	14	10	4	0
West Dunbartonshire	11	6	3	2	7	4	2	1	11	6	5	0	12	9	2	1
West Lothian	27	19	8	0	26	20	6	0	28	18	10	0	38	19	18	1
Western Isles	0	0	0	0	2	0	1	1	1	0	0	1	2	2	0	0

Question reference: S3W-02344

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 6 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-1497 by Stewart Stevenson on 23 July 2007, how many planning application appeals related to green belt.