Questions and answers

Question reference: S3W-13369

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 11 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many full-time-equivalent staff were employed in each of its directorates at 1 May 2008 and what the comparative figures were for 1 May 2007.

Information about the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) staff employed in each directorate at 1 May 2008 and the comparative figures for 1 May 2007 is in the following tables.

Full-Time Equivalent Staff Employed in Each Departmental Group (see Background Note) as at 1 May 2007.

Department	Departmental Group	FTE Total
Legal Parliamentary Services	Legal and Parliamentary Services	174.4
Legal Parliamentary Services Total		174.4
Office Permanent Secretary	Analytical Services Group	62.9
	Change and Corporate Services	662.2
	Ministerial support group	50.2
	Office of the Chief Scientific Adviser	6.9
	Perm Sec Office	4.9
	Private Office	77.2
Office Permanent Secretary Total		864.3
SE Development Department	Analytical Services	30.3
	Housing and Regeneration	87.8
	Planning	56.5
	Secretariat	4
	SEIRU	32.7
	Social Justice	51.5
SE Development Department Total		262.8
SE Education Department	Children Young People and Social Care	89.2
	Head of Department and Secretariat	4
	Information and Analytical Services	54.7
	Schools Group	115.1
	Tourism Culture and Sport Group	56.8
SE Education Department Total		319.8
SE Environment Rural Affairs Department	Environment Group	118.4
	ERAD:Senior MGT	7
	Marine Group	67.1
	Operations Group	562.6
	Rural Group	116.2
	Science and Analysis Group	62.4
	State Veterinary Service Group	2.7
SE Environment Rural Affairs Department Total		936.4
SE Enterprise Transport Lifelong Learning Department	Enterprise and Industrial Affairs Group	207.3
	Life Long Learning Group	88.5
	Scottish Development International Group	43.6
	Secretariat	6
	Transport Group	85.2
SE Enterprise Transport Lifelong Learning Department Total		430.6
SE Finance Central Services Dept	Analytical Services Division	15.8
	COPFS Inspectorate	3
	Finance	4.7
	Finance Group	219
	International and Communications Group	128.5
	Public Service Reform and Efficiency Group	104.4
	Scottish Procurement Directorate	2
	Secretariat	4
SE Finance Central Services Dept Total		481.4
SE Health Dept	Chief Executive’s Office	6
	Chief Medical Officer	26.9
	Delivery Group	21.6
	Finance Group	47
	Health Improvement Group	48
	Healthcare Policy and Strategy group	62.9
	Nursing Midwifery and Allied Health Professions	22.5
	Primary Care and Community Care Group	88.3
	Secretariat	2
	Workforce Group	31
SE Health Dept Total		356.2
SE Justice Dept	Civil Justice and International Group	85
	Courts Group	15.9
	Criminal Justice Group	80.4
	Police and Community Safety Group	119
	Secretariat	6.6
SE Justice Dept Total		306.9
Paid Centrally Managed Staff	Paid Centrally Managed Staff	81.4
Grand Total		4214.2

Full-Time Equivalent Staff Employed in Each Directorate (see Background Note) as at 1 May 2008

DG	Directorate	FTE Total
DG Economy	DG Economy and Chief Economic Advisor	5.00
	DG Economy Business Management and Support	7.00
	Directorate for Built Environment	93.50
	Directorate for Planning and Environmental Appeals	36.75
	Economic Strategy Directorate	5.83
	Europe, External Affairs and Culture	87.92
	Finance and Central Services - General	1.00
	Finance Directorate	143.31
	Inspectorate of Prosecution in Scotland	3.54
	Public Service Reform Directorate	100.29
	Scottish Development International	41.69
	Scottish Procurement Directorate	104.26
	Transport Directorate	91.40
DG Economy Total		721.49
DG Education	Children, Young People and Social Care	191.27
	Corporate Analytical Services	71.65
	DG Co-Ordination: Education	6.00
	Enterprise, Energy and Tourism	187.29
	General Group	73.46
	Lifelong Learning	113.85
	Office of the Chief Scientific Adviser	8.59
	Schools Directorate	104.75
DG Education Total		756.87
DG Environment	Climate Change and Water Industry	23.58
	DG: Environment	6.00
	Environmental Quality	52.87
	Greener Scotland Directorate	14.31
	Marine Directorate	88.36
	Rural and Environment Research and Analysis Directorate	72.27
	Rural Directorate	128.66
	Rural Payments and Inspections Directorate	547.48
DG Environment Total		933.53
DG Health	Chief Medical Officer Directorate	27.22
	Chief Nursing Officer Directorate	24.63
	DG Co-Ordination - Health	3.43
	DG: Health and Support	4.63
	EHealth Directorate	4.00
	Health Delivery Directorate	25.23
	Health Finance Directorate	41.19
	Health Workforce Directorate	25.89
	Healthcare Policy and Strategy Directorate	32.52
	Primary and Community Care Directorate	117.05
	Public Health and Wellbeing Directorate	104.22
DG Health Total		410.00
DG Justice	Constitution Law and Courts Directorate	67.53
	Courts Directorate	11.71
	Criminal Justice	75.86
	DG Co-Ordination - Justice and Communities	5.46
	DG Justice	9.67
	Housing and Regeneration	328.91
	Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland	2.00
	Office of the Scottish Parliamentary Counsel	14.00
	Police and Community Safety	145.04
	Scottish Government Legal Directorate (SGLD)	6.75
	Scottish Prisons Complaints Commission	3.00
	SGLD Group A	29.98
	SGLD Group B	58.01
	SGLD Group C	43.06
DG Justice Total		800.98
Paid Centrally Managed Staff	Paid Centrally Managed Staff	69.78
Perm Sec	Change and Corporate Services	707.03
	Communications Directorate	87.43
	Ministerial Private Offices	80.23
	Permanent Secretary’s Private Office	4.97
	Strategy And Ministerial Support Directorate	44.27
Perm Sec Total		923.92
Grand Total*		4,616.56

Note: *The total includes the absorption into the core Scottish Government of 412.8 full-time equivalent staff from Communities Scotland

Grand Total Minus Communities Scotland

4,203.76

Question reference: S3W-13816

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 June 2008
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 10 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with the UK Government on Scotland's role in the 2012 Olympic Games, particularly in respect of the involvement of Scottish business and the use of Scottish facilities for training camps and staging events.

The Scottish Government continues its engagement with UK Government, the London Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) and the Olympic Delivery Authority at official and ministerial level to ensure we can secure all opportunities available to Scotland from the 2012 games.

On business and Pre Games Training Camps (PGTC) specifically, we and our agencies have been working with the UK Government and LOCOG to discuss their involvement in our forthcoming events. These are: Going for Gold: Business Opportunities for Scotland, an event on 17 June aimed at encouraging ethnic minority businesses, companies owned/run by women and social enterprises to compete for London 2012 work; our seminar on 19 June to give marketing and promotional advice to Scottish facilities selected for LOCOG’s PGTC Guide, and the Scottish launch of the London 2012 Business Network and CompeteFor on 4 September.

Question reference: S3W-13822

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 June 2008
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 10 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what precautions are in place to ensure that part-time special advisers are not involved in conflicts of interest.

Special advisers are subject to the same conduct and confidentiality rules as apply to all civil servants. Special advisers who are part-time are made aware in their contracts that they are appointed on condition that any other employment or appointments outwith their appointment as a special adviser do not interfere with or limit their duties as a special adviser. If they feel that any such employment or appointments may give rise to a conflict of interest with their special adviser role or to a public perception of such a conflict, they are advised to consult Scottish Government Human Resources and are expected to decline where reasonably necessary.

Question reference: S3W-13823

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 June 2008
Current Status: Answered by Bruce Crawford on 10 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-12302 by Bruce Crawford on 9 May 2008, how many of the freedom of information requests it answered by citing an exemption under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 have been appealed since May 2007 and, of these, how many appeals have been granted.

The information requested is available at the website of the Scottish Information Commissioner at:

http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/home/ScottishInformationCommissioner.asp.

This website shows a list of all outstanding cases with the commissioner for investigation and a full list of his decisions, including the text of the decision. For those involving the Scottish ministers a search can be undertaken against the terms “Scottish ministers” or “Scottish Executive”.

Question reference: S3W-13844

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 June 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 9 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people serving custodial sentences have escaped or absconded since May 2007, and how many of those have been (a) recaptured and (b) at large for over (i) three months and (ii) six months.

I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

No prisoners have escaped since May 2007. The number who have absconded is illustrated in the following tables.

Table 1 shows the total number of prisoners recaptured and of those the number who remained at large more than (a) three months, or (b) more than six months.

Table 2 shows the number of prisoners remaining at large and of those the numbers who have remained at large more than (a) three months, or (b) six months.

Table 1

Total Absconds	Total Recaptured	At Large Greater Than 3 Months	At Large Greater Than 6 Months
71	68	1	2

Table 2

Total Remaining at Large	At Large Greater Than 3 Months	At Large Greater Than 6 Months
4	0	2

Question reference: S3W-13817

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 June 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 9 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive when it expects the next round of higher education retention rates to be published.

Question reference: S3W-13676

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 9 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what the estimated cost is of borrowing (a) £10,000, (b) £100,000, (c) £1 million, (d) £10 million and (e) £1 billion through a bond issue.

Question reference: S3W-13674

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 9 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether local authorities have the power to band together to issue Scottish municipal bonds.

The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1975 gives local authorities the power to borrow money through a variety of means, including by the issue of bonds, for purposes for which they have a statutory borrowing power. The act also allows two or more local authorities to combine to exercise their statutory borrowing powers jointly. It would be for the local authority to ensure it wasn’t acting ultra vires.

Question reference: S3W-13367

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 9 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive which trunk road projects have been approved since May 2007; what the total capital cost is, and what the comparative figure was for the previous year.

The following projects have been approved for construction contract award since May 2007 at a capital cost of £488 million compared to projects valued at £75.4 million which were approved for construction contract award from May 2006 to April 2007.

A9 Helmsdale to Ord of Caithness Improvements Phase 2	£5,446,234
A77 Haggstone Climbing Lane and Glen App overtaking improve	£18,710,664
M8 Harthill Footbridge Replacement	£5,112,438
A76 Glenairlie Improvement	£4,903,789
A7 Auchenrivock	£7,733,975
M74 Completion Scheme	£444,715,352
A737 Roadhead Roundabout	£1,350,728

Question reference: S3W-13362

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 9 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many special advisers it has; what the comparative figure was in May 2007; to whom each adviser is responsible, and and what its total cost is for special advisers.

There were no special advisers in post on 1 May 2007 as all had resigned in the lead up to the Scottish election. Currently, there are nine special advisers of which seven are full-time appointments, one a part-time appointment and one an unpaid appointment.

The current special advisers and their specific responsibilities are as follows:

Name	Specific Responsibilities
Duncan Hamilton (part time)	Political adviser to the First Minister
Professor Sir Neil McCormick (part-time unpaid)	Adviser to the First Minister on Europe and external relations
Kevin Pringle	Strategic co-ordination across all portfolios, political spokesperson and senior adviser on communications issues
Stephen Noon	Senior adviser on policy matters across all portfolios
Noel Dolan	Senior policy adviser to the Deputy First Minister
John McFarlane	Policy adviser, supporting Mr Noon
Jennifer Dempsie	Communications adviser and Parliamentary liaison
Geoff Aberdein	Advice on diary issues and support for Parliamentary Liaison Officers
Will McLeish	Support on communications issues

The total annualised costs (including ERNIC, and employer pension contributions) for special advisers for financial year 2006-07 was £854,376. The estimated annual costs of the current team are £566,026.

Chamber and committees