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: S4W-07859

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 June 2012
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 26 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on how many people are in receipt of housing benefit in each local authority area, broken down by gender, and how this compares with the figures for the two previous years for which the data are available.

The Department for Work and Pensions publishes monthly statistics on the number of housing benefit recipients in each local authority area.

The most recently published statistics for February 2012 are available at:

http://statistics.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd1/hb_ctb/hbctb_release_may12.xls.

Table 2 gives a time series of the number of housing benefit recipients by local authority area.

Older data can be found at:

http://statistics.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd1/hb_ctb/index.php?page=hbctb_arc.

The published statistics do not provide an analysis by gender. To assist in assessing the impact of the housing benefit changes, at our request, the Department for Work and Pensions has provided the Scottish Government with copies of the Single Housing Benefit Extract. These allow more detailed analyses of claimant numbers, tenure and benefit type. Datasets have been provided for May 2010, February 2011, December 2011 and February 2012. Analyses giving total number of claimants by gender for these dates are available on the Scottish Government website at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/RefTables/adhoc-analysis/S4W-07859.

Question reference: S4W-07860

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 June 2012
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 22 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on how many households in each local authority area have no access to the internet from home, broken down by gender, and how many are single person households.

The Scottish Household Survey reports that in the two-year period 2009-10, 67% of households in Scotland had access to the internet from their home (i.e. had taken up internet services). The corresponding percentages for local authority areas are shown in the following table. At local authority level, the number of surveyed households without access to the internet from home is too small to permit an accurate breakdown by gender or household size.

Local Authority	%
Aberdeen City	71
Aberdeenshire	70
Angus	69
Argyll and Bute	70
Clackmannanshire	69
Dumfries and Galloway	61
Dundee City	61
East Ayrshire	61
East Dunbartonshire	79
East Lothian	65
East Renfrewshire	74
Edinburgh City	73
Eilean Siar	66
Falkirk	64
Fife	66
Glasgow City	61
Highland	69
Inverclyde	58
Midlothian	71
Moray	71
North Ayrshire	64
North Lanarkshire	66
Orkney	71
Perth and Kinross	69
Renfrewshire	67
Scottish Borders	63
Shetland	73
South Ayrshire	62
South Lanarkshire	67
Stirling	71
West Dunbartonshire	63
West Lothian	70
Scotland	67

Question reference: S4O-01206

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 June 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive when it last met the chief executive of Scottish Water and what issues were discussed.

Question reference: S4W-07323

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 18 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 20 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how many staff have been employed in each (a) directorate, (b) agency, (c) non-ministerial department and (d) NDPB for which it is responsible in each year since 2007, broken down by (i) gender, (ii) age and (iii) grade.

Numbers of Scottish Government employees at 31 March each year, broken down by gender, age, grade and other characteristics are published annually by Office of National Statistics (ONS) as Official Statistics as part of the Annual Civil Service Employment Survey (ACSES). This includes Scottish Government agencies and non-ministerial departments and a total figure for the Scottish Government core directorates. These figures are available online at:

2011

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/publications/re-reference-tables.html?edition=tcm%3A77-229310

2010

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/publications/re-reference-tables.html?edition=tcm%3A77-199704

2009

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/publications/re-reference-tables.html?edition=tcm%3A77-45187

2008

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/publications/re-reference-tables.html?edition=tcm%3A77-45191

2007

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/publications/re-reference-tables.html?edition=tcm%3A77-45183.

Tables showing this breakdown from 2008 using equivalent definitions for the non-departmental public bodies which share our HR service have been lodged with the Scottish Parliament Information Centre and can be requested under Bib. number 54005. These tables also include breakdowns for the larger government core directorates for the years 2010 and 2011.

These figures include both permanent employees of the Scottish Government and those with fixed-term contracts but does not include other temporary staff such as inward secondees and contingent workers (for example, through employment agencies) who are not paid from payroll nor staff who are fee paid and do not have contracted hours. It also excludes staff who were not being paid at the reference date, for example those on a career break or unpaid maternity leave.

The age groups and the grade breakdown provided uses standard Civil Service wide definitions and is comparable to published figures for other UK Departments.

Question reference: S4W-07604

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 18 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of GDP is spent on culture.

Question reference: S4W-07545

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 12 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to conduct a review of legislation pertaining to corporate homicide.

Question reference: S4W-07546

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 12 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to legislate in relation to corporate homicide.

Previous proposals to legislate on corporate homicide in Scotland have been considered to be outwith the competence of the Scottish Parliament. The UK Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007, which came into force in April 2008, created a new offence of corporate homicide in Scotland. We consider that this act sends a robust message to organisations that failures to meet their duty of care to employees and the public will not be tolerated. The act has not long been in force and still to be tested in the court. The priority at this time is to ensure the legislation is used effectively. If the legislation were found to be wanting in the future, we would consider what further steps should be taken.

Question reference: S4W-07544

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 12 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how many prosecutions have taken place in Scotland under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007.

Since the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 came into force, no prosecutions have taken place in Scotland. The Act has not long been in force and still to be tested in the court. Where there is sufficient credible and reliable evidence to bring such a charge it will be brought. The Health and Safety Division, a specialist division within the Crown Office Procurator Fiscal Service, is currently considering a number of cases under the corporate homicide legislation.

Question reference: S4W-07340

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 21 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 12 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) local authorities and (b) other public sector bodies provide a post office counter service alongside another public service access point.

Question reference: S4W-07337

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 21 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 12 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive whether an independent Scotland would seek to join the (a) International Postal Union and (b) International Telecommunications Union.

The Scottish Government has a clear commitment to postal and telecommunications services and to the maintenance of universal service obligations. It is our intention to publish a White Paper in 2013 which will, based on dialogue with the sectors and consumers, outline our proposals for the effective operation of postal and telecommunications services designed for Scotland's communities, businesses and organisations. This will include a consideration of membership of these unions.