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-27488

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 July 2006
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 16 August 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many planning applications it has received for hydro schemes under section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989 from (a) public limited companies and (b) private companies and other bodies since 1999.

Twenty applications for consentunder section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989 have been received since 1999, in respectof hydro schemes. Of these, 15 were made by public limited companies and five byprivate companies or others.

The details of all section 36hydro applications received since 1999 are outlined in the following table.

	Plc	Private/Others	Total
Applications received	15	5	20
Refused	0	1	1
Withdrawn	1	2	3
Consented	9	0	9
To be determined	5	2	7

Question reference: S2W-27490

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 July 2006
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 16 August 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-7804 by Lewis Macdonald on 11 May 2004, how many consents for hydro schemes under section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989 it has granted to (a) public limited companies and (b) private companies and other bodies since 1999.

Question reference: S2W-27229

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 July 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 28 July 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on how many full-time equivalent civil servants were employed in Scotland in each year since 1997, broken down into those employed by (a) the Executive and associated agencies and (b) all other civil service departments and agencies in Scotland.

The full-time equivalentnumber of civil servants employed on 31 March in each year is shown in thefollowing table:

Year	Scottish Executive and Agencies	Other Civil Service¹
1999	13,144.3	30,800
2000	13,488.3	31,300
2001	13,365.2	31,900
2002	13,870.1	31,900
2003	14,526.1	31,900
2004	14,922.5	33,500
2005	15,103.1	31,700
2006	15,263.0	31,300

Note:1. Source: Public Sector Employment in Scotland:Statistics for Q1 2006.

Question reference: S2W-27230

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 July 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 28 July 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many full-time equivalent staff were employed by non departmental public bodies in each year since 1997.

Information on staff numbersemployed by NDPBs between 1999 and 2006 is published as part of the Public Sector Employment Quarterly Estimates. The latest version is available at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/06/29112448/0.

Prior to 1999, informationon NDPB staff numbers was published in the annual Cabinet Office publicationpublic bodies. Copies of the 1997 and 1998 versions are available from:

http://www.archive.official-documents.co.uk/document/caboff/bodies97/tables/so-exb.htm.http://www.archive.official-documents.co.uk/document/caboff/pb98/contents.htm.

Question reference: S2W-27227

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 July 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 28 July 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people were employed in the manufacturing sector in the most recent year for which figures are available.

Question reference: S2W-27197

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 27 July 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many times since his appointment the Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning has met officials of Scottish Enterprise in its headquarters in Glasgow.

Question reference: S2W-27256

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 July 2006
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 21 July 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S2W-14287 by Mr Jim Wallace on 2 March 2005 and S2W-25993 by Nicol Stephen on 8 June 2006, why there is discrepancy between the two figures given for total manufacturing employment in 2004.

The difference between thetwo figures provided for parliamentary questions S2W-14287 and S2W-25993 iscaused by the fact that they were answered using different sources and usingdifferent definitions. Different sources were used due to the differences inthe questions asked in the two parliamentary questions.

The data used in the answerto parliamentary question S2W-14287 were taken from the Labour Force Survey(LFS) which is a survey of individuals in the UK looking at varioussocio-economic issues. This source was used as the parliamentary question requesteddata on employment in the manufacturing industry which includes employees, thosewho are self employed, unpaid family workers and those on a government trainingscheme. The LFS is the preferred source for data on employment.

The data used in the answerto parliamentary question S2W-25993 were taken from the Annual Business Inquiry(ABI) which is an annual survey of businesses. This source was used as the parliamentaryquestion requested data on those employed within the manufacturing industry. TheABI provides information on employees and is the preferred source for data onemployees by industry. The ABI does not collect information on self employment.

All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament's website the search facility forwhich can be at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Question reference: S2W-27257

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 July 2006
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 21 July 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S2W-14287 by Mr Jim Wallace on 2 March 2005 and S2W-25993 by Nicol Stephen on 8 June 2006, what the level of manufacturing employment was in (a) 1979, (b) 1997, (c) 1999, (d) 2004 and (e) 2005.

The following table reportsthe level of manufacturing employment in Scotland in 1979 and for the spring quarter in 1997, 1999,2004 and 2005.

The manufacturing employmentestimate for 1979 is not directly comparable with the estimates for 1997, 1999,2004 and 2005 due to changes in the definition of manufacturing. The 1979classification of manufacturing activity was broader and included activitieswhich would now be classified in other industry groups. For example, in 1979individuals working in vehicle repairs were categorised in the manufacturingsector whereas in 1997 they would fall into the service sector.

The spring quarter runs fromMarch to May in each year. These figures are estimated from the Labour ForceSurvey which is carried out by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Level of manufacturingemployment¹, Scotland

Year	Level of Manufacturing Employment
1979*	622,000
1997**	380,000
1999**	336,000
2004**	282,000
2005**	279,000

Source: ONS - Labour Force Survey, Spring Quarters.

Note: 1. Employmentlevels are for people aged 16 or over.

*Manufacturingemployment classified using Minimum List Headings.

**Manufacturingemployment classified using Standard Industrial Classification 1992.

Question reference: S2O-10332

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 29 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to encourage more local recycling groups.

Question reference: S2W-26809

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 21 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many looked after children were aged (a) under 1, (b) 1 to 4, (c) 5 to 11, (d) 12 to 15 and (e) 16 to 17 and, of these, how many were looked after for (i) under 6 weeks, (ii) 6 weeks to under 6 months, (iii) 6 months to under 1 year, (iv) 1 year to under 3 years, (v) 3 years to under 5 years and (vi) 5 years and over in the most recent year for which figures are available.