- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 July 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Hugh Henry on 8 August 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many registered class A drug users there have been in Scotland in each year since the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.
Answer
There is no central registerof problem drug misusers in Scotland.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 July 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Hugh Henry on 8 August 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of class A drugs in circulation in Scotland it estimates originate from Afghanistan.
Answer
Information on thepercentage of class A drugs in Scotland estimated to originate from Afghanistanis not held centrally.
At the UK level, however,the “UK Threat Assessment 2006-07”, published by the Serious Organised CrimeAgency (SOCA) on 31 July 2006 estimates that 90% of the UK's identified heroinsupply originates in Afghanistan. The report is available at http://www.soca.gov.uk/assessPublications/downloads/threat_assess_unclass_250706.pdf.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 July 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Hugh Henry on 8 August 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what research it has carried out into the impact of any increase in the supply of class A drugs in Scotland originating from Afghanistan following the invasion by US, UK and other NATO forces in 2001.
Answer
No such research has beencarried out by the Scottish Executive.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 July 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 4 August 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the evidence to the Communities Committee by Johann Lamont at Stage 2 of the Housing Bill on 28 September 2005 (Official Report, Communities Committee, c. 2468-72) and the Stage 3 proceedings of the Bill on 24 November 2005 (Official Report, c. 21058-21118), when draft regulations pertinent to the house seller pack will be available; what progress has been made with regard to the “loan scheme” to fund such packs and, in particular, whether such loans will be secured loans and whether a seller can make repeat loan applications in respect of the same property should it fail to sell within the shelf life of the single seller survey, and what discussions it has had with building societies and other lenders regarding the status of the single seller survey.
Answer
Since the Housing (Scotland) Act2006 received Royal Assent we have been working with stakeholders including mortgagelenders on the design of the mandatory Single Survey scheme. I expect that draftregulations will be available next year. We intend, as far as possible, to go withthe grain of the current house buying and selling system. Discussions with lendersindicate that an arrangement similar to the present one under which they are providedwith transcripts of information from surveys in order to assess mortgage applicationsis most likely to meet their requirements for information from the single survey.
Work is also under way to developthe scheme of assistance under part 2 of the act. The form of any assistance forhouse sellers will be considered as part of that.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 July 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 3 August 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many fatal and serious road accidents there have been in the South of Scotland parliamentary region in each year from 1999 to date, broken down by road class and number.
Answer
The following table gives thenumber of fatal and serious road accidents by road class and number in the Southof Scotland Scottish Parliament Region in each of the years from 2002 to 2005. Asregards figures for the years from 1999 to 2001, I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-110 on 2 June 2003. All answers towritten parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the searchfacility for which can be found at:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.It should be noted that the followingstatistics are based upon the data which are held in the central statistical databaseand which were collected by the police at the time of the accident and subsequentlyreported to the Executive. They may differ from any figures which the local authoritywould provide now, because they do not take account of any subsequent changes orcorrections that the local authority may have made to the statistical information,for use at a local level, about the location of each accident, based upon its knowledgeof the road and area concerned.
Fatal and Serious Road Accidentsin South of Scotland Scottish Parliament Region
| Road Class and Number | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 |
| M74 | 8 | 10 | 9 | 8 |
| A(M)74 | 7 | 9 | 3 | 9 |
| A1 | 15 | 8 | 8 | 15 |
| A1107 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| A198 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| A199 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| A6088 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| A6089 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| A6091 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| A6093 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| A6094 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| A6105 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 7 |
| A6112 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| A6124 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| A6137 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| A68 | 6 | 10 | 6 | 6 |
| A697 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 4 |
| A698 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| A699 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 2 |
| A7 | 14 | 8 | 9 | 14 |
| A70 | 12 | 12 | 11 | 13 |
| A701 | 8 | 6 | 15 | 10 |
| A702 | 13 | 9 | 11 | 4 |
| A703 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 2 |
| A706 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| A708 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 1 |
| A709 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 3 |
| A71 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 3 |
| A710 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| A711 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 3 |
| A712 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| A713 | 7 | 9 | 12 | 8 |
| A714 | 4 | 9 | 3 | 2 |
| A716 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| A718 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| A719 | 5 | 9 | 5 | 5 |
| A72 | 13 | 16 | 15 | 11 |
| A721 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| A73 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 4 |
| A735 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| A736 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 1 |
| A737 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 1 |
| A738 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| A74 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| A743 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| A745 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| A747 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| A75 | 19 | 16 | 15 | 20 |
| A751 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| A755 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| A759 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| A76 | 13 | 9 | 14 | 16 |
| A77 | 29 | 20 | 16 | 17 |
| A78 | 2 | 7 | 7 | 4 |
| A780 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| A781 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| A79 | 4 | 1 | 8 | 1 |
| B1345 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| B1347 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| B1348 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| B1361 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
| B1377 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| B6089 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| B6350 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| B6352 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| B6355 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| B6357 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 11 |
| B6358 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| B6359 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| B6360 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| B6362 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| B6364 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| B6368 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| B6371 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| B6372 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| B6374 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| B6397 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| B6399 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| B6400 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| B6401 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| B6404 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| B6414 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| B6436 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| B6437 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| B6438 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| B6456 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| B6460 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| B6461 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| B699 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| B7004 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| B7005 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| B7009 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| B7011 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| B7016 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| B7017 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| B7018 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| B7019 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| B702 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| B7020 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| B7021 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| B7023 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| B7024 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| B7026 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| B7034 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| B7036 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| B7037 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| B7038 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| B7045 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| B705 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| B7052 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| B7065 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| B7068 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| B7076 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| B7077 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| B7078 | 10 | 10 | 7 | 3 |
| B7079 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| B7080 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| B7081 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| B7083 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| B7084 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| B7085 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| B7086 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| B709 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| B710 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| B7106 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| B715 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| B721 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| B722 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| B723 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 4 |
| B724 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| B725 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| B727 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| B729 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| B730 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
| B733 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| B734 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| B736 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| B737 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| B740 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| B741 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| B742 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 2 |
| B743 | 10 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
| B746 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| B747 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| B749 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| B751 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| B752 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| B769 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| B778 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 0 |
| B780 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| B793 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| B794 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| B795 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| B796 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| B797 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| C Roads | 11 | 10 | 7 | 12 |
| Unclassified | 98 | 85 | 90 | 87 |
| Total | 473 | 403 | 409 | 396 |
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 July 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 3 August 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive in how many fatal and serious road accidents were heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) involved in (a) total and (b) the South of Scotland parliamentary region, in each year from 1999.
Answer
The following table gives thenumbers of fatal and serious injury road accidents involving heavy goods vehiclesin (a) Scotland and (b) the South of Scotland Scottish Parliament regionin each of the years from 1999 to 2005. Some accidents involved more than one heavygoods vehicle.
Fatal and Serious Injury Road AccidentsInvolving Heavy Goods Vehicles
| | Scotland | South of Scotland Scottish Parliament Region |
| 1999 | 223 | 55 |
| 2000 | 221 | 51 |
| 2001 | 253 | 48 |
| 2002 | 213 | 53 |
| 2003 | 225 | 41 |
| 2004 | 180 | 49 |
| 2005 | 175 | 36 |
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 July 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 3 August 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-14076 by Nicol Stephen on 22 March 2005, in how many fatal and serious road accidents were (a) exceeding the speed limit and (b) travelling too fast for the conditions contributory factors, from January 2005.
Answer
Data about injury road accidentsare collected by the police and reported to the Scottish Executive using the Stats19 statistical report form.
Statistical information aboutthe factors which may have contributed to the occurrence of an injury road accidentis only available if it occurred since the start of 2005, when the Stats 19 specificationwas expanded to include such information. The following table gives the statisticswhich are now available. It must be emphasised that the contributory factors shown in the Stats 19 returnsreflect the reporting officer’s opinion atthe time of making the report, and are not necessarily the result of extensive investigation:subsequent enquiries could lead to a change in the opinion of the reporting officer.The Stats 19 contributory factors are largely subjective, and depend upon the skilland experience of the reporting officer in reconstructing the events which led directlyto the accident, based upon the information available at the time of making thereport.
Fatal and Serious Road Accidentsin 2005 for which One or Both of the Specified Contributory Factors were Recorded
| Contributory Factor | Fatal and Serious Accidents in 2005 (Provisional) |
| Exceeding speed limit | 144 |
| Travelling too fast for conditions | 289 |
| One or both of these factors | 409 |
Three points should be noted.First, the results from the first year of the collection of new statistical information like this could be subject to “teethingtroubles”. Second, the total is less than the sum of the figures for the two factorsbecause there were some accidents for which both factors were reported. Finally,these figures are “provisional” because the data for 2005 have not yet been finalised- for example, contributory factors have not been supplied for about 5% of the injuryroad accidents which were reported for 2005. It is hoped to obtain these detailsbefore the final figures for 2005 are produced. There may, however, be some accidentsfor which the reporting officers cannot identify any contributory factors.
Analyses of the final contributoryfactor data for 2005 will be included in Road Accidents Scotland 2005, which isscheduled to be published in November 2006.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 17 July 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Hugh Henry on 2 August 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has made to Northern Constabulary to release all the relevant papers which it holds surrounding the death of Mr Willie Macrae in April 1985.
Answer
None. The release of materialby Northern Constabulary is a matter for the Chief Constable of that police force.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 17 July 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 2 August 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what the five most common subjects of complaints to local authorities were in each year since 1999.
Answer
This information is not heldcentrally.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 17 July 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 2 August 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many staff left its employment in each year since 1999, broken down into staff who (a) resigned, (b) were made redundant and (c) were dismissed as a result of disciplinary action.
Answer
The following table shows thenumber of staff in Scottish Executive core departments that resigned, were maderedundant, or were dismissed as a result of disciplinary action in each year since1999.
Reason for Leaving
| Year | Resigned | Redundant | Dismissed |
| 1999 | 189 | 4 | 7 |
| 2000 | 187 | 6 | 5 |
| 2001 | 200 | 29 | 5 |
| 2002 | 175 | 0 | 3 |
| 2003 | 134 | 0 | 2 |
| 2004 | 99 | 5 | 4 |
| 2005 | 113 | 0 | 4 |
| 2006 (up to end June) | 54 | 0 | 0 |
The table does not include anumber of other ways staff leave the Scottish Executive, such as transferring toanother government department and leaving at normal retirement age.
