- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 22 May 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Johann Lamont on 31 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many registered voluntary organisations have closed down in each year since 1999.
Answer
Voluntary organisations havenot been required to register with any regulatory body. Consequently, this informationis not collected centrally.
However, following the creationof the Office of the Scottish Charities Regulator (OSCR), voluntary organisationsseeking charitable status in Scotland are required to meet the new charity test set out inthe Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005, in order to be awarded charitable status andbe placed on the Scottish Charity Register.
Charitable status was previouslygranted by the Inland Revenue (Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs) under the CharitiesAct 1993. Under section 3 (7) (b) trustees of charities were required to notifythe commissioners (Charity Commission) if their charities were winding up and thisinformation can be obtained from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 May 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 23 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-25267 by Cathy Jamieson on 8 May 2006, what plans it has to introduce a convention to prevent Special Branch carrying out covert surveillance operations against MSPs and to extend their protection and freedom in a similar way to that provided to MPs by the Wilson Doctrine.
Answer
There are no plans to introducea convention of this sort.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 May 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 23 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive , further to the answer to question S2W-25267 by Cathy Jamieson on 8 May 2006, how many people who were placed under covert surveillance involving interception of communications following authority from Scottish Ministers, but were not subsequently prosecuted, have made a complaint under Section 65 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000.
Answer
This is a matter for the InvestigatoryPowers Tribunal. The information requested is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 May 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 23 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive , further to the answer to question S2W-25272 by Cathy Jamieson on 8 May 2006, whether it considers that it is in the public interest to determine whether MSPs are, or have been, under covert surveillance involving interception of communications authorised by Scottish Ministers and what impact such action would have on the Scottish democratic process.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-25806 on 23 May 2006. All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website the search facilityfor which can be at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 May 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 23 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-25267 by Cathy Jamieson on 8 May 2006, when Scottish Ministers last discussed the Wilson Doctrine with the Prime Minister.
Answer
I have nothing to add to my answerto question S2W-25267. All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the parliament’s website the search facilityfor which can be found at
www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 May 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 23 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-25267 by Cathy Jamieson on 8 May 2006, how many covert surveillance operations involving the interception of MSPs' communications it has refused to authorise since 1999.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-25806 on 23 May 2006. All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the parliament’s website the search facilityfor which can be found at
www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 May 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 23 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-25267 by Cathy Jamieson on 8 May 2006, how many covert surveillance operations involving the interception of MSPs' communications it has authorised since 1999 and, of these, what percentage resulted in any formal, non-covert action by police.
Answer
Details of the number of interceptionwarrants issued by the Scottish ministers are contained in the annual reports of the Interception ofCommunications Commissioner. The most recentreport – Bib. number 37809, document number SE/2005/203 – was laid before the Scottish Parliament on 3 November 2005.
It is not in the public interestto give details relating to interception warrants beyond the figures reported bythe commissioner. To do so could potentially damage the effectiveness of what is an important part of our ability to tackle seriousand organised crime.
The use of Interception as aninvestigative technique is governed by strict safeguards within the Regulation ofInvestigatory Powers Act 2000. The commissioner has stated in successive annualreports Scottish ministers take considerable care to satisfy themselves that warrantsare necessary and proportionate for the authorised purposes – preventing and detectingserious crime.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 May 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 18 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what resources it has put in place to support allied health professionals to provide adequate levels of service to children with autistic spectrum disorder, in light of the significant increase in their number.
Answer
The Scottish Executive EducationDepartment provided funding of £3 million per year for the last two years to NHSboards to meet their obligations under the Education (Additional Support for Learning)(Scotland) Act 2004. These resources are being used in a variety of ways, includingthe recruitment of speech and language therapists and other professionals to workwith autistic children in schools.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 April 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 18 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of the recent announcement by the Department of Trade and Industry of funding for the rural post office network to 2008, whether the Executive anticipates that it will have any powers to fund Scottish post offices after 2008.
Answer
The Executive already hassome, limited, powers to support individual post office businesses. Anamendment to the Scotland Act makes an exception to the reserved status ofpostal services for “financial assistance for the provision of services (otherthan postal services and services relating to money or postal orders) to beprovided from public post offices.” Communities Scotland has used thisprovision to enhance Government assistance to post offices through a £2 millioncapital grants scheme and recently-announced business improvement trainingopportunities for post offices in deprived areas. Any extension of thesepowers, through primary legislation or an order under the Scotland Act, wouldrequire the approval of both the Scottish and the UK Parliament.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 May 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 17 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what its advertising budget was, and how many advertising campaigns it ran, in each year since 1999.
Answer
I refer the member to the questionS1W-26485, answered on 3 July 2002, providing information on advertising spend by the ScottishOffice-Scottish Executive Departments from 1991-92 to 2001-02.
For information on the Scottish Executive’s advertising spend for 2002-03 please see answer to questionS2W-2481. For information on advertising spend for 2003-04 please see the answer to question S2W-15204.
Advertising spend for 2004-2005is published on the Scottish Executive Marketing Unit website. Please see attachedlink
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Government/media/17963/adspend05.Scottish Executive advertisingspend for 2005-2006 is detailed in the following table. Please note these figuresare un-reconciled. Definitive figures will be published in July 06:
| Campaign | Total |
| Alcohol | £664,223.89 |
| ASB | £251,372.67 |
| Career Opps in NHS Scotland | £976,107.92 |
| Childrens Hearings | £99,643.02 |
| Domestic Abuse | £295,950.03 |
| Drug Misuse | £967,016.93 |
| Environment | £368,951.96 |
| Fire Domestic | £287,463.05 |
| Flu | £365,333.28 |
| Healthy Living | £743,600.76 |
| Mental Health | £117,683.10 |
| Organ Donation | £190,570.49 |
| Race | £611,471.60 |
| Road Safety | £605,732.53 |
| Smoking | £1,056,867.36 |
| Teacher Recruitment | £618,668.61 |
| Violence Against PS Workers | £163,263.66 |
| Volunteering | £164,003.13 |
| Miscellaneous | £791,458.64 |
| Total | £9,339,382.63 |
The miscellaneous figure is advertisingexpenditure out with specific campaigns. Thisincludes the central purchase of a block of outdoor advertising which is used throughoutthe year by the campaigns listed.
All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facilityfor which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
