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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 3475 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S2W-22747

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 January 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 10 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what legal basis there is for any Executive involvement in whether prisoners were transported via Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd operated airports to a third country.

Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd (HIAL), as the licensedoperator of its 10 airports, is responsible for meeting UK Civil AviationAuthority and Department for Transport regulatory, and all statutory,requirements relating to its duties as the licensee of these airports. HIAL isalso accountable via its Board of Directors to the Scottish ministers for theoperation and management of its business.The Scottish Executiverequested information from HIAL regarding any flights operated on behalf of theUS Government and its agencies. As S2W-22577 answered on 10 February 2006makes clear, HIAL has no information that such flights have operated to or fromits airports. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available onthe Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Question reference: S2W-22744

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 January 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 10 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what information must be provided in support of requests for flights by aircraft chartered by the CIA, or by agencies to whom the CIA has outsourced services, to land at airports operated by Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd and, specifically, whether a list of passenger names is required.

I refer the member to the answer question S2W-21090 on 20 December 2005. All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility forwhich can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

In addition to theinformation contained in S2W-21090, an aircraft operator using any airportoperated by Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd (HIAL) must also obtain orprovide: prior permission to land, and a flight plan.

There is no requirement toprovide HIAL with a list of passengers’ names.

Question reference: S2W-23247

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 February 2006
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 10 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on how long Monaghan Middlebrook Mushrooms at Drem in East Lothian sourced labour from gangmasters and when it claims that it ceased to do so.

Question reference: S2W-23210

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 February 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 8 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what funding has been given to local authorities to provide supported accommodation in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area.

Local authorities are not given a specific budget for supported accommodation. The spending review 2004 invested £1.2 billion over three years in housing support services through the Supporting People programme to local authorities for vulnerable people, and an additional £50 million per year for preventing and alleviating homelessness. All these resources go towards supporting a variety of tenancies, including supported accommodation, but a breakdown by local authority of the total amount invested locally in supported accommodation is not held centrally.

Question reference: S2W-23212

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 February 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 8 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many children have been in foster care in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area.

The numbers of looked after children in foster care on the 31 March each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area, are shown in the following table.

Number of Children Looked After by Foster Carers on the 31 March

	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Aberdeen City	210	156*	119*	132*	97	124*	157
Aberdeenshire	91*	116	112	116	114	128	121
Angus	73	73	66	85	94	102	118
Argyll and Bute	37	30	27	32	39	45	35
Clackmannanshire	33	32	35	36	33	33	45
Dumfries and Galloway	119	105	127	127	144	120	111
Dundee City	125	151	118	122	127	149	137
East Ayrshire	32	56	72	66	84	86	82
East Dunbartonshire	7	9	10	15	9	18	18
East Lothian	54	65	79*	74	81	74	64
East Renfrewshire	12	6	6	12	11	13	13
Edinburgh City	304*	330	326	318	339	370	349
Eilean Siar	12	10	8	7	16	16	12
Falkirk	91	87	98	84	107	104	104
Fife	182	158	191	185	201	203	239
Glasgow City	657	686	640	714	706	800	804
Highland	178	117	111	103	96	99	107
Inverclyde	31	32	23	24	27	33	33
Midlothian	49*	56	40	46	51	58	61
Moray	95	56	58	54*	61	69	31
North Ayrshire	61	45	77	53	59	64	74
North Lanarkshire	118	134	145	142	134	136	123
Orkney Islands	5	5	10	8	6	5	6
Perth and Kinross	64	48	53	66	63	54	65
Renfrewshire	79	70	80	87	104	127	128
Scottish Borders	73	67	69	81	79	83	69
Shetland Islands	12	11	15	14	13	11	9
South Ayrshire	18	32	34	50	54	47	46
South Lanarkshire	82	82*	70*	74	80	78	78
Stirling	61	61	59	56	56	57	52
West Dunbartonshire	68	68	60	68	70	73	69
West Lothian	122	104	146	118	134	82	133
Scotland	3155	3058	3084	3170	3288	3461	3493

Notes:

Figures exclude children on short-term placements only.

*Estimated due to missing or incomplete data.

Question reference: S2W-23213

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 February 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 7 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many foster carers there have been in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S2W-23211

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 February 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 7 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance it issues to local authorities in respect of transitional arrangements for vulnerable children moving from foster care to adult status.

Question reference: S2W-23381

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 February 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 7 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what analysis has been done of the availability of low rise buses, in light of 20% of the population having mobility difficulties.

Question reference: S2W-23367

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 February 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 6 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it is having with local authorities and transport providers to ensure equity of access for people with nationwide concessionary travel passes.

The Confederation of PassengerTransport (CPT) and local authority representatives were included on the seven taskgroups set up to advise on the development of the Scotland-wide Free Bus schemefor Older and Disabled people. These included task groups which considered aspectsof equity of access including which coach and bus services would be eligible inthe scheme and the eligibility criteria for individuals.

Question reference: S2W-23368

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 February 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 6 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with the voluntary sector regarding the operation and extent of the national concessionary travel scheme.

Voluntary organisations wereincluded in the consultation, which was run between 24 October to 5 December 2005, onthe orders for the Scotland-wide Free Bus Scheme for Older and Disabled people towhich over 130 responses were received.

In addition the Royal NationalInstitute for the Blind has been involved in discussions on the needs of the visuallyimpaired in using smartcards for the Scotland-wide Free Bus scheme for Older andDisabled people.

I have also met with the ScottishPensioners Forum where discussion included the concessionary travel scheme and howit will affect older people.