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-22776

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 January 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 23 February 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it believes that any attempt by Scottish Borders Housing Association to recover the deficit resulting from its stock transfer agreement in March 2003 with Scottish Borders Council will undermine public confidence in housing stock transfers.

As previously stated, it would be inappropriate for me to comment on the detail of the claim currently being pursued by Scottish Borders Housing Association. However, I do not believe that it will undermine public confidence in the stock transfer process. It is clear that across Scotland transfers to community ownership are now delivering substantial new housing investment, rent guarantees and much more say for tenants in the management of their homes and estates.

Question reference: S2W-22798

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 January 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 23 February 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what average price per house has been paid by housing associations for local authority properties in each year since the inception of the Scottish Borders Housing Association.

There have been only two whole stock transfers in Scotland since the transfer of Scottish Borders Council’s stock to Scottish Borders Housing Association. The price paid for Dumfries and Galloway Council’s housing stock was an average of £2,767 per unit and the price paid for Glasgow City Council’s housing, before grant, was £310 per unit. A small number of partial transfers have taken place at nil price mainly because of the high element of demolition and new build involved in these estate based regeneration projects.

Question reference: S2W-22817

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 January 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 23 February 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it can review the underwriting of a £38 million residual loan debt in respect of former Scottish Borders Council houses in the event that Scottish Borders Housing Association attempts to recover the deficit resulting from its stock transfer agreement in March 2003.

Treasury has undertaken to provide funding to redeem residual housing debt remaining with a council on the transfer of its housing to community ownership. In the case of Scottish Borders Council, Treasury met this commitment in March 2003 when the council received £80.6 million to redeem its residual debt and associated breakage costs.

Any borrowings currently held by Scottish Borders Housing Association are a matter for the association.

Question reference: S2W-22800

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 January 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 23 February 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what contractual conditions are in place with regard to writing off the housing debt of housing associations.

Question reference: S2W-22799

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 January 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 23 February 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that the average price of £3,061 per house paid by Scottish Borders Housing Association to Scottish Borders Council as part of the stock transfer programme in 2003 represented value for money.

Question reference: S2W-22775

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 January 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 23 February 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is in respect of the Scottish Borders Housing Association’s statement that it is seeking £4 million from Scottish Borders Council to address the association’s financial deficit and the impact of such action on Scottish Borders Council’s reserves and its council tax payers.

Question reference: S2W-23014

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 February 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 21 February 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many vacancies there are for social workers, broken down by grade and local authority area.

Question reference: S2W-23208

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 21 February 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many vulnerable adults have been in supported accommodation in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area.

Over 170,000 clients received housing support services in 2004-05 in various types of accommodation including mainstream housing, sheltered housing, special housing and supported accommodation. The following table gives figures for those in supported accommodation, but they only go back to 2003-04. However, because the data collection processes are still relatively new and developing some caution is needed in interpreting the data.

Clients Living in Supported Accommodation who Receive Housing Support through Supporting People

Local Authority	2003-04	2004-05
Scotland	10,790	10,465
Aberdeen City	102	103
Aberdeenshire	313	379
Angus	96	33
Argyll and Bute	63	115
Clackmannanshire	52	85
Dumfries and Galloway	0	593
Dundee City	498	606
East Ayrshire	139	3
East Dunbartonshire	132	165
East Lothian	111	213
East Renfrewshire	87	137
Edinburgh	2,641	1,313
Eilean Siar	9	22
Falkirk	146	140
Fife	878	1,343
Glasgow	3,442	1,978
Highland	524	674
Inverclyde	0	555
Midlothian	50	33
Moray	118	103
North Ayrshire	9	8
North Lanarkshire	134	569
Orkney	17	18
Perth and Kinross	180	160
Renfrewshire	0	13
Scottish Borders	0	130
Shetland	25	33
South Ayrshire	76	128
South Lanarkshire	123	154
Stirling	249	83
West Dunbartonshire	309	333
West Lothian	267	243

Question reference: S2W-22742

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 21 February 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is aware of any flights into airports operated by Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd by aircraft chartered by the CIA, or by agencies to whom services have been outsourced by the CIA, and, if so, when it became aware of such flights and how frequent they have been.

Question reference: S2W-22743

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 21 February 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether its permission, or that of Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd (HIAL) management, was requested for flights by aircraft chartered by the CIA, or by agencies to whom the CIA has outsourced services, to land at airports operated by HIAL, and, if so, what response was given.