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-17825

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 1 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-17734 by Lewis Macdonald on 8 July 2005, how many approved salaried dental posts have been filled in each NHS board area.

Question reference: S2W-17859

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 1 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what funding has been allocated to the Direct Payments network in each year since establishment of the network.

Question reference: S2W-17777

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 1 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of households with children have been in temporary accommodation in the (a) Scottish Borders and (b) East Lothian local authority area in each year since 2000.

The Scottish Executive collects snapshot data on the number of households in temporary accommodation as at the end of each quarter. Data on households with dependent children have been collected since March 2001. Data on households in temporary accommodation, including numbers of households with dependent children as a percentage of all households, are available on-line in the publications section of the housing statistics branch reference site:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/housing/hsbref.

Temporary accommodation provided under Section 29 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987 is that which is used by local authorities when carrying out their duty to provide accommodation to people who apply as homeless while their applications are being assessed, until a final decision has been made on their application. This duty to provide accommodation continues during the process of review if one is requested. Where the authority’s decision is that it has a duty to provide permanent accommodation, the duty to provide temporary accommodation continues until the duty to provide permanent accommodation is discharged.

Temporary accommodation may also be provided under section 31 of the 1987 Act, where a household with children is assessed as being intentionally homeless. In these cases temporary accommodation must be provided for a period which gives the household a reasonable opportunity to secure their own accommodation.

Local authorities use different types of housing in order to provide temporary accommodation; such as furnished and unfurnished houses and flats, hostels and bed and breakfasts.

Question reference: S2W-17782

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by George Lyon on 1 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many meetings have been held between Scottish Ministers and/or officials and UK Ministers in each year since 1999, in total and broken down by department and division.

Question reference: S2W-17779

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by George Lyon on 1 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what the trends have been in the number of (a) single-person households, (b) single-parent families, and (c) households with children and two or more adults in the Scottish Borders Council area since 1961.

The information that is available is in the following tables:

Households in Scottish Borders

Type of Household	1961(1)	1971(1)	1981	1991	2001
One person	5,537	7,515	9,301	12,960	15,279
One adult and one or more dependent child(ren)(3)	(2)	260	599	1,285	1,737
Two or more adults and 1 or more dependent child(ren)(3)	(2)	11,645	10,871	10,448	9,647

Source: Census of Population.

Notes:

1. Figures are for the former counties of Peebles, Roxburgh, Berwickshire and Selkirk.

2. The required figures for 1961 were not produced for areas within Scotland.

3. A dependent child is defined as follows:

2001	Person in a household aged 0 to 15 (whether or not in a family); or a person aged 16 to 18 who is a full time student in a family with parent(s).
1991	Person aged 0-15 in a household; or person aged 16-18, never married, in full-time education and economically inactive
1981	Child in family who is under 16 years of age; or under 19 years of age, never-married and classified from the question on economic activity last week as a student.
1971	Child in family who is under 15 years of age; or between 15 and 24 years of age and classified as ‘student’

Question reference: S2W-17790

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 29 July 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many manufacturing jobs were created in (a) Scotland, (b) the Scottish Borders and (c) East Lothian in each of the last eight financial years.

Statistics on the number of jobs created are not held centrally. However, data are available on the change in the level of jobs. Table 1 below shows the change in the level of employee jobs in the manufacturing industry in each year from 1996 to 2003.

The official source of employee jobs estimates is the Annual Business Inquiry (ABI), which was introduced in 1998. Estimates for 1996 and 1997 are sourced from the Annual Employment Survey (AES). The AES results have been rescaled to be comparable with the ABI.

Table 1 Annual Change in the Level of Manufacturing¹ Employee Jobs

	Scotland	Scottish Borders	East Lothian
1996-97	+5,100	-100	+1,200
1997-98	+6,500	-1,600	-200
1998-99	-11,700	+900	-1,000
1999-2000	-13,000	-1,300	+200
2000-01	-17,000	-600	+300
2001-02	-21,600	-400	0
2002-03	-19,900	-200	-800

Source: Annual Business Inquiry (1998-2003).

Annual Employment Survey (Rescaled) (1996-1997).

Notes:

1. Data from 1996-2002 are based on Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) 1992 codes, whereas data for 2003 are based on SIC 2003 codes.

2. Data are rounded to the nearest hundred.

Question reference: S2W-17773

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 29 July 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what the level of employment in the manufacturing sector was in each quarter since January 1985.

The Labour Force Survey (LFS)is the official source for employment estimates.

LFS estimates are currently reportedin seasonal quarters (spring, summer, autumn,winter). The spring quarter runs from March to May, summer quarter from June toAugust, autumn quarter from September to November and winter from December to February.Prior to 1992 the LFS was only carried out in the spring quarter.

Table 1 reports the level ofmanufacturing employment in Scotland for all the quarters that are available between 1984and 2005. The latest data are for spring 2005.

These estimates have not beenseasonally adjusted thus year on year comparisons should only be made within quartersi.e. comparing spring 1984 with spring 2004 will give the best estimate of the changein the manufacturing employment level between 1984 and 2004, comparing Spring 1984with Summer 2004 will not due to seasonality.

Table 1 Level of ManufacturingEmployment¹, Scotland

Year	Spring	Summer	Autumn	Winter
1984	454,000	*	*	*
1985	447,000	*	*	*
1986	469,000	*	*	*
1987	436,000	*	*	*
1988	474,000	*	*	*
1989	457,000	*	*	*
1990	467,000	*	*	*
1991	429,000	*	*	*
1992	446,000	*	*	*
1993	420,000	*	*	389,000
1994	376,000	381,000	376,000	366,000
1995	363,000	373,000	371,000	373,000
1996	386,000	382,000	390,000	383,000
1997	380,000	383,000	381,000	384,000
1998	381,000	386,000	369,000	354,000
1999	336,000	335,000	343,000	337,000
2000	328,000	342,000	361,000	357,000
2001	338,000	336,000	330,000	327,000
2002	310,000	322,000	329,000	306,000
2003	295,000	295,000	307,000	286,000
2004	282,000	284,000	293,000	280,000
2005	279,000	*	*	*

Source: LabourForce Survey, Office for National Statistics.

Notes:

1. Based onSIC 92 which was introduced in winter 1993/94; estimates for earlier periods havebeen adjusted to be broadly comparable.

2. * Not Available.

3. Figure arerounded to the nearest thousand.

Question reference: S2W-17774

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 29 July 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many jobs have been lost in the (a) electronics, (b) textile, (c) farming and (d) tourism industry in the Scottish Borders in each year since 1997.

Statistics on the number of jobs lost are not held centrally. However, data are available on the change in the level of jobs. Table 1 below shows the change in the level of employee jobs for the specified industries in the Scottish Borders in each year since 1997.

The official source of employee jobs estimates is the Annual Business Inquiry (ABI), which was introduced in 1998. Estimates for 1997 are sourced from the Annual Employment Survey (AES). The AES results have been rescaled to be comparable with the ABI.

Table 1 Annual Change in the Level of Employee Jobs by Industry¹, Scottish Borders

	Electronics Industry²	Textiles Industry³	Farming Industry⁴	Tourism-Related Industries⁵
1997-98	*	-1,600	-400	+1,800
1998-99	*	+700	-200	-700
1999-2000	*	-400	0	-1,300
2000-01	*	-300	0	+600
2001-02	*	+300	0	+700
2002-03⁶	*	-500	-100	+1,900

Source: AnnualBusiness Inquiry (1998-2003).

Annual EmploymentSurvey (Rescaled) (1997).

Notes:

1. Data from1997-2002 are based on Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) 1992 codes, whereasdata for 2003 are based on SIC 2003 codes.

2. The electronicsindustry is defined as SIC codes 30.02, 32.1, 32.2, 32.3, 33.201 and 33.301.

3. The textileindustry is defined as SIC code 17.

4. The farmingindustry is defined as SIC code 1.

5. Tourism-related industries are definedas incorporating Hotels and Other Accommodation Types (SIC codes 55.1,55.2), Restaurants(SIC code 55.3), public houses and bars, night clubs/licensed clubs (SIC code 55.4),travel agencies/tour operators (SIC code 63.3), libraries, museums, galleries etc(SIC code 92.5), and sport and other recreational activities (SIC code 92.6, 92.7).

6. Results for2003 are provisional.

7. *Suppressedto avoid disclosure.

8. Data arerounded to the nearest hundred.

Question reference: S2W-17756

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 26 July 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what the proposed timetable is in respect of legislation to establish a Scottish Human Rights Commission.

Question reference: S2W-17778

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by George Lyon on 21 July 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many deaths of children under five have been recorded in each of the last five years, broken down by NHS board area.

The information requested is given in the following table.

Deaths of Children Under Five Years of Age by NHS Board Area

Scotland, 2000-04	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
Scotland	358	332	336	324	314
Argyll and Clyde	30	30	32	29	36
Ayrshire and Arran	36	38	24	23	19
Borders	3	4	9	10	7
Dumfries and Galloway	7	11	11	8	3
Fife	14	17	33	17	26
Forth Valley	14	23	14	16	17
Grampian	29	35	22	34	33
Greater Glasgow	87	58	76	60	72
Highland	14	12	10	6	7
Lanarkshire	51	31	30	48	30
Lothian	56	40	48	43	41
Orkney	-	1	-	1	1
Shetland	-	-	-	5	4
Tayside	17	29	26	24	17
Western Isles	-	3	1	-	1