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-14532

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 February 2005
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 14 March 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-3961 by Mr Sam Galbraith of 13 July 2000, what level of funding has been allocated for family mediation services in the south of Scotland in each year since 2001.

The following table shows core funding under the Children, Young People and Families Unified Voluntary Sector Fund received by four services which cover the south of Scotland.

	2001-02 (£)	2002-03 (£)	2003-04 (£)	2004-05 (£)
Family Mediation Borders	31,930	32,888	33,710	34,553
Family Mediation Dumfries and Galloway	56,650	58,350	59,808	61,303
Family Mediation Lothian	52,005	53,565	54,904	56,277
Family Mediation West	147,466	151,890	155,687	159,579

Question reference: S2W-14533

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 February 2005
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 14 March 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what funding it will allocate for a national helpline for mediation services.

We have outlined various non-legislative proposals to complement the Family Law Bill, including a possible telephone helpline or information service on family relationship issues. Before allocating any funding for a helpline project we will discuss key questions with stakeholders, including the added value of a helpline on family relationships, the links with existing helplines for parents, step-parents and children, and impact on service provision at local level. We will also take account of the current scoping study of telephone helpline services by Parenting across Scotland. We are also currently looking at options for providing web-based information to improve the availability of information about family law and support services in Scotland.

Question reference: S2W-15046

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 14 March 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-14474 by Cathy Jamieson on 1 March 2005, why giving the police costs requested could compromise the security of the royal family.

Question reference: S2W-15044

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 14 March 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-14474 by Cathy Jamieson on 1 March 2005, whether local police forces were required to meet the costs of policing events attended by the royal family and, if so, what percentage of each force's budget was used for policing such events in (a) 1999, (b) 2000, (c) 2001, (d) 2002, (e) 2003 and (f) 2004.

To the extent that police officers from a local force were on duty during an event attended by the Royal Family as part of their normal duties, there will be no additional cost incurred by the local force. Otherwise, as I indicated in my earlier answer to question S2W-14474 on 1 March 2005, it is not the policy of the Scottish Executive to comment on, or otherwise disclose details of, the cost of policing events attended by members of the royal family as to do so could compromise their security and play into the hands of those who might wish to intimidate them or cause them harm.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament/webapp/wa.search.

Question reference: S2W-14823

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 February 2005
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 10 March 2005

Question reference: S2O-05710

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 March 2005
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 10 March 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on the viability of Heriot-Watt University maintaining its campus in Galashiels and on the consequences for Borders College should the shared campus proposals fall through.

Question reference: S2W-14682

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 February 2005
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 9 March 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many freedom of information requests have been received by each public authority within its responsibility.

Every request for informationwhich the Scottish Executive receives is handled in accordance with the Freedomof Information (Scotland) Act 2002. Most requests for information are handledroutinely and are not recorded or counted centrally. However, in line with centrallyproduced guidance, some requests for information are recorded centrally. Up to 18February approximately 600 such requests have been recorded by the bodies coveredby Parts 1 and 2 of Schedule 1 to the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act2002 (excluding the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Parliamentary CorporateBody).

Question reference: S2W-14683

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 February 2005
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 9 March 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish a breakdown by category of the sources of freedom of information requests to each public authority within its responsibility and what percentage of the total number of requests to each authority each category represents.

Every request for informationwhich the Scottish Executive receives is handled in line with the Freedom of Information(Scotland) Act 2002. As all requests are handled in the same way regardless of thesource of the request we do not generally record aggregated data on the sourcesof requests for information. However, of the approximately 600 requests recordedcentrally, as set out in the answer to question S2W-14682 on 9 March 2005, approximatelytwo-thirds originated from the media.

All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for whichcan be found at http://www.scottish.parliament/webapp/wa.search.

Question reference: S2W-14681

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 February 2005
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 9 March 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what average time has been taken to respond to freedom of information requests by each public authority within its responsibility.

Question reference: S2W-14826

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 February 2005
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 8 March 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what research it has commissioned in the last three years into the debt burden for families as a result of funeral expenses.