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: S3W-05319

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 October 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 30 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many foreign-registered vehicles stopped by police were found not to be in a roadworthy condition in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S3W-05320

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 October 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 30 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many cases involving fraudulent motoring documents being issued by garage owners have been notified to the authorities in each year since 1999, broken down by category of document.

The availableinformation is given in the following table. The Road Traffic Act 1988 Section173 deals with the forgery of documents such as licences, test certificates,and plating certificates. It is not possible to identify garage owners orcategories of documents from the data held centrally.

Persons ProceededAgainst¹ in Scottish Courts for Offences Under the Road Traffic Act1988 Section 173², 1999-2000 - 2005-06

Financial Year	Number
1999-2000	41
2000-01	25
2001-02	26
2002-03	22
2003-04	37
2004-05	32
2005-06	23

Notes:

1.Figures may be slight underestimates due to some under-representation ofacquittals data from SCRO.

2.Where main offence.

Question reference: S3W-04997

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 October 2007
Current Status: Answered by Tricia Marwick on 30 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body who is responsible for (a) purchasing and (b) exhibiting art works in the Parliament.

The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body is responsible for purchasing and exhibiting artworks in the Parliament. In previous sessions, an Art Advisory Group (AAG),comprising members and external representation, has supported the SPCB in thisactivity. The AAG is currently being re-established. An acquisitions anddisposal policy agreed by the SPCB exists to guide the principles and ethicalconsiderations around collecting art appropriate for display in the Scottish Parliament. At official level, the art curator/exhibitions manager is responsiblefor the management and care, including the display, of artworks in the Scottish Parliament building.

Question reference: S3W-04998

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 October 2007
Current Status: Answered by Tricia Marwick on 30 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what funding has been available for art works in each year since 1999 and how much was spent in each year.

The Scottish ParliamentaryCorporate Body does not have a specific annual budget for the acquisition ofart. Where the SPCB mightdecide to purchase art, we would look to resource this through capitalcontingency, prioritising against other demands. The expenditure on the acquisition of art, whichincluded the establishment of an art collection for the Parliament, since 2002is as follows:

Expenditure onArtworks

2002-03	£33,425
2003-04	£200,890
2004-05	£82,426
2005-06	£33,000
2006-07	£8,000

[s1]

Since 2005-6, theSPCB has identified a budget to manage the care of the art collection and it isused to resource areas of work such as conservation, loans, framing, display, labelling,installation and art handling services. The expenditure on this is as follows:

Expenditure onCare of Art Work

2005-06	£11,737
2006-07	£21,680

[s1]Suggestthis is omitted

Question reference: S3W-05316

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 October 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 26 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many foreign-registered vehicles it estimates used roads in Scotland in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S3W-05336

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 October 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 26 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how much has been set aside by Transport Scotland to fund local voluntary purchase schemes.

Question reference: S3W-05337

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 October 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 26 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive which bodies have submitted proposals to Transport Scotland for voluntary purchase schemes and what stage each such proposal has reached.

Question reference: S3W-05318

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 October 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 26 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many foreign-registered vehicles have been involved in road traffic accidents in each year since 1999.

Data about injuryroad accidents are collected by the Police and reported to the ScottishExecutive using the Stats 19 statistical report form. These returns cover onlyroad accidents in which one or more people were injured and which become knownto the police. The returns do not cover damage only accidents or accidents ofwhich the police are unaware because they were not reported by the public.

The method ofidentifying foreign vehicles in the Stats 19 returns changed at the start of2005. Up until the end of 2004, Police Forces were asked to identify foreignvehicles by means of special code in the "Vehicle Registration Mark"field. The following table shows the numbers identified using this old method.

Year	Foreign Vehicles identified in Stats 19 returns as being involved in injury accidents
1999	41
2000	33
2001	29
2002	30
2003	41
2004	37

Following areview of the Stats 19 specification, with effect from January 2005, police forceshave been asked to identify foreign vehicles by means of a new "ForeignRegistered Vehicle" field. The following table shows the numbersidentified using this new method.

Year	Foreign Vehicles identified in Stats 19 returns as being involved in injury accidents
2005	157
2006	138

It is clear thatthe new method has resulted in the identification of more foreign vehicles inthe Stats 19 returns.

Question reference: S3W-04575

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 23 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many statutory notices have been issued to food premises by environmental health officers in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority.

The following is atable of enforcement notices served under food safety legislation between 2001 and2005-06, broken down by local authority. The reporting periods changed in 2004 froma calendar year to a financial year basis. During 2004, the figure reported alsochanged, from the number of establishments which had received notices to the actualnumber of notices served.

This information has been gathered from the statutoryreturn that local authorities are required to provide to the Food Standards Agency(FSA) annually.

The information is not held by the FSA prior to 2001-02.The data for 2005-06 is currently being collated and is unavailable at present.

Numbers of enforcement notices served, should not be usedas any kind of indicator of performance. Enforcement notices are only one tool ofmany available to Environmental Health Departments and the use of them varies betweenauthorities for a number of reasons including the culture of the authority and theirenforcement policy.

Improvement Notices, require defects or deficiencies tobe rectified by a set date.

Emergency Prohibition Notices, require an activity, useof equipment, establishment or part there of to cease immediately. An EmergencyProhibition Notice has to be confirmed by a sheriff, who will issue a ProhibitionOrder.

Local Authority	OCD Number	Improvement Notice 2001	Emergency Prohibition Notice 2001	Improvement Notice 2002	Emergency Prohibition Notice 2002	Improvement Notice 2003
Aberdeen City Council	760	5	0	19	0	2
Aberdeenshire Council	761	9	0	0	0	6
Angus Council	762	2	0	1	0	3
Argyll and Bute Council	763	82	0	39	0	34
East Ayrshire Council	764	1	1	0	0	0
North Ayrshire Council	765	4	0	3	0	4
South Ayrshire Council	766	5	0	15	0	27
Scottish Borders Council	767	4	0	4	0	1
Clackmannanshire Council	768	5	0	6	0	1
West Dunbartonshire Council	769	5	0	2	0	2
Dumfries and Galloway Council	770	1	0	0	0	1
East Dunbartonshire Council	771	5	0	3	0	2
Dundee City Council	772	1	1	8	2	2
Edinburgh City Council	773	26	0	35	0	36
Falkirk Council	774	4	0	1	1	4
Fife Council	775	13	0	8	0	3
Glasgow City	776	1,494	0	137	0	92
Highland Council	777	2	0	3	0	0
Inverclyde Council	778	10	0	6	1	0
North Lanarkshire Council	779	4	0	6	1	4
South Lanarkshire Council	780	15	0	8	0	4
East Lothian Council	781	21	0	9	0	15
West Lothian Council	782	17	6	9	5	4
Midlothian Council	783	3	0	0	1	3
The Moray Council	784	1	0	1	0	1
Orkney Islands Council	785	0	0	3	0	0
Perth and Kinross Council	786	18	1	13	0	8
East Renfrewshire Council	787	3	0	0	0	8
Renfrewshire Council	788	24	0	13	0	19
Shetland Islands Council	789	0	0	3	1	2
Stirling Council	790	1	0	9	0	3
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	791	0	0	0	0	0

Local Authority	Emergency Prohibition Notice 2003	Improvement Notice 2004	Emergency Prohibition Notice 2004	Improvement Notice 2004-05	Emergency Prohibition Notice 2004-05	Improvement Notice 2005-06	Emergency Prohibition Notice 2005-06
Aberdeen City Council	0	3	0	21	0	28	0
Aberdeenshire Council	0	0	0	0	0	9	0
Angus Council	0	1	0	3	0	2	0
Argyll and Bute Council	0	6	0	10	0	9	0
East Ayrshire Council	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
North Ayrshire Council	0	0	0	0	0	2	0
South Ayrshire Council	0	3	0	9	0	7	0
Scottish Borders Council	0	1	0	9	0	5	0
Clackmannanshire Council	0	0	0	3	0	0	0
West Dunbartonshire Council	1	2	1	4	0	1	0
Dumfries and Galloway Council	0	0	0	3	0	1	0
East Dunbartonshire Council	0	1	0	1	0	2	0
Dundee City Council	4	0	1	5	0	5	0
Edinburgh City Council	0	6	0	19	0	51	0
Falkirk Council	0	0	0	2	0	3	0
Fife Council	0	2	1	2	0	3	0
Glasgow City	0	34	0	196	0	122	1
Highland Council	1	2	0	3	0	5	0
Inverclyde Council	0	0	0	6	0	3	0
North Lanarkshire Council	0	0	0	0	0	4	0
South Lanarkshire Council	1	0	0	12	0	9	0
East Lothian Council	0	2	0	9	0	13	0
West Lothian Council	3	1	3	0	9	3	1
Midlothian Council	0	0	0	1	0	3	0
The Moray Council	0	0	0	3	0	3	0
Orkney Islands Council	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Perth and Kinross Council	0	1	0	12	0	15	0
East Renfrewshire Council	0	2	0	6	0	3	0
Renfrewshire Council	0	11	0	24	0	6	1
Shetland Islands Council	0	0	0	2	0	0	0
Stirling Council	0	0	0	4	0	5	0
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Question reference: S3W-05322

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 October 2007
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 23 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many headstones have been lowered or taken down by local authorities for health and safety reasons in cemeteries operated by local authorities in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority.