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-27740

Asked by: Maureen Watt, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 25 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 5 October 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many households are served by combined heat and power district heating systems, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S3W-27744

Asked by: Maureen Watt, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 25 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 2 October 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of municipal waste was sent to landfill in each of the last five years, broken down by local authority area.

The following table details the percentiles of municipal waste sent to landfill by each local authority over the last five years.

Local Authority	Landfilled
Local Authority	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09
Aberdeen	86.3	80.9	78.5	77.8	76.6
Aberdeenshire	87.5	83.7	77.0	68.8	67.7
Angus	51.2	43.6	61.1	48.3	48.2
Argyll and Bute	81.9	74.8	66.8	65.2	63.7
Clackmannanshire	62.1	59.9	56.4	57.8	55.1
Dumfries and Galloway	94.3	89.6	76.8	67.2	48.3
Dundee	32.5	22.7	28.4	22.5	20.7
East Ayrshire	83.8	67.4	64.7	58.2	57.9
East Dunbartonshire	81.1	73.7	68.3	67.8	67.2
East Lothian	80.3	72.4	67.4	64.6	61.6
East Renfrewshire	71.6	69.8	68.5	65.0	61.4
Edinburgh	84.1	78.4	75.5	72.9	69.9
Eilean Siar	91.4	88.3	83.0	79.2	81.4
Falkirk	80.9	69.9	65.0	64.0	59.2
Fife	74.9	70.3	67.5	60.9	57.0
Glasgow	91.2	84.6	83.2	81.9	80.1
Highland	91.0	80.1	73.9	68.8	66.8
Inverclyde	93.2	81.4	79.9	78.1	72.0
Midlothian	95.3	78.6	68.2	64.2	62.6
Moray	72.7	69.2	61.6	56.0	56.1
North Ayrshire	76.1	74.2	74.2	68.9	64.3
North Lanarkshire	82.6	71.9	72.3	68.2	61.3
Orkney Islands	23.1	16.1	28.3	23.7	25.4
Perth and Kinross	72.5	65.3	65.4	63.5	61.6
Renfrewshire	85.0	75.5	71.8	69.9	69.5
Scottish Borders	92.2	84.0	71.7	66.5	63.8
Shetland Islands	27.4	23.6	9.4	7.9	5.9
South Ayrshire	79.0	65.2	60.7	56.9	58.7
South Lanarkshire	71.6	66.7	64.6	63.0	63.0
Stirling	71.1	66.1	64.3	61.3	58.5
West Dunbartonshire	92.9	81.0	68.0	67.6	67.9
West Lothian	82.1	73.0	65.5	65.7	58.1
Scottish Average	80.3	73.0	69.8	66.1	63.1

Source: SEPA''s Local Authority Waste Arisings Survey, 2004-05 to 2005-06; WasteDataFlow, 2006-07 to 2008-09.

Question reference: S3F-01905

Asked by: Maureen Watt, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Salmond on 24 September 2009

To ask the First Minister what steps the Scottish Government will take in response to the interim report of the Inquiry into Future Fisheries Management.

Question reference: S3W-24178

Asked by: Maureen Watt, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 May 2009
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 26 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive when it expects to publish the report of its review of the Scotland-wide free bus travel scheme for older and disabled people.

Question reference: S3O-06703

Asked by: Maureen Watt, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 April 2009
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 30 April 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with NHS Grampian regarding neo-natal capacity.

Question reference: S3O-06573

Asked by: Maureen Watt, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 April 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 23 April 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps universities are taking to improve the career prospects of graduates.

Question reference: S3W-21573

Asked by: Maureen Watt, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 March 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 13 March 2009

To ask the Scottish Executivewhat the combined sale value was of all properties sold under right-to-buy legislation in each of the last 10 years, broken down by local authority area.

The Scottish Government collects information on the numbers and prices of local authority stock sold to sitting tenants. Sales of former local authority stock following stock transfer to housing associations are also included, as are sales of former Scottish Homes stock. However, there is no centrally held information on the sale price of the majority of housing association properties, and so these are excluded from the table.

The following table shows the total value of all sales to sitting tenants between 1998-99 and 2007-08. Figures are shown in current prices, and include Right to Buy, Rent to Mortgage, and voluntary sales.

Table 1: Value of Sales to Sitting Tenants, 1998-99 to 2007-08, (£ Million)

Local Authority Area	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03
Scotland	461.0	494.1	490.9	500.8	680.0
Aberdeen City	34.4	35.3	30.5	26.1	30.1
Aberdeenshire	11.2	14.6	15.1	13.9	20.6
Angus	7.2	7.9	8.8	6.5	9.7
Argyll and Bute	4.7	5.4	4.3	6.2	10.1
Clackmannanshire	4.5	4.7	4.1	5.4	9.2
Dumfries and Galloway	9.3	11.8	11.8	12.3	15.1
Dundee City	10.2	8.0	9.2	7.7	9.6
East Ayrshire	12.0	16.2	17.0	14.5	20.1
East Dunbartonshire	7.5	7.3	7.0	7.6	15.7
East Lothian	6.7	10.2	15.9	16.3	29.9
East Renfrewshire	3.3	2.2	4.7	5.1	7.1
Edinburgh (City of)	22.1	22.9	27.8	25.1	34.2
Eilean Siar	1.5	1.0	0.9	1.0	2.9
Falkirk	15.7	12.0	18.5	21.1	30.7
Fife	25.5	29.0	25.0	29.8	30.8
Glasgow City	57.1	62.0	65.9	67.1	73.9
Highland	19.4	23.3	21.5	20.5	25.4
Inverclyde	10.9	11.6	12.1	9.3	10.9
Midlothian	8.2	9.7	9.4	11.9	18.7
Moray	4.5	6.8	5.1	6.6	8.4
North Ayrshire	9.5	13.2	11.6	12.8	18.2
North Lanarkshire	43.9	47.9	52.2	47.6	65.4
Orkney	1.3	1.6	0.9	0.9	0.8
Perth and Kinross	8.0	10.0	7.4	8.2	15.3
Renfrewshire	16.6	14.3	16.0	23.8	27.7
Scottish Borders	4.3	5.1	6.0	7.3	7.5
Shetland	2.0	4.4	3.5	2.0	4.3
South Ayrshire	9.1	8.2	6.9	8.4	13.7
South Lanarkshire	42.3	40.3	35.7	33.4	49.3
Stirling	7.7	8.6	8.3	9.4	15.4
West Dunbartonshire	9.7	9.4	7.2	9.1	14.3
West Lothian	15.2	17.8	13.5	19.3	32.2
Scottish Homes	6.8	4.9	3.0	2.0	1.2

Local Authority Area	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
Scotland	676.5	641.7	628.8	560.8	521.0
Aberdeen City	29.4	27.8	30.2	31.3	41.9
Aberdeenshire	15.1	14.2	19.3	14.5	21.1
Angus	8.0	9.5	9.2	8.4	8.1
Argyll and Bute	10.9	11.7	9.5	4.2	5.6
Clackmannanshire	7.0	6.0	6.7	7.6	6.3
Dumfries and Galloway	16.6	12.9	14.0	13.2	11.0
Dundee City	7.7	11.7	12.5	14.3	15.0
East Ayrshire	21.7	21.1	22.6	16.8	15.6
East Dunbartonshire	19.6	12.0	11.0	8.3	6.6
East Lothian	25.7	22.4	18.3	15.1	14.8
East Renfrewshire	4.9	5.1	6.5	6.3	3.1
Edinburgh (City of)	52.3	38.9	27.7	31.0	26.2
Eilean Siar	1.7	2.2	2.3	0.8	1.7
Falkirk	25.0	29.5	32.0	26.9	25.3
Fife	57.4	55.4	51.2	42.4	33.6
Glasgow City	62.2	45.8	46.6	41.0	38.9
Highland	27.0	30.5	31.9	22.3	19.7
Inverclyde	7.6	4.4	8.4	7.2	..
Midlothian	21.6	16.7	15.4	14.7	11.2
Moray	7.3	9.3	11.1	8.2	9.7
North Ayrshire	18.1	20.3	26.1	21.7	20.1
North Lanarkshire	51.9	56.5	60.2	54.9	52.6
Orkney	1.4	0.9	0.9	0.9	1.0
Perth and Kinross	15.3	12.6	12.9	14.6	12.6
Renfrewshire	19.0	20.8	22.1	18.9	13.5
Scottish Borders	7.5	8.2	8.9	9.2	6.9
Shetland	2.0	1.9	2.9	2.0	3.5
South Ayrshire	17.3	19.4	12.6	10.6	7.3
South Lanarkshire	56.3	53.6	49.1	47.3	44.0
Stirling	12.0	15.9	11.6	12.0	10.1
West Dunbartonshire	16.9	17.6	15.0	15.0	12.3
West Lothian	28.5	25.2	20.0	19.1	22.0
Scottish Homes	0.7	0.6	0.1	na	na

Source: Sales3 returns by local authorities to Scottish Government Communities Analytical Services.

Notes:

1. Figures include Right to Buy, Rent to Mortgage, and voluntary sales, by local authorities and Scottish Homes.

2. Figures for Dumfries and Galloway, Glasgow and the Scottish Borders are included following transfer of stock to housing associations in 2003. Figures for Eilean Siar and Argyll and Bute are also included following their recent stock transfer in 2006.

3. Figures for Inverclyde not available for 2007-08 due to outstanding returns. We estimate that there were just over 100 such sales, but have not estimated a total sale value.

Question reference: S3W-21569

Asked by: Maureen Watt, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 March 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 13 March 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many council houses have been sold under right-to-buy legislation in each of the last 10 years, broken down by local authority.

The requested information is available to download in Excel format from the Housing Statistics for Scotland website at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/HSfS/HSfSSalesAppsDataset2.

The second last table in the spreadsheet contains the number of sales to sitting tenants of local authority housing over the last ten years, by local authority. It excludes sales of ex-local authority stock which has been transferred to housing associations. Figures which include these sales can be found at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/HSfS/SalesSittingTenants.

Question reference: S3W-21570

Asked by: Maureen Watt, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 March 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 11 March 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many properties have been sold by registered social landlords in each of the last 10 years, broken down by local authority area.

I have asked the Chief Executive of the Scottish Housing Regulator to respond.

Her response is as follows:

The number of properties sold by registered social landlords (by local authority area) each year since 2002 is shown in the following table. The information for the years 1999 to 2002 is not held centrally.

LA Name	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
Aberdeen City	28	28	25	26	14	13	13
Aberdeenshire	10	16	16	8	6	5	17
Angus	20	25	22	11	11	13	9
Argyll and Bute	9	7	5	6	2	37	86
City of Edinburgh	56	48	49	45	26	18	21
City of Glasgow	203	336	1627	1101	942	745	667
Clackmannanshire	17	37	21	17	14	10	14
Dumfries and Galloway	2	10	453	282	276	230	169
Dundee City	31	44	29	28	32	27	31
East Ayrshire	57	72	33	28	28	17	20
East Dunbartonshire	10	17	18	13	19	20	8
East Lothian	16	26	10	20	4	4	4
East Renfrewshire	5	9	5	4	2	2	6
Falkirk	19	28	18	23	17	19	20
Fife	54	80	76	53	46	33	28
Highland	54	52	53	40	26	25	15
Inverclyde	29	44	40	26	31	39	44
Midlothian	42	58	39	30	21	17	12
Moray	7	0	1	1	1	1	3
North Ayrshire	36	63	46	46	35	28	25
North Lanarkshire	65	81	69	75	43	50	61
Orkney Islands	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Perth and Kinross	2	1	1	0	5	3	2
Renfrewshire	102	87	99	62	50	35	26
Scottish Borders	42	133	308	311	197	159	110
Shetland Islands	0	0	1	3	0	0	0
South Ayrshire	17	29	19	16	11	12	10
South Lanarkshire	13	33	37	35	35	27	24
Stirling	2	9	8	1	1	6	2
West Dunbartonshire	29	42	37	46	30	27	23
Western Isles	0	0	0	0	0	9	28
West Lothian	19	44	33	28	17	40	20
Total	996	1459	3198	2385	1942	1671	1518

Source: Scottish Housing Regulator, RSL Annual performance and statistical returns 2002-08.

Note: This figure represents all right to buy and voluntary sales.

Question reference: S3W-21572

Asked by: Maureen Watt, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 March 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 11 March 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many new houses have been built by registered social landlords in each of the last 10 years, broken down by local authority area.

The requested information is available to download in Excel format from the Housing Statistics for Scotland web pages:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/HSfS/NewBuildHA.

This spreadsheet contains quarterly, calendar year and financial year starts and completions by registered social landlords since 1992, broken down by local authority area. The second last sheet in the workbook shows the latest annual completions.