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-22810

Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 January 2006
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 21 February 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how it monitors the standard of living of people who are carers of elderly or disabled family members.

Question reference: S2W-22811

Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 January 2006
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 21 February 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what research it has commissioned on the impact on personal savings of providing care for elderly or disabled family members.

Question reference: S2W-22912

Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 February 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 21 February 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how much it has spent on advertising in the Evening Times in each of the last five years.

The Executive advertising spend with the Evening Times is as follows:

Financial Year	Spend
2002-03 (1 January to 31 March 2003)	£37,620
2003-04	£45,054
2004-05	£27,855
2005-06 (to 31 January 2006)	£12,791
Total	£123,320

Question reference: S2W-22914

Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 February 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 21 February 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how much it has spent on advertising through the Newsquest group in each of the last five years.

The Executive advertising spend with the Newsquest Group is as follows:

Financial Year	Spend
2003-04	£107,512
2004-05	£107,208
2005-06 (to 31 January 2006)	£49,550
Total	£264,270

Question reference: S2W-22913

Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 February 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 21 February 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how much it has spent on advertising in the Sunday Herald in each of the last five years.

The Executive advertising spend with the Sunday Herald is as follows:

Financial Year	Spend
20023-03 (1 January to 31 March 2003)	£11,988
2003-04	£19,558
2004-05	£13,277
2005-06 (to 31 January 2006)	£9,206
Total	£54,029

Question reference: S2W-22911

Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 February 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 21 February 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how much it has spent on advertising in The Herald in each of the last five years.

The Executive advertising spend with The Herald is as follows:

Financial Year	Spend
2002-03 (1 January to 31 March 2003)	£33,300
2003-04	£35,700
2004-05	£66,076
2005-06 (to 31 January 2006)	£24,673
Total	£159,749

Question reference: S2W-22121

Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 January 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 6 February 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what the percentage difference has been between the average annual salary of its black and minority ethnic employees and their white colleagues in each year since 1999.

The following table shows the percentage of the average salary of staff in Scottish Executive core departments who have self declared themselves as being from an ethnic minority background compared to staff who have declared themselves as white. Self-declaration is the only method of recording this information, therefore the data is necessarily subjective. A figure below 100% indicates that ethnic minority staff have been paid less on average than white staff, whereas a figure above 100% indicates that they have been paid more. The information provided is as at 1 April each year and refers to permanent staff.

1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
94%	88%	94%	93%	93%	101%	97%

Note: 1. Care should be taken in making year-on-year comparisons of percentages due to the small number of staff in the ethnic minority category.

Question reference: S2W-21739

Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 December 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 2 February 2006

Question reference: S2W-21867

Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 December 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 2 February 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-21502 by Cathy Jamieson on 14 December 2005, whether a passenger transported for torture is included in the definition of “passenger” by virtue of Article 155 of the Air Navigation Order 2005 (SI 2005 No. 1970).

Question reference: S2W-21625

Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 December 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 26 January 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how much it has invested in civil contingency planning in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority.

Civil contingency planning is part of the core business of each local responder with responsibility for planning and responding to emergencies. Resources are provided to responder organisations through general funding mechanisms.

The Executive provides general funding to local authorities for all local services, including civil contingency planning, through the annual local government finance settlements.

Under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 the Strategic Co-ordinating Groups (based on Police areas) have responsibility to work together to plan for and respond to emergencies in their area. Further civil contingencies funding is available to support implementation of the Civil Contingencies Act and promote co-ordination between local responders within and between the eight Strategic Co-ordinating Groups across Scotland.

Civil Contingencies Funding

Year	Funding (000)
1999-2000	£2,250
2000-01	£2,250
2001-02	£2,250
2002-03	£2,412
2003-04	£2,750
2004-05	£2,734
2005-06	£2,098
2006-07	£2,578
2007-08	£2,708

From 2005-06 onwards, the civil contingencies budget does not include £1m which is given direct to the Met Office as part of consolidated funding process.

Information on Civil Contingencies funding is not available broken down by local authority area.

In agreement with COSLA the civil defence grant has formed part of local government core funding since 2001. An identified amount within that budget (£574,000) was used to fund key Police emergency planning roles in strategic areas across Scotland. From 2005-06 the equivalent amount was transferred to police Central Government and will be apportioned to police authorities in consultation with Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland.

Civil Defence Grant

Year	Funding (000)
1999-2000	£2,700
2000-01	£2,700
2001-02	£574
2002-03	£574
2003-04	£574
2004-05	£574
2005-06	-
2006-07	-
2007-08	-