- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 09 January 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 23 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish the sickness rate in each of the last five years in the (a) Scottish Criminal Records Office and (b) fingerprint bureaux in (i) Glasgow, (ii) Aberdeen, (iii) Dundee and (iv) Edinburgh.
Answer
The information available for sickness rates in the Scottish Criminal Record Office and the four fingerprint bureaux is shown below:
Scottish Criminal Record Office – All Staff, including Fingerprint Officers
| Year to 31 March 2005 | 7.29% |
| Year to 31 March 2004 | 8.39% |
| Year to 31 March 2003 | 6.67% |
| Year to 31 March 2002 | 6.24% |
Fingerprint Bureaux
Aberdeen
| Year to 31 March 2005 | 1.3% |
| Year to 31 March 2004 | 1.7% |
Dundee
| Year to 31 March 2005 | 4.10% |
| Year to 31 March 2004 | 2.80% |
Edinburgh
| Year to 31 March 2005 | 8.0% |
| Year to 31 March 2004 | 7.9% |
Glasgow
| Year to 31 March 2005 | 13.63% |
| Year to 31 March 2004 | 11.13% |
It has not been possible to separate out the figures for sick leave in the four fingerprint bureaux prior to April 2003.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 09 January 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by John Scott on 23 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether it will provide a breakdown of the legal costs referred to in Table 2 on page 10 of the Scottish Parliamentary Standards Commissioner’s 2004-05 Annual Report; whether the external use of lawyers was subject to a competitive tendering process, and for which of the cases referred to in the annual report external lawyers were required.
Answer
Following a competitive tendering process in 2003, the SPCB approved the commissioner’s determination to appoint Anderson Strathern as his legal advisers. In one case, a separate firm, Simpson and Marwick were used because of a potential conflict of interest. A breakdown of the legal costs referred to in table 2 of the commissioner’s Annual report is below. To maintain confidentiality, the invoices processed by the SPCB for individual cases are anonymised and we are therefore unable to identify which cases referred to in the annual report required external advice from lawyers.
| Invoice Date | Invoice Number | Amount (inc VAT) |
| 26/04/2004 | PSC0001.14 | £148.05 |
| 26/04/2004 | PSC0001.4 | £27.00 |
| 21/07/2004 | PSC0001.13 | £2,231.33 |
| 21/07/2004 | PSC0001.14 | £521.70 |
| 21/07/2004 | PSC0001.15 | £587.50 |
| 05/8/2004 | SC040173/1 | £881.25 |
| 05/11/2004 | PSC0001.1 | £1,165.60 |
| 05/11/2004 | PSC0001.13 | £1,623.85 |
| 05/11/2004 | PSC0001.2 | £1,903.50 |
| 14/01/2005 | RIM/75/04 | £2,474.55 |
| 14/01/2005 | RIM/126/04 | £2,245.43 |
| 10/01/2005 | PSC0001.12 | £712.05 |
| 10/01/2005 | PSC0001.13 | £573.40 |
| 14/04/2005 | PSC0001.12 | £1,943.45 |
| 14/04/2005 | PSC0001.13 | £1,043.40 |
| 14/04/2005 | PSC0001.16 | £5,157.67 |
| 14/04/2005 | PSC0001.17 | £536.98 |
| 14/04/2005 | PSC0001.18 | £1,128.00 |
| 18/04/2005 | SCO40173/2 | £1,762.50 |
| Total | £26,667.21 |
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 09 January 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by John Scott on 23 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether it will provide a breakdown of the other running costs referred to in Table 2 on page 10 of the Scottish Parliamentary Standards Commissioner’s 2004-05 Annual Report.
Answer
A breakdown of the other running costs referred to in table 2 on page 10 of the Scottish Parliamentary Standard’s 2004-05 Annual Report are as follows:
| Other Running Costs | 2003-04 (£) | 2004-05 (£) |
| Conferences/training | 320 | 745 |
| Printing/translation | | 2,577 |
| Travel and Expenses | 1,360 | 2,938 |
| Capital Costs (Transcription equipment and printer) | 1,465 | |
| Transcriptions | 437 | 989 |
| Consumables (stationery, ink cartridges) | 130 | 320 |
| Accounting adjustments | | -901 |
| Total | 3,712 | 6,668 |
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 23 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to questions S2W-21582 by Cathy Jamieson on 22 December 2005, why there have been no discussions with representatives of the US Government, given that the allegations involved pertain to their agencies.
Answer
No reliable and credible information has been provided to any Scottish law enforcement agency to support the allegations that US flights carrying alleged terrorist detainees overseas to be tortured have stopped to refuel at Scottish airports. In light of this, the Scottish Executive has not discussed such allegations with representatives of the US government.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 December 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 23 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S2W-15618 and S2W-20862 by Cathy Jamieson on 4 April and 12 December 2005, how the Scottish Prison Service can confirm that it has at all times met its contractual commitment of employing one of more registered mental health nurses whilst stating that the contract does not require the contractor to employ registered mental health nurses but does commit the contractor to having “nursing staff with mental nursing skills and qualifications”.
Answer
I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:
My answer to S2W-15618 confirmed that Kilmarnock Prison Services Ltd had met its contractual commitment in relation to the provision of nursing. The answer to S2W-20862 confirmed what the contractual commitment was. This question asks about the contractual commitments of the SPS in relation to the employment of registered mental health nurses. The SPS has no such contract.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 16 December 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 23 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any information that it will be making available to the European Parliament’s Temporary Committee of Inquiry into allegations of CIA activity in Europe.
Answer
Any request by the European Parliament’s Temporary Committee of Inquiry will be made directly to the UK Government. Should such a request be received, the Scottish Executive will assist in providing any information required to contribute to the UK Government response.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 16 December 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 23 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-21286 by Tavish Scott on 15 December 2005, whether this indicates that it has no plans to build roads for which it is responsible around Kilsyth to improve links from the town to the rest of Scotland.
Answer
The Scottish Executive is not responsible for building local roads around Kilsyth. This is the statutory responsibility of North Lanarkshire Council.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 16 December 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 23 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-21304 by Tavish Scott on 15 December 2005, whether companies are always invited to tender or whether applications are also considered from uninvited companies.
Answer
Candidates are always invited to tender for such contracts.
Transport Scotland has the operational responsibility for this area, and can be contacted for more information if required.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 16 December 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 23 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what evidence there is that the tourism industry will be assisted by virtue of the 2005 G8 summit having been held at Gleneagles.
Answer
The experience of previous G8 summit venues indicates that the long-term effect in tourism terms of playing host to the G8 summit in 2005 will be positive. Through international TV news coverage, it showcased many iconic aspects of what makes this country attractive to visitors. Visits to the visitscotland.com website increased by 17% for the first six days of July 2005 compared to the same period in 2004, equating to an additional 25,000 visits to the website. Hosting G8 further enhanced Scotland’s reputation by demonstrating that we can successfully host the largest of major international events, thus helping to progress our strategic objective for major events of being one of the world’s foremost events destinations by 2015.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 16 December 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 23 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with Her Majesty’s Government in relation to the European Parliament’s Temporary Committee of Inquiry into allegations of CIA activity in Europe.
Answer
The Scottish Executive has not had any discussions with the UK Government in relation to the European Parliaments Temporary Committee of Inquiry into allegations of CIA activity in Europe.
