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-09438

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 February 2008
Current Status: Answered by Alex Johnstone on 20 February 2008

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what the total cost has been of repairs and alterations to the Holyrood building since its opening in October 2004 and whether it will itemise these costs; whether there have been any snagging costs, and whether it will itemise the estimated costs of all planned repairs and alterations.

The information is not available in the exact form requested and the cost of itemising individual repairs and alterations would be disproportionate. The total cost of maintenance and alterations to the Holyrood building since its opening in October 2004 is £3,343,621.86, as shown in the table below. These figures include alterations to the building made to take account of occupants' needs.

	Fabric Maintenance	Mechanical and Electrical Maintenance	Landscape and Change Projects
2004-05	£0.00	£0.00	£223,562.56
2005-06	£133,628.80	£713,157.52	£243,285.66
2006-07	£315,185.68	£558,197.95	£278,095.80
2007-08	£218,379.13	£479,997.15	£180,131.61
Sub-Total	£667,193.61	£1,751,352.62	£925,075.63

The position on snagging and defects was fully explained in the Presiding Officer's statement to MSPs of 21 February 2007 on the Holyrood Project Closure, where it was reported that, from October 2004, some 45,000 snags were identified by the design team. Most of these were minor in nature but it would not be practicable to itemise each one along with costs. Since responsibility for rectification of snags lay with the trade contractors, the cost was included within the final cost of the project, reported by the Presiding Officer in February 2007, of £414.4 million.

Estimates for costs of future maintenance have been made, but are considered to be commercially confidential as competitive tender exercises for future maintenance are currently underway.

Question reference: S3W-08780

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 January 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 6 February 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many motorists have been banned from driving in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S3W-08779

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 January 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 5 February 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many motorists have been charged with driving while banned from driving in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S3W-08189

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 January 2008
Current Status: Answered by Elish Angiolini on 30 January 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive in how many criminal prosecutions in each of the last three years the Crown Office or Procurator Fiscal Service has made use of low copy number DNA in pursuing a prosecution.

The Crown Office andProcurator Fiscal Service’s Case Management Database does not include searchableinformation about individual types of evidence used by the prosecution, nor aboutevidence used in pursuing a prosecution.

We have, however,been able to establish that low copy number DNA has been used in the course of threecriminal investigations in the last three years – the prosecution in 2005 of LukeMitchell and the prosecutions in 2007 of Angus Sinclair and Vincent Simpson. Lowcopy number DNA was only actually led in evidence in the trials of Luke Mitchelland Vincent Simpson.

Question reference: S3W-08190

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 January 2008
Current Status: Answered by Elish Angiolini on 30 January 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions the Crown Office has had with other UK jurisdictions in respect of the implications of the ruling in the recent Omagh bombing case for the reliability of low copy number DNA and what the outcome has been of any such discussions.

Crown Office officialshave carried out an internal review of criminal cases and investigations involvingthe use of low copy number DNA and will liaise as appropriate with other agenciesin the United Kingdom in relation to the approach to be taken when information fromlow copy number DNA analysis is being considered as potential evidence in criminalproceedings, and the prescribed standards to which all suppliers of such informationmust adhere to, to validate their techniques.

Question reference: S3W-08379

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 January 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 23 January 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on the destination of leavers from higher education institutions, broken down by (a) mode of study, (b) level of qualification, (c) domicile and (d) institution, as shown in the DLHE survey, showing also the (i) the full-time paid work category broken down into (A) graduate and (B) non-graduate type work and (ii) UK destination category broken down into (A) Scotland and (B) the rest of the United Kingdom, for each academic year from 2002-03 to 2005-06, giving unrounded data and highlighting any major problems of low response.

1. The informationrequested is given in tables 1 to 5 of Destinations of graduates from Scottish universities:2002-03 to 2005-06, a copy ofwhich has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number44474).

2. The Destinations of Leaversfrom Higher Education (DLHE) is a voluntary annual survey conducted by Higher Education StatisticsAgency (HESA) of all graduates and their destinations six months after graduation.The data contained within the survey refers only to those graduates who respondedto the survey.

3. The coverage of the DLHE survey is limited to qualifiers of UK and other European Union (EU) domicile. It excludesthose domiciled outside the EU. Qualifiers from part-time study programmes are included.

For DLHE in 2005-06 there were 262,635 valid responses in the UK from a possible total of 350,995 qualifiers from full-time programmes,a percentage with known destinations of 74.8% (2004-05: 76.0%; 2003-04: 77.3%).There were 65,120 valid responses from a possible total of 94,920 qualifiers frompart-time programmes, a percentage with known destinations of 68.6% (67.5%; 68.2%).In total there were 327,760 valid responses from 445,910 qualifiers, giving a survey-widefigure of 73.5% (74.2%; 75.5%). There is no evidence that response numbers fromScottish universities are different.

ResponseRates to the DLHE Survey by Mode of Study and Domicile: 2005-06

	Responses	Qualifiers	Rate
Full-time UK	253,960	322,745	78.70%
Full-time other EU	14,520	28,250	51.40%
Part-time UK	66,175	91,455	72.40%
Part-time other EU	1,745	3,465	50.40%

Source: HigherEducation Statistics Agency (HESA).

Note: Figures inthis table have been rounded to the nearest five.

3. Student and graduate datais supplied to Scottish Government by HESA and is on condition that figures arerounded to the nearest 5. 0, 1, 2 have been rounded to 0.

Question reference: S3W-08256

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 January 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 21 January 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will review its use of low copy number DNA, in light of recent developments in other judiciaries in the United Kingdom.

Low copy number (LCN) DNA analysisis not performed by any of the Scottish Forensic Science Laboratories but, if itis believed that such analysis could be appropriate in any case, police forces inScotland may send DNA samples to other forensic service providers. This would bean operational decision for the police, as would any review of that practice. Forits interests, the Crown Office and ProcuratorFiscal Service is currently looking at recent developments relating to LCN DNA analysisto assess the implications.

Question reference: S3W-08191

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 January 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 21 January 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it monitors the extent to which the Scottish Police Services Authority and Chief Constables properly follow the requirements of employment law and human rights legislation in respect of people who have acted as whistle blowers within their respective organisations.

Compliance by individual publicbodies with employment law and human rights legislation is a matter for those bodies.Guidance on a range of relevant issues has been provided in On Board: A Guide for Board Membersof Public Bodies in Scotland(available at www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/07/11153800/55).For the Scottish Police ServicesAuthority, this has been supplemented specifically by the Scottish Police Services Authority’sManagement Statement (available at www.spsa.police.uk/documents/66).Police authorities, as the relevant bodies with responsibility for employment lawin relation to police officers, are required to observe the requirements of localgovernment law in relation to human rights, equalities and all other legal stipulationswhich apply to local authorities and this is set out in Guidance for Members of Police Authoritiesand Joint Police Boards, (available at www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/committees/justice/papers-07/jup07-07.pdf).Police staff are employed by individual forces and for these staff, each force hasin place policies, processes and procedures to ensure compliance with all aspectsof employment legislation.

Question reference: S3W-08192

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 January 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 21 January 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether any fingerprint experts who still support the fingerprint identifications of Shirley McKie and Marion Ross remain employed by the Scottish Police Services Authority and, if so, whether they are authorised to appear as expert witnesses for the Crown and whether it is satisfied that they are competent to do so.

Question reference: S3W-08193

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 January 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 21 January 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether any remedial action has been taken by the Scottish Police Services Authority in respect of any of its fingerprint experts who gave written or oral evidence to the Justice 1 Committee’s Scottish Criminal Record Office and Scottish Fingerprint Service inquiry stating that their colleagues’ fingerprint identifications of Shirley McKie and Marion Ross were correct and what the reasons are for its position on the matter.

	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06
Scotland	17,612	22,338	20,997	19,607	18,064

	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06
Scotland	2,656	3,166	3,002	2,747	2,408