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-15442

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 21 March 2005
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 5 April 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what the latest estimate is of the number of 16 to 19-year-olds not in education, training or employment, broken down by area.

The most accurate measurement of those aged 16-19 not in education training or employment (NEET) is taken from the 2001 Census of population. Table 1 gives the number of NEET as measured by the 2001 Census.

In November 2004 the Annual Scottish Labour Force Survey 2003 (ASLFS) was published. This ASLFS was the first Labour Force Survey to contain a Scottish enhancement to the survey size. This allowed the number of NEET in 14 local authority areas to be estimated for the first time. The data from the ASLFS is also included in Table 1. The ASLFS data is more up to date than the Census data, however, there is still a large degree of uncertainty around these estimates as they are based on relatively small sample sizes.

Table 1 Number of 16-19 year olds not in Education, Employment or Training by Local Authority Area, 2003

	NEET Census 2001	NEET LFS 2003
Scotland	33,391	35,000
Aberdeen City	1,083	**
Aberdeenshire	946	**
Angus	659	1,000
Argyll and Bute	415	1,000
Scottish Borders, The	483	1,000
Clackmannanshire	402	**
West Dunbartonshire	800	1,000
Dumfries and Galloway	948	**
Dundee City	1,168	**
East Ayrshire	944	1,000
East Dunbartonshire	397	1,000
East Lothian	498	**
East Renfrewshire	293	1,000
Edinburgh, City of	2,223	**
Falkirk	1,027	**
Fife	2,421	**
Glasgow City	5,974	6,000
Highland	1,100	**
Inverclyde	651	1,000
Midlothian	451	1,000
Moray	485	**
North Ayrshire	1,181	1,000
North Lanarkshire	2,661	4,000
Orkney Islands	66	**
Perth and Kinross	577	**
Renfrewshire	1,052	**
Shetland Islands	77	**
South Ayrshire	712	1,000
South Lanarkshire	2,025	**
Stirling	393	1,000
West Lothian	1,177	**
Eilean Siar (Western Isles)	102	**

Note: ** Estimate is below reliability threshold as defined by the Office for National Statistics.

Labour Force Survey data is rounded to the nearest thousand.

Question reference: S2W-15195

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 March 2005
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 31 March 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-14923 by Ms Margaret Curran on 10 March 2005, whether it will publish the percentage of replies to ministerial correspondence issued in 20 working days, broken down by minister.

The information for correspondencereceived in the month of January 2005 is contained in the table:

Minister	Percentage of Replies Issued in 20 Working Days
Rhona Brankin	88%
Malcolm Chisholm	86%
Margaret Curran	0%*
Patricia Ferguson	60%
Ross Finnie	93%
Hugh Henry	82%
Cathy Jamieson	87%
Andy Kerr	92%
Johann Lamont	72%
Lewis Macdonald	53%
Tom McCabe	85%
Jack McConnell	48%
Peter Peacock	91%
Euan Robson	84%
Tavish Scott	86%
Nicol Stephen	51%
Jim Wallace	69%
Allan Wilson	83%
Total	73%

Notes: *Refers to one case.

Question reference: S2W-15449

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 21 March 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 30 March 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what its estimate is of the consequential funding under the Barnett formula of the decision announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Budget 2005 to subsidise free local bus travel for pensioners for each of the next three financial years.

Question reference: S2W-15582

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 March 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 30 March 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive which part of its budget funds fatal accident inquiries.

Question reference: S2W-15288

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 March 2005
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 30 March 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many instances of truancy have been recorded in each of the last 10 years in (a) Scotland and (b) each local authority area.

This information was not collected prior to 2003-04. Data for 2003-04 is given in the following table.

	Half Days Absence Due to Truancy¹
Aberdeen City	88,103
Aberdeenshire	53,788
Angus	64,317
Argyll and Bute	12,136
Clackmannanshire	38,251
Dumfries and Galloway	47,470
Dundee City	10,494
East Ayrshire	17,019
East Dunbartonshire	8,129
East Lothian	55,114
East Renfrewshire	5,054
Edinburgh, City of	250,287
Eilean Siar	4,686
Falkirk	142,571
Fife	172,586
Glasgow City	152,008
Highland	71,133
Inverclyde	8,558
Midlothian	15,473
Moray	35,857
North Ayrshire	36,448
North Lanarkshire	81,035
Orkney Islands	11,935
Perth and Kinross	84,433
Renfrewshire	21,689
Scottish Borders	38,967
Shetland Islands	2,342
South Ayrshire	120,995
South Lanarkshire	33,899
Stirling	22,550
West Dunbartonshire	16,245
West Lothian	55,372
Grant aided	21
Scotland	1,778,965

Note: 1. Data does not include grant aided special schools.

Question reference: S2W-15387

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 18 March 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 30 March 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on the percentage of total government spending in Scotland that its block grant (a) constituted in each year since 1999 and (b) will constitute in the next five years.

Such information as is available is published in the Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses (PESA) produced by HM Treasury and available on their website at: http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/economic_data_and_tools/ finance_spending_statistics/pes_publications/pespub_index.cfm.

This gives details of total government spending in Scotland. The most recent in the series, PESA 2004, contains data up to 2002-03. Details on the size of the block grant are available, for example, in our own budget publications, in the Scotland Office Annual Report, and in various Treasury publications.

In 2002-03, the most recent year for which both pieces of information are available, total identifiable government spending in Scotland was around £33.25 billion, of which the block grant comprised around £18 billion, or 54%.

Question reference: S2W-15313

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 March 2005
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 29 March 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what measures it is taking to implement the European Landscape Convention.

Question reference: S2W-15581

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 March 2005
Current Status: Awaiting answer

To ask the Scottish Executive what the costs have been of each fatal accident inquiry carried out in each of last six years.

Question reference: S2W-15249

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 14 March 2005
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 18 March 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many primary and secondary pupils have been enrolled in schools in each of the last five years and what the estimated number is for each of the next five years.

Details of the number of primary and secondary pupils enrolled in schools in each of the last five years are set out in the census bulletin Pupils in Scotland 2003 which can be accessed by the following link http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bulletins/00350-01.asp.

Projections of pupil numbers are set out in the publication Results of Teacher Workforce Planning for 2005-06 which can be accessed by the following link:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bulletins/00401-01.asp.

Question reference: S2W-14881

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 March 2005
Current Status: Answered by George Reid on 15 March 2005

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether it has considered how to take forward the proposal by Lord Fraser in his report on the Holyrood project that section 21 of the Scotland Act 1998 should be amended in respect of its powers and whether it has any plans to initiate a debate on this matter in the Parliament.

This matter has been considered. As it is not foreseeable that the SPCB would ever be responsible for another project of this magnitude and significance it was thought unlikely that wider powers in this respect would be needed. This decision was intimated to the Convener of the Finance Committee in my letter of 24 February.

The SPCB has no plans to initiate a debate on this matter in the Parliament.