- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 3 December 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will introduce a new water charging structure for business users that rebalances the structure through reducing fixed standing charges whilst increasing volumetric charges.
Answer
AsI said in answer to question S2W-2537 on 25 September 2003, I am currentlyconsidering how best to take forward the recommendation for a publicconsultation on the principles of charging, and I believe that a public debateon these principles, during the course of the next year, could provide one of the building blocks for the next strategic review of charges. One issue to beconsidered in such a consultation would be the balance of fixed and volumetriccharges.
Allanswers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’swebsite, the search facility for which can be found at:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by George Reid on 2 December 2003
To ask the Presiding Officer what the detailed methodology is for allocating space in the new Parliament building (a) between and (b) within the political parties.
Answer
There is separateaccommodation at Holyrood for the Presiding Officer and the Deputy PresidingOfficers in Queensberry House, 18 ministers in towers three and four, and 108 membersin the members’ block. The provision of accommodation is a matter for the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body, but it has agreed to seek the views of the businessmanagers before deciding how the space in the members’ block should beallocated. The allocation of rooms within political parties will be a matter forthe parties themselves.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 14 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 1 December 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-3185 by Mr Tom McCabe on 3 November 2003, what its targets are for reducing the number of delayed discharges in each local authority and NHS board partnership and how each partnership has performed.
Answer
The following table showsthe agreed targets for reducing the number of delayed discharges in each local authorityand NHS Partnership by April 2004.
| Local Authority and NHS Partnership | April 2004 Target |
| Argyll and Clyde | 233 |
| Ayrshire and Arran | 169 |
| Borders | 40 |
| Dumfries and Galloway | 8 |
| Fife | 90 |
| Forth Valley | 100 |
| Grampian | 228 |
| Greater Glasgow | 230 |
| Highland | 54 |
| Lanarkshire | 123 |
| Lothian | 345 |
| Orkney | 7 |
| Shetland | 2 |
| Tayside | 150 |
| Western Isles | 9 |
| Total | 1,788 |
Figures from the most recentISD Scotland census of patients ready for discharge can be found at
http://www.nhsscotland.com/isdonline/files/July03pub.pdf.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 14 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 1 December 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will review the aggregate external finance settlement from April 2004 to reflect additional costs to local authorities arising from any increase in water charges.
Answer
Local authorities wereinformed of their three-year allocations in December 2002, which were theconsequentials of spending review 2002. Discussions with COSLA are starting forspending review 2004 but presently these discussions are still at an earlystage and no decisions have been taken. Funding pressures will be included aspart of these discussions.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by George Reid on 27 November 2003
To ask the Presiding Officer what the up-to-date estimate is of the cost of the new Parliament building.
Answer
The Convener of the HolyroodProgress Group has confirmed that the most up-to-date cost of the newParliament building is £389.4 million, plus a programme contingency of £11.8million. These figures were confirmed in the most recent report to the FinanceCommittee, issued on 24 November 2003.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Mary Mulligan on 27 November 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive when it expects to announce the final decision on the planning application for the site of the former Ravenscraig Steelworks in Motherwell.
Answer
AnAlteration to the Glasgowand the Clyde Valley Structure Plan, which sets the strategic planning policycontext for retail development within a new town centre at Ravenscraig, wasapproved by the Scottish ministers on 24 November.
The Scottishministers advised North Lanarkshire Council, on 26 November, that they werefree to deal with the planning application for redevelopment of the formerRavenscraig Steelworks as they saw fit. It is now for North Lanarkshire Councilto decide whether to grant planning permission.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 07 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 25 November 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S2W-2789 and S2W-2808 by Mr Jim Wallace on 27 October 2003, how the statements in chapter 4 of the Scottish Economic Report September 2003, that “the specific effects (of UK membership of EMU) might be different due to the structure of the Scottish economy” and “in general terms, the implications for Scotland of UK membership of the Euro are similar to the UK as a whole” are consistent.
Answer
All countriesand regions of the UK have variations in their industrialstructures. As such, the specific
effects of monetary union would beanticipated to differ across regions.
Scotland is an integral part of the UK, sharingmacro-economic and fiscal regimes. Similar economic transmission mechanisms wouldbe anticipated to be at play in determining responses to EMU membership.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 October 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 20 November 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what the cost of running the Scottish Criminal Record Office has been in each of the last two years and what the estimated cost is for this year and each of the next three financial years.
Answer
The cost of running the Scottish Criminal Record Office (SCRO) in 2001-02 was £7.7 million gross or£6.7 million net (of recoverable VAT) and in 2002-03 it was £9.07 million grossor £7.94 million net.
Budgetary provision for2003-04 is £10.16 million gross or £9 million net and the current forecast ofoutturn expenditure for 2003-04 is in line with net provision. Plannedprovision for 2004-05 is £9.4 million net and for 2005-06 it is £9.9 million.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 October 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 19 November 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what the total cost will be for this year and the next three financial years of Scottish Enterprise's decision to make their staff pensions non-contributory; when this decision was taken; how many staff will be covered by the new arrangements, and what the approval process was for this decision within both Scottish Enterprise and the Executive.
Answer
Scottish Enterprisehave no plans to introduce a non-contributory pension scheme.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 October 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 19 November 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what performance targets were set for the Scottish Criminal Record Office (SCRO) in each of the last two years; how SCRO performed against each of the targets, and what targets have been set for the current year and each of the next three years.
Answer
Numeric performance targetsset by the SCRO focus on system availability for the Criminal History System,Police National Computer and Automatic Fingerprint Recognition System, asdetailed in the following table for the years 2001-02, 2002-03 and 2003-04.
Qualitative performancemeasurement, systems and processes continue to be developed and reviewed toservice existing and developing customer needs and expectations. A corporate plan for SCRO, which is being developedwith a view to it being in place in 2004, will set targets for the organisationthrough to 2007.
Scottish Criminal RecordOffice - Numeric Performance Targets
| Target | Criminal History System (CHS) | Police National Computer (PNC) | Automatic Fingerprint Recognition (AFR) |
| | To ensure that access to the CHS is available 100% of the working year. | To ensure that access to the PNC is available for 100% of the working year. | Provide fingerprint service confirming identity or otherwise within 2 hours of receiving images in 96% of cases. |
| Performance | | | |
| 2001-02 | Achieved 99.7% | Achieved 99.1% | Achieved 96.5% |
| 2002-03 | Achieved 99.9% | Achieved 99.4% | Achieved 98.05% |
| 2003-04 | Not yet available | Not yet available | Not yet available |
