- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 October 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 23 October 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what the remuneration package is of the post of chairperson of the proposed Scottish Water.
Answer
No appointment can be made until Parliament has approved the Water Industry (Scotland) Bill. As announced on 8 August, ministers intend that the initial appointment should be remunerated at a daily rate of £385, for three days a week in the first year, and for two days a week in the subsequent two years. There will also be pension entitlement equivalent to that currently available to existing water authority chairs.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 October 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 22 October 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive how many people were convicted of shoplifting in each of the past three years and of those, how many were given (a) a custodial sentence, (b) a fine and (c) a caution or admonishment, in (i) Scotland and (ii) each police force area.
Answer
The available information is given in the table. Data for the year 2000 are not yet available.
Persons with a charge proved in Scottish courts where the main offence was shoplifting, by police force area, 1997-99
Year and Outcome | Police force area |
Central | Dumfries and Galloway | Fife | Grampian | Lothian and Borders | Northern | Strathclyde | Tayside | Total |
|
|
1997 |
Custody | 53 | 30 | 75 | 104 | 146 | 34 | 922 | 139 | 1,503 |
Fine | 144 | 38 | 164 | 595 | 794 | 126 | 1,437 | 402 | 3,700 |
Caution or admonishment | 48 | 16 | 26 | 139 | 220 | 27 | 494 | 178 | 1,148 |
Other | 25 | 9 | 41 | 109 | 126 | 30 | 332 | 171 | 843 |
Total | 270 | 93 | 306 | 947 | 1,286 | 217 | 3,185 | 890 | 7,194 |
1998 |
Custody | 79 | 36 | 69 | 163 | 173 | 39 | 1,006 | 118 | 1,683 |
Fine | 120 | 36 | 215 | 669 | 758 | 127 | 1,678 | 298 | 3,901 |
Caution or admonishment | 37 | 24 | 39 | 177 | 184 | 20 | 491 | 135 | 1,107 |
Other | 21 | 13 | 61 | 124 | 143 | 27 | 411 | 120 | 920 |
Total | 257 | 109 | 384 | 1,133 | 1,258 | 213 | 3,586 | 671 | 7,611 |
1999 |
Custody | 113 | 40 | 72 | 137 | 193 | 40 | 1,270 | 126 | 1,991 |
Fine | 147 | 49 | 266 | 433 | 658 | 121 | 1,503 | 324 | 3,501 |
Caution or admonishment | 43 | 23 | 41 | 135 | 149 | 35 | 533 | 117 | 1,076 |
Other | 88 | 23 | 72 | 98 | 166 | 20 | 471 | 143 | 1,081 |
Total | 391 | 135 | 451 | 803 | 1,166 | 216 | 3,777 | 710 | 7,649 |
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 October 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 22 October 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what the estimated annual cost was of all crime against business in each of the past three years.
Answer
There are no regular statistics collected centrally on the costs of crime against businesses. It is therefore not possible to say what the annual cost of crime against businesses has been over the past three years.
In November 1999, the Scottish Executive did, however, publish the results of research into crime against business. The study looked at manufacturing, construction, wholesale and retail, hotels and restaurants and transport and telecommunications. Based on figures provided to the researchers, the cost of crime to Scottish businesses was estimated to have been in the region of £678 million in 1998.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 October 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 22 October 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive how many offences for shoplifting were recorded in each of the past three years in (a) Scotland and (b) each police force area.
Answer
The information requested is given in the following publications:
Table 4A, page 21 of the Statistical Bulletin Recorded Crime in Scotland, 1998 published by the Scottish Executive in March 1999, a copy of which is available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 16613).
Table 4A, page 22 of the Statistical Bulletin Recorded Crime in Scotland, 1999 published by the Scottish Executive in April 2000, a copy of which is available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 7079).
Table 4A, page 21 of the Statistical Bulletin Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2000 published by the Scottish Executive in April 2001, a copy of which is available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 13119).
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 28 September 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Jackie Baillie on 12 October 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the supplementary answer to question S1F-1259 by Henry McLeish on 27 September 2001, whether it will clarify the First Minister's answer in relation to homelessness, that "the underlying trend is down" and how this underlying trend was measured.
Answer
The latest available information on homelessness applications in Scotland up to 31 March 2001 is given in tables 19 and 20 of the most recent edition of
Housing Trends in Scotland, published on 27 September 2001. The bulletin is available from the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 16396) and at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bulletins/00109-00.asp. The following table shows the total number of applications in each of the 3 years to March 2001. The number of applications in 2000-01 is lower than in each of the previous two years.Total homelessness applications 1998-99 to 2000-01
Year | All homelessness applications | Percentage change on previous year |
1998-99 | 45,723 | + 6.0% |
1999-2000 | 45,945 | + 0.5% |
2000-01 | 45,172 | - 1.7% |
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 September 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 10 October 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive how many cleaners are working for the NHSiS currently and how many were at the same point in (a) 1997, (b) 1998, (c) 1999 and (d) 2000.
Answer
Information on the number of cleaners working for NHSScotland is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 21 September 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Wendy Alexander on 5 October 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the statement in its report Connecting Scotland: our broadband future that competition must be encouraged, what measures it plans to take to ensure that local supply procured on a local basis is not monopolised by one company, given that BT plc is the prime owner of local loop technology.
Answer
A formal procurement process has not yet commenced. The Scottish Executive is not in a position to anticipate the content of bidders' proposals. The procurement strategy is to ensure that the solutions procured are those which most appropriately meet the broadband strategy objectives.
Telecommunications companies can take advantage of local loop unbundling and, more generally, it is open to telecommunications companies to offer solutions which involve purchase by themselves from BT. The Executive has also stated that it expects a range of technologies will be required to meet procurement needs in the Pathfinder areas, including, in some instances, solutions which bypass the copper local loop.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 21 September 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Wendy Alexander on 5 October 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive how the development of aggregated broadband procurement for the public sector, as outlined in its report Connecting Scotland: our broadband future, will be affected by existing national agreements such as NHSnet and SuperJANET4.
Answer
NHSScotland has contract arrangements under NHSnet until early 2004. NHSScotland will be exploring with the Digital Scotland Unit of the Scottish Executive, and with NHS suppliers, the options for procurement action before and after current NHSnet contracts expire.
The Scottish Higher Education Funding Council and the Scottish Further Education Funding Council are responsible for the provision of the SuperJANET network in Scotland, and for connections to all further education (FE) and higher education (HE) institutions in Scotland. The most recent FE/HE procurements were too far advanced, and too specialised, to be brought within the Executive's current plans for aggregation. However, the funding councils have agreed with Digital Scotland to seek to co-ordinate future procurements wherever possible.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 21 September 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Wendy Alexander on 5 October 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the report Connecting Scotland; our broadband future, whether the responsibility for upgrading existing services will lie with local telecommunications companies; if so, how they will be financed and by whom and, if not, with whom the responsibility will lie.
Answer
Availability and extension of services is a commercial matter for operators which we would expect to be dependent upon demand. The Executive's strategy, based on the aggregated procurement of public sector connectivity, aims to provide a volume of demand that will help providers make a business case regarding upgrading of existing services.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 21 September 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Wendy Alexander on 5 October 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive how the development of aggregated broadband procurement for the public sector, as outlined in Connecting Scotland: our broadband future, will be affected by the Government Secure Internet and any related tendering process.
Answer
The Government Secure Intranet (GSI), and any related tendering, is a matter for the Office of Government Commerce. We do not anticipate the GSI having an impact on aggregated procurement as anticipated in Connecting Scotland: our broadband future. That procurement is expected to focus on broadband connectivity.