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-30747

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 December 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 5 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will provide a substantive answer to my question S2W-29639 which was due for answer on 20 November 2006.

Question reference: S2W-30427

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 December 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 22 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to improve Government Expenditure and Revenue in Scotland in line with the UK Government’s plans to create an independent board to enhance confidence in government statistics, as announced in the Queen’s Speech.

I refer the member to the questionS2W-30426 answered on 21 December 2006. All answers to written parliamentary questions areavailable on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can befound at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Government Expenditure andRevenue in Scotland is based on the latest available, official fiscaldata. The estimates for government expenditure and revenues are produced using methodologicalbest practice which is subject to on-going review.

Question reference: S2W-29712

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 21 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many applicants to medical schools there have been in each year since 1997

The following table shows thenumber of applicants to Scottish medical schools for each year since 1997.

Year	Applicants to Scottish Medical Schools
1997	4,566
1998	4,735
1999	4,481
2000	3,566
2001	3,525
2002	3,741
2003	3,796
2004	4,686
2005	5,396

Source: Universities and CollegesAdmissions Service (UCAS).

Question reference: S2W-30364

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 December 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 21 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will provide a substantive answer to my question S2W-25316 which was due for answer on 5 May 2006.

Question reference: S2W-25316

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 April 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 21 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive on how many occasions Scottish ministers have travelled abroad on ministerial business; what the duration, purpose and cost was of each visit, and what the size was of each ministerial entourage that travelled with each minister.

I apologise for the excessivedelay in responding to this question. The information in the tables is complex anddetailed. It covers the full range of overseas visits including routine officialvisits to Brussels back to 1999, covering a great number of people, many of whomare no longer in post. It has also been checked carefully for accuracy.

It is important forministers to travel overseas to engage with other parts of the world and to promoteScotland as a place to visit, to live, work and study as well as do business. Ministersonly travel overseas after the First Minister has given his approval.

I have placed tables showingthe information requested from 1999 up to the end of financial year 2005-06 in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number41207). The information is also being publishedon the Scottish Executive website.

The cost given for each visitincludes ministers’ flight, accommodation and other expenses.

Engagements marked * were atzero cost to the Executive; the costs of members’ attendance at Committee of theRegions meetings are paid for by the Committee of the Regions.

Before any overseas engagementis approved, it must represent good value for the Executive and the taxpayer.

Question reference: S2W-30471

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 December 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 21 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-29972 by Mr Tom McCabe on 4 December 2006, whether HM Treasury has had any input into the plans of Scottish ministers which contain the Executive’s strategies for stronger engagement with the USA and China.

Question reference: S2W-30459

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 December 2006
Current Status: Answered by Elish Angiolini on 21 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-29649 by Elish Angiolini QC on 21 November 2006, whether any inquiries have been carried out into either alleged or actual misidentification of fingerprint evidence by the Scottish Criminal Record Office in relation to any crime in the Kilmarnock area, other than in relation to any current proceedings, within the last 20 years and, if so, when and to whom they were reported and what recommendations were made.

Question reference: S2W-30463

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 December 2006
Current Status: Answered by Elish Angiolini on 21 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-29649 by Elish Angiolini QC on 21 November 2006, whether there are any inquiries currently under way into either alleged or actual misidentification of fingerprint evidence by the Scottish Criminal Record Office in relation to any crime in the Kilmarnock area and, if so, how many.

In 2003, inquiries were carriedout into the fingerprint evidence provided by the Scottish Criminal Record Office(SCRO) in the case against Mark Sinclair, which arose in the Kilmarnock area.The Crown did not use the fingerprint evidence provided by SCRO on that occasion.

In 2006, the fingerprint evidenceprovided by SCRO in the Sinclair case was passed to the Police Service of NorthernIreland for further consideration, and that process is on-going.

I am not aware of any similarenquiries either on-going or having been carried out in the past 20 years in relationto any crime in the Kilmarnock area.

Question reference: S2W-30465

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 December 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 21 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many police officers have been employed in each police force area in each year since 1980.

The information requested isshown in the following tables.

Police Officer Numbers

At 31 December	1980	1981	1982	1983	1984	1985	1986
Central	512	516	529	538	542	550	549
Dumfries and Galloway	308	307	310	313	310	330	338
Fife	655	645	650	647	654	670	725
Grampian	928	941	937	948	962	970	995
Lothian and Borders	2,398	2,388	2,393	2,396	2,387	2,394	2,442
Northern	608	599	596	589	611	606	610
Strathclyde	6,882	6,845	6,833	6,816	6,792	6,816	6,769
Tayside	970	953	964	961	967	968	1,000
Total	13,261	13,194	13,212	13,208	13,225	13,304	13,428

At 31 December	1987	1988	1989	1990	1991	1992	1993
Central	571	599	619	641	636	649	657
Dumfries and Galloway	348	347	348	357	370	387	386
Fife	741	751	754	753	775	786	786
Grampian	1,017	1,028	1,084	1,138	1.150	1,194	1,193
Lothian and Borders	2,414	2,397	2,486	2,463	2,522	2,561	2,558
Northern	607	615	625	632	633	636	658
Strathclyde	6,773	6,768	6,887	6,804	6,790	6,797	6,823
Tayside	1,005	1,013	1,011	1,053	1,047	1,084	1,078
Total	13,476	13,518	13,814	13,841	13,923	14,094	14,139

At 31 December then from 1996 at 30 September	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000
Central	654	656	657	686	703	719	721
Dumfries and Galloway	390	391	390	412	439	437	451
Fife	789	789	790	831	855	846	837
Grampian	1,191	1,194	1,172	1,173	1,193	1,249	1,215
Lothian and Borders	2,556	2,539	2,534	2,691	2,691	2,615	2,584
Northern	643	649	640	649	657	660	653
Strathclyde	7,003	7,014	7,216	7,231	7,299	7,135	7,101
Tayside	1,087	1,091	1,113	1,116	1,143	1,149	1,137
Total	14,313	14,323	14,512	14,789	14,980	14,810	14,699

Police Numbers

As at 30 September	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
Central	719	732	745	777	830	865
Dumfries and Galloway	474	478	481	474	477	500
Fife	883	917	945	988	1,001	1,036
Grampian	1,274	1,271	1,280	1,358	1,371	1,408
Lothian and Borders	2,646	2,708	2,708	2,771	2,808	2,791
Northern	679	696	671	692	709	716
Strathclyde	7,298	7,349	7,404	7,527	7,703	7,770
Tayside	1,164	1,173	1,151	1,154	1,164	1,175
Total	15,137	15,324	15,385	15,741	16,063	16,261

Source: Strength Returns fromforces.

Note: Numbers shown as headcountto 1999 then from September 2000 whole-time equivalent.

Question reference: S2W-30462

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 December 2006
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 21 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress is being made on negotiating the capital costs and payment terms for the capital investment in the extension and upgrade of accident and emergency facilities at Hairmyres and Wishaw hospitals and whether these details will be made public when an agreement has been reached with the PFI contractor.

NHS Lanarkshire are in the earlystages of the business case process which I asked them to pursue when I approvedtheir proposals for the future direction of health services in Lanarkshire.

Business cases, once approvedby the department’s Capital Investment Group, will be made available in accordancewith the Health Department’s policy on openness and the publication of businesscases and in compliance with the terms of the Freedom of Information (Scotland)Act 2002.