- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 December 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 15 December 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what its forecast is of economic growth in (a) 2006-07 and (b) 2007-08.
Answer
The Scottish Executive doesnot produce forecasts for GDP growth.
However, according to thefour major independent forecasters monitored by the Executive, Scotland isexpected to experience growth above its long-run annual average in both 2006and 2007.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 December 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 15 December 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what its estimate is of Scotland’s income per head of population.
Answer
The following table presentsestimates of Scotland’s annual income per head of population based on theDepartment for Work and Pensions’ Family Resources Survey.
| Income measure (£ per head) | 2004-05 |
| Gross household income | 12,573 |
| Net disposable household income (before housing costs) | 9,523 |
| Net disposable household income (after housing costs) | 8,428 |
Source: Households BelowAverage Income datasets, DWP, 2004-05.
Notes:
Gross income: Total income from all sources including from tax credits, beforedeductions of income tax and National Insurance.
Net disposableincome: Gross income afterdeductions for income tax, National Insurance Contributions, council tax,pension contributions and maintenance payments.
Housing costs: Net disposable income but withrent/mortgage payments, water charges, structural insurance premiums, ground rentand service charges deducted.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 December 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Des McNulty on 15 December 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how much it intends to spend in each of the next three years in assisting local authorities to encourage community ownership of assets.
Answer
I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland, to respond. Her response is asfollows:
Ministers have agreed tomake £0.5 million available to March 2008,initially targeted on those areas covered by the Regeneration Policy Statement:People and Place, copies of which are available in the Scottish ParliamentInformation Centre (Bib. number 38936)to help build the capacity of smaller community groups in disadvantaged areasto own assets. This will be dispersed with the involvement of local SocialEconomy Partnerships, and will complement the Big Lottery Fund’s £50 milliongrowing community assets programme.
Decisions about fundingbeyond March 2008 will be taken in the light of the next spending review.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 24 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 12 December 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what the impact will be on resources for the development of (a) charities, (b) the arts and (c) other activities funded by the lottery in Scotland of the higher than predicted cost of the 2012 London Olympics.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-30069 on 11 December 2006. All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facilityfor which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 24 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Elish Angiolini on 7 December 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-29700 by Elish Angiolini QC on 22 November 2006, whether any experts or non-expert supervisors within the Scottish Criminal Record Office (SCRO) or any officers of Strathclyde Police liaised with any Lothian and Borders Police, Metropolitan Police or Royal Canadian Mounted Police expert or non-expert personnel or with an agent of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation or any other persons in relation to their examinations for fingerprints related to the Lockerbie investigation, whether at any time any SCRO experts made any preliminary fingerprint examinations of whatever kind or whether any Scottish police scenes of crime or identification bureau personnel examined any material of whatever kind related to the Lockerbie investigation and, if so, for what purpose and what evidence was found.
Answer
Scottish Criminal Record Officefingerprint experts were not involved in the fingerprint examination work in theLockerbie investigation. There is no record of any liaison between SCRO fingerprintexperts or SCRO supervisors and the relevant personnel of Lothian and Borders Police,the Metropolitan Police, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police or the United StatesFederal Bureau of Investigation about the fingerprint evidence in the Lockerbiecase, other than in relation to the delivery on one occasion to the MetropolitanPolice by an SCRO manager of sealed packages containing finger and palmprint forms.
Members of the police investigationteam, including those seconded from Strathclyde Police, were in regular and routinecontact with witnesses in the case throughout the early investigation and the laterpreparations for trial.
Scenes of Crime Officers fromdifferent Scottish police forces took part in the early part of the police investigation.They were involved, in particular, in the recovery of evidence from the crime scene,the post mortem examination and identification of the victims and the photographicrecording of the crime scene.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 24 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 6 December 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether at any time since 1997 the legal or any other expenses of the trade union Unison were authorised to be paid by the Executive or any related body in connection with Unison’s representation of any Scottish Criminal Record Office experts or in connection with any other matter related to the Shirley McKie case and, if so, when, why, for what purpose and on whose authority such monies were paid and how much was paid.
Answer
The Scottish Executive is notaware of any expenses being paid to Unison in connection with the Shirley McKiecase other than those detailed in the answer to question S2W-25336 on 5 June 2006.All answers 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/wa.search.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 20 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 5 December 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with the UK Government on proposals to revert unclaimed revenues from the Standard Life shares issue to a charitable trust or trusts.
Answer
The Scottish Executive isaware that Standard Life has been discussing this issue with HM Revenues and Customsand stands ready to assist if required.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 20 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 5 December 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide a list of meetings attended by the First Minister or any of its other representatives with representatives of the UK Government at which the possibility of a variation in corporation tax for Northern Ireland was discussed, including details of when and where such meetings took place, the participants, any official papers discussed and the conclusions or decisions reached.
Answer
Scottish ministers andofficials are in regular contact in a variety of ways with the UK Governmentand its representatives on a wide range of subjects, both formally andinformally, details of which are not always recorded centrally.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 20 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Margaret Curran on 5 December 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will consider bringing housing associations and transport partnerships within the remit of the Scottish Information Commissioner and the Commissioner for Public Appointments in Scotland and their respective codes of practice.
Answer
The Scottish Executive hasno current plans to bring housing associations and transport partnershipswithin the remit of the Commissioner for Public Appointments in Scotland.
The Scottish Executive isconducting a review of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, which isconsidering a number of aspects about the operation the act, including itscoverage. It would not be appropriate for me to prejudge the outcome of thereview by commenting now on the position of specific organisations.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 17 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 4 December 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what influence HM Treasury had on preparing and drafting the Executive’s strategy documents for stronger engagement with (a) the United States of America and (b) China and whether a secondee from HM Treasury had primary responsibility for these documents.
Answer
The strategies for stronger engagementwith the USA and China are the plans of Scottish ministers and of course weare always happy to share our knowledge and expertise with HM Treasury.
