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-24579

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 22 May 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S2W-23895 and S2W-23896 by Cathy Jamieson on 20 March 2006, whether “reliable information is readily available only from 1999” indicates that the Scottish Prison Service holds figures for the period prior to 1999 but that these are not as readily available as the figures for the period from 1999 and, if so, whether it will now provide the (a) staffing levels at the headquarters of the Scottish Prison Service and (b) number of prison officers employed, broken down by year between 1990 and 1999.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

The only detailed records readilyavailable to us are from 2000 onwards, and previous questions (S2W-23895 and S2W-23896)were answered on that basis.

The only other readily availablesource of information prior to this date are the SPS Annual Reports and Accountsfor 1990 onwards, which are available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. numbers 39624, 39625, 39626, 39627,39628, 39629, 39630, 34446).

All answersto written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, thesearch facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Question reference: S2W-25302

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 April 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 19 May 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-23155 by Cathy Jamieson on 20 March 2006, whether it will provide details of when it became “a basic principle of Scots law that neither party to a litigation is obliged to disclose reports commissioned for the purpose of the litigation”; who decided to adopt this principle, and why it prevents it from voluntarily publishing these reports.

The principles of Scots law,reflecting its common law tradition, have been developed and refined over time throughcase law. Relevant cases in this instance include Young v NationalCoal Board 1957 SLT 266, Johnstone v National Coal Board 1968SLT 233 and More v Brown & Root Wimpey Highland Fabricators Limited1983 SLT 669.

I also refer the member to theanswers to questions S2W-23155 on 20 March 2006and S2W-25240 on 11 May 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.

Question reference: S2W-25620

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 May 2006
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 17 May 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has had any discussions with HM Government about the privatisation of Scottish Water.

Question reference: S2W-25795

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 May 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 17 May 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many children were adopted in each local authority area in each year between 1995 and 2005 and, of these, how many have been diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder.

The number of childrenadopted in each local authority area in each year between 1995 and 2003 isshown in table 1. Information after 2003 broken down by local authority area,and information about the number of children adopted with autistic spectrumdisorder, is not held centrally.

Table 1: Number of Granted AdoptionApplications by Local Authority, 1995 to 2003.

Local Authority	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
Aberdeen City	27	26	25	26	24	26	16	15	15
Aberdeenshire	34	32	31	34	30	32	20	19	19
Angus	21	12	11	10	6	3	8	7	10
Argyll and Bute	6	7	4	8	5	3	10	5	1
Clackmannanshire	7	9	8	4	6	4	7	2	4
Dumfries and Galloway	25	32	14	15	11	16	10	10	21
Dundee City	11	11	10	6	14	15	12	11	4
East Ayrshire	19	17	9	12	6	8	13	8	9
East Dunbartonshire	8	11	7	7	7	7	9	6	8
East Lothian	10	8	3	15	11	9	7	3	9
East Renfrewshire	8	10	8	7	6	7	7	7	3
Edinburgh, City of	30	25	26	28	34	24	22	14	25
Eilean Siar	4	6	1	3	5	1	3	4	3
Falkirk	13	23	20	12	8	4	6	11	3
Fife	54	40	32	33	46	29	34	33	38
Glasgow City	41	58	38	36	36	39	47	30	40
Highland	20	27	22	18	21	15	15	19	17
Inverclyde	1	9	12	3	5	5	4	6	4
Midlothian	6	5	6	6	8	5	5	3	6
Moray	19	10	10	19	15	15	5	9	10
North Ayrshire	22	20	11	14	7	10	15	9	11
North Lanarkshire	25	19	22	20	29	19	24	18	30
Orkney Islands	0	3	0	2	1	0	1	0	2
Perth and Kinross	16	13	13	18	14	20	9	16	7
Renfrewshire	17	21	15	13	12	15	14	15	7
Scottish Borders	17	12	10	18	11	17	23	14	10
Shetland Islands	1	6	1	5	1	6	0	3	1
South Ayrshire	16	15	8	10	5	7	11	7	8
South Lanarkshire	23	17	21	19	26	17	22	17	28
Stirling	10	6	8	9	2	8	5	14	5
West Dunbartonshire	7	9	6	6	6	6	8	5	6
West Lothian	17	14	11	22	19	6	23	12	7
Total	535	534	423	458	438	399	414	351	370

Note: Datacollected from sheriff court areas mapped to local authority areas.

Question reference: S2W-25794

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 May 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 17 May 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what current targets are in respect of the adoption of children in each local authority area.

Question reference: S2W-25542

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 May 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 17 May 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S2W-20247, S2W-23158, S2W-23156 and S2W-24271 by Cathy Jamieson on 9 November 2005, 17 February, 10 March and 4 April 2006 respectively and given that the disputed fingerprint was alleged to be that of Shirley McKie, whether any other disagreement exists within the Scottish Fingerprint Service with regard to the Marion Ross murder case.

It is a matter of public recordthat the fingerprint designated Y7 and initially attributed to Shirley McKie, andin relation to which the Scottish ministers have acknowledged that there was a misidentification,continues to be the subject of disagreement within the Scottish Fingerprint Service.As regards the other fingerprints associated with the Marion Ross murder case, weare aware that there are different views within the Scottish Fingerprint Serviceabout the print designated QI2 and attributed to Marion Ross.

Question reference: S2W-25740

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 May 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 17 May 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many children with autistic spectrum disorder there were in each year since 1990, broken down by (a) local authority and (b) NHS board area.

The information requested inrelation to children and young people in publicly funded primary, secondary andspecial schools who have Individualised Educational Programmes and/or Records ofNeeds with autistic spectrum disorder recorded as their main difficulty in learning,is set out in tables entitled Numbers of Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorderby Local Authority Area and Numbers of Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorderby Health Board area which are available from the Scottish ParliamentInformation Centre (Bib. numbers 39592 and 39593 respectively).

The numbers of children who arenot in education in each health board area are not available centrally.

Question reference: S2W-25303

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 April 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 17 May 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-23155 by Cathy Jamieson on 20 March 2006, whether it will now reconsider its decision not to publish the MacLeod reports and the other report referred to, in light of the public comments made in the Scotsman newspaper on 27 March 2006 by the former Solicitor General for Scotland and High Court Judge, Lord McCluskey, that this rule “has no bearing whatsoever outside the confines of a live litigation in court”, that “there is absolutely no rule or basic principle of Scots law that prevents the Scottish Executive from making the reports in question available to MSPs” and that “Ministers cannot plead confidentiality when the litigation in question is finished and the taxpayer has paid over a million pounds in damages and expenses”.

Question reference: S2W-25299

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 April 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 16 May 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-22317 by Cathy Jamieson on 31 January 2006, whether it will now provide details of complaints about the internal workings of the Scottish Criminal Record Office (SCRO) by current and former employees of SCRO which were raised either with ministers or senior managers within SCRO but outwith formal grievance procedures, including details on how many such complaints there were in each of the last 10 years, what the precise nature was of any such complaints, to whom they were reported, who dealt with them, what the outcome was in each case and what position the complainant held at the time of the complaint.

The only complaint of this natureof which we are aware is the complaint to which reference is made in the answerto question S2W-23612 on 20 April 2006. In addition, some of the representations received aboutthe McKie case have been made by, or on behalf of current and former employees ofSCRO.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.

Question reference: S2W-25298

Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 April 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 16 May 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-23439 by Cathy Jamieson on 7 March 2006 and given that the outstanding issues have now been resolved, whether it will now provide a breakdown of the total costs to it of legal representation which it sought in defence of the compensation claim against it by Shirley McKie.

The following table shows a breakdownof costs incurred by the Scottish Executive to date in defence of the compensationclaim against it by Shirley McKie. Figures have been rounded up to the nearest poundand include VAT.

Category	Cost
Court dues	£1,073
Counsels’ fees	£141, 206
Expert Witness fees	£81,751
Printing costs	£375
Law accountants	£80
Agents’ fees	£44,342
Witnesses’ expenses	£750
Other outlays	£571
Total	£270,148