Chamber and committees

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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: S1W-08215

Asked by: Andrew Welsh, MSP for Angus, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 June 2000
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 21 August 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive what impact the financial recovery plan for Tayside's health services will have on acute services within Tayside and Angus.

Question reference: S1W-07823

Asked by: Andrew Welsh, MSP for Angus, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 June 2000
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 27 July 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive what staffing levels in the field of occupational therapy within Angus were in each of the past five years.

Question reference: S1W-06999

Asked by: Andrew Welsh, MSP for Angus, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 May 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sam Galbraith on 26 July 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive what each local authority's total expenditure on education was in each of the past five years.

The available information is given in the tables below. A number of changes in grant arrangements for pre-school provision were made over the years in question. Final outturn figures for any year are generally higher than provisional outturn and budget estimate figures and that should be recognised in making comparisons between years.

Education Revenue Expenditure by Scottish Local Authorities
	1996-97 Budget Estimate £000	1996-97 Provisional Outturn £000	1996-97 Final Outturn £000	1997-98 Budget Estimate £000	1997-98 Provisional Outturn £000	1997-98 Final Outturn £000
Aberdeen City	85,976	86,648	86,785	85,588	86,437	86,962
Aberdeenshire	109,644	109,028	109,686	107,095	112,025	112,185
Angus	47,860	47,860	47,898	47,863	48,192	48,547
Argyll & Bute	45,680	46,582	49,507	47,168	47,188	48,308
Clackmannanshire	23,734	25,308	24,084	24,600	24,458	23,616
Dumfries & Galloway	67,433	67,644	67,532	67,508	69,214	68,026
Dundee City	69,512	69,942	70,320	68,120	69,074	70,437
East Ayrshire	56,823	57,946	58,593	58,125	58,104	59,074
East Dunbartonshire	50,747	54,305	53,077	52,943	51,531	50,849
East Lothian	35,241	35,304	37,557	36,019	36,970	37,872
East Renfrewshire	39,617	40,718	43,939	40,590	41,980	42,903
Edinburgh, City of	157,552	159,253	159,097	156,049	159,859	163,027
Eilean Siar	23,415	23,752	23,591	23,476	23,523	23,583
Falkirk	61,280	61,294	62,512	61,158	61,704	62,542
Fife	162,139	163,950	166,290	160,082	164,946	163,005
Glasgow City	267,760	264,725	286,496	272,675	273,361	267,699
Highland	110,154	110,290	114,011	111,322	113,125	114,047
Inverclyde	41,652	42,234	42,777	43,321	42,884	41,864
Midlothian	40,238	40,700	40,578	40,494	40,721	41,281
Moray	41,597	40,537	41,429	40,010	39,903	41,028
North Ayrshire	61,561	62,838	65,196	65,357	67,212	66,805
North Lanarkshire	158,311	159,436	160,123	161,098	159,380	163,680
Orkney Islands	14,935	14,822	14,839	15,151	14,980	15,092
Perth & Kinross	55,625	57,127	56,074	57,348	56,677	58,231
Renfrewshire	80,777	81,676	82,481	81,607	82,199	81,953
Scottish Borders	46,606	47,075	48,314	46,268	46,928	48,148
Shetland Islands	25,869	22,489	22,224	23,384	23,384	22,402
South Ayrshire	50,435	50,897	52,437	50,275	50,656	50,531
South Lanarkshire	135,379	138,256	145,592	138,811	143,589	145,127
Stirling	38,370	38,769	40,363	37,599	36,802	39,663
West Dunbartonshire	50,297	51,407	49,655	50,795	50,439	49,068
West Lothian	76,800	76,657	77,422	77,057	77,700	76,269
Pre-School Vouchers	-	-	-	48,391	48,391	48,391
Scotland	2,333,019	2,349,469	2,400,479

Source: As reported by authorities on their Local Financial Returns (LFR 1) for 1996-97, 1997-98 and 1998-99 and the Provisional Outturn & Budget Estimate (POBE) return for 1999-2000 and 2000-01 (except for pre-school voucher and grant payments).Notes:1. Figures represent net revenue expenditure met from council tax, non-domestic rates and Government grants, excluding loan charges and revenue contributions to capital.2. Pre-School voucher payments by financial year are not available on an authority basis. Total voucher payments during 1997-98 and from April to June 1998 are shown above.3. The 1998-99, 1999-2000 and 2000-01 figures include pre-school grant payments to each authority.4. The 1998-99 final outturn data is "near" final and may be subject to change.

Education Revenue Expenditure by Scottish Local Authorities
	1998-99 Budget Estimate £000	1998-99 Provisional Outturn £000	1998-99 Final Outturn £000	1999-2000 Budget Estimate £000	1999-2000 Provisional Outturn £000	2000-01 Budget Estimate £000
Aberdeen City	90,094	91,585	90,828	97,369	99,163	101,698
Aberdeenshire	114,519	118,818	119,986	126,917	129,448	133,944
Angus	51,091	51,589	52,019	56,157	56,509	59,075
Argyll & Bute	50,347	50,678	52,251	52,992	53,166	54,174
Clackmannanshire	25,790	25,727	25,305	27,701	27,648	29,041
Dumfries & Galloway	72,209	72,968	72,068	79,543	79,885	83,102
Dundee City	70,605	71,688	72,847	77,454	77,093	78,944
East Ayrshire	61,853	62,576	62,768	68,210	68,761	70,276
East Dunbartonshire	55,061	56,117	55,721	62,897	62,800	66,040
East Lothian	39,423	41,084	41,218	45,565	46,027	48,455
East Renfrewshire	45,151	47,119	47,464	51,660	52,407	54,696
Edinburgh, City of	167,753	171,656	173,015	185,682	189,392	196,253
Eilean Siar	24,934	25,283	25,035	26,527	26,795	27,675
Falkirk	65,780	68,612	67,619	73,546	74,551	77,052
Fife	170,714	172,105	173,272	183,799	187,112	193,197
Glasgow City	293,908	294,666	277,310	303,219	304,778	316,462
Highland	118,393	119,405	120,122	129,220	129,214	134,202
Inverclyde	46,546	45,723	45,453	49,402	49,601	51,162
Midlothian	42,435	43,281	44,041	46,743	47,124	48,974
Moray	43,105	43,917	44,523	48,407	48,652	50,429
North Ayrshire	70,452	71,526	70,474	78,245	77,569	81,165
North Lanarkshire	169,001	169,034	170,499	181,753	183,461	193,316
Orkney Islands	15,596	15,513	15,601	17,005	16,873	17,681
Perth & Kinross	60,210	60,997	61,328	66,401	68,907	69,984
Renfrewshire	86,386	86,116	86,622	94,645	97,518	102,000
Scottish Borders	48,824	49,926	51,744	54,151	52,382	57,693
Shetland Islands	24,201	24,379	23,747	26,418	27,981	27,478
South Ayrshire	48,295	50,730	51,703	52,623	58,111	57,158
South Lanarkshire	144,135	148,149	148,177	158,430	162,143	168,662
Stirling	40,440	43,061	43,002	46,622	46,831	48,190
West Dunbartonshire	54,585	54,207	53,886	57,294	57,530	59,600
West Lothian	81,016	81,872	80,679	88,500	88,605	91,871
Pre-School Vouchers	18,720	18,720	18,720	-	-	-
Scotland		2,548,827	2,539,047	2,715,097

Source: As reported by authorities on their Local Financial Returns (LFR 1) for 1996-97, 1997-98 and 1998-99and the Provisional Outturn & Budget Estimate (POBE) return for 1999-2000 and 2000-01 (except for pre-school voucher and grant payments).Notes:1. Figures represent net revenue expenditure met from council tax, non-domestic rates and Government grants, excluding loan charges and revenue contributions to capital.2. Pre-School voucher payments by financial year are not available on an authority basis. Total voucher payments during 1997-98 and from April to June 1998 are shown above.3. The 1998-99, 1999-2000 and 2000-01 figures include pre-school grant payments to each authority.

4. The 1998-99 final outturn data is "near" final and may be subject to change.

Question reference: S1W-06998

Asked by: Andrew Welsh, MSP for Angus, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 May 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sam Galbraith on 26 July 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of each local authority's total expenditure in each of the past five years was spent on education.

The information requested is shown in the table below.Education Revenue Expenditure as a Percentage of Total Local Authority Expenditure.

	1996-97 %	1997-98 %	1998-99 %	1999-2000 %	2000-01 %
Aberdeen City	35.63	35.06	35.83	36.60	35.58
Aberdeenshire	46.62	43.73	43.69	44.09	45.08
Angus	41.64	37.79	38.47	38.86	40.53
Argyll & Bute	37.73	35.34	35.97	35.62	35.34
Clackmannanshire	46.75	41.84	42.30	42.79	43.20
Dumfries & Galloway	39.83	37.16	36.48	37.94	37.76
Dundee City	34.68	32.33	32.12	32.57	33.20
East Ayrshire	41.45	39.41	40.15	41.87	41.37
East Dunbartonshire	46.52	44.62	44.79	45.72	47.39
East Lothian	38.50	36.03	37.09	39.27	40.06
East Renfrewshire	46.47	45.06	46.61	47.91	48.47
Edinburgh, City of	31.50	28.89	30.04	30.90	31.00
Eilean Siar	35.93	32.27	31.25	32.85	34.04
Falkirk	41.49	38.24	40.93	41.77	40.49
Fife	41.62	39.63	39.54	40.66	40.94
Glasgow City	27.64	27.78	28.92	28.11	28.85
Highland	41.78	39.42	39.54	39.55	40.01
Inverclyde	37.21	36.00	36.90	37.19	38.73
Midlothian	45.75	40.48	41.10	42.55	43.23
Moray	42.27	38.23	40.82	42.32	42.53
North Ayrshire	39.32	40.95	40.29	41.52	41.96
North Lanarkshire	42.30	40.76	41.58	42.48	43.17
Orkney Islands	39.29	36.14	35.31	36.35	37.96
Perth & Kinross	40.07	37.01	37.60	38.95	38.69
Renfrewshire	38.86	38.22	38.42	40.48	40.85
Scottish Borders	38.08	35.86	35.81	35.71	37.15
Shetland Islands	45.24	39.51	40.12	41.48	42.36
South Ayrshire	39.46	36.79	34.99	37.52	36.99
South Lanarkshire	40.11	39.35	39.27	39.93	40.47
Stirling	38.13	34.97	37.53	38.90	38.46
West Dunbartonshire	38.62	37.01	37.59	37.68	38.54
West Lothian	45.39	42.45	42.72	43.00	43.13
Scotland	37.99	36.20	36.77	37.44	37.87

Source: The Provisional Outturn (POBE) for 1996-97, 1997-98, 1998-99, 1999-2000, & Budget Estimate (POBE) return for 2000-01.Notes:

1. Figures are derived from net revenue expenditure met from council tax, non-domestic rates and Government grants, excluding loan charges and revenue contributions to capital.

Question reference: S1W-07824

Asked by: Andrew Welsh, MSP for Angus, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 June 2000
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 25 July 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average waiting time for occupational therapy is in Angus.

Question reference: S1W-08212

Asked by: Andrew Welsh, MSP for Angus, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 June 2000
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 19 July 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive how many beds in Angus hospitals are currently blocked and what measures are being taken to address any problems in this respect.

Reducing the number of delayed discharges is a high priority for the Scottish Executive. £60 million is being made available to the NHS - on top of existing record levels of funding - to accelerate delivery of a number of priorities including a reduction in the number of delayed discharges. A learning network is also being established to encourage the sharing of best practice in this area.

As regards the number of blocked beds in Angus hospitals, this is an issue for the Tayside Health Board to answer in consultation with the NHS Trusts and local authority partners. We also recently announced that an additional £10 million taken from the central reserve would be used specifically to help tackle delayed discharges and thus free up "blocked beds" this winter.

Question reference: S1W-08530

Asked by: Andrew Welsh, MSP for Angus, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 July 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sarah Boyack on 18 July 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive what the expected life span is of the A92 bridge over south Esk at Montrose.

Question reference: S1W-08529

Asked by: Andrew Welsh, MSP for Angus, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 July 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sarah Boyack on 18 July 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the A92 bridge over the South Esk at Montrose needs to be replaced and what statutory or other responsibilities it has to keep such a route open.

Question reference: S1W-08155

Asked by: Andrew Welsh, MSP for Angus, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 June 2000
Current Status: Answered by Henry McLeish on 4 July 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive, in the context of the European Commission's Guidelines on National Region Aid, what criteria, including the methodology and quantitative indicators, have been used to determine the areas included on the revised Assisted Area map.

The Assisted Areas map is a reserved matter for the UK Government.

The criteria used in proposing a new Assisted Areas map were set out in some detail in The Government's Proposals for New Assisted Areas (URN 99/963), published 15 July 1999; and in Amendments to the Government's Proposals for New Assisted Areas (URN 00/776), published 10 April 2000.

Copies of these documents are held in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre.

Question reference: S1W-08156

Asked by: Andrew Welsh, MSP for Angus, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 June 2000
Current Status: Answered by Henry McLeish on 4 July 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive what areas of lesser need than Arbroath have been included on the revised Assisted Area map.

The Assisted Areas map is a reserved matter for the UK Government.

The Scottish Executive has worked closely with The Scotland Office and the Department of Trade & Industry on this matter. The proposed new Assisted Areas map provides extensive coverage for the Dundee Travel to Work Area of which Arbroath is a part. The rules and criteria used for drawing this map, together with the population ceiling set by the European Commission, meant that not all the areas which would have wished to be included, could be. However the proposed map strikes a good overall balance between areas of need in Scotland, and those areas with the potential to help meet that need.