- Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 September 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Colin Boyd on 21 September 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether any of the law officers have attended a political party conference in their official capacity in the last five years and, if so, in which year, which political party conference and for what purpose.
Answer
Neither Law Officer has attended any political party conference in an official capacity in the last five years. Earlier this year, in a personal capacity as a member of the Labour Party, I attended the Scottish Conference of the Labour Party. I last attended the same conference in 1998.
- Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 September 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Euan Robson on 16 September 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how many criminal justice social workers have been employed by local authorities in each of the last five years and how many are currently employed.
Answer
Figures from the statistical bulletin, Staff of Scottish Local Authority Services 2003 (
http://194.247.95.101/stats/bulletins/00355.pdf), show whole-time equivalent (WTE) criminal justice social workers numbers as follows:
| 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 |
| 1,160 | 1,182 | 1,241 | 1,310 | 1,452 |
Figures for the 2004 bulletin are still being accumulated, but our most recent trawl of responses from 25 of the 32 local authorities indicated that WTE posts in offender services increased by around 8% between October 2003 and July 2004 and that vacancies reduced by 10% during the same period. The trend is encouraging but we recognise that we need to sustain our help to the sector in order to obtain the confident and competent staff of sufficient numbers needed to meet the challenges.
- Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 September 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Peter Peacock on 13 September 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how many local authorities own, or have a controlling interest in, an outdoor education centre.
Answer
The information requested is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 June 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Mary Mulligan on 23 July 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether its officials have attended any meetings of the Building Regulations Advisory Committee at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister in the last year and, if so, on which dates.
Answer
A senior official attended the meetings on 9 July 2003, 8 October 2003, 17 December 2003, 18 February 2004 and 5 May 2004.
- Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 25 June 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 21 July 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-8946 by Malcolm Chisholm on 23 June 2004, what action is being taken to ensure that the NHS Lanarkshire board area attains the Scottish average for GPs per 10,000 head of population.
Answer
Under the terms of the legislation which underpins the introduction of the new General Medical Services (GMS) contract, it is for Lanarkshire NHS Board to determine the primary medical services needs of its local population and meet those needs by using the powers in the Primary Medical Services (Scotland) Act 2004.
To assist in this process, the new General Medical Services contract allocates resources according to an assessment of local health needs and recognises the importance of both the recruitment and retention of General Practitioners containing a number of measures which support this, including the continuation of the “Golden Hello” Scheme for GPs with a standard £5,000 payment.
Funding has also been agreed to maintain increased numbers of GP registrarsacross Scotland, ensuring 280 places are available in 2004-05.
New national workforce planning arrangements now being established under the National Workforce Committee will take into account the changing needs of primary care service teams and seek to project primary care workforce needs into the future.
- Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 24 June 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 19 July 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how many unrepresented accused persons have conducted their own trial in sheriff courts in each of the last five years.
Answer
The available information is given in the following table:
| | 1999-2000 | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 |
| Accused unrepresented at trial diet - trial proceeding | 141 | 108 | 138 | 143 | 110 |
- Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 24 June 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 19 July 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will establish a single agency responsible for fire investigation.
Answer
The investigation of fires is currently carried out by officers of the eight fire authorities. The Fire (Scotland) Bill introduced in Parliament on 28 June 2004, if enacted, will give enhanced powers to Fire Officers, for example, to enter premises and to take and analyse samples of articles or substances. There are no current plans to create a single agency to carry out fire investigations.
- Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 24 June 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 6 July 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how many unrepresented accused persons have conducted their own trial in district courts in each of the last five years.
Answer
This information is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 June 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by George Reid on 16 June 2004
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether any representations were received from the Chinese Government with regard to the visit of His Holiness The Dalai Lama to the Scottish Parliament and, if so, what the purpose was of the representations.
Answer
I met with the Chinese Consul General, Mr Liu Jingxue on Thursday 11 March, where he raised the issue of the visit by His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet to the Scottish Parliament. The Consul General informed me of his government's policy on Tibet. I explained that His Holiness had been invited to lead Time for Reflection as a world religious leader only.
- Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 24 May 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 8 June 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to Contract between The Scottish Ministers and Reliance Secure Task Management Ltd for the Provision of Prisoner Escort & Court Custody Services in Scotland, why the meaning of “Relevant Industrial Action” has been removed from clause 19.3.3 of Schedule 3.
Answer
I have asked Tony Cameron,Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is asfollows:I refer the member to the answer given to S2W-8434 answered 8 June 2004 . All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility forwhich can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.
