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: S1W-19462

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 29 October 2001
Current Status: Answered by Iain Gray on 26 November 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many racist incidents have been reported to the police since 11 September 2001 to date, broken down by police force area; how many of these incidents have been linked to the current international situation, and how many racist incidents were reported to the police, broken down by police force area, in the same period last year.

The figures requested are not collected centrally. The latest available figures on racist incidents reported to Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and racially aggravated offences recorded by the police are given in the following tables, but these do not cover the period since 11 September 2001.Racist incidents data collated by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary

Police force area	1999-2000	2000-01
Scotland	2,242	2,731
Central	184	153
Dumfries & Galloway	24	57
Fife	186	166
Grampian	103	180
Lothian & Borders	552	551
Northern	25	75
Strathclyde	866	1,241
Tayside	302	308

Racially aggravated offences ¹ (including harassment and conduct) recorded by the police

Police force area	1999			2000²
Police force area	Racially aggravated harassment	Racially aggravated conduct	Total	Racially aggravated harassment	Racially aggravated conduct	Total
Scotland	106	280	386	232	685	917
Central	-	-	-	33	1	34
Dumfries & Galloway	-	-	-	1	1	2
Fife	8	30	38	12	108	120
Grampian	5	20	25	-	-	-
Lothian & Borders	-	-	-	4	32	36
Northern	-	-	-	12	10	22
Strathclyde	30	172	202	114	438	552
Tayside	63	58	121	56	95	151

Notes:1. Data collected with effect from 1 January 1999.2. An error has been found in the data for Central in 2000. The majority of the offences assigned to racially aggravated harassment should have be assigned to racially aggravated conduct. The figures will be corrected for inclusion in the 2001 statistical bulletin on recorded crime.

Question reference: S1W-18661

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 September 2001
Current Status: Answered by Jack McConnell on 20 November 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will detail any occasions when it has submitted responses to consultation exercises being conducted by the European Commission direct to the Commission.

On no occasion has the Scottish Executive responded directly to the commission on a formal consultation exercise.In association with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, the Executive did contribute a joint discussion paper in relation to the commission's debate on governance in advance of its White Paper. The Executive has also directly provided the commission with factual information on numerous occasions.

Question reference: S1W-19233

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 October 2001
Current Status: Answered by Jack McConnell on 16 November 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive whether measures have been taken to put into effect the statement in Learn to Teach in respect of newly qualified teachers that it is possible for mature students with relevant previous experience to enter the salary scale at a higher point.

Question reference: S1W-19231

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 October 2001
Current Status: Answered by Jack McConnell on 16 November 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average starting salary for a newly qualified teacher who was a mature student is expected to be next year for (a) primary school teachers and (b) secondary school teachers and what the average starting salary for them is for the current year and has been for each of the last three years.

Question reference: S1W-19114

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 October 2001
Current Status: Answered by Wendy Alexander on 13 November 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the fact that a company is indigenous to Scotland is taken into account by economic development and enterprise agencies when assessing applications for assistance or qualification for grant or loan schemes.

Question reference: S1W-19115

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 October 2001
Current Status: Answered by Wendy Alexander on 13 November 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many shops there have been in Scotland in each of the last three years showing the percentage change year on year.

Question reference: S1W-19133

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 October 2001
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 13 November 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average amount of agriculture subsidy paid to businesses under the Integrated Administration and Control System has been for each of the last three years.

A following table shows the average amount of subsidy paid to businesses, under the Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS), for the last two years.

IACS Scheme Year	Average Amount of Subsidy
1999	£19,963.52
2000	£20,313.06

The schemes covered by IACS are Beef Special Premium Scheme including Extensification payments, Suckler Cow Premium Scheme, including Extensification payments, Sheep Annual Premium Scheme, Arable Aid Payments Scheme and in 1999 Hill Livestock Compensatory Allowance, which was replaced in 2000 by the Less Favoured Area Support Scheme. Payments for schemes covered by IACS 2001 have not yet been completed and hence an average subsidy payment for 2001 is not yet available.

Question reference: S1W-19134

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 October 2001
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 13 November 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-18577 by Ross Finnie on 11 October 2001, whether it will name each farm business on the list and give the number of jobs sustained by each business.

For data protection reasons - both under the Data Protection Act 1998 and also EU legislation - the names of individual claimants cannot be released. Information on the number of jobs sustained by each business is set out in the following table:

	1998	1999	2000
1	11	12	12
2	6	26	6
3	10	15	15
4	17	7	1
5	15	23	17
6	15	16	15
7	4	17	9
8	10	3	15
9	13	15	26
10	21	10	15
11	2	18	2
12	23	15	13
13	1	9	16
14	14	2	6
15	9	26	30
16	25	9	18
17	12	18	23
18	10	11	16
19	15	14	8
20	17	30	6
21	16	15	17
22	3	7	13
23	10	105	6
24	10	7	13
25	25	14	12
26	8	16	38
27	8	12	9
28	10	14	11
29	8	10	10
30	6	27	16
31	7	10	13
32	13	17	20
33	21	25	9
34	16	22	11
35	6	12	6
36	47	25	20
37	7	6	12
38	11	20	112
39	14	10	12
40	13	44	29
41	22	7	7
42	6	9	8
43	13	12	10
44	12	11	19
45	3	7	24
46	23	8	7
47	1	22	17
48	6	10	13
49	13	8	7
50	15	6	9
Total	623	815	779

The top 50 farms in receipt of payment varies from one scheme year to the next and therefore the top 50 farms will not be the same for each of the three years.The above figures include working occupiers and spouses, full and part-time employees (hired, family and partners) and casual and seasonal workers. The figures are taken from the relevant June census in each of the three years.

Question reference: S1W-19132

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 October 2001
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 13 November 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will detail in descending order the top 50 recipients of Less Favoured Areas Support Scheme subsidy under the new scheme and the equivalent figures for the last year of the old scheme.

As the member may not appreciate, the producers receiving subsidy payments cannot be named due to EC restrictions on the release of data and further restrictions under the Data Protection Act 1998. Nevertheless, I have set out in the following table the amounts involved.

No	Less-Favoured Areas Support Scheme 2001	Hill Livestock Compensatory Allowances 2000	No	Less-Favoured Areas Support Scheme 2001	Hill Livestock Compensatory Allowances 2000
1	£ 97,780.80	£ 107,855.83	26	£ 52,418.46	£ 51,356.88
2	£ 97,070.25	£ 86,504.20	27	£ 52,104.03	£ 49,685.03
3	£ 77,853.78	£ 85,837.71	28	£ 51,392.50	£ 48,410.83
4	£ 77,253.94	£ 80,368.11	29	£ 50,932.14	£ 48,284.82
5	£ 75,658.10	£ 77,717.84	30	£ 49,563.60	£ 47,996.36
6	£ 72,331.30	£ 75,222.48	31	£ 49,516.60	£ 47,185.12
7	£ 67,700.23	£ 70,169.38	32	£ 49,504.93	£ 46,949.90
8	£ 65,640.30	£ 68,754.00	33	£ 48,972.74	£ 46,721.66
9	£ 63,273.03	£ 67,788.29	34	£ 48,675.99	£ 46,258.90
10	£ 63,152.44	£ 67,457.20	35	£ 48,661.34	£ 46,235.70
11	£ 61,878.60	£ 66,411.92	36	£ 48,424.41	£ 45,709.90
12	£ 60,711.48	£ 66,023.44	37	£ 47,280.17	£ 45,144.53
13	£ 59,770.73	£ 64,189.96	38	£ 47,033.93	£ 45,123.60
14	£ 59,421.10	£ 62,340.08	39	£ 46,713.25	£ 44,166.54
15	£ 57,791.77	£ 62,094.69	40	£ 46,445.93	£ 43,934.11
16	£ 57,770.96	£ 61,606.97	41	£ 46,221.19	£ 43,598.51
17	£ 56,888.93	£ 61,276.74	42	£ 45,871.30	£ 43,568.22
18	£ 56,426.91	£ 59,685.41	43	£ 45,572.58	£ 42,874.40
19	£ 56,106.07	£ 58,429.18	44	£ 45,399.96	£ 42,051.37
20	£ 55,915.05	£ 57,893.37	45	£ 45,097.91	£ 42,009.95
21	£ 55,885.22	£ 55,018.44	46	£ 44,716.53	£ 41,460.71
22	£ 55,446.27	£ 55,005.48	47	£ 44,578.95	£ 41,391.85
23	£ 55,149.07	£ 54,037.41	48	£ 43,897.39	£ 40,964.81
24	£ 54,927.54	£ 53,804.90	49	£ 43,456.34	£ 40,660.90
25	£ 52,586.26	£ 53,025.22	50	£ 43,319.76	£ 40,471.78
		Totals	=	£ 2,800,162.06	£ 2,800,734.63

I would remind the member, however, that the two schemes operate on different principles and therefore the top 50 payees will not be the same under the two schemes.

Question reference: S1W-19493

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 October 2001
Current Status: Answered by Jack McConnell on 13 November 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many, and what percentage of, pupils aged 16 and over left school within three months of the beginning of the school year over the last five years, and how many, and what percentage, left schools which had adopted Higher Still within three months of the beginning of the school year since August 1999.

The Executive does not hold figures on the number of pupils who leave school within three months of the beginning of the school year. Figures on the number who leave at the end of the first term are available and are given in the table.

	1996-97	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01
Number of first term leavers	10,262	10,744	9,514	10,350	11,318
September, S4, S5, S6 total	136,378	133,307	130,383	131,463	133,731
Percentage that left	7.5%	8.1%	7.3%	7.9%	8.5%

All senior secondary schools were required to introduce National Qualifications from August 1999, although the extent to which the new courses were taught varied.