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-32682

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 28 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what (a) percentage and (b) number of police officers are due to reach retiral age in each of the next five years, also broken down by police force.

The available information isshown is the following table. A breakdown by police force is not held centrally.

Year	No. of Officers Eligible to Retire	Percentage of Total Strength at 31 December 2006
2007-08	470	2.9%
2008-09	637	3.9%
2009-10	748	4.6%
2010-11	414	2.6%

These figures exclude any retirementson the grounds of ill-health.

Question reference: S2W-32680

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Johann Lamont on 28 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) full-time and (b) retained firefighters there were in each fire board area in each of the last five years, also expressed as a ratio to the population and showing the number of current vacancies in each category.

Question reference: S2W-32511

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 26 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) households and (b) children lived in overcrowded housing in each of the last five years, broken down by local authority area.

Table 1 shows the percentage of Scottishhouseholds living in dwellings below the bedroom standard in each local authorityarea, and table 2 shows the percentage of children in Scotland who live in suchhouseholds.

Table 1 Scottish Households Living Below the BedroomStandard by Local Authority Area

	1999 and 2000		2001 and 2002		2003 and 2004
	%	Base	%	Base	%	Base
Aberdeen City	3%	1,224	3%	1,280	3%	1,232
Aberdeenshire	2%	1,187	2%	1,230	2%	1,237
Angus	2%	637	2%	662	1%	628
Argyll and Bute	5%	576	2%	569	3%	551
Clackmannanshire	3%	587	3%	547	3%	579
Dumfries and Galloway	2%	878	3%	822	2%	815
Dundee City	3%	781	4%	868	2%	866
East Ayrshire	3%	676	2%	714	2%	696
East Dunbartonshire	1%	587	3%	608	2%	553
East Lothian	4%	585	1%	598	3%	549
East Renfrewshire	2%	494	2%	526	1%	580
Edinburgh, City of	4%	2,481	3%	2,374	3%	2,509
Eilean Siar	3%	658	3%	643	2%	549
Falkirk	3%	817	2%	790	1%	824
Fife	2%	1,895	2%	1,928	2%	2,083
Glasgow City	6%	3,136	5%	3,254	6%	3,294
Highland	1%	1,129	2%	1,208	1%	1,167
Inverclyde	7%	537	5%	529	4%	554
Midlothian	4%	612	4%	622	4%	561
Moray	2%	631	2%	614	1%	613
North Ayrshire	3%	822	2%	768	1%	752
North Lanarkshire	5%	1,617	5%	1,656	5%	1,758
Orkney Islands	1%	540	1%	649	2%	665
Perth and Kinross	3%	774	2%	747	3%	674
Renfrewshire	4%	951	4%	945	3%	1,000
Scottish Borders	2%	607	2%	642	2%	663
Shetland Islands	3%	561	2%	625	1%	653
South Ayrshire	2%	675	3%	685	3%	624
South Lanarkshire	5%	1,602	4%	1,608	3%	1,587
Stirling	2%	617	2%	601	1%	612
West Dunbartonshire	5%	535	4%	531	5%	509
West Lothian	2%	817	2%	796	2%	885

Table 2: Scottish Children Living Below the Bedroom Standardby Local Authority Area

	1999 and 2000		2001 and 2002		2003 and 2004
	%	Base	%	Base	%	Base
Aberdeen City	12%	477	15%	454	9%	491
Aberdeenshire	7%	741	6%	700	5%	628
Angus	6%	326	8%	310	4%	240
Argyll and Bute	16%	278	9%	269	9%	247
Clackmannanshire	8%	317	6%	266	9%	291
Dumfries and Galloway	10%	417	12%	406	4%	341
Dundee City	10%	295	16%	355	8%	302
East Ayrshire	9%	323	10%	350	7%	329
East Dunbartonshire	4%	316	6%	322	6%	282
East Lothian	9%	292	6%	313	10%	266
East Renfrewshire	5%	302	3%	285	4%	351
Edinburgh, City of	12%	993	11%	906	13%	950
Eilean Siar	11%	294	11%	267	6%	224
Falkirk	10%	433	7%	395	4%	361
Fife	7%	939	10%	930	8%	983
Glasgow City	21%	1,415	17%	1,336	22%	1,292
Highland	5%	564	8%	593	5%	575
Inverclyde	25%	268	15%	241	8%	218
Midlothian	14%	349	11%	362	15%	308
Moray	7%	309	6%	329	3%	311
North Ayrshire	9%	405	9%	356	5%	354
North Lanarkshire	15%	933	15%	945	15%	833
Orkney Islands	6%	261	4%	269	7%	311
Perth and Kinross	8%	346	7%	325	10%	272
Renfrewshire	13%	446	15%	409	14%	434
Scottish Borders	7%	294	7%	278	5%	287
Shetland Islands	7%	379	6%	372	6%	302
South Ayrshire	8%	331	11%	309	14%	251
South Lanarkshire	14%	792	11%	821	8%	766
Stirling	6%	296	6%	275	5%	277
West Dunbartonshire	12%	250	10%	207	16%	236
West Lothian	5%	467	5%	478	8%	444

Source: Scottish Household Survey, 1999-2004.

Notes:

1. The base numbersshow the sample sizes of the population participating in the survey but cannot beused to calculate how many respondents gave a certain answer. The bases in table1 refer to the number of households, and in Table 2 to the number of childrenin the household.

2. Year-on-year changes should beinterpreted with caution as the statistics can fluctuate from year to year due tosampling variability and relatively small sample sizes. This may be a particularissue for table 2 where the sampling unit is the household but the unit of analysisis the number of children in the household.

3. The results are given for two-yearsweeps as the survey is not designed to be representative for all sub-Scotland areasfor a single year.

4. Figures for 2006 have not yet beenpublished.

5. The bedroom standard representsthe minimum number of bedrooms required for a household based on the assumptionthat a separate bedroom is required for:

each cohabitingcouple;

any other personaged 21 years or over;

each pair of youngpersons of the same sex aged 10 to 20 years, and

each pair of childrenunder 10 years (regardless of sex).

Unpaired young persons aged 10 to 20 are paired with a childunder 10 of the same sex if possible or allocated a separate bedroom. Any unpairedchildren under 10 are also allocated a separate bedroom.

Question reference: S2W-32681

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 26 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many operational police stations there were in each police force area in each of the last eight years.

Question reference: S2W-32248

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 23 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many frontline police officers there are in each force and how many there have been in each of the last five years, expressed also on a per capita basis.

Question reference: S2W-32282

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 23 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether there are any proposals to change cemetery preservation practice and, if so, whether it will give details of any such proposals including their status and timescale, to what extent family history, local history and other relevant organisations will be consulted and whether there are any proposals that may lead to the destruction of cemeteries and burial grounds.

There are no Scottish Executiveproposals to change cemetery preservation practice. However, the Burial and CremationReview Group, which is reviewing the various Burial Ground and Cremation Acts andRegulations in Scotland, is currently preparing its recommendations. The groupand Historic Scotland are in discussions to ensure that the historic aspects ofgraveyards are recognised and taken into account. Many burial grounds are scheduledancient monuments; others are listed buildings, included either in the listing ofchurches or in their own right. Some local authorities may decide independentlyto adopt preservation practices to raise standards of repair and maintenance.

Question reference: S2W-32397

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 23 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how much VAT was paid by non-departmental bodies in each of the last eight years, also broken down by body.

Question reference: S2W-32692

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 23 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the net expenditure on public libraries was in each of the last five years, broken down by local authority and also expressed on a per capita basis.

Question reference: S2W-32678

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 23 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many registered drug misusers there were in each of the last three years, broken down by (a) local authority and (b) NHS board area, also expressed as a ratio to the population.

Question reference: S2W-32245

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 22 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide an update on progress on the construction of the Fochabers to Mosstodloch bypass, giving details of the scheduled date for the Court of Session hearing and the latest estimated cost and earliest start date in the event that the appeal is not upheld.

The appeal is scheduled to beginon 8 May 2007 and run for three days. A decision will then be issuedby the court. As the timescale for this is outwith the control of Scottishministers it is not possible to estimate at this stage when construction of thescheme will start.

Thelatest estimated cost is £18 million to £21 million exclusive of value added tax.

Transport Scotland hasthe operational responsibility for this area, and can be contacted for more informationif required.