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-13582

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 January 2005
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 26 January 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will request that the surplus of approximately £10 million held by Ofgem from the Scottish fossil fuel levy fund be transferred to the Scottish Consolidated Fund for the purpose of promoting renewables and what information it has on why this surplus has not been transferred previously.

The Fossil Fuel Levy surplus only became available following the enactment of the provisions of the Energy Act 2004. In accordance with the provisions of the act, we will bring forward in due course for the consideration of the Parliament proposals for using this funding for further supporting renewable energy projects. If these proposals are approved, we will request Ofgem to release the amount of funding required into the Scottish Consolidated Fund.

Question reference: S2W-13389

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 January 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 25 January 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-2022 by Cathy Jamieson on 25 September 2003, what the average waiting period was (a) nationally and (b) in each district court area between pleading and trial diets in (i) 2002-03 and (ii) 2003-04.

The available information is given in the following table.

Average Waiting Time (Weeks) Between Pleading and Trial Diets in District Courts, 2002-03 and 2003-04

Commission Area	2002-03	2003-04¹
Aberdeen City	n/a	n/a
Aberdeenshire	9	10
Angus	12	11
Argyll and Bute	12	12
Clackmannanshire	10	13
Dumfries and Galloway	7	10
Dundee City	10	10
East Ayrshire	9	9
East Dunbartonshire	9	14
East Lothian	9	9
East Renfrewshire	10	6
Edinburgh, City of	10	10
Eilean Siar	n/a	n/a
Falkirk	9	11
Fife	10	n/a
Glasgow City (average)	n/a	n/a
- District Court	n/a	n/a
- Stipendiary Magistrate	n/a	n/a
Highland	9	10
Inverclyde	10	8
Midlothian	8	12
Moray	9	10
North Ayrshire	8	10
North Lanarkshire	9	11
Perth and Kinross	10	14
Renfrewshire	10	10
Scottish Borders	8	9
South Ayrshire	10	11
South Lanarkshire	9	10
Stirling	n/a	n/a
West Dunbartonshire	8	8
West Lothian	n/a	n/a

Scotland	9.4	10.3

Notes:

1. Provisional data.

2. n/a: data not available

Question reference: S2W-13260

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 10 January 2005
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 24 January 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide a summary of measures agreed to at the Agriculture and Fisheries Council in Brussels in December 2004 that relate directly to the west coast.

Full details about all measures agreed at Council are set out in Council Regulations 27/2005 (TAC and Quota Regulation) and 2270/2004 (Deep-Sea Fish Stocks), which are available through the website of the Official Journal of the European Union.

Measures directly affecting the west coast include significant increases to the Total Allowable Catches (TACs) for Nephrops, Northern Anglerfish and Haddock. A table setting out the TAC levels for the majority of West of Scotland fisheries is provided. In light of scientific advice about the depleted West of Scotland cod stock, agreement was also reached on a reduction by two in the baseline number of permitted days at sea inside the West of Scotland cod recovery zone for vessels using whitefish (100mm plus) nets. However, an additional day is available to offset this, by way of a derogation for vessels fishing withnets of a mesh size of 120mm or above, subject to compliance with associated conditions. Days at sea available for other categories of fishing gear and areas of the cod recovery zone including to the west of Scotland are reduced by one day per month. It was also agreed that there should be no expansion in the size of the closed area introduced in 2004 to the west of Orkney and that the cod recovery zone should remain a single area for the purposes of the transfer of days between vessels and in the determination of access provisions.

Measures for Deep Sea stocks included reductions in a number of quotas, in accordance with scientific advice that suggests these species are being harvested at an unsustainable level.

Stock	2005 TAC (tonnes)	% Change from 2004
Anglerfish Vb, VI, XII, XIV	4,686	+47%
Blue Ling VI, VII	3137	-17%
Blue whiting Vb, VI, VII, XII, XIV	474,333	+126%
Cod Vb, VI, XII, XIV	721	-15%
of which limit in Vb, VIa is:	692	-15%
Haddock VIa, Vb	7,600	+17%
Haddock VIb, XII, XIV	702	0
Herring Vb, VIaN, VIb	30,100	0
Herring Via (Clyde)	1,000	0
Horse mackerel Vb, VI, VII,VIIIa,b,d,e, XII, XIV	137,000	0
Ling VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XII, XIV	14,966	0
Mackerel IIa (non EC), Vb, VI, VII, VIIIabde, XII, XIV	217,467	-27%
Megrim Vb, VI, XII, XIV	2,880	-20%
Nephrops Vb, VI	12,700	+12%
Plaice Vb, VI, XII, XIV	982	-20%
Pollack Vb, VI, XII, XIV	563	-20%
Saithe Vb, VI, XII, XIV	15,044	-24%
Tusk V, VI, VII	604	- 15%
Whiting Vb, VI, XII, XIV	1,600	0

Question reference: S2W-13289

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 10 January 2005
Current Status: Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 24 January 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many sports co-ordinators are employed by each local authority, expressed also as a ratio to the number of (a) primary and (b) secondary school children.

The information requested is not readily identifiable. The Active Schools staffing network of managers and co-ordinators is still growing. There are now approximately 340 Active School co-ordinators in secondary schools and approximately 190 covering clusters of primary schools. Recruitment is ongoing. Co-ordinators in primary schools are employed on a full-time basis. Those in secondary schools are employed for one day per week with some local authorities choosing to deploy co-ordinators for two days in some schools.

Question reference: S2W-13290

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 10 January 2005
Current Status: Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 21 January 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what level of assistance is provided to local authority sports co-cordinators to ensure that their sports programmes are not adversely affected due to higher costs of transportation, particularly in rural areas.

Local authorities have been allocated an operational budget of £1,500 for each secondary school cluster by sportscotland to be used to support activities provided through Active Schools, part of which can be allocated against transport costs, particularly in rural areas.

Funding of £2,000 per secondary school is also available through the Out of School Hours/School Sport Co-ordinator Programme managed by sportscotland on behalf of the Big Lottery Fund, part of which can also be allocated to offset transport costs.

We also anticipate that Active Schools funding will help to unlock additional local funding from relevant local authority and other budgets in order to support extra transport needs in all local authority areas. Sportscotland’s Partnership managers encourage all local authorities and other local bodies to adopt a co-ordinated approach to Active Schools including in relation to transport provision.

Question reference: S2W-13054

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 December 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 20 January 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many affordable homes have been built in each rural local authority area in each of the last seven years.

I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:

The following table gives details of the total number of new and improved affordable housing units approved for construction by Communities Scotland in rural Local Authorities (defined as rural using the Randall definition) in each of the last seven years.

Unitary Authority	1997-98	1998-99	1999-00	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
Aberdeenshire	142	219	206	206	193	309	221
Angus	70	186	123	115	108	93	98
Argyll and Bute	56	123	131	76	70	79	89
Dumfries and Galloway	81	61	125	162	96	98	154
East Ayrshire	50	20	63	72	36	0	40
Highland	145	176	161	294	182	246	268
Moray	61	22	56	35	10	4	92
Orkney Islands	52	8	73	52	75	48	72
Perth and Kinross	211	180	334	103	148	182	152
Shetland Islands	49	21	38	7	40	7	38
South Ayrshire	36	56	81	146	95	80	60
Stirling	73	86	115	107	59	35	114
The Scottish Borders	81	104	109	110	71	63	64
Western Isles	3	28	16	24	40	2	60

Question reference: S2W-13046

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 December 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 20 January 2005

Question reference: S2W-13116

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 December 2004
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 20 January 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-12709 by Mr Andy Kerr on 15 December 2004, how many, and what percentage of, medical graduates left Scotland following completion of their pre-registration house officer post in each of the last three years.

Table 1 gives details of pre-registrationhouse officers (PRHO) employed in NHSScotland at the 30 September 2000, 2001 and 2002,and of these, the number subsequently employed as senior house officers (SHO) inNHSScotland one year later.

Table 1: Transition from PRHOto SHO in NHS Scotland (2000-02)

	PRHO at 30/09/00	PRHO at 30/09/01	PRHO at 30/09/02
Number of PRHOs in post	718	716	803
Of these, the number in SHO posts in Scotland one year later	436	454	501
Percentage in SHO posts in Scotland	61%	63%	62%

Source: ISD Scotland.

Notes:

1. Sourced from ISD Scotland Medicaland Dental Workforce Census.

2. It is not possible to assumethat those doctors who did not progress into a SHO post in Scotland all left thecountry as there may be other reasons (for example, a PRHO not attaining GMC registrationwithin the year).

We currently train more thanour proportion of doctors in the UK, both at undergraduate and junior doctor level. At September2003, Scotland had a higher ratio of Hospital and Community Health Service(CHS) Training Grades (which includes SHOs and SpRs) to population than both England and Wales, as containedin Table 2.

Table 2: UK NHS Doctorsper 100,000 Population

	Scotland (Nos/100,000 population)	England (Nos/100,000 population)	Wales (Nos/100,000 population)
Hospital and CHS Training Grades	97	73	67

Source: Securing Future Practice,June 2004.

Note: 1. Data as for September2003 (Wales 2002).

The medical workforce is dynamicwith particularly significant movements shortly after graduation and in the traininggrades, as considered within Securing Future Practice: Shaping the New Medical Workforce for Scotland.

The recommendations from thisreview are being fed into national workforce planning arrangements.

Question reference: S2W-13259

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 10 January 2005
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 20 January 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers the use of 80mm mesh in the southern North Sea by the flatfish fishery to be damaging to cod stocks due to the level of by-catches of cod juveniles and, if so, whether it raised these concerns at the recent Agriculture and Fisheries Council in Brussels and what the outcome was of any discussions on the matter.

All catches of cod have the potentialto damage the stock, including the southern North Sea small mesh fisheries.

The Executive routinely ensuresthat the UK delegation raises our concerns over this fishery in allappropriate EU fora, including December Agriculture and Fisheries council.

The outcomes of last year’s discussionson the small meshed fisheries in the southern North Sea, included a reduction of the plaice Total Allowable Catches and a reduced allocation of permitted days atsea and a statement by the Council inviting the Commission to present proposals,to the Council and to the European Parliament, concerning future long-term managementplans for North Sea sole and North Sea plaice as soon as possible in 2005.

Question reference: S2W-13261

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 10 January 2005
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 20 January 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive whether there are any plans to use the opportunity of the United Kingdom's Presidency of the European Union in 2005 to change the timescale and nature of the decision-making process in respect of the annual fisheries negotiations which currently take place in late December.