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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 2357 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S2W-14549

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 February 2005
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 14 March 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what the annual attendance rate for pupils was in (a) primary, (b) secondary, (c) special and (d) all schools in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area.

Statistics on attendance rates in primary and secondary schools are published on the Executive’s website and are available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre. Data up to 2002-03 is at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bulletins/00304-00.asp (Bib. number 30245).Data for 2003-04 is at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bulletins/00382-00.asp or (Bib. number 34761).

Rates for 2003-04 are not directly comparable with previous years due to changes in definitions.

Data for special schools was not collected fully prior to 2003-04. Information for all schools is therefore only available for 2003-04 and is shown in the following table.

Attendance Rates for All Schools, 2003-04

	Attendance Rate
Aberdeen City	93.85%
Aberdeenshire	95.30%
Angus	93.88%
Argyll and Bute	93.79%
Clackmannanshire	91.91%
Dumfries and Galloway	94.36%
Dundee City	91.60%
East Ayrshire	92.36%
East Dunbartonshire	93.95%
East Lothian	94.19%
East Renfrewshire	95.15%
Edinburgh, City of	93.18%
Eilean Siar	93.35%
Falkirk	92.79%
Fife	93.32%
Glasgow City	90.54%
Highland	93.18%
Inverclyde	92.86%
Midlothian	93.08%
Moray	94.28%
North Ayrshire	92.03%
North Lanarkshire	92.02%
Orkney Islands	95.15%
Perth and Kinross	93.71%
Renfrewshire	93.02%
Scottish Borders	94.76%
Shetland Islands	94.38%
South Ayrshire	92.87%
South Lanarkshire	92.70%
Stirling	93.14%
West Dunbartonshire	92.55%
West Lothian	93.39%

Question reference: S2W-14751

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 25 February 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 11 March 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many public house licences were withdrawn due to the sale of alcohol to (a) individuals below the minimum legal age and (b) inebriated individuals in each of the last five years, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S2W-14201

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 07 February 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 10 March 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what its total spending on Private Finance Initiative (PFI) consultants was in each year since 1999; how many full-time equivalent PFI consultants were employed over this period; what the implied average cost of each PFI consultant was, and how many PFI consultancy firms it has used over this period.

The following table shows thetotal spending on consultancy services in support of Public Private Partnership(PPP) projects by the Executive in each year since 1999:

Year	Amount (£)
1999	Nil
2000	Nil
2001	315,000
2002	271,091
2003	348,486
2004	893,543
2005	57,160

The totals particularly for 2004,reflect the increasing investment in infrastructure, including use of PPP projects,as shown in Building a Better Scotland : Infrastructure Investment Plan (Bib.number 35376).

The Executive has used eightPPP consultancy firms during this period. The number of full-time equivalents employedby these firms is not readily available.

In addition, there are four secondmentsto the Executive’s Financial Partnerships Unit. The expenditure on these to theend of 2004 totals £46,404.

Question reference: S2W-14796

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 February 2005
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 9 March 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many NHS dentists there have been in (a) the NHS Grampian area, (b) Banff and Buchan, (c) Gordon, (d) West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine and (e) Eastwood in each year since 1997.

The following table providesa breakdown of the NHS dentists in the areas requested

Number of NHS General DentalPractitioners^1,2,3 (at 30 September 2004)

Year	NHS Grampian	Banff and Buchan	Gordon	West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine	Eastwood
1997	160	24	16	28	43
1998	162	22	18	23	47
1999	167	23	19	21	43
2000	161	21	20	23	42
2001	157	22	21	26	42
2002	155	21	21	24	42
2003	164	17	19	25	44
2004	174	17	19	19	43

Source: MIDAS (Management Information and Dental AccountingSystem).

Notes:

1. Numbers are based on non-salaried and salaried principals(excludes vocational trainees and assistants).

2. Based on location of practice.

3. An NHSgeneral dental practitioner is counted once for each area where he/she has acontract to provide general dental services.

Question reference: S2W-14820

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 February 2005
Current Status: Answered by Johann Lamont on 9 March 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to change the planning system to assist farmers to diversify or move towards retail activity.

On 7 February the Executivepublished a series of planning documents designed to grow the economy andencourage sustainable development in rural areas.

National planning policy, ascontained in Scottish Planning Policy (SPP) 15: Planning for RuralDevelopment, recognises that planning authoritiesalong with others can support diversification in ways that benefit the economyand lead to good development on the ground. Indeed, it emphasises that ruraldiversification should be embraced to help, for example, farmers expand orstart new enterprises.

In addition Planning AdviceNote (PAN) 73: Rural Diversification highlights how the planning systemcan support rural diversification and shows how issues of accessibility,infrastructure, scale and design can be overcome to the benefit of the economy,the environment and rural communities.

Copies of SPP 15 and PAN 73have been placed in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. numbers 35317 and 35308respectively).

Question reference: S2W-14818

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 February 2005
Current Status: Answered by Johann Lamont on 9 March 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that shops should be located in towns rather than rural areas and what guidance it issues to planners in rural areas such as the north east on the location of retail developments.

It is for planningauthorities to assess all applications for retail development against a widerange of factors and local circumstances and, in particular, national planningpolicy as set out in National Planning Policy Guideline (NPPG) 8: TownCentres and Retailing and Scottish Planning Policy (SPP) 15: Planningfor Rural Development.

NPPG 8 gives priority tolocating new retail development in town centres or other centres well served bypublic transport. SPP 15 indicates that most retail development should befocussed at accessible locations and that major facilities should beconcentrated in the larger settlements.

Copies of NPPG 8 and SPP 15have been placed in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. numbers 1081 and35317 respectively).

Question reference: S2W-14819

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 February 2005
Current Status: Answered by Johann Lamont on 9 March 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive whether there is a presumption against retail development in rural areas.

There is no absolutepresumption against retail development in rural areas. It is for planningauthorities to assess all applications against national planning policy andother material factors.

National Planning PolicyGuideline (NPPG) 8: Town Centres and Retailing gives priority tolocating new retail development in town centres or other centres well served bypublic transport. Scottish Planning Policy (SPP) 15: Planning for RuralDevelopment indicates that most retail development should be focussed ataccessible locations and that major facilities should be concentrated in thelarger settlements.

Copies of NPPG 8 and SPP 15have been placed in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. numbers 1081 and35317 respectively).

Question reference: S2W-14754

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 25 February 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 9 March 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) regular, (b) full-time reserve and (c) part-time reserve police officers were medically retired as a result of being injured on duty in each year since 1997.

The total number of regular policeofficers medically retired from the eight Scottish forces since 1997 is shownin the following table.

1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
173	169	187	198	197	135	131

The number of regular policeofficers medically retired as a result of being injured on duty is not heldcentrally. There are no reserve police officers in Scotland.

Question reference: S2W-14752

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 25 February 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 9 March 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many, and what proportion of, burglars convicted for a third offence received a custodial sentence in the most recent year for which information is available and what the average length of sentence was.

Question reference: S2W-14903

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 March 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 9 March 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many criminal justice cases have been delayed or dropped due to the names of accused persons being (a) incorrectly and (b) incompletely recorded in each of the last five years.