Questions and answers

Question reference: S2W-05441

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 1 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what the annual cost is of administering the council tax system.

Question reference: S2W-05468

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 12 February 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive when the target to ensure that rail passengers do not have to stand for more than ten minutes during their journey, announced on 17 December 2002, will be met.

The Scottish Executive is committed to ensuring that there is a consistent standard to addressovercrowding across Scotrail’s services.

Under the current franchise,the operator is required to meet obligations relating to managing overcrowding.These obligations have been set by StrathclydePassenger Transport Executive (SPTE) inits area and by the Strategic RailAuthority (SRA) in the rest of thecountry.

In the SPTE area, theoperator is required to plan its services to ensure that no-one should have tostand for more than 10 minutes. The SRA monitors overcrowding on the busiestservices in the rest of the country. On these services, the operator isrequired to plan to ensure that no-one should have to stand for more than 20minutes.

An obligation to plan tomeet a maximum 10-minute standing target will be introduced through the nextfranchise for all Scotrail services.

Question reference: S2W-05627

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 9 February 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many adults had an income of (a) less than #5,000, (b) #5,001 - #7,500, (c) #7,501 - #10,000, (d) #10,001 - #15,000, (e) #15,001 - #20,000, (f) #20,001 - #30,000, (g) #30,001 - #35,000, (h) #35,001 - #40,000, (i) #40,001 - #50,000, (j) #50,001 - #75,000 and (k) #75,001 - #100,000 in each of the last six years for which information is available.

The following table presents estimates of the numbers of adults with gross income falling in the various income bands, for each of the years 1996-97 to 2001-02. The estimates are derived from the Family Resources Survey’s (FRS) Individual Incomes Analysis. Due to the small sample size of the FRS in Scotland, the higher income bands have been grouped together; the sample sizes are too small to givereliable estimates for the separate groups (g)-(k) in the question.

The income is gross income and includes all elements of income that are accrued to the individual in their own right. This includes income fromearnings, self-employment, occupational pensions, investments, social securitybenefits, and, in 2001-02, tax credits. Elements of income that are generallyaccrued by a household rather than an individual are excluded, e.g. housingbenefit and council tax benefit, and income from letting/sub-letting.

For the purposes of the table, individuals’ incomes in each year have not been up-rated for inflation, but represent their actual incomes during the year of the survey.

Number of Adults in Scotland by Income Band
Income¹ (£ per year)	Estimated Number of Adults
Income¹ (£ per year)	1996-97	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02
0–5,000	1,390,000	1,220,000	1,220,000	1,190,000	1,140,000	880,000
5,000.01–7,500	570,000	580,000	560,000	580,000	560,000	580,000
7500.01-10000	440,000	480,000	460,000	430,000	440,000	470,000
10,000.01–15,000	660,000	670,000	660,000	650,000	640,000	730,000
15,000.01–20,000	330,000	410,000	380,000	400,000	400,000	450,000
20,000.01-30,000	360,000	370,000	410,000	420,000	480,000	510,000
30,000.01–40,000	90,000	100,000	120,000	140,000	130,000	170,000
40,000 plus	70,000	80,000	100,000	110,000	130,000	140,000

Note:

1. Excludesany income which is not accrued directly to the individual in their own right,but also excludes student loans, Social Fund loans and benefits in kind.

Question reference: S2W-05754

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 26 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 9 February 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps are being taken to supervise prisoners after release from long-term sentences and whether there are any implications arising from such persons choosing to change their names.

Prisoners serving sentencesof four years or more are released on licence and are subject to statutorysupervision on release. The service for this group is currently being enhancedin response to the recommendations contained in the report from the TripartiteGroup “Throughcare – Developing the Service.” This reflects the priority givento public protection.

The Scottish Prison Servicepolicy on requests by prisoners to change their name differentiates betweenthose prisoners who have officially changed their name(s) i.e. had their newname recorded by the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages and prisonerswho wish to be known by a new name but have not had that new name officiallyrecorded. In each case, the prisoner’s records are marked appropriately inorder to highlight any change of name to the local authority responsible forsupervision on release.

Additionally underthe Sex Offenders Act 1997, relevant sex offenders currently are required tonotify the police of their name, and, where he also uses one or more othernames, each of those names. Under section 84 of the Sexual OffencesAct 2003 (to be commenced on 1 May 2004) offenders will be required to notify achange to the notified details (such as name or by assuming an alias) within threedays of the change taking place, thus shortening the current period under theSex Offenders Act 1997 which is 14 days.

Question reference: S2W-05753

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 26 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 9 February 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what studies it has conducted with regard to the possible effects on the Scottish climate of the extraction of energy from the atmosphere by wind farms.

Question reference: S2W-05633

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 4 February 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many businesses in Scotland were trading online in each year since 1997 and in each quarter of 2003, broken down by local authority area.

The following table showsthe number of businesses in Scotland that trade online from 2001-03 calculated from theresults of annual e-business surveys carried out by Scottish Enterprise and Highlands andIslands Enterprise since 2001.

	2001	2002	2003
Business with websites that allow customers to order products and services online.	23,191	31,688	20,938
Businesses that order products and services online from suppliers	35,138	48,647	48,657

These figures werecalculated by multiplying the proportion of businesses that trade onlinereported in the survey by the number of registered enterprises in Scotland.The figures are subject to normal statistical and sampling variation.

The full survey results areavailable at Scottish Enterprise’s website at

http://www.scottish-enterprise.com/sedotcom_home/sig/ebusiness-suppliers/software_publications_research/sebs2003.htm.

Figures for earlier yearsare not available on a comparable basis. Quarterly data is not available as thesurveys are conducted annually. Information is not available at the localauthority level.

Question reference: S2W-05631

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 4 February 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many self-employed people have declared themselves bankrupt in each quarter since the first quarter of 2002.

Question reference: S2W-05637

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 4 February 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what the estimated percentage collection rate of council tax is for (a) 2003-04 and (b) 2004-05.

In setting council taxlevels, local authorities make assumptions about the total council tax incomewhich they will receive, including arrears, in the coming year. This, expressedas a percentage of council tax billed, is published in column 5 on page 9 of the CIPFA Rating Review for 2003-04, a copy of which can be found in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 29256). Similar figures are not yetavailable centrally for 2004-05.

Question reference: S2W-05632

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 4 February 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on the number of individuals declared bankrupt in (a) each year since 1997 and (b) each quarter of 2003, broken down by local authority area.

The Accountant in Bankruptcy maintains the Register of Insolvencies in Scotland. Details of bankruptcies are held by Sheriffdoms rather than local authority areas and are compiled by financial year. The following tables give the number of bankruptcies for the financial years 1996-97 to 2002-03 and by quarters for the whole of 2003. Further information on bankruptcies is available in the Accountant in Bankruptcy’s Annual Report which is available at www.aib.gov.uk.

Sheriffdom	Sheriff Court	Financial Year (1st April to 31st March)
Sheriffdom	Sheriff Court	96-97	97-98	98-99	99-00	00-01	01-02	02-03
Glasgow and Strathkelvin	Glasgow	305	309	281	275	324	306	340
Lothian and Borders	Edinburgh	228	251	268	252	234	197	234
	Duns	12	6	15	12	6	8	6
	Haddington	42	49	48	65	33	64	86
	Jedburgh	14	21	28	28	31	18	28
	Linlithgow	77	100	74	123	98	118	87
	Peebles	3	11	7	9	10	6	8
	Selkirk	14	23	12	12	14	20	14
		390	461	452	501	426	431	463
Grampian, Highlands and Islands	Aberdeen	143	177	172	187	188	211	187
	Banff	8	6	25	15	12	16	19
	Dingwall	10	12	13	16	21	17	10
	Dornoch	9	5	6	9	4	11	11
	Elgin	48	35	51	49	47	46	42
	Fort William	1	12	18	12	21	18	31
	Inverness	36	26	37	72	41	46	59
	Kirkwall	8	5	4	9	10	6	8
	Lerwick	6	12	6	10	15	10	5
	Lochmaddy	4	2	2	1	0	1	2
	Peterhead	19	32	54	45	28	45	29
	Portree	4	6	9	7	5	2	12
	Stonehaven	24	18	29	23	25	24	34
	Stornoway	12	6	8	5	4	2	5
	Tain	7	7	10	7	7	12	11
	Wick	14	14	12	11	14	8	9
		353	375	456	478	442	475	474
North Strathclyde	Campbeltown	10	12	12	23	13	23	15
	Dumbarton	67	46	52	67	83	69	99
	Dunoon	15	12	18	24	18	13	26
	Greenock	27	29	44	43	34	35	49
	Kilmarnock	97	136	133	156	162	160	136
	Oban	9	10	18	28	23	25	42
	Paisley	97	139	168	181	171	212	127
	Rothesay	10	3	9	2	4	4	3
		332	387	454	524	508	541	497
South Strathclyde Dumfries and Galloway	Airdrie	127	90	141	129	162	173	166
	Ayr	89	61	96	114	83	98	113
	Dumfries	45	45	51	48	44	55	43
	Hamilton	173	181	199	212	159	212	214
	Kirkcudbright	7	15	17	16	24	20	23
	Lanark	15	27	54	34	30	35	36
	Stranraer	21	13	12	16	15	12	12
		477	432	570	569	517	605	607
Tayside, Central & Fife	Alloa	35	36	50	34	24	31	40
	Arbroath	20	30	35	37	35	29	29
	Cupar	41	42	55	58	41	51	50
	Dundee	57	69	108	115	105	139	135
	Dunfermline	98	104	123	121	102	119	91
	Falkirk	113	113	153	129	110	126	108
	Forfar	20	19	36	20	31	27	30
	Kirkcaldy	138	148	152	166	151	149	171
	Perth	99	128	139	114	71	116	149
	Stirling	56	48	46	44	51	48	44
		677	737	897	838	721	835	847
Total		2,534	2,701	3,110	3,185	2,938	3,193	3,228

Sheriffdom	Sheriff Court
Sheriffdom	Sheriff Court	Jan-Mar 03	Apr-Jun 03	Jul-Sep 03	Oct-Dec 03
Glasgow and Strathkelvin	Glasgow	93	87	86	68
Lothian and Borders	Edinburgh	62	52	67	74
	Duns	2	2	3	1
	Haddington	25	42	34	14
	Jedburgh	11	10	10	4
	Linlithgow	28	29	37	32
	Peebles	3	1	3	2
	Selkirk	4	7	4	5
		135	143	158	132
Grampian, Highlands and Islands	Aberdeen	44	52	57	48
	Banff	4	3	9	4
	Dingwall	3	7	7	8
	Dornoch	1	1	2	2
	Elgin	11	21	10	15
	Fort William	9	5	2	1
	Inverness	12	9	5	9
	Kirkwall	4	0	1	7
	Lerwick	0	3	2	5
	Lochmaddy	0	0	0	2
	Peterhead	10	18	22	10
	Portree	0	0	0	3
	Stonehaven	6	7	10	8
	Stornoway	1	1	3	4
	Tain	2	3	2	0
	Wick	1	7	3	4
		108	137	135	130
North Strathclyde	Campbeltown	8	2	3	1
	Dumbarton	32	20	31	17
	Dunoon	4	1	4	5
	Greenock	13	12	18	10
	Kilmarnock	15	43	36	50
	Oban	7	4	10	3
	Paisley	28	33	26	43
	Rothesay	0	2	2	1
		107	117	130	130
South Strathclyde Dumfries and Galloway	Airdrie	35	29	21	30
	Ayr	29	26	20	24
	Dumfries	8	16	14	10
	Hamilton	55	69	57	61
	Kirkcudbright	8	8	3	4
	Lanark	5	7	9	14
	Stranraer	2	4	4	1
		142	159	128	144
Tayside, Central and Fife	Alloa	6	9	10	10
	Arbroath	13	15	7	11
	Cupar	14	17	9	19
	Dundee	39	38	52	30
	Dunfermline	31	24	21	46
	Falkirk	26	27	31	36
	Forfar	5	13	7	7
	Kirkcaldy	39	31	48	37
	Perth	37	31	23	23
	Stirling	12	16	13	11
		222	221	221	230
Totals		807	864	858	834

Question reference: S2W-05628

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 4 February 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have (a) registered with, (b) been placed in work by and (c) achieved sustained work with the help of a job broker since the extension of the New Deal for Disabled People.

Employment policy isreserved to the UK Government which takes the lead on funding and delivery of the New Deal. In Scotland it does this in partnership with the Scottish Executive and contributing Scottish organisations.

Since the beginning of theNew Deal for Disabled People extension July 2001 – September 2003 Job Brokerswithin Scotland have achieved:-

(a) 4,979 registrations

(b) 1,594 job entries

(c) 517 sustained jobs.

Chamber and committees