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-05395

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Andrew Welsh on 21 January 2004

To ask the Presiding Officer how many visitors there were in the public gallery during First Minister's Question Time on each occasion since it was timetabled to commence at noon, compared with the equivalent day (a) one year and (b) two years previously.

The information requested is given below. As access and egress of visitors is a continuous process, it is not possible to identify the total numbers in the public galleries at any one time. The information at Table A therefore covers the number of visitors who accessed the public galleries between 09.00 and 12.30 following the move of First Minister’s Question Time to 12.00 on 11 September 2003. Table B shows the number of visitors who accessed the public galleriesfrom 14.00 to 16.30 (which covered First Minister’s Question Time) for the samecalendar period for each of the two previous years.

Table A

Date	09.00 12.30
11/09/03	252
18/09/03	446
25/09/03	260
02/10/03	222
09/10/03	324
13/10 – 24/10 Recess
30/10/03	457
06/11/03	319
13/11/03	296
20/11/03	366
27/11/03	246
04/12/03	227
11/12/03	385
18/12/03	249
22/12 – 2/1/04 Recess
08/01/04	109
Total	4,158
Average	297

Table B

Date	14.00 16.30	Date	14.00 16.30
12/09/02	374	13/09/01	454
19/09/02	217	20/09/01	478
26/09/02	253	27/09/01	390
03/10/02	260	04/10/01	437
10/10/02	274	8/10 – 19/10 Recess
14/10 – 25/10 Recess		25/10/01	415
31/10/02	358	01/11/01	448
07/11/02	300	08/11/01	386
14/11/02	435	15/11/01	270
21/11/02	423	22/11/01	328
28/11/02	291	29/11/01	447
05/12/02	376	06/12/01	471
12/12/02	387	13/12/01	282
19/12/02	188	20/12/01	188
23/12 – 3/1/03 Recess		24/12 – 4/1/02 Recess
09/01/03	200	10/01/02	252
Total	4,336	Total	5,246
Average	309	Average	375

Question reference: S2W-05313

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 19 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the use of applets by the eProcurement Scotl@nd web service restricts or prevents its use by (a) buyers and (b) suppliers who use “open systems” computer software and hardware or who conform to cross-industry rather than proprietary standards.

TheeProcurement Scotl@nd service is made up of a number of elements, for example,transaction software and e-tendering software. The service provider is requiredto ensure that the service is not reliant on proprietary standards such as thetype of web-browser used.

Applets are used in alimited number of situations. We are not aware of any compatibility issuessurrounding the use of applets in the transaction software, but we haverecently become aware of a compatibility issue in the e-tendering software. Theservice provider has been asked to address this issue. Our intention is thatwherever possible, cross-industry standards, rather than proprietary standards,will be applied, and this is a fundamental requirement of the service.

Question reference: S2W-05139

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 December 2003
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 19 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many special constables there have been in Grampian police force in each year since 1995.

The numbers of special constables serving with Grampian in each year since 1995 are shown in the following table:

Grampian Police

Numbers of SpecialConstables

As at 31 March:
1995	198
1996	171
1997	146
1998	138
1999	121
As at 30 June:
2000	122
2001	117
2002	121
2003	95

Question reference: S2W-05264

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 13 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what budget is available to the Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency for the replacement of fishery protection vessels.

Question reference: S2W-05263

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 13 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what the timetable is for the replacement of fishery protection vessels for the Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency for the next five years.

Question reference: S2W-05262

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 13 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will publish the next stage of its consultation on regulations to improve the quality and standard of private water supplies; how long the consultation period will be, and when it expects to publish the results of the consultation process.

Extensive research andcollaboration with stakeholders is required before the Scottish Executive will be in a position to finalise the next stage of its consultation onprivate water supplies. The Executive aims to complete that research andpublish a further consultation document during 2004. The official consultationperiod will be 12 weeks and the Executive aims to publish the results within afew months of the closing date.

Question reference: S2W-04834

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 December 2003
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 13 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on the average (a) household debt per annum and (b) household monthly income for each year since 1997.

There is no centrally heldinformation on levels of household debt in Scotland.

The table shows estimatesfor median equivalised net household income, before and after housing costs, foreach of the years 1996-97 to 2001-02 inclusive, all in 2001-02 prices.

Equivalisation takes accountof the size and composition of the household (see footnote to table), and it isthis measure of income that is used in the official low income statistics.

The figures in the tablesare estimates only derived from a sample survey, the Family Resources Survey(FRS). The sample size of the FRS in Scotland is small, and so these estimates are subject toconsiderable sampling variability.

MedianEquivalised Net Household Income

(£ per month in2001-02 prices)

Year	Before Housing Costs	After Housing Costs
1996-97	1,144	988
1997-98	1,185	1,021
1998-99	1,187	1,032
1999-2000	1,226	1,083
2000-01	1,224	1,085
2001-02	1,321	1,177

Equivalisation is theprocess whereby household income is adjusted to take account of the size andcomposition of the household in order to make comparisons of living standardsbetween different household types. This adjustment reflects the notion that afamily of several people requires a higher income than a single person in orderfor both households to enjoy a comparable standard of living.

Question reference: S2W-04940

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 December 2003
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 12 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how much has been allocated under the rates relief scheme for harbours and businesses affected by white fish catch reduction, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S2W-04939

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 December 2003
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 12 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many applications have been made under the rates relief scheme for harbours and businesses affected by white fish catch reduction and how many were successful on first application or appeal, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S2W-04289

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2003
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 5 December 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive how many health staff working in prisons have contracted hepatitis C (a) during the course of their work and (b) in total in each year for which the figures are available, broken down by staff group.

Aberdeenshire	£127,446.15
Highland	£55,828.43
Scottish Borders	£15,645.00