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-02101

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 August 2003
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 10 September 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive how many personnel are involved in the enforcement of the Weeds Act 1959 in (a) its departments and (b) local authorities.

Each of the 16 Environmentand Rural Affairs area offices which undertake day-to-day enforcement of theWeeds Act 1959 has a co-ordinator who is responsible for the investigation ofall written complaints about injurious weeds. The table gives man days spentenforcing the Weeds Act over the last four years, taken from 1 April to 31March.

1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03
29	41	49	70

In headquarters, threemembers of staff are involved in enforcing the Weeds Act 1959. This workcomprises around 2% of their combined annual workload.

The number of personnelinvolved in the enforcement of the Weeds Act 1959 in local authorities is amatter for the individual local authorities. The information requested is notheld centrally.

Question reference: S2W-01788

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 01 August 2003
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 9 September 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-15862 by Angus Mackay on 5 June 2001, how much of its material was sent for recycling in (a) 2000-01 and (b) 2001-02 and what future targets for recycling its material it has set.

The Scottish Executive ismaking good progress in the proportion of office waste it sends for recycling.

We have a target to reducethe amount of office waste going to landfill by recycling 60% of total wasteproduced by March 2004. We are currently recycling 58% of our waste compared to44% in 2001-02 and 40% in 2000-01. This has been achieved through enhancedwaste segregation. Other methods such as reuse of furniture and IT equipmentand recycling of mobile phones also helps to reduce the amount of waste beingsent to landfill.

In 2000-01 the Executivemoved from recording bags of waste to tonnage and we have discovered an errorin the figures. The figure quoted for the proportion of waste recycled in thatyear remains largely unaffected, indeed, at 40% it is marginally better thanthe figure of 38% then indicated. The corrected tonnage for 2000-01 is:

Recycled Waste in the MainScottish Executive Buildings

	2000-01 Tonnes	2001-02 Tonnes
Paper	299.820	445.75
Aluminium Cans	0.72	0.95
Plastic Cups	2.832 *	Nil
Waste Metal from Office Furniture	17.61	Figures N/A
Cooking Oil	0.498 *	4.165
Toner Cartridges	1.568 *	2.168 *
Fluorescent Tubes	1.58	17.55

Note:

*Victoria Quay only.

Question reference: S2W-02346

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 September 2003
Current Status: Answered by Mary Mulligan on 9 September 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive how many of the 70,000 houses to be transferred to community ownership, referred to in A Partnership for a Better Scotland, will be transferred in (a) 2003-04, (b) 2004-05 and (c) 2005-06 and how many will be (i) whole and (ii) partial stock transfers.

Question reference: S2W-02100

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 August 2003
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 5 September 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive what arrangements exist to ensure that the weeds specified in section 1 of the Weeds Act 1959 are cleared from roads and verges for which responsibility as road authority lies with (a) it and (b) the local authority.

The Trunk Road Maintenance Contracts require the Operating Companies to control the weeds specified in section 1 of the Weeds Act 1959 to prevent them developing as infestations or becoming a nuisance. The performance of the Operating Companies in all aspects of the contract, including weed control, is monitored by the Performance Audit Group and appropriate action will be taken by the Scottish Executive if the requirements of the contract with regard to weed control are not met.

Under section 1 of the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984, local authorities have a general duty to maintain local roads and verges in their area. The local authorities are therefore responsible for the control of the weeds specified in section 1 of the Weeds Act 1959 on the local road network. The Scottish Executive has no locus to intervene in how councils carry out their day-to-day responsibilities on this issue.

Question reference: S2W-02099

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 August 2003
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 5 September 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive whether BEAR Scotland Ltd benefits from the non-applicability of section 11 of the Weeds Act 1959 to roads for which the Executive is the road authority and, if so, what arrangements exist to ensure that BEAR Scotland Ltd maintains all roads and verges for which it is responsible free from those weeds specified in section 1 of the act.

Question reference: S2W-02032

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 August 2003
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 5 September 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of under-16-year-olds have had dental decay in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board area.

Question reference: S2W-02213

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 August 2003
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 4 September 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive how many prisoners are awaiting transfer to HM Prison Peterhead.

Question reference: S2W-01977

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 August 2003
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 3 September 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will reply to the letter of 4 June 2003 from Alex Salmond MP, which was transferred to it for reply from Her Majesty's Government's Department of Health, regarding our constituent Mr Hosie.

Question reference: S2W-01855

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 August 2003
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 2 September 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding has been received by the NHS from the pharmaceutical industry in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S2W-01852

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 August 2003
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 2 September 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-1113 by Malcolm Chisholm on 17 July 2003 and for each of the drugs granted UK marketing authorisations since 1 June 2002, which drugs have been given approval by the Scottish Medicines Consortium and, of these, how many were given approval for use (a) in all and (b) in certain circumstances.