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-30082

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 6 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how much has been spent on external consultants and advisers by (a) the First Minister’s office and (b) each Executive department in each year since 1999-2000 and what the projected costs are for 2006-07.

Question reference: S2W-30075

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 5 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what consideration it has given to commercial sponsorship of the International Corrections and Prisons Association, or events organised by it, in the period during which the Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service has been its chairperson.

Question reference: S2W-30076

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 5 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what involvement the Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service had in awarding the contract for HM Prison Addiewell.

Question reference: S2W-30077

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 5 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the criteria for determining a home detention curfew order have been altered since the introduction of the programme in July 2006.

Question reference: S2W-30132

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 4 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive which external consultants were used by each of its (a) departments and (b) agencies on projects relating to (i) private finance initiatives and (ii) public private partnerships in each year since 1999 and what the (1) nature and (2) cost of the consultants’ work was in each case.

The information requested isset out in the following table and covers the Scottish Executive’s own PPP projectsas well as those health and local authority PPP projects where the Scottish Executivehas incurred direct costs. The increasing values over these years reflects the increasedinvestment value of PPP procurements, especially in the schools sector.

The information has not beensplit into PFI and PPP projects as these terms tend to be used interchangeably.PFI is a subset of the wider PPP definition.

Year	PPP Project	SE Department/Agency	Name of External Consultants	Amount Paid (£)	Nature of Work
1999	-	-	-	-	-
2000	-	-	-	-	-
2001	M77	ETLLD	PricewaterhouseCoopers	210,000	Financial advice on tender preparation and issue
	M77	ETLLD	Shepherd and Wedderburn	105,000	Legal advice on tender preparation and issue
2002	M77	ETLLD	PricewaterhouseCoopers	167,491	Financial advice on tender co-ordination, negotiation and award
	M77	ETLLD	Shepherd and Wedderburn	62,603	Legal advice on tender co-ordination, negotiation and award
2003	Argyll and Bute Council’s schools projects	ED	Partnerships UK	235,000	Support for development of non-profit distributing organisation model
	Various schools projects	ED	Partnerships UK	32,955	Carrying out of Key Stage Review work
	Various schools projects	ED	Burness	19,093	Legal advice on contract derogations
2004	M77	ETLLD	PricewaterhouseCoopers	30,992	Financial advice on contract
	M77	ETLLD	Shepherd and Wedderburn	45,720	Legal advice on contract
	Skye Bridge	ETLLD	Partnerships UK	28,065	Advice related to the buy-out
	Skye Bridge	ETLLD	Commerzbank	209,131	Financial advice in connection with the buy-out
	Skye Bridge	ETLLD	Scott Wilson	10,514	Technical advice in connection with the buy-out
	Skye Bridge	ETLLD	McGrigors	66,738	Legal advice in connection with the buy-out
	Balfron and East Renfrewshire Council’s PPP1 schools projects, NHS Tayside Carseview	ED, HD	Partnerships UK	30,677	SE’s share of advisory costs in connection with situation that arose with a contractor
	Inverness Airport	ETLLD	Partnerships UK	4,109	Work carried out in connection with the buy-out
	East Lothian Council’s schools project	ED	Partnerships UK	16,390	Work carried out in supporting project after a consortium member went into administration
	Argyll and Bute Council’s schools projects	ED	Partnerships UK	176,250	Support for development of non-profit distributing organisation model
	Western Isles Council’s schools project	ED	Partnerships UK	29,632	Work on development of hybrid model
	Renfrewshire Council’s schools project	ED	Partnerships UK	21,490	Support work carried out
	Various schools projects	ED	Partnerships UK	115,992	Carrying out of Key Stage Review work
	Various health projects	HD	Partnerships UK	19,697	Carrying out of Key Stage Review work
	Various schools projects	ED	Burness	35,250	Legal advice on contract derogations
2005	Balfron and East Renfrewshire Council’s PPP1 schools projects, NHS Tayside Carseview	ED, HD	Partnerships UK	17,408	SE’s share of advisory costs in connection with situation that arose with a contractor
	Inverness Airport	ETLLD	Partnerships UK	2,831	Work carried out in connection with the buy-out
	Argyll and Bute Council’s schools projects	ED	Partnerships UK	176,250	Support for development of non-profit distributing organisation model
	Falkirk, Aberdeen City Councils’ schools projects	ED	Partnerships UK	46,017	Support for non-profit distributing organisation model
	Western Isles Council’s schools project	ED	Partnerships UK	70,194	Work on development of hybrid model
	North Lanarkshire Council’s schools project	ED	Partnerships UK	1,086	Support work carried out
	Various schools projects	ED	Partnerships UK	139,616	Carrying out of Key Stage Review work
	Various health projects	HD	Partnerships UK	48,025	Carrying out of Key Stage Review work
	NHS Lothian Edinburgh Royal Infirmary	HD	Partnerships UK	15,573	Work carried out on contract
	Various schools projects	ED	Burness	62,569	Legal advice on contract derogations

Question reference: S2W-30136

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 4 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how much it has spent on organising and hosting press conferences in each year since 1999.

Information in the form requestedis not held.

The vast majority of news conferencesare held within St Andrew’s House, making use of the existing facilities in themedia centre. In addition, the daily briefings by the First Minister’s OfficialSpokesperson are usually conducted in a room at the Parliament.

Organising news conferences isa fundamental part of the day-to-day work done by staff in Media and Communications.Specific costs over and above staff time are limited to the occasional provisionof tea, coffee and biscuits.

Question reference: S2W-30087

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 4 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people seeking to purchase sex have been (a) cautioned for, (b) prosecuted for and (c) convicted of causing nuisance or offence in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S2W-30017

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 4 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people aged (a) under 16, (b) 16 and 17 and (c) 18 to 21 were in (i) full-time, (ii) part-time and (iii) temporary employment in each year since 1999.

The following table shows thelevel of people in full-time, part-time and temporary employment for 1999-2006 forthose aged 16 to 17 and 18 to 21. Information is not available on employment ofpeople aged below 16.

The estimates are based on asample survey, and as such, are subject to some sampling error. Any changes in theestimates over time may not be statistically significant when sampling error istaken into account.

Table 1 – Full-Time,Part-Time and Temporary Employment, 1999-2006

	Aged 16 and 17			Aged 18 to 21
	Full-Time	Part-Time	Temporary	Full-Time	Part-Time	Temporary
1999	25,000	37,000	12,000	87,000	54,000	17,000
2000	22,000	33,000	*	99,000	57,000	23,000
2001	18,000	34,000	*	104,000	57,000	23,000
2002	19,000	35,000	*	109,000	61,000	19,000
2003	17,000	40,000	*	78,000	70,000	17,000
2004	14,000	37,000	*	95,000	73,000	15,000
2005	20,000	42,000	*	93,000	60,000	18,000
2006	21,000	32,000	*	84,000	71,000	15,000

Source: Labour Force Survey,Spring Quarters (March to May).

Notes:

1. Data have been rounded tothe nearest thousand.

*Data are unreliable.

Question reference: S2W-30086

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 4 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have been (a) cautioned for, (b) prosecuted for and (c) convicted of soliciting in each year since 1999, broken down by age and gender.

Formal police cautions do notapply in Scotland. The available information on prosecutions and convictionsis given in the following table.

Persons Proceeded against inScottish Courts for Offences Related to Prostitution¹, by Age andGender, 1999-2000 to 2004-05

Gender and Age	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05
Total number	297	194	133	105	134	232
Males	1	2	3	-	-	-
Females
Aged under 21	32	34	18	14	9	13
Aged 21-30	181	102	71	65	80	146
Aged over 30	83	56	41	26	45	73
Number of persons with a charge proved	287	160	110	99	126	223
Males	1	2	2	-	-	-
Females
Aged under 21	30	26	15	14	9	12
Aged 21-30	174	86	60	60	75	140
Aged over 30	82	46	33	25	42	71

Note: 1. Wheremain offence under section 46 of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982.

Question reference: S2W-30085

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 4 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average waiting time for (a) routine and (b) urgent bone scans is in each NHS board.