Questions and answers

Question reference: S3W-02996

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 August 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 22 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-2221 by Stewart Maxwell on 30 July 2007, whether it will provide a breakdown of the figure for the average cost of constructing a home for social rent.

I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:

The average cost ofconstructing a home for social rent during 2006-07 was £117,762. This can be brokendown as follows:

Average Acquisition Cost	£8,935
Average Works Cost	£96,003
Average Fees	£8,022
Average other Costs	£4,802
Total	£117,762

Question reference: S3W-02369

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 22 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average consumption of milk has been in each year since 1980, broken down by socio-economic group.

I am informedby the Food Standards Agency Scotland (FSAS) that there is no single data set that provides information onthe average consumption of milk by socio-economic group between 1980 and the presenttime. Thus, data on the average consumption of milk by socio-economic group wasobtained from the National Food Survey of GB, which only provides information upto the year 2000. The data is not Scotland specific.

The data from 1980 up to the year 2000 is providedin table 1 by seven income groups (A, B, C, D, E1, E2 and Old Age Pensioners (OAP)).Households with one or more earners are categorised into groups A to D. Those ingroup A earn more than those in group D. Households without an earner are categorisedinto either group E1 or E2, with those in group E1 earning more than those in groupE2.

Table 1 Household Consumption of Whole Milk andSkimmed Milks (Per Person, Per Week) by Income Group of Head of Household in Great Britain

Year	(ml)	Socio-Economic Status
Year	(ml)	A	B	C	D	E1	E2	OAP	All Households
2000	Whole milk	479	531	629	895	684	955	921	665
	Skimmed milk	1,136	1,081	1,077	1,057	1,486	1,153	1,424	1,138
1999	Whole milk	363	489	652	888	628	976	885	634
	Skimmed milk	1,127	1,150	1,030	1,026	1,459	1,015	1,268	1,125
1998	Whole milk	503	579	658	791	657	1,070	982	693
	Skimmed milk	1,171	1,091	1,047	1,018	1,471	1,009	1,260	1,110
1997	Whole milk	478	533	715	953	802	1,095	982	712
	Skimmed milk	1,016	1,172	1,102	1,098	1,331	1,019	1,247	1,136
1995	Whole milk	541	653	793	1,092	1,049	1,001	1,092	812
	Skimmed milk	1,156	1,134	1,082	931	1,305	1,005	1,160	1,103
1993	Whole milk	604	703	895	1,052	1,069	1,240	1,322	898
	Skimmed milk	1,205	1,124	971	867	1,308	798	1,008	1,031
1990	Whole milk	938	1,102	1,271	1,491	1,388	1,471	1,649	1,232
	Skimmed milk	892	762	648	515	999	593	559	709
1989	Whole milk	1,105	1,232	1,358	1,512	1,702	1,696	1,832	1,376
	Skimmed milk	794	722	544	457	806	505	438	622
1988	Whole milk	1,167	1,393	1,545	1,639	1,695	1,794	1,893	1,513
	Skimmed milk	763	588	459	339	685	375	440	527
1985	Whole milk	1,648	1,722	1,911	2,017	2,101	2,077	2,282	1,888
	Skimmed milk	344	316	217	104	280	152	230	244
1980	Whole milk	2,390	2,335	2,312	2,276	2,678	2,534	2,592	2,364
	Skimmed milk	---------	---------	---------	---------	---------	---------	---------	---------

Question reference: S3W-02392

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 22 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has undertaken any study into the effect of rail fare pricing on passenger numbers.

Question reference: S3W-02391

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 22 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what its annual subsidy to First Scotrail has been in each year since it was awarded the contract to operate rail services.

The following tabledetails the payments made to First ScotRail Limited since 4 October 2004 when the current franchise agreement commenced. All figuresare based on the franchise payment amounts specified in the franchise agreementadjusted, which allows for adjustments for price indexation, performance penaltiesor payments and variations or changes made to the agreement. The SRA and SPT wereresponsible for franchise payments during 2004-05 and the early part of the 2005-06years.

2004-05	2005-06	2006-07
£102,855,123	£184,711.497	£282,106,973

Question reference: S3W-02875

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 August 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 21 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-2223 by Stewart Maxwell on 1 August 2007, what it estimates the total value was of all discounts for the sale of council houses under the right to buy scheme in each year since 1979.

The following tableshows the amount of discount for sales of public authority stock to sitting tenantsunder the right to buy and rent to mortgage schemes, and through voluntary sales.

Total Value ofDiscount of Public Authority Stock Sold through Right to Buy, Rent to Mortgage andVoluntary Sales

Year	Discount (£ Million)	Year	Discount (£ Million)
1979	1.5	1993	355.8
1980	34.6	1994	388.6
1981	65.4	1995	310.3
1982	96.0	1996	237.3
1983	127.3	1997	317.9
1984	130.8	1998	276.5
1985	136.3	1999	264.5
1986	138.4	2000	278.8
1987	210.8	2001	268.6
1988	379.7	2002	333.9
1989	509.6	2003	367.0
1990	480.6	2004	306.7
1991	371.1	2005	308.2
1992	410.8	2006	280.9

Source: Sales3 returnsprovided to the Scottish Executive by local authorities.

Notes:

1. Public authoritiesinclude local authorities, new towns and Scottish Homes (Scottish Special HousingAssociation prior to April 1998).

2. Monetary valuesare in nominal terms and have not been adjusted for inflation.

3. The table excludessales to sitting tenants who preserved their rights to buy their home followingthe transfer of stock to housing associations in Dumfries and Galloway, Glasgow and the Scottish Borders in 2003, and in Argyll and Bute and Eilean Siar in 2006. The total value of these additionaldiscounts is £141 million.

Question reference: S3W-02929

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 August 2007
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 21 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers dyslexia to be a disability.

Question reference: S3W-02370

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 21 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what average calcium intake has been in each year since 1980, broken down by socio-economic group.

I am informed by theFood Standards Agency Scotland (FSAS) that there is no single data set that providesinformation on the average consumption of calcium by socio-economic group between1980 and the present time. Thus, data on the average consumption of calcium by incomequintiles was obtained from the Expenditure and Food Survey of the UK, which provides information from April 2002 up to March2003 and from April 2003 up to March 2006. This data is not Scotland specific.

The following tableshows the average intake of calcium (per person, per day) by income quintiles whichare based on gross weekly household income. The first quintile contains the lowestincome households and the fifth income quintile contains the household with thehighest income. Calcium intakes were determined from food brought into the homeand eaten outside the home.

Table 1 Average Calcium Intake from all Food andDrink in the United Kingdom

Year		Quintiles
Year		Quintile 1	Quintile 2	Quintile 3	Quintile 4	Quintile 5
April 2002 to March 2003	Lower boundary (gross weekly income)		£187.86	£341.44	£541.21	£820.95
	Intake of calcium per person per day (mg)	1,020	1,010	980	990	970
April 2003 to March 2006	Lower boundary (gross weekly income)	0	£206	£364	£596	£915
	Intake of calcium per person per day (mg)	1,055	1,044	1,006	973	977

Note: mg, milligram.

Question reference: S3W-02441

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Elish Angiolini on 20 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it believes that serious injuries to victims in road traffic incidents should be included in any subsequent criminal charges for road traffic offences.

The Procurator Fiscalis entitled to include details of the consequences of driving, including injury,in charges of dangerous or careless driving in order to allow the court to considerthese consequences in assessing whether the driving was dangerous or careless. Atpresent death can only be included in charges relating to causing death by dangerousdriving or by careless driving while under the influence of drink or drugs, butthe Road Safety Act 2006 will in future allow prosecutors to bring charges for causingdeath by careless driving, or while unlicensed, disqualified or uninsured.

Question reference: S3W-02674

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 16 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many personnel have been employed by each fire and rescue service or predecessor body in each year since 1990.

Question reference: S3W-02232

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 15 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the total expenditure on PFI/PPP projects has been in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area.

Table A shows theunitary charges paid by local authorities for PPP projects in each of the yearsfrom 1999-2000 to 2006-07.

Table B shows theunitary charges for PPP projects that are not readily identifiable with a localauthority area as they span more than one local authority area. The informationis provided in each of the years from 1999-2000 to 2006-07.

The unitary chargeis the amount paid by the public sector procuring body to the private sector consortiumfor the services it provides over the length of the contract. The services includecapital construction, lifecycle maintenance and facilities management, and not justthe upfront construction cost of the asset.

Table A: Unitary chargesof local authority PPP projects

Local Authority Area	1999-2000 (£ Million)	2000-01 (£ Million)	2001-02 (£ Million)	2002-03 (£ Million)	2003-04 (£ Million)
Aberdeenshire			0.2	2.4	3.0
Angus
Argyll and Bute			2.4	3.8	4.1
City of Dundee	0.8	2.4	2.5	2.5	2.6
City of Edinburgh				13.4	18.0
City of Glasgow			7.0	35.8	41.3
Dumfries and Galloway
East Lothian
East Renfrewshire			2.8	2.8	2.9
Falkirk		11.7	11.8	12.0	12.1
Fife					4.2
Highland	6.9	6.4	5.6	7.5	10.6
Midlothian					2.0
Moray	2.0	2.1	2.1	2.2	1.8
North Ayrshire		1.1	1.3	1.3	1.3
North Lanarkshire
Perth and Kinross	0.8	2.0	2.0	2.1	2.2
Stirling	0.5	0.5	4.0	4.0	3.1
West Lothian			2.5	7.8	9.2

Local Authority Area	2004-05 (£ Million)	2005-06 (£ Million)	2006-07 (£ Million)	Total (£ Million)
Aberdeenshire	3.2	4.4	8.7	21.9
Angus		2.6	5.3	7.9
Argyll and Bute	4.3	4.4	5.4	24.4
City of Dundee	2.7	2.7	2.8	19.0
City of Edinburgh	18.6	18.6	18.6	87.2
City of Glasgow	42.1	42.9	43.7	212.8
Dumfries and Galloway		4.3	5.9	10.2
East Lothian		7.2	7.3	14.5
East Renfrewshire	2.9	2.9	3.0	17.3
Falkirk	12.3	12.4	12.6	84.9
Fife	6.5	6.5	13.2	30.4
Highland	10.9	11.4	7.1	66.4
Midlothian	4.4	4.4	4.5	15.3
Moray	1.8	1.8	0.3	14.1
North Ayrshire	1.3	1.3	1.4	9.0
North Lanarkshire		0.5	5.4	5.9
Perth and Kinross	2.2	2.2	2.2	15.7
Stirling	3.2	3.2	3.7	22.2
West Lothian	9.2	9.2	9.2	47.1

Table B: Unitary Chargesof PPP Projects which Span More than One Local Authority Area

	1999-2000 (£ Million)	2000-01 (£ Million)	2001-02 (£ Million)	2002-03 (£ Million)	2003-04 (£ Million)
Water and Sewerage
Inverness Main Drainage/Fort William Sewage Treatment	7.1	7.4	7.0	7.1	7.0
Tay Waste Water Project			8.2	19.4	18.4
Aberdeen sewage and sludge treatment			2.5	14.5	13.5
Moray Coast Waste Water Project				6.0	10.3
Almond Valley, Esk Valley and Seafield Sewage Scheme				17.7	18.3
Levenmouth Purification Scheme				2.7	7.7
Dalmuir Sewage Treatment				6.7	7.0
Daldowie/Shieldhall Sludge Treatment Centres				5.4	14.3
Meadowhead Sewage Treatment				8.2	11.2
Health
NHS Ayshire and Arran		0.9	1.4	1.4	3.5
NHS Dumfries and Galloway			0.2	1.3	1.3
NHS Grampian					1.9
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde					5.4
NHS Highland		2.2	3.2	3.1	3.2
NHS Lanarkshire					3.9
NHS Lothian		0.4	5.5	19.3	41.8
NHS Tayside			1.6	1.6	2.0
Justice ¹
National Roads and Transport
M6 DBFO	21.3	22.1	20.0	21.9	20.7
M77/Glasgow Southern Orbital Road (SE/East Renfrewshire) ²					0.6
Social Work
SCRA - Integrated Information System	1.1	1.1	1.9	2.5	3.0

Police Force Training Centre, East Kilbride			2.9	3.0	3.1

	2004-05 (£ Million)	2005-06 (£ Million)	2006-07 (£ Million)	Total (£ Million)
Water and Sewerage
Inverness Main Drainage/Fort William Sewage Treatment	8.0	7.6	8.0	59.2
Tay Waste Water Project	19.6	18.9	19.3	103.8
Aberdeen sewage and sludge treatment	14.1	15.4	15.7	75.7
Moray Coast Waste Water Project	10.6	10.9	10.8	48.6
Almond Valley, Esk Valley and Seafield Sewage Scheme	18.2	18.5	19.7	92.4
Levenmouth Purification Scheme	8.5	8.9	11.9	39.7
Dalmuir Sewage Treatment	7.1	6.2	6.5	33.5
Daldowie/Shieldhall Sludge Treatment Centres	15.3	14.3	15.4	64.7
Meadowhead Sewage Treatment	11.3	11.4	11.5	53.6
Health
NHS Ayshire and Arran	3.6	3.6	3.2	17.6
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	1.4	1.4	1.6	7.2
NHS Grampian	1.9	1.9	2.0	7.7
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	5.5	5.8	6.6	23.3
NHS Highland	3.4	4.6	4.7	24.4
NHS Lanarkshire	39.8	42.1	42.7	128.5
NHS Lothian	45.1	46.2	47.9	206.2
NHS Tayside	3.2	4.4	4.5	17.3
Justice ¹
National Roads and Transport
M6 DBFO	20.5	19.5	23.2	169.2
M77/Glasgow Southern Orbital Road (SE/East Renfrewshire) ²	0.7	10.2	11.8	23.3
Social Work
SCRA - Integrated Information System	2.1	2.6	2.5	16.8
Other
Police Force Training Centre, East Kilbride	3.2	3.3	3.3	18.8

Notes:

1. Information on the unitary charge for KilmarnockPrison is available in the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) Annual Reports which canbe found at http://www.sps.gov.uk/Default.asp?menuid=230.

2. The M77/GSO isa joint project between the Executive, East Renfrewshire and South Lanarkshire Councils.

Chamber and committees