Roseanna Cunningham

1 Oct 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with the Department of Work and Pensions regarding the recent announcement of the loss of departmental jobs from centres around Scotland and on what date or dates such discussions took place.

Answer · Tom McCabe: The Scottish Executive has had contact with the Department for Work and Pensions on matters that could impact on the Scottish economy, and any loss of jobs in Scotland is a matter of extreme regret.</p><p>I will ensure the contents of the Finance Committee’s …

1 Oct 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the Minister for Health and Community Care&#146;s statement at the Health Committee on 21 September 2004 (Official Report, c 1209) that &#147;  workforce planning in the NHS  did not exist at all until fairly recently&#148;, when it considers that such workforce planning was…

Answer · Andy Kerr: There has been a lack of historic workforce planning in NHSScotland. Working for Health, the first ever Workforce Development Action Plan for NHSScotland was launched on 1 August 2002 setting out a step change in the way in which NHSScotland plans and develop…

30 Sep 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive which sites available on the open market are potentially available for housing development and, of these, which are earmarked for affordable housing, and which sites, out of the total number available for housing development, cannot be developed because of drainage constraints, broken dow…

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: This information is not held by the Scottish Executive. <i>Scottish Planning Policy 3: Planning for Housing </i>looks to individual local authorities to estimate the requirement for future housing land and through their local plans ensure that there is suffic…

30 Sep 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many constraints on development are currently imposed by Scottish Water and what the extent of those constraints is, broken down by (a) parliamentary constituency and (b) local authority.

Answer · Lewis Macdonald: Development constraints are not imposed by Scottish Water, they arise where water infrastructure requirements are greater than was either envisaged or planned at the time of approving Q & S II.</p><p>Information about constraints on development was assembled …

16 Jul 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people are currently served by lead water piping in domestic properties.

Answer · Ross Finnie: Based on the assumption in the answer given to question S2W-9749 on 12 August 2004, that approximately 400,000 properties across Scotland have some lead piping, it can be estimated that approximately 1 million people are currently served by lead water piping …

16 Jul 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the total cost would be of eliminating lead piping from all (a) domestic and (b) private water supplies.

Answer · Ross Finnie: The cost of replacing lead piping is property specific. The cost of eliminating lead piping from all domestic and private water supplies in Scotland is therefore unknown.</p>

16 Jul 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) public and (b) private sector properties require replacement of domestic lead piping.

Answer · Ross Finnie: Figures are not available for the number of public and private sector properties that require the replacement of domestic lead piping. However, between January 2000 and December 2002 Scottish Water took approximately 30,000 water samples from customers’ taps …

16 Jul 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the total cost would be of eliminating lead piping from all water supplies to properties.

Answer · Ross Finnie: The cost of eliminating all lead pipes in Scottish Water’s ownership that connect the public distribution network to individual properties has been estimated by Scottish Water to be £450 million.</p>

16 Jul 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the total central government grant was for the replacement of lead piping in each of the last 10 financial years.

Answer · Margaret Curran: Grants for the replacement of lead piping in privately owned houses are made by local authorities. There are no central government grants to individuals, nor is funding to local authorities ring-fenced for this purpose. However, the Scottish Executive does co…

16 Jul 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what role it has in ensuring that the European Union standards for drinking water quality are established and maintained.

Answer · Ross Finnie: Scottish ministers have appointed the Drinking Water Quality Regulator for Scotland to ensure that the drinking water quality duties imposed on Scottish Water by the European Drinking Water Directive and the Scottish Regulations are established and maintained…

29 Apr 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients there are in each NHS board area with alopecia totalis and, of these, how many are children.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The information requested isnot held centrally.</p>

28 Apr 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made on the development of a climate change adaptation strategy, as referred to in the Scottish Climate Change Programme.

Answer · Ross Finnie: Adaptation policydevelopment is informed by a number of Executive research studies and the latestUK climate change scenarios. The Executive isworking closely with the UK Government and the UK Climate Impacts Programme to developa comprehensive adaptation stra…

28 Apr 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how much waste was collected for recycling by each local authority in (a) 2001-02 and (b) 2002-03 and what percentage increase on these figures is required to meet its target of 25% of waste collected for recycling by 2005-06.

Answer · Ross Finnie: Audit Scotland andthe Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) both produce reports on wastedata. The reports can be accessed at the SEPA website, <ahref="http://www.sepa.org.uk/publications/wds/index.htm">http://www.sepa.org.uk/publications/wds/index.ht…

28 Apr 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive which landfill sites are (a) unlined and (b) permitted to receive low-level radioactive waste.

Answer · Ross Finnie: This information is not heldcentrally. The environmental regulation of landfill is a matter for the ScottishEnvironment Protection Agency.</p>

28 Apr 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how farmers are being involved in discussions on the likely impact of climate change, as referred to in A Forward Strategy for Agriculture.

Answer · Ross Finnie: The National Farmers Union forScotland and the then, Scottish Landowners’ Federation were represented at a workshopheld in October 2001 to discuss the findings of Scottish Executive research entitled<i>Potential Adaptation Strategies for Climate Change in Sco…

28 Apr 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made on the review of climate change research, as referred to in A Forward Strategy for Agriculture.

Answer · Ross Finnie: In conjunction with the UK Governmentand other devolved administrations, SEPA, the Scotland and Northern Ireland Forumfor Environmental Research, the UK Climate Impacts Programme and other stakeholders,we are constantly reviewing the programme of climate chan…

28 Apr 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what financial support it has given to (a) local authorities and (b) the Scottish Environment Protection Agency to meet capital costs of site investigation and any associated clean up of contaminated land in each year since 1997.

Answer · Allan Wilson: The capital allocations madeavailable by the Executive to local authorities for work associated with implementationof the contaminated land regime that came into force in 2000 are shown in the table.</p><table border=1 cellspacing=1 cellpadding=2> <thead> <t…

19 Mar 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is satisfied that the new system for assessing future demand for teachers outlined in news release SEED2302/2004, will provide an accurate reflection of the required future number of teachers for Gaelic-medium education.

Answer · Peter Peacock: Yes. The new school census collectsinformation on the number of teachers teaching Gaelic or able to teach throughGaelic medium. This information will be used to give a more accurate picture offuture changes in the teacher population in all of these areas. The…

10 Mar 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how it plans to increase the number of children being educated through the medium of Gaelic.

Answer · Peter Peacock: Legislative provision is inplace to ensure that education authorities have continual regard to the expansionof Gaelic-medium education (GME). The Standards in Scotland’sSchools etc. Act 2000 requires education authorities to prepare and publishannual statemen…

10 Mar 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many children are currently being educated in Gaelic medium schools and units at primary and secondary level.

Answer · Peter Peacock: In 2003-04 there were 1,972and 284 pupils in Gaelic-medium education at primary and secondary levelrespectively.</p><p><i>The </i><i>Scottish Executive</i><i> has provided the following Gaelic translation:</i></p><p>Ann an 2003-04 bha 1972 agus284 sgoilear an…

10 Mar 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to expand the number of Gaelic and Gaelic medium teachers as part of the expansion of teacher training announced in its press release SEed539/2004 on 23 February 2004.<p>The member has provided the following Gaelic translation:<p>A dh' fhaighneachd de Riaghaltas na h-Alb…

Answer · Peter Peacock: The supply of teachers ableto teach in the Gaelic medium (GM) continues to be a priority. Reflecting thispriority, guidance given by the Scottish Executive and funding distributed bythe Scottish Higher Education Funding Council, have not constrained numbers o…

5 Mar 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many miles of dual carriageway there are in each local authority area.

Answer · Nicol Stephen: The Scottish Executive does not hold figures for trunk road dual carriageway broken down by local authority area. There are 481 kilometres of trunk road dual carriageway in Scotland.</p><p>The following table shows the lengths in kilometres of non-trunk road …

2 Mar 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, in respect of budgetary provision in Scotland's prisons, what factors are involved in the calculation of education funding for each prison.

Answer · Cathy Jamieson: I have asked Tony Cameron,Chief Executive of The Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is asfollows:</p><p>They are the outcome of thecontractual negotiations with SPS’s education providers over the five yearperiod of the contracts which take into …

2 Mar 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the total budget has been for education in each prison in each of the last five years, shown also per head of prison population.

Answer · Cathy Jamieson: I have asked Tony Cameron,Chief Executive of The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:</p><p>Total budgets are notavailable for each prison but are determined centrally and figures are onlyavailable from 2000-01, when £1.6 mill…

2 Mar 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, in respect of budgetary provision in Scotland's prisons, what flexibility there is in the system to allow a single establishment to increase the amount spent on education services commensurate with an increase in inmate (a) population or (b) participation in education.

Answer · Cathy Jamieson: I have asked Tony Cameron,Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is asfollows</p><p>Such decisions would betaken centrally taking account of (a) or (b), but also such matters as competingdemands and budgetary considerations.</…

23 Feb 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of Scotland's total land area is taken up by roads.

Answer · Nicol Stephen: The Department of Transport(DfT) produces estimates of the total land area that is covered by all roads inGreat Britain. DfT estimates that roads accounted for 0.6% of thearea of Scotland in 2001.</p>

23 Feb 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to ensure that developers of new roads assess the needs of cyclists and that the findings of those assessments are incorporated at the planning stage and what advice it has issued to the Planning Inspectorate about meeting the needs of cyclists.

Answer · Nicol Stephen: To ensure thatthe developer of a new road assesses the needs of cyclists, the Scottish Executive provides policy on transport andplanning in National Planning Policy Guidance 17 (NPPG17). This documentrecommends that cycling be integrated into the design of n…

23 Feb 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what occurrences there have been of oil and fuel-related pollution of water from (a) industrial and commercial premises and (b) domestic premises in each of the last five years.

Answer · Allan Wilson: This information is not held centrally by the Scottish Executive as this is an operational matter for the ScottishEnvironment Protection Agency.</p>

23 Feb 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what its most recent estimate is of the number of private houses in multiple occupation (HMOs), broken down into (a) traditional and bedsit HMOs, (b) shared houses and flats, (c) households with lodgers and (d) HMO buildings converted into flats.

Answer · Margaret Curran: The Scottish Executive doesnot have comprehensive information on the different types of private houses inmultiple occupation.</p><p>The Executive is providing£1 million in this and each of the next two financial years to help localauthorities improve their HM…

23 Feb 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what its most recent estimate is of the number of (a) households and (b) people living in privately rented houses in multiple occupation (HMOs), broken down into (i) traditional and bedsit HMOs, (ii) shared houses and flats, (iii) households with lodgers and (iv) HMO buildings converted …

Answer · Mary Mulligan: The Scottish Executive does not collect any information on the number of households or peopleliving in private rented houses in HMOs which require to be licensed.</p>