Parliamentary questions
Sandra White
1,617 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.
13 Mar 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Edinburgh trams will offer concessionary travel.
Answer · Stewart Stevenson: No decision has been made so far.</p>
13 Mar 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how it will ensure that local residents affected by the selling of surplus land in the run-up to Glasgow 2014 will be fully involved in the disposal process.
Answer · Stewart Maxwell: The acquisition or disposal of land in Glasgow in relation to the 2014 Games is a matter for Glasgow City Council, which has statutory responsibilities in this respect.</p> <p >However, the Scottish Government is keen that people across Scotland have an opp…
12 Mar 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what level of subsidy it provides to train operating companies.
Answer · Stewart Stevenson: The Scottish Government is responsible for the ScotRail franchise. The budget for franchise payments in financial year 2008-09 is £306.2 million. In addition, a small payment is made annually to the cross country franchise for the provision of additional serv…
12 Mar 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much has been paid in grants to Network Rail by Transport Scotland.
Answer · Stewart Stevenson: Transport Scotland began making grant payments to Network Rail on 1 April 2006. Between 1 April 2006 and 31 March 2008 Transport Scotland has paid Network Rail £457,226,180.</p>
12 Mar 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the legal requirements are for detailing the level of support and service provision that must be included in co-ordinated support plans for children with special needs.
Answer · Maureen Watt: The Additional Support for Learning (Co-ordinated Support Plan) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2005 specify the content of a co-ordinated support plan. Guidance on what a co-ordinated support plan should contain can be found in chapter 4, paragraphs 43-59 o…
12 Mar 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how it monitors the provision of support for children with special needs in schools.
Answer · Adam Ingram: The Scottish Government monitors the provision of support for children with additional support needs through inspections of nursery, primary, secondary and special schools and local authorities carried out by HM Inspectorate of Education.</p>
12 Mar 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether local authorities are required to hold records of accidents in schools.
Answer · Maureen Watt: The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 would require an employer, such as a local authority, to report certain categories of accidents to the relevant enforcing authority, in this case the Health and Safety Executive. I…
12 Mar 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many children with special needs are supported in mainstream schools.
Answer · Maureen Watt: The figures for numbers of pupils with additional support needs in mainstream schools are published in Table 1.5 of <i >Pupils in Scotland 2007</i>, which is available on the Scottish Government website at <a href="http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008…
12 Mar 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many accidents and incidents involving the use of hoisting equipment in schools have been reported in each of the last six years for which figures are available.
Answer · Maureen Watt: The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 would require an employer to report certain categories of accidents to the relevant enforcing authority, in this case the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). In the case of a person…
18 Feb 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether local authorities are able to stipulate under environmental legislation that procured services must be locally sourced in order to reduce their carbon footprint.
Answer · John Swinney: No. Public procurement legislation requires open, fair and transparent competition. It would be illegal for any local authority to show a preference for any goods or services because they are to be locally sourced or to any supplier(s) because of where they a…
18 Feb 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether local authorities are able to stipulate, without breaking UK and EU procurement laws, that procured services must be locally sourced.
Answer · John Swinney: No. Public procurement legislation requires open, fair and transparent competition. It would be illegal for any local authority to show a preference for any goods or services because they are to be locally sourced or to any supplier(s) because of where they a…
18 Feb 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will consider introducing legislation to allow local authorities to take into account non-commercial considerations when awarding and managing contracts.
Answer · John Swinney: Section 17 of the Local Government Act 1988, an act of the Westminster Parliament, prevents a local authority from taking into account non-commercial considerations in relation to contracting matters. What are non-commercial matters is set out in the section …
18 Feb 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to make representations to the European Commission in respect of changing EU procurement regulations to include a provision for rejecting tenders on ethical grounds.
Answer · John Swinney: There are no plans to make representation to the European Commission in respect of changing procurement Directives 2004/17/EC and 2004/18/EC.</p>
18 Feb 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to change section 23 of the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations (SSI 2006/1) to include a provision for rejecting tenders on ethical grounds.
Answer · John Swinney: The criteria which can be used to reject potential suppliers from being issued with an Invitation to Tender document are set out in European Directive 2004/18/EC, which is transposed into national legislation through Regulation 23 of the Public Contracts (Sco…
18 Feb 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has reviewed the provision of bottled water supplied by Eden Springs (UK) Ltd.
Answer · John Swinney: We are currently reviewing our policy on the provision of potable water.</p>
18 Feb 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether local authorities can reject potential tenders for council contracts on ethical grounds.
Answer · John Swinney: Local authorities have to comply with procurement legislation and, for lower value contracts, their own procurement policies. When selecting which potential suppliers should be invited to tender for public sector contracts, public procurement legislation only…
12 Feb 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether all parents are entitled to receive funding towards their children’s nursery education.
Answer · Adam Ingram: All children are eligible to receive 475 hours of free, pre-school education per year from approximately the term following their third birthday until the end of the term immediately before they are first eligible to attend primary school.</p> <p >The duty t…
12 Feb 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what requirements local authorities have to enter into partnership agreements.
Answer · John Swinney: The requirements on local authorities to enter into partnership agreements are generally set down in statute. In practice, local authorities are involved in a wide range of statutory as well as non-statutory partnerships with, for example, the NHS, other publ…
12 Feb 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many vacant local authority-run nursery places there are in Glasgow.
Answer · Adam Ingram: This information is not held centrally.</p>
12 Feb 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive when it expects the Class 320 trains operating on the Helensburgh to Drumgelloch route to be replaced.
Answer · Stewart Stevenson: There are no current plans that would remove completely the Class 320 trains from services which include the Helensburgh to Drumgelloch route.</p>
4 Feb 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive when it expects Scottish guidelines on the management of tuberculosis to be published.
Answer · Shona Robison: NHS Health Protection Scotland are currently in the final stages of producing Scottish guidelines on the management of tuberculosis, based on the NICE guidelines. We plan to publish the document by the summer.</p>
4 Feb 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many suspected cases of tuberculosis have been confirmed by the National Reference Laboratory since 2003, broken down by NHS board.
Answer · Shona Robison: The following table details the number of laboratory confirmed cases of TB in Scotland in 2003-06. The figures shown is that reported for all laboratories “ almost all of these cases are reported by the reference laboratory but in a small number of cases (e.g…
4 Feb 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many unconfirmed cases of tuberculosis have been sent to the National Reference Laboratory for confirmation since 2003, broken down by NHS board.
Answer · Shona Robison: The number of unconfirmed cases is given by those cases which are recorded as those with a clinical diagnosis alone. This is detailed in the following table for each of the last four years.</p> <p >Clinical Diagnosis of Tuberculosis: 2003-06</p> <table bor…
4 Feb 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many cases of tuberculosis have been suspected since 2003, broken down by NHS board.
Answer · Shona Robison: The following table details for each of the last four years both the number of laboratory confirmed cases of tuberculosis and the number of clinical diagnoses of tuberculosis (without microbiological confirmation). The combination of these two figures provide…
31 Jan 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how it monitors compliance with the legal requirements for the provision of toilet facilities on trains.
Answer · Stewart Stevenson: There are no legal requirements for the provision of toilet facilities on trains. </p> <p >However, Transport Scotland uses the Service Quality Regime (SQUIRE) to enforce First ScotRail''s obligation to maintain on-train toilets where fitted, in good, clean …
31 Jan 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to review the legal requirements for the provision of toilet facilities on trains.
Answer · Stewart Stevenson: The standards and legal requirement for UK rolling stock design are currently a reserved matter and are therefore the responsibility of the Department for Transport (DfT).</p> <p >The Scottish Government has no plans to review legal requirements for the prov…
31 Jan 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the legal requirements are for the provision of toilet facilities on trains.
Answer · Stewart Stevenson: There are no specific legal obligations on train operators to provide toilet facilities on board trains.</p>
30 Jan 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to tackle poverty, inequality and deprivation in Scotland.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: I am today launchingthe development of a framework for delivering on the aspects of the Government EconomicStrategy to do with tackling poverty, inequality and deprivation. To support thisprocess I am issuing a discussion paper designed to initiate discussion…
16 Jan 2008 · General Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how it intends to ensure the safe disposal of energy saving light bulbs, given the official advice from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on smashed low-energy bulbs.
Answer · Richard Lochhead: We would strongly encourage householdsand other users of energy-saving light bulbs to use the arrangements put in placefor recycling and recovery of waste electrical and electronic equipment. These requireproducers and distributors to arrange for the take-bac…
27 Nov 2007 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether NHS bodies are legally obligated to report any disciplinary hearings to the Health Professions Council regardless of the outcome.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: NHS bodies are notlegally obliged to report disciplinary hearings to the Health Professions Council(HPC). However, NHS, and all other employers, are free to report any concern theyhave about a health professional’s fitness to practice to the appropriate regul…