Parliamentary questions
Alex Neil
3,059 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.
7 Mar 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many households have had to foreclose on their mortgage in each year since 1980, broken down by local authority area.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: This information is not heldcentrally.</p>
7 Mar 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what level of debt each local authority has incurred in respect of the construction of council housing in each year since 1980.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The Executive collects informationon total housing debt incurred by local authorities. Total debt is made up of historicdebt, plus any new debt associated with the construction or maintenance of localauthority housing. Information about total housing debt is …
7 Mar 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what its rationale is for encouraging local authorities such as the City of Glasgow and Scottish Borders to transfer the socially rented housing stock they manage to the management of a housing association.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: Under the 1998-99 and 1999-2002New Housing Partnerships Initiatives, funding was made available to councils toassess the condition of their housing stock and the cost of bringing it up to modernday standards and maintaining it in good condition over the longe…
7 Mar 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to encourage local authorities to transfer the entirety of the socially rented housing stock that they presently manage to the management of a housing association.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: Decisions on the future ownershipand management of council housing are for councils themselves and their tenants.Councils are required to ensure that their houses will meet the Scottish HousingQuality Standard by 2015. Transfer is one means of accessing subst…
7 Mar 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many households there have been on waiting lists to secure a council house in each year since 1995, broken down by local authority.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: Figures on households of housingwaiting lists are accessible online through the data library in the publicationsand data section of the Scottish Executive housing statistics branch website at<a href="http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/housing/hsbref">www.scotla…
7 Mar 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executivewhat information it has on how the proportion of households living in socially rented housing compares with (a) the rest of the United Kingdom, (b) the member states of the European Union and (c) OECD nations.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The following tables show the available information on tenure of the housing stock across the UK and EU countries. Information on tenure in other OECD nations is not held centrally.</p><p>Estimated Stock of Dwellings by Tenure: 2004</p><table border=1 cellspa…
7 Mar 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what areas it has identified as having the most acute shortage of affordable housing and what plans it has to remedy this.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: Our 2005 Housing Policy Statementset out the comprehensive range of actions that we are taking to improve housingsupply and affordability in the market and to increase provision of affordable housing.The policy statement built upon the findings of a wide rang…
7 Mar 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of all houses bought privately in each year since 1995 have been purchased by first-time buyers, broken down by local authority area.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: Information on the proportionof houses purchased by first time buyers is not available by local authority area.Estimates, for Scotland as a whole, from the Regulated Mortgage Survey of theproportion of loans to first time purchasers are given in table 5 of <i…
7 Mar 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what support it gives to any house-building firm that wishes to construct new homes for private sale.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: I have asked Angiolina Foster,Chief Executive of Communities Scotland, to respond. Her response is as follows:</p><p>Communities Scotland providesgrant support to private developers to provide affordable housing for sale. Grantsupport in the approved programm…
7 Mar 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many households have been registered as homeless in each year since 1980, broken down by local authority area.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The numbers of applications assessedas homeless under the homelessness legislation by local authorities are shown inthe following table. Due to local government re-organisation in 1996, there areproblems of comparability with data prior to this date and the t…
7 Mar 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what measures it is taking to increase the provision of affordable housing.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The full extent of the Executive’scomprehensive programme to increase the provision of affordable housing in Scotlandis set out in our Housing Policy Statement<i>, Homes for Scotland’s People </i>http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/development/hfsphp.pdfpubli…
7 Mar 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list all public inquiries relating to criminal matters which have taken place in Scotland since May 1999 and what the costs involved were.
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: There have been no public inquiriesrelating to criminal matters which have taken place in Scotland sinceMay 1999.</p>
7 Mar 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many fingerprints from the scene of the Marion Ross murder in Kilmarnock in January 1997 were wrongly identified by the Scottish Criminal Record Office.
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: There was one disputed fingerprintmark at the Marion Ross murder scene.</p>
7 Mar 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether any material evidence from the scene of the Marion Ross murder in Kilmarnock in January 1997 has been misplaced or lost.
Answer · Colin Boyd: I am not aware of any of thematerial evidence that was removed from the murder scene having been misplaced orlost. However, the original negatives and photographs of fingerprint Y7 are notavailable. Other photographs of Y7 remain available, as does the origin…
7 Mar 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is legal for officers of the Scottish Criminal Record Office to sign documents on behalf of colleagues and, if so, under what circumstances, what procedures govern when and where this can be done, what checks (a) existed in January 1997 and (b) currently exist for ensuring that…
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: This would depend on thedocument concerned. It is accepted practice for some documents to be signed onthe author’s behalf if that person is not available to sign the documentpersonally. It is made clear when this is the case by indicating that thedocument is …
7 Mar 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is still the case that replies to parliamentary questions in relation to the Scottish Criminal Record Office (SCRO) are drafted on behalf of ministers by the SCRO; if so, whether the draft replies are independently checked within the Executive; if so, by what procedure and by w…
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-20698 on 28 November 2005. All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facilityfor which can be found at <ahref="http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/…
7 Mar 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it (a) has always been and (b) is currently the policy of the Scottish Criminal Record Office (SCRO) that any disagreements within it in relation to the identification of a fingerprint have to be reported to (i) the police and (ii) the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service; w…
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: The policy, which has been inplace since before January 1997, is that if a disagreement arises between fingerprintofficers during the identification or verification process then the Scottish FingerprintService (SFS) would not declare that an identification ha…
7 Mar 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list all the investigations and inquiries that it has initiated since January 1997 in relation to, or arising from, the Shirley McKie case and, for each investigation or inquiry, (a) what the remit was, (b) who carried it out, (c) how long it took, (d) to whom it reported,…
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: There have been a number ofinvestigations into the Shirley McKie case.</p><p>The SCRO Executive Committeedecided in February 2000 to invite HMIC to bring forward a planned inspectionof SCRO. This resulted in the HMIC Primary Inspection of the SCRO Fingerprint…
7 Mar 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much it and its agencies have paid out in each year since May 1999 in compensation for miscarriages of justice and how much it has incurred in legal costs in relation to these settlements.
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: I refer the member to the answerto question S2W-21936 on 23 January 2006. It is Executive policy not to disclose the amount ofcompensation paid to individual applicants without the express permission of theapplicant. Accordingly, because the number of cases i…
7 Mar 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many officers within the Scottish Criminal Record Office in 1997 mistakenly identified a fingerprint at the scene of the Marion Ross murder in Kilmarnock as that of Shirley McKie and how many disagreed with this identification.
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: In February 1997, 12 SCRO fingerprintofficers were invited to examine the mark Y7 that was found at the scene of MarionRoss’ murder. Ten officers were satisfied that mark Y7 could be eliminated fromthe inquiry into the murder because it was the left thumb pri…
7 Mar 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the then Minister for Justice received a letter dated 7 August 2001 from a former employee of the Scottish Criminal Record Office in which he states that “after commencing duty at the SCRO Bureau I was shocked and appalled at the level of malpractice” and whether a copy of this le…
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: I refer the member to the answerto question S2W-23612 on 20 April 2006. All answers to written parliamentary questions areavailable on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can befound at <a href="http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.…
7 Mar 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what support it gives to any housing association wishing to construct new homes for social rent which the association will directly manage.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: I have asked Angiolina Foster,Chief Executive of Communities Scotland, to respond. Her response is as follows:</p><p>Communities Scotland providesHousing Association Grant to housing associations to provide and subsequently managehousing for social rent. Gran…
7 Mar 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what support it gives to any local authority wishing to construct new homes for social rent which the local authority will directly manage.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The Executive provides fundingfor new affordable house building by Registered Social Landlords. This is done throughthe Affordable Housing Investment Programme, which is administered by CommunitiesScotland. Local authorities are able to use prudential borrowi…
7 Mar 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many new private homes have been built in each local authority area in each year since 1995.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The following table shows thenumbers of new private sector dwellings completed, broken down by local authorityareas for years 1995 to 2004.</p><p>New Dwellings Completed; PrivateSector by Local Authority Area; 1995 to 2004</p><table border=1 cellspacing=0 cel…
7 Mar 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the average level of rent was for council housing in each local authority area in each year since 1995.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The following table shows averageweekly rents for local authority dwellings between 1996-97 and 2004-05. Data forcurrent local authority areas is only available from 1996-97 onwards.</p><p>Average Weekly Rents byLocal Authority; 1996-97 to 2005-06</p><table b…
7 Mar 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many households have lived in (a) council housing, (b) other forms of socially rented housing, (c) privately rented housing and (d) owned homes in each year since 1980, broken down by local authority area.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: Information on the tenure ofhouseholds at the time of the 2001 Census by current local authority area is availablefrom the data library in the publications and data section of the Scottish Executivehousing statistics branch website at <ahref="http://www.scotl…
7 Mar 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many new houses for social rent have been built in each year since 1980, broken down by local authority area.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The following table below containscounts of new build completions in the social rented sector for 1992 to 2004, brokendown by local authority area. Data prior to 1992 is not available by current localauthority area.</p><p>NewDwellings Completed in the Social …
7 Mar 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many socially rented housing units have been lost to that form of tenure (a) by right to buy, (b) by demolition or (c) for any other reason in each year since 1980, broken down by local authority area.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The tables produced for thisanalysis are too large to be included in this response and have been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre.</p><p>Two tables showing right to buysales for local authorities and registeredsocial landlords (RSL) are av…
7 Mar 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to alter the structure of local government.
Answer · Tom McCabe: We have no current plans toalter the structure of local government.</p>
7 Mar 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what impact it considers that the press coverage of the reluctance of the Chair of sportscotland to relocate the agency to Glasgow will have on the bid by the city to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
Answer · Patricia Ferguson: None.</p>