Parliamentary questions
Alex Neil
3,059 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.
24 Feb 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-4210 by Henry McLeish on 18 February 2000, what its target number of lone parents to be helped into jobs was for the period up to November 1999.
Answer · Henry McLeish: Employment Policy is reserved to the UK Government which therefore takes the lead on the funding and delivery of the New Deal for Lone Parents (NDLP) throughout Great Britain, although in close consultation with its partners, including the Scottish Executive.…
23 Feb 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will make representations to Her Majesty's Government regarding adverse consequences for rural communities in Scotland, particularly in the Highlands and Islands, of any increase in excise duty or VAT on fuel in the budget in March 2000.
Answer · Sarah Boyack: The Executive keeps in regular contact with Treasury on a range of reserved issues which affect Scottish interests.
22 Feb 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what its total spending has been on external consultants and contractors since 1 July 1999 broken down by department.
Answer · Jack McConnell: The information requested is set out below broken by department (with executive agencies shown in brackets). Total expenditure by Scottish Executive departments, plus their executive agencies, with external suppliers, including external consultants, over the …
22 Feb 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what its total spending has been on (a) internally sourced and (b) externally sourced public and press relations services since 1 July 1999 broken down by department.
Answer · Donald Dewar: The running costs of the Scottish Executive Information Directorate for the period to 28 February was £1,212,745, and for the press offices of the Scottish Prison Service and Historic Scotland £126,000 and £80,000 respectively. No external public relations se…
22 Feb 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide details of the capacity of and average number of prisoners detained in each prison during the last twelve months for which figures are available.
Answer · Jim Wallace: The details requested are in the table below.<TABLE BORDER CELLSPACING=1 CELLPADDING=2 WIDTH=455><TR><TD WIDTH="34%" VALIGN="TOP" HEIGHT=26><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=2><P>Prisons</TD><TD WIDTH="33%" VALIGN="TOP" HEIGHT=26><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=2><P ALIGN="RIG…
22 Feb 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what is the highest number of category A prisoners which have been detained at Bowhouse Prison, Kilmarnock at any one time and what is the current number of such prisoners detained.
Answer · Jim Wallace: No category A prisoners have been detained at HMP Kilmarnock.
22 Feb 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many offences have been committed by prisoners in the past twelve months which have led to (a) internal disciplinary action, (b) a criminal charge being laid and (c) a criminal conviction, in Bowhouse Prison, Kilmarnock, Perth Prison, Peterhead Prison and Barlinnie Prison.
Answer · Jim Wallace: The numbers of cases where disciplinary action has been taken against a prisoner in the above prisons are set out in the table. The Scottish Prison Service is not always informed, and has no records of, criminal charges being laid and convictions resulting fr…
22 Feb 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the highest number of prisoners is which have been detained in Bowhouse Prison, Kilmarnock, what the current total is detained and what these figures represent as a percentage of the total capacity of the prison.
Answer · Jim Wallace: To date, the highest number of prisoners detained at HMP Kilmarnock has been 528 (106% of the capacity of the prison). The number of prisoners on 24 February was 494 (99% of capacity).
16 Feb 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide details of the net migration figures for Scotland for each of the last three years.
Answer · Jim Wallace: The information requested is published by the Registrar General in Table 2.3 of his 1998 Annual Report, a copy of which is available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre.
16 Feb 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive to provide a breakdown of the funding provided by it and its executive agencies into researching the causes of, and a cure for, multiple sclerosis.
Answer · Susan Deacon: The Scottish Executive has received no research proposals of a sufficiently high standard on <I>Multiple Sclerosis (MS)</I> recently and therefore does not directly fund research into this neurological disease at present. However, we would be pleased to recei…
16 Feb 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-3031 by Ms Wendy Alexander on 9 February 2000, whether it, any of its executive agencies or any Scottish public body funded by it have undertaken comprehensive cost/benefit analyses for any housing projects to determine the relative cost of funding h…
Answer · Wendy Alexander: An analysis solely of the relative costs of finance is not undertaken. Transfers of public sector housing in Scotland are subject to a wider value for money scrutiny which assesses the offer price against an independent valuation of the stock and compares the…
16 Feb 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what contribution its executive agencies or any Scottish public body funded by it have made to the capital and other set-up costs for establishing Scotland House in Brussels.
Answer · Jack McConnell: Scottish Enterprise paid £347,000 for the capital and set-up costs for establishing Scotland House, on behalf of Scotland Europa and its members.
15 Feb 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide a breakdown of total capital spending by local authorities in Scotland for each of the past three years and the current year and of expected capital spending in each of the next two years.
Answer · Jack McConnell: A breakdown of total capital spending by local authorities for the past three years and allocations for the current year can be found in the letter placed in SPICe in response to question's S1W-743 and S1W-744. While a breakdown of expected capital spending b…
15 Feb 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of the Scottish Block has been allocated to local authorities in each of the last three years and the current year and what the proportion is for each of the next two years.
Answer · Angus MacKay: The information is contained in the table. However, percentage shares between years are not directly comparable, due to transfers to and from the local government settlement and changes to other programmes within the Scottish Block.<TABLE BORDER CELLSPACING=1…
15 Feb 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what outcomes have been achieved to date by its EU Office in Scotland House in Brussels, particularly in relation to raising Scotland's profile in the European Union.
Answer · Jack McConnell: The Scottish Executive EU office has raised Scotland's profile in the EU in the course of its daily work. It has done this, for example, through discussions with representatives of the EU institutions, through seminars, through attending meetings of the insti…
15 Feb 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has for improving facilities for disabled people in Scotland and in particular whether it intends to introduce any new legislation in this area.
Answer · Jackie Baillie: In December 1999 the UK-wide Disability Rights Task Force (DRTF) reported on a comprehensive review of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA). The Executive is considering the DRTF recommendations although any new legislation would be reserved to the UK Parl…
15 Feb 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide a breakdown of the financial support which it and its executive agencies are providing to voluntary organisations in Scotland during the current financial year and the forecast level of support for each of the next two years.
Answer · Jackie Baillie: The table below shows the level of funding made available by The Scottish Office to voluntary organisations for 1998-99 by Department. An exercise is due to commence shortly to update this database to show funding from the Scottish Executive. That information…
15 Feb 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the total value is of its fixed capital investment by department for each of the past three years including the current financial year; what the value is of total fixed capital investment it has planned for each of the next two years; what percentage of its total spending these figur…
Answer · Jack McConnell: The total value of the actual cash (gross) expenditure on capital assets for the previous two financial years and the planned capital expenditure for the current financial year and the next two years, funded from the Scottish Consolidated Fund is given in the…
15 Feb 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive to provide a breakdown of the Special Deprivation Allowance by local authority for the current financial year and each of the next two years.
Answer · Jack McConnell: We agreed with CoSLA that special deprivation payments for 2000-01 should be targeted, as follows, at those councils experiencing higher levels of deprivation: Clackmannanshire (£0.13 million), Dundee City (£1.6 million), East Ayrshire (£1.1 million), Eilean …
15 Feb 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the current status is of the proposed Glasgow Southern Orbital road in respect of the planning and other statutory procedures which require to be undertaken prior to commencement and whether it will provide a detailed breakdown of the sequence of activities between now and the issuin…
Answer · Sarah Boyack: The Glasgow Southern Orbital Route is being jointly promoted by East Renfrewshire and South Lanarkshire Councils as a local authority development. The scheme currently before Scottish Ministers comprises two Notices of Intention to Develop. In addition, each …
15 Feb 2000 · SPCB Written Question
To ask the Presiding Officer to provide a breakdown of foreign trips which the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body has funded to date, including the cost of each, the participants and the outcomes and whether copies of the breakdown will be placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre.
Answer · David Steel: The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body has funded Members on the following foreign trips:<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Mr Michael Russell - India - Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Conference on "Parliament and the Media: Building and effective partnership…
15 Feb 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to facilitate the use of police checks by vulnerable groups and individuals employing care assistants and other types of assistants.
Answer · Jim Wallace: Part V of the Police Act 1997 provides for extended access to criminal record checks. New certificates, which will be available next year, will be phased in.<I> </I>Our first priority is to improve child protection and the highest level of check, the Enhanced…
15 Feb 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive to provide a breakdown by area of the number of Individual Learning Accounts which have been taken up, the value of the public sector contributions to these accounts, the private sector leverage obtained to date, and the number of positive outcomes achieved to date.
Answer · Henry McLeish: Various aspects of the Individual Learning Account (ILA) concept have been tested through development projects running across the UK. One official ILA development project is currently running in the Grampian area, with a second project about to begin in the L…
15 Feb 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive to provide a detailed account of the methodology used by it and its executive agencies to determine the "number of jobs created and safeguarded" through its various activities and to provide a definition of "jobs saved" and "jobs safeguarded".
Answer · Henry McLeish: Reference to numbers of jobs created and safeguarded is most frequently made in relation to projects recorded by Locate in Scotland. In this regard, the methodology used to determine the total number of such jobs is to aggregate the relevant employment foreca…
15 Feb 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to create a Minister for External Affairs post.
Answer · Donald Dewar: No.
15 Feb 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive to provide a breakdown of drug offences by category for each of the past three years including the current year's figures to date.
Answer · Angus MacKay: The information available from the recorded crime statistics is given in the table below:<TABLE BORDER CELLSPACING=1 CELLPADDING=2 WIDTH=635><TR><TD WIDTH="75%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=3 HEIGHT=16><B><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=2><P>Drug crimes recorded by the Scott…
15 Feb 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has received from East Ayrshire Council in respect of its revenue support grant for 2000-01.
Answer · Jack McConnell: I have discussed local government finance with the leadership of East Ayrshire Council, including revenue support grant for 2000-2001.
15 Feb 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will request East Ayrshire Council to provide the information on its performance in respect of housing repairs which it was unable to provide to the Accounts Commission.
Answer · Frank McAveety: There are no plans to do so. <FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=2><P>It is for the Accounts Commission to collect and publish Performance Indicator information under the Local Government Act 1992.
15 Feb 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what disciplinary action it has taken or plans to take in respect of the publication of false information by the Scottish Tourist Board on 30 November 1999 about a survey undertaken by the Forum for Private Business.
Answer · Henry McLeish: None. I am satisfied that the Scottish Tourist Board has acted in good faith based on the information available to them at the time.
15 Feb 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish an analysis of the political affiliations of all applicants for public appointments since May 1999, including a breakdown into successful and unsuccessful applications.
Answer · Jack McConnell: Details of the political activities of all applicants for public appointments are not held centrally. However, details of the political activities of <I>successful</I> applicants are provided on a quarterly basis to the Commissioner for Public Appointments fo…