Parliamentary questions
Brian Fitzpatrick
529 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.
5 Feb 2003 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-33192 by Mr Frank McAveety on 17 January 2003, what details its joint group with COSLA on free personal care has received from East Dunbartonshire Council regarding the council's projected underspend of #357,000 in the 2002-03 allocation for the impl…
Answer · Frank McAveety: Representatives from the Joint Group on Free Personal Care, consisting of officials from COSLA, Association of Directors of Social Work, Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers and the Scottish Executive, met with officials from East D…
3 Feb 2003 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to increase the number of fee-paying and grant-aided primary and secondary schools that provide education in line with current national advice on (a) drugs, (b) safe use of medicines, (c) alcohol and (d) tobacco.
Answer · Nicol Stephen: National guidance on health education, including drug education, has been issued to all independent and grant-aided schools. This guidance offers a framework within which drug education programmes should be developed. In addition, these schools are included i…
3 Feb 2003 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to increase the number of fee-paying and grant-aided primary and secondary schools with written procedures for managing incidents of drug misuse in line with current national advice.
Answer · Nicol Stephen: The Scottish Executive distributed <I>Guidelines on the Management of Drug Misuse in Schools</I> to all independent schools and grant-aided schools as well as to education authorities. The Executive also conducts and publishes an annual drug education survey …
29 Jan 2003 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made in improving the recruitment of specialists into the civil service in each year since 1996.
Answer · Andy Kerr: Responsibility for the recruitment of specialists lies with Heads of Profession and individual agencies. Specialist staff are recruited as and when required.
29 Jan 2003 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made in improving the recruitment of disabled people into the civil service in each year since 1996.
Answer · Andy Kerr: The Executive's Diversity Strategy, launched in November 2000, has set demanding targets for the recruitment of under-represented groups, including staff with disabilities. Progress towards these targets is set out in the following table. Information prior to…
27 Jan 2003 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what support it will give to the promotion of community speed watch schemes.
Answer · Jim Wallace: We have no plans to promote community speed watch schemes in Scotland.
23 Jan 2003 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the average waiting times in weeks were, and how many patients were waiting for, a first appointment in the (a) child dental health, (b) conservation, (c) oral medicine, (d) oral surgery, (e) orthodontics, (f) periodontology and (g) prosthodontics department of the Glasgow Dental Hos…
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: Information on out-patient waits is collected centrally only for the period from referral to a first out-patient appointment with a consultant. This information is collected at specialty level only.<P>Due to technical difficulties with its patient information…
16 Jan 2003 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will consider introducing physician assistants in support of the work of GPs and improved access to primary care services.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: There are no current plans to introduce physician assistants to support the work of GPs in NHS Scotland.
14 Jan 2003 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has received from East Dunbartonshire Council regarding the disbursement by the council of funding allocated for the implementation of free personal care in the council area.
Answer · Frank McAveety: East Dunbartonshire Council have recently been asked to provide details to the Joint Scottish Executive/COSLA Group on Free Personal Care of how they have used their allocation of free personal care monies. No reply has yet been received.
13 Jan 2003 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many and what percentage of people there have been holding (a) no educational qualifications, (b) ordinary grade or equivalent qualifications, (c) higher grade or equivalent qualifications, (d) professional qualifications and (e) a degree qualification in (i) Scotland, (ii) the East D…
Answer · Iain Gray: Table 1 showing highest qualification held by year from 1995 to 2001 	for working age people in Scotland.<TABLE BORDER CELLSPACING=1 CELLPADDING=7 WIDTH=604><TR><TD WIDTH="9%" VALIGN="TOP"><P>Year</TD><TD WIDTH="17%" VALIGN="TOP"><P>Number <P>(000)</TD><TD…
13 Jan 2003 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the destinations were of school leavers in (a) Scotland, (b) the East Dunbartonshire Council area and (c) East Renfrewshire Council area in each year from 1995.
Answer · Nicol Stephen: The information requested can be found in Table 4 of the News Release <I>Destinations of Leavers from Scottish Schools 2001/02</I> published by the Scottish Executive on 18 December 2002. A copy of the above is available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (…
13 Jan 2003 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many and what percentage of S6 pupils gained three or more awards at level 6 or better in (a) Scotland, (b) the East Dunbartonshire Council area and (c) East Renfrewshire Council area in each year from 1995.
Answer · Nicol Stephen: I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-31186 on 13 November 2002. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at <A HREF="http://www.scottish.parliament.u…
13 Jan 2003 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many and what percentage of S4 pupils gained five or more awards at level 5 or better in (a) Scotland, (b) the East Dunbartonshire Council area and (c) the East Renfrewshire Council area in each year from 1995.
Answer · Nicol Stephen: The information requested is contained in the following reports, published by the Scottish Executive Education Department:<TABLE BORDER CELLSPACING=1 CELLPADDING=7 WIDTH=595><TR><TD WIDTH="54%" VALIGN="TOP"><P>Title</TD><TD WIDTH="22%" VALIGN="TOP"><P>Year of…
13 Jan 2003 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-32232 by Iain Gray on 13 December 2002, how many people have been unemployed in the East Dunbartonshire Council area in each year since 1995 and what the unemployment rates were in each year.
Answer · Iain Gray: The annual average residence-based claimant count unemployment level and rate for East Dunbartonshire Council Area and Scotland in each year from 1996 to 2002 are shown in the following table:<TABLE BORDER CELLSPACING=1 CELLPADDING=7 WIDTH=302><TR><TD WIDTH="…
13 Jan 2003 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have been in employment in the East Dunbartonshire Council area in each year from 1995, broken down by gender and what the growth rate has been in each category in each year.
Answer · Iain Gray: Table 1 shows the number of people in employment in the East Dunbartonshire Council area, in each year from 1999, by gender.<P>Table 2 shows the annual percentage change in number of people in employment, in the East Dunbartonshire Council area, in each year …
13 Jan 2003 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) average net annual income and (b) growth rates in such income have been in the East Dunbartonshire Council area in each year from 1995.
Answer · Margaret Curran: The data sources which the Executive use for income analysis are the Department for Work and Pensions' Family Resources Survey and the derived Households Below Average Income analysis. The sample size is not large enough to allow analysis below Scotland level.
13 Jan 2003 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) total number of jobs and (b) employment growth rates have been in the (i) energy, (ii) water, (iii) manufacturing, (iv) construction, (v) distribution, (vi) hotels, (vii) restaurant, (viii) transport, (ix) communications, (x) banking, (xi) finance, (xii) insurance, (xiii) pub…
Answer · Iain Gray: (a) The total number of employee jobs in East Dunbartonshire, by industry groups, in each year since 1995 is shown in Table 1.<P>(b) The annual employment growth rate of employee jobs, in East Dunbartonshire, by industry groups, in each year since 1995 is sho…
13 Jan 2003 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many jobs there have been in the East Dunbartonshire Council area in each year from 1995.
Answer · Iain Gray: The number of jobs in East Dunbartonshire Council area in each year since 1995 are shown in the table:<TABLE BORDER CELLSPACING=1 CELLPADDING=7 WIDTH=170><TR><TD WIDTH="33%" VALIGN="TOP"><P>Year</TD><TD WIDTH="67%" VALIGN="TOP"><P>Number of Jobs</TD></TR><TR>…
13 Jan 2003 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what increases it estimates that there will be in the number of two-adult households in the East Dunbartonshire Council area in the years for which figures are available.
Answer · Margaret Curran: Assuming that previous trends in household formation continue, the Scottish Executive projects that between 2000 and 2014, the number of two adult households without children in the East Dunbartonshire local authority area will increase from 12,660 to 15,010.…
13 Jan 2003 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the trends have been in the number of (a) single-person households, (b) single-parent families, and (c) households with children and two or more adults in the East Dunbartonshire Council area since 1961.
Answer · Margaret Curran: Due to local government reorganisation in 1975 and 1996 and a change in household projection methodology it is not possible to give reliable figures for East Dunbartonshire prior to 1994 for the household types requested. <P>In 1995 all the population within …
13 Jan 2003 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the trends have been in population and household si'e in the East Dunbartonshire Council area since 1961.
Answer · Margaret Curran: Due to local government reorganisation in 1975 and 1996 it is not possible to give reliable figures for East Dunbartonshire prior to 1981 for population and 1994 for average (mean) household size. <P>The total population in East Dunbartonshire local authority…
13 Jan 2003 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the available figures are on the projected road traffic growth from 2001, assuming local Road Traffic Reduction Act 1997 targets are achieved, in (a) Scotland and the (b) Glasgow, (c) Aberdeen, (d) Edinburgh, (e) East Renfrewshire and (f) East Dunbartonshire local authority areas.
Answer · Lewis Macdonald: The information requested is given on page 51 of Steer Davies Gleave's 2001 report to the Executive, <I>Review of Local Transport Strategies and RTRA Reports</I>, a copy of which has been placed in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 18728).
13 Jan 2003 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the available figures are on the projected growth in road traffic from 2001 in (a) Scotland and the (b) Glasgow, (c) Aberdeen, (d) Edinburgh, (e) East Renfrewshire and (f) East Dunbartonshire local authority areas.
Answer · Lewis Macdonald: The information requested is given on page 51 of Steer Davies Gleave's 2001 report to the Executive, <I>Review of Local Transport Strategies and RTRA Reports</I>, a copy of which has been placed in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 18728).
13 Jan 2003 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the traffic density has been on major roads in (a) Scotland and the (b) Glasgow, (c) Aberdeen, (d) Edinburgh, (e) East Renfrewshire and (f) East Dunbartonshire local authority areas in each year since 1996, broken down by road class.
Answer · Lewis Macdonald: Information about volume of traffic is given on pages 95-97 of <I>Scottish Transport Statistics</I> No. 21, 2002 Edition, and in the equivalent tables of earlier editions. A copy of this document has been placed in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. numb…
13 Jan 2003 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of households has access to one or more cars in (a) Scotland and the (b) Glasgow, (c) Aberdeen, (d) Edinburgh, (e) East Renfrewshire and (f) East Dunbartonshire local authority areas.
Answer · Lewis Macdonald: The only information which is available comes from the Scottish Household Survey (SHS). It relates to the availability of cars for private use. Overall, in 1999-2000, 64% of households in Scotland had one or more cars available for private use. The percentage…
13 Jan 2003 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much national lottery funding has been awarded per head of population in (a) Scotland and the (b) Glasgow, (c) Aberdeen, (d) Edinburgh, (e) East Renfrewshire and (f) East Dunbartonshire local authority areas in each year since 1993, broken down by theme.
Answer · Elaine Murray: This is a matter for the lottery distributing bodies. The information requested is not held centrally.
13 Jan 2003 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much the Scottish Arts Council awarded to (a) Scotland and the (b) Glasgow, (c) Aberdeen, (d) Edinburgh, (e) East Renfrewshire and (f) East Dunbartonshire local authority areas per head of population in each year since 1996.
Answer · Elaine Murray: This is a matter for the Scottish Arts Council. The information requested is not held centrally.
13 Jan 2003 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the proportion has been of early deaths in (a) Scotland, (b) the East Dunbartonshire Council area and (c) the East Renfrewshire Council area of the period referred to in Table 4.1 of the Review of Scotland's Cities - the Analysis .
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The information in Table 4.1 of the <I>Review of Scotland's Cities - the Analysis</I> is sourced from the <I>European Urban Audit</I>. Whilst we have not been able to obtain the precise definition used by the <I>European Urban Audit </I>for "early deaths", it…
10 Jan 2003 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what additional funding for drug-related work with young people and families has been allocated to East Dunbartonshire Council for the period 2001-02 to 2003-04.
Answer · Hugh Henry: Additional funding of £157,000 from the Changing Children's Services Fund has been made available to East Dunbartonshire Council over the period 2001-02 to 2003-04 for drug-related work with young people and families.
10 Jan 2003 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what funding for drug-specific education and rehabilitation has been allocated to East Dunbartonshire Council for the period 2001-02 to 2003-04.
Answer · Hugh Henry: The costs of rehabilitation are met through local authorities' Grant-aided expenditure (GAE). Additional funding of £147,00 per annum has been included within East Dunbartonshire's GAE line for drugs-specific rehabilitation for the period 2001-02 to 2003-04.<…