Parliamentary questions
David McLetchie
326 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.
11 Nov 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish the findings of the opinion poll commissioned in relation to the consultation on smoking in public places.
Answer · Andy Kerr: The Executive Summary of the Opinion Survey conducted in support of the consultation on smoking in public places can be accessed on the Scottish Executive website at <ahref="http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Health/health/smoking">http://www.scotland.gov.uk/T…
14 Sep 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-8478 by Donald Dewar on 17 July 2000, whether it will list all current cabinet sub-committees and their membership and detail the number of times each has met in each of the last five years.
Answer · Jack McConnell: There are currently four cabinet sub-committees:</p><p>The Cabinet Sub-Committee on Legislation was established in 2002. It met three times in 2002, six times in 2003 and so far has met three times in 2004.</p><p>The Cabinet Sub-Committee on Sustainable Scotl…
6 Aug 2004 · SPCB Written Question
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what information it has on how much parliamentary time has been spent scrutinising each Bill since 1999, broken down by legislative stage.
Answer · George Reid: The information is notrecorded centrally. Staff are working on calculating the time spent on eachlegislative stage of all Bills, and will publish the results as a SPICeBriefing Paper by the end of October.</p>
10 May 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many consultation documents it has produced in each year since 1999, giving the cost of each such document.
Answer · Andy Kerr: All Scottish Executive consultation documents for the last six years can be found on the Scottish Executive website at <ahref="http://www.scotland.gov.uk/consultations/default.aspx">http://www.scotland.gov.uk/consultations/default.aspx</a>.</p>
10 May 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S1W-34337, S2W-1078, S2W-1079 and S2W-7215 by Mr Andy Kerr on 11 March, 16 July 2003 and 15 April 2004, whether it will publish a consolidated list of publications produced in each year since 1999, giving the cost of each such publication.
Answer · Andy Kerr: The information requested isgiven in <i>Scottish Executive</i><i> publications in the period 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2004</i>, a copy of which has been placed in the Scottish Parliament’sReference Centre (Bib. number 32723).</p>
5 May 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many new co-ordinator posts, similar to the Food and Health Co-ordinator, have been created in each of the last five years, giving details of the post, the holder and salary in each case.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The information requested is as follows:</p><table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=3 width=559> <thead> <tr> <td> <p>Year</p> </td> <td> <p>Post</p> </td> <td> <p>Postholder</p> </td> <td> <p>Budget Cost¹</p> </td> </tr> </thead>…
5 May 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many Acts of the Scottish Parliament have subsequently been amended by later Acts of the Scottish Parliament, giving details of each amendment.
Answer · Patricia Ferguson: I refer Mr McLetchie to the answerI gave to question S2W-8041 on 19 May 2004. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for whichcan be found at <a href="http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/web…
5 May 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive to what extent legislation has been repealed by the Parliament and not subsequently re-enacted in substantially the same terms, giving details of each repealed provision.
Answer · Patricia Ferguson: Information is not held in theform requested. However, all Acts of the Scottish Parliament are published on the Scottish Parliament’s website: </p><p><ahref="http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/bills/index.htm">www.scottish.parliament.uk/bills/index.htm</a>.</p>
29 Apr 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list all the overseas engagements carried out by ministers in 2003-04, giving the date and duration of visit, location, purpose and cost.
Answer · Andy Kerr: This information is currentlybeing collated and I expect to announce details before the summer recess.</p>
22 Apr 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-34385 by Mr Andy Kerr on 11 March 2003, what its budget out-turn was for press and communications in (a) 2002-03 and (b) 2003-04.
Answer · Andy Kerr: The Media and Communication (M&C)Division’s out-turn spend for administration costs (staffing and office overheadcosts) in 2002-03 was £3,646,610. The estimated out-turn spend for 2003-04 is £4.1million. The increase in spend is principally as a result of…
24 Mar 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-33817 by Mr Andy Kerr on 17 February 2003, whether it will provide a breakdown of the full costs, including fuel, drivers' salaries, insurance, road tax and servicing, of providing the ministerial car service and how many cars there have been in the …
Answer · Andy Kerr: Expenditure on fuel, service and repairs, staff costs, contract hire, and the number of vehicles used by the Government Car Service (Scotland) (GCS) for 2002-03 and 2003-04 is shown in the table below:</p><table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=3> <thead> …
24 Mar 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-33936 by Mr Andy Kerr on 20 February 2003, how many members of staff are employed in its Media and Communications Group, broken down into press officers, support for press officers, publicity officers, internal communications, support for internal co…
Answer · Andy Kerr: There are 90.6 (full-time equivalent)staff employed in Media and Communications, including five external marketing secondees.A detailed breakdown is available in the Scottish Executive Business directory,which is available to MSPs.</p>
24 Mar 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S1W-32337 and S2W-1078 by Mr Andy Kerr on 11 March and 16 July 2003, how many publications it has produced since 30 June 2003, giving the cost of each such publication.
Answer · Andy Kerr: The information requested isgiven in <i>Scottish Executive</i><i> publications in the period </i><i>30 June 2003</i><i> to </i><i>31 March 2004</i>, a copy of which has been placed in the Parliament’sreference centre (Bib number 32326).</p>
24 Mar 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-33832 by Mr Andy Kerr on 18 February 2003, what the total annual cost was of employment of special advisers in the last year for which figures are available and how many special advisers have been employed in each year since 1999.
Answer · Andy Kerr: The total actual cost for 2003-04was £596,555.</p><p>Details are:</p><table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=3> <thead> <tr> <td> <p> </p> </td> <td> <p align=center>Salary</p> </td> <td> <p align=center>ERNIC</p> </td> <td> <p align=…
24 Mar 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-33935 by Mr Andy Kerr on 20 February 2003, how many full-time equivalent members of staff are employed by it and each of its executive agencies and associated departments.
Answer · Andy Kerr: The information requested is contained in the table below.</p><p>Number of Permanent Full-Time Equivalent Staff in the Scottish Executive Core Departments, Agencies and Associated Departments at 1 March 2004</p><table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=3 widt…
6 Feb 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-3405 by Mr Andy Kerr on 7 November 2003, where each joint ministerial committee meeting took place; which ministers attended, and what issues were discussed.
Answer · Andy Kerr: The following table provides a complete list of Scottish Executive Ministerial attendance at all JMC meetings that have taken place since 7 October 1999:</p><p>Paragraph A1.11 of the Memorandum of Understanding and Supplementary Agreements between the UK Gove…
5 Feb 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the NHS has considered introducing the enrichment culture method test, found to be effective in screening for group B streptococcal infections in Europe and the United States of America, for all pregnant women.
Answer · Tom McCabe: At present the UK NationalScreening Committee (NSC) has advised that there is no evidence to support theintroduction of pregnancy screening for group B streptococcal infection. TheNSC will review evidence when further health technology assessment researchfind…
5 Feb 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many babies have (a) developed life threatening Group B streptococcal infections, (b) died due to Group B streptococcal infections and (c) survived but have been left with serious long-term mental or physical problems due to Group B streptococcal infections, in each of the last 10 yea…
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The available information on neonatal discharges recording Group B streptococcal infections is shown in the table for years 1996 to 2003.</p><p>Discharges from Neonatal Units with Diagnoses of Group B Streptococcal (ICD10 P360) between April 1996 and March 20…
26 Jan 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will confirm that, as long as the current First Minister is in office, it will not bring forward any proposals to require Scottish domiciled students attending university in Scotland, to pay any contribution, additional to the present graduate endowment, towards the cost of the…
Answer · Jim Wallace: We have no current plans tointroduce any new charges for Scottish students for university tuition.</p>
26 Jan 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will confirm that, as long as the current First Minister is in office, there will be no increase in the level of the graduate endowment, other than in line with inflation as specified in the Education (Graduate Endowment and Student Support) (Scotland) Act 2001.
Answer · Jim Wallace: The level of the graduateendowment is governed by regulation 7 of the Graduate Endowment (Scotland)Regulations 2001 which specifies that the amount will be increased only by therate of inflation for graduates in future years. We have no plans to amendthis l…
23 Sep 2003 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many of the 239 prisoners recalled from licence in 2002, as referred to in Prison Statistics Scotland 2002, were recalled for committing a crime and what the categories of those crimes were.
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:</p><p>The information requested isnot collected centrally.</p>
5 Sep 2003 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many people in each of the last six years have committed an offence during the period of remission after being released from jail due to early release conditions, broken down by category of offence.
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: Information at this level of detail is not held centrally.</p>
4 Sep 2003 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive in what order of priority topics will be considered by the Sentencing Commission to be chaired by Lord MacLean, and over what timescale such topics will be considered.
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: The work programme of theSentencing Commission will be settled by the commission itself, in consultationwith ministers, once its membership has been decided. Topics for earlyconsideration are likely to include bail and remand, consistency of sentencingand the…
28 Aug 2003 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive under what circumstances a court can recover fines through (a) civil diligence and (b) deductions from benefits.
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: Section 221 of the CriminalProcedure (Scotland) Act 1995 provides that in any case in which a courtmay think it expedient, it may issue a warrant to order a fine to be recoveredby civil diligence.</p><p>Section 24 of the CriminalJustice Act 1991 provides that…
26 Aug 2003 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of advertisements for jobs in its departments, non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) and executive agencies has been subsequently withdrawn without the post being filled in each of the past six years.
Answer · Andy Kerr: The specific information requestedis not held centrally for all Scottish Executive agencies, associated departments or NDPBs and cannotbe provided due to disproportionate cost. We can, however, provide the followinginformation:</p><p>There have been no advert…
26 Aug 2003 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of jobs advertised for its departments, non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) and executive agencies has been awarded to external candidates in each of the last six years.
Answer · Andy Kerr: The specific information is notheld centrally for all Scottish Executive agencies, associated departments or NDPBs and cannotbe provided due to disproportionate cost. We can, however, provide the followinginformation:</p><p class=MsoBodyText>The percentage of…
26 Aug 2003 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much has been spent on recruiting staff for its departments, non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) and executive agencies in each of the last six years.
Answer · Andy Kerr: The specific information requestedis not held centrally for all Scottish Executive agencies, associated departments or NDPBs and cannotbe provided due to disproportionate cost. We can, however, provide the followinginformation:</p><p>The following figures rep…
8 Aug 2003 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what it estimates the cost will be to local authorities of implementing the recommendations in Local Authorities Euro Preparations Guidance, issued by HM Treasury in June 2003.
Answer · Andy Kerr: <div class=Section1><p>Localauthorities would have a critical role to play during any changeover to the euro.The guidance issued by HM Treasury and Office of the Deputy Prime Ministersuggests a number of high-level business, technical and communications issue…
8 Aug 2003 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what revenue was generated from fines for speeding imposed as a result of the evidence of fixed speed cameras in each of the last five years.
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: Information at this level ofdetail is not held centrally. While information is available on speeding fines,this does not separately identify the amount attributable to fixed safetycameras.</p>
8 Aug 2003 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the estimated annual cost is of installing and operating a fixed speed camera.
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: The estimated cost of a single gatsometer fixed speed camera is £30,000. The costs of installation and operation are additional. These will very much depend on factors such as the location of the camera and the intensity of its use.</p>