Parliamentary questions

Richard Lochhead

2,448 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.

15 Jan 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many definitions of "rural" it uses; what plans it has to review these definitions; who would conduct any such review and what role Her Majesty's Government would have.

Answer · Ross Finnie: A review of rural definitions in use across the Executive revealed that around 20 different definitions of rural were in use. To ensure a more consistent approach to defining rural Scotland within the Executive, a core definition was adopted. It defines rural…

14 Jan 2002 · SPCB Written Question

To ask the Presiding Officer whether the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body will detail any special arrangements which are in place to encourage applications for posts within the Parliament from students at universities and colleges.

Answer · David Steel: The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB) currently has no special arrangements in place to encourage applications for posts from students at universities and colleges.

14 Jan 2002 · SPCB Written Question

To ask the Presiding Officer how many advertisements for posts within the Parliament have been placed in publications outwith Scotland in each of the past three years and in the current year; what the cost was in each year, and in what publications the advertisements were placed.

Answer · David Steel: The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB) became an employer in its own right on 1 April 2000 and began carrying out its own recruitment from January 2000. Prior to that date recruitment was conducted on behalf of the SPCB by the Scottish Office/Scotti…

14 Jan 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many advertisements for posts within the Parliament have been placed in each national and regional newspaper in each of the past three years and in the current year, detailing the newspapers concerned and the number of posts advertised in each newspaper.

Answer · David Steel: The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB) became an employer in its own right on 1 April 2000 and began carrying out its own recruitment from January 2000. Prior to that date, recruitment was conducted on behalf of the SPCB by the Scottish Office/Scott…

14 Jan 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will detail any special arrangements which are in place to encourage applications for posts within its departments from students at universities and colleges.

Answer · Andy Kerr: There is currently no on-going programme of graduate recruitment for general entrance to the Scottish Executive, although a one off campaign targeted specifically at graduates was held in December 2000 and resulted in the employment of 41 Graduate Administrat…

14 Jan 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many advertisements for posts within its departments have been placed in publications outwith Scotland in each of the past three years and in the current year; what the cost was in each year, and in what publications the advertisements were placed.

Answer · Andy Kerr: The information requested is given in tables 1-4 of Recruitment Advertising Costs April 1998 - December 2001, a copy of which has been placed in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 18618).

14 Jan 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many advertisements for posts within its departments have been placed in each national and regional newspaper in each of the past three years and in the current year, detailing the newspapers concerned and the number of posts advertised in each newspaper.

9 Jan 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what assistance is being made available to the crews of fishing vessels who lose their livelihoods due to the fishing vessel decommissioning scheme and what preparations are being made to ensure that such assistance is in place when necessary.

Answer · Ross Finnie: It remains to be seen what the effects of decommissioning will be on individual fishermen and their employment status. If assistance is required, then the local enterprise companies and their employment partners have mechanisms in place to provide training an…

9 Jan 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has held with the enterprise network and other appropriate agencies over assistance to crews whose berths will be disposed of under the fishing vessels decommissioning scheme.

Answer · Ross Finnie: The enterprise networks have been made aware, in discussions in the management groups overseeing the European structural funds programmes that partially fund the fishing vessel decommissioning scheme, of decommissioning plans. The actual impact of decommissio…

9 Jan 2002 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps have been taken to measure the performance of BEAR Scotland Ltd in response to the recent spate of winter weather.

Answer · Lewis Macdonald: Performance Audit Group audit and monitor the activities and performance of BEAR Scotland Ltd, and report to Scottish ministers.They have been asked to undertake a specific audit of BEAR's winter maintenance activities in the North East during the recent p…

7 Jan 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has made, and to whom, on the number of Health and Safety Executive inspectors employed in Scotland.

Answer · Wendy Alexander: Occupational health and safety is a reserved issue. The Scottish Executive liaises with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) on a range of matters affecting devolved issues, such as public health, but has no remit in relation to HSE's operational decisions. …

7 Jan 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive why the NHS inspectors employed by the Health & Safety Executive are being transferred from Aberdeen and whether it was consulted on this matter.

7 Jan 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many and what percentage of teachers are employed on a temporary contract basis, broken down by teacher category and local authority area.

Answer · Nicol Stephen: The information is not held in the format requested. However, a survey commissioned by COSLA shows the number of teachers on temporary contracts by category as at November 2000.Number of teaching staff employed by authority<TABLE BORDER CELLSPACING=1 CELLP…

7 Jan 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the budgets were of each local authority in each year since 1998-99 for criminal justice issues; what contribution it made in each year to these budgets, and what the annual percentage change in budgets was, also expressed as a percentage of the overall budget for that year.

Answer · Peter Peacock: The Executive does not hold this information. Local authorities incur expenditure on criminal justice services under a number of budget headings including district courts, offender services and police. They have no identifiable criminal justice budget and it …

3 Jan 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-20836 by Malcolm Chisholm on 24 December 2001, whether it will provide the figures on the number of district nurses employed broken down by health board area.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The following table shows the whole time equivalent of district nurses in post at 30 September in each of the years 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2000 by health board. Data for the year 2000 are the latest available.District Nurses directly employed by NHSSco…

3 Jan 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when its review of the law relating to aggravated bail will be concluded.

Answer · Jim Wallace: To inform the review, two separate but related research projects were planned. The first was completed in June 2001 and concluded, among other things, that under half of all charges proved between April 1996 and March 2000 involving offending on bail attracte…

3 Jan 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what benefit will result from the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill for the North East of Scotland parliamentary region.

Answer · Ross Finnie: The access provisions of the bill apply equally to the whole of Scotland and will not only provide the public with greater confidence to visit the Scottish countryside, but will result in more opportunities for them to do so by the creation of new paths. Ther…

3 Jan 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether provision for a right to buy for farm tenants can be included within the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill.

Answer · Ross Finnie: I do not intend to include provisions for a tenant farmer right to buy within the Land Reform Bill. I am, however, considering whether the forthcoming Agricultural Holdings Bill, which will reform agricultural tenancy arrangements, should include provisions t…

3 Jan 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many visitors there were to each tourist board area in each of the last three years, expressed also as a ratio of the budget for each board in each year.

Answer · Mike Watson: The information in respect of 1998, 1999 and 2000 is shown in the following table. Information for 2001 is not yet available.Number of Visitors (millions) to each ATB 1998-2000<TABLE BORDER CELLSPACING=1 BORDERCOLOR="#000000" CELLPADDING=2 WIDTH=578><TR><T…

3 Jan 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average si'e of GP patient lists has been in each health board area in each of the last three years, and what the current figures are.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The average size of GP patient lists for each health board area in the years 1998 to 2001 is shown in the following table. Average Size of GP Patient Lists 1, by Health Board: 1998-20012Based on Whole-Time Equivalent (WTE)<T…

2 Jan 2002 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive why no-one in north east Scotland has been nominated to sit on the board of Scottish Water.

Answer · Ross Finnie: The selection of the prospective non-executive and executive board members of Scottish Water was based solely on the skills and abilities displayed by candidates in open and fair competitions. Geographical representation did not play a part in the selection c…

20 Dec 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the outcome was of the recent meeting of the EU Fisheries Council.

Answer · Ross Finnie: We achieved a very good outcome for Scotland from the recent EU Fisheries Council. Faced with an initial proposal which was far from favourable to Scottish and UK interests, the UK delegation took a robust approach to ensure the best possible available deal f…

17 Dec 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether there are any plans to change the status or role of special police constables.

Answer · Jim Wallace: There are no plans to change the status or role of special constables in Scotland.

17 Dec 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether there are any plans to offer salaries or other new payments to special police constables.

Answer · Jim Wallace: There are no proposals to offer salaries to special constables, but the case for paying an allowance to recognise levels of commitment is being explored.

17 Dec 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many special police constables there were per 1,000 of the population in each quarter since 1 April 1997, both nationally and broken down by police force area.

Answer · Jim Wallace: Decisions on the numbers of police officers and special constables in each force are an operational matter for chief constables.Since September 1999 the numbers of special constables in each force have been collected each quarter. Prior to that, numbers we…

17 Dec 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the ratio of police officers to special police constables was in each quarter since 1 April 1997, both nationally and broken down by police force area.

11 Dec 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether any impact studies have been carried out on the effects on the voluntary sector of withdrawal of water and sewerage charges relief.

Answer · Ross Finnie: The water authorities have estimated that it would cost the generality of their customers just over £11 million a year at today's prices were they to continue to provide reliefs on water charges for the voluntary and charitable sectors. It follows that the ph…

10 Dec 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many general practitioner (GP) vacancies currently exist in each health board area, what percentage of GP posts this represents in each area and how many GP posts there are in each area per capita.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The information requested is shown in the following table, which should be read in conjunction with the notes.Number of GP Posts1 by Health Board AreaInformation as at 1 October 2001p<TABLE BORDER CELLSPACING=1 CELLPADDING=2 WIDTH=…

10 Dec 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many diabetes nurses were employed in each quarter from 1 April 1998 to the most recent quarter for which figures are available and what the average (a) waiting time and (b) si'e of waiting list was for appointments with diabetes nurses in each quarter, broken down by health board are…

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The information requested is not available centrally.

10 Dec 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many physiotherapists were employed in each quarter from 1 April 1998 to the most recent quarter for which figures are available and what the average (a) waiting time and (b) si'e of waiting list was for appointments with physiotherapists in each quarter, broken down by health board a…

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The table shows the headcount and whole time equivalent of physiotherapists in post at 30 September in each of the years 1998, 1999 and 2000. Staff in post data on a quarterly basis are not available centrally, nor is information relating to physiotherapists …