Richard Lochhead

29 Oct 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment it has made, or plans to make, of the impact of economic globalisation on the Scottish economy and whether it will publish the results of any such assessment.

Answer · Wendy Alexander: Assessments of trends in the global economy are published regularly in the Executive's <I>Scottish Economic Report</I>. An assessment of the economic impact of the terrorist attacks was published by the Executive last month. Our policy approach was recently s…

29 Oct 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is its policy to purchase fair trade products, where appropriate.

Answer · Angus MacKay: The Executive's policy is that all procurement should be on the basis of value for money, in the interests of the taxpayer. The Executive does not routinely purchase the types of product which are available under "fair trade" schemes. Where such products are …

29 Oct 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how much each department spends in its catering budget on fair trade products, expressed also as a percentage of total expenditure for each department and of overall Executive catering expenditure.

Answer · Angus MacKay: The Executive's catering is handled by external contractors. Information on spending by those contractors on particular brands or products is not held by the Executive.

29 Oct 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how much was spent by each of its departments on television advertising in each of the last three years and this year to date, broken down by the television areas covered by (a) Grampian TV, (b) STV and (c) Border TV.

Answer · Tom McCabe: Spend by department on television advertising in each of the last three years is listed in the table. Breakdown by television areas is not held centrally and cannot be collected without disproportionate cost.<TABLE BORDER CELLSPACING=1 CELLPADDING=2 WIDTH=472…

29 Oct 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many racist incidents have been reported to the police since 11 September 2001 to date, broken down by police force area; how many of these incidents have been linked to the current international situation, and how many racist incidents were reported to the police, broken down by pol…

Answer · Iain Gray: The figures requested are not collected centrally. The latest available figures on racist incidents reported to Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and racially aggravated offences recorded by the police are given in the following tables, but these do …

25 Oct 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive (a) how many job losses there were and (b) how many jobs were created in the (i) Aberdeen Central, (ii) Aberdeen North (iii) Aberdeen South, (iv) Angus, (v) Banff and Buchan, (vi) Dundee East, (vii) Dundee West, (viii) Gordon and (ix) West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine constituencies in ea…

Answer · Wendy Alexander: The information requested is not held centrally.

19 Oct 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether measures have been taken to put into effect the statement in Learn to Teach in respect of newly qualified teachers that it is possible for mature students with relevant previous experience to enter the salary scale at a higher point.

Answer · Jack McConnell: The <I>Learn to Teach</I> brochure was an information paper given to those interested in teaching as a career. It predates the McCrone Report and the <I>Agreement on a Teaching Profession for the 21st Century</I>, and was replaced by our Teaching in Scotland …

19 Oct 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how much has been spent in 2001 on advertising costs to attract mature students to undertake teacher training courses.

Answer · Nicol Stephen: The recent Teacher Recruitment Advertising Campaign has the twin objectives of improving the public perception of teaching as a worthwhile and rewarding career, and increasing the numbers of talented people entering the teaching profession. <P>Neither this ca…

19 Oct 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average starting salary for a newly qualified teacher who was a mature student is expected to be next year for (a) primary school teachers and (b) secondary school teachers and what the average starting salary for them is for the current year and has been for each of the last th…

Answer · Jack McConnell: This information is not held centrally, as the Scottish Executive does not employ teachers, nor do we pay their salaries direct.

18 Oct 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-18577 by Ross Finnie on 11 October 2001, whether it will name each farm business on the list and give the number of jobs sustained by each business.

Answer · Ross Finnie: For data protection reasons - both under the Data Protection Act 1998 and also EU legislation - the names of individual claimants cannot be released. Information on the number of jobs sustained by each business is set out in the following table:<TABLE BORDER …

18 Oct 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average amount of agriculture subsidy paid to businesses under the Integrated Administration and Control System has been for each of the last three years.

Answer · Ross Finnie: A following table shows the average amount of subsidy paid to businesses, under the Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS), for the last two years. <TABLE BORDER CELLSPACING=1 CELLPADDING=7 WIDTH=311><TR><TD WIDTH="39%" VALIGN="TOP"><FONT FACE="A…

18 Oct 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will detail in descending order the top 50 recipients of Less Favoured Areas Support Scheme subsidy under the new scheme and the equivalent figures for the last year of the old scheme.

Answer · Ross Finnie: As the member may not appreciate, the producers receiving subsidy payments cannot be named due to EC restrictions on the release of data and further restrictions under the Data Protection Act 1998. Nevertheless, I have set out in the following table the amoun…

16 Oct 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many shops there have been in Scotland in each of the last three years showing the percentage change year on year.

Answer · Wendy Alexander: The information requested is not held centrally.

16 Oct 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the fact that a company is indigenous to Scotland is taken into account by economic development and enterprise agencies when assessing applications for assistance or qualification for grant or loan schemes.

Answer · Wendy Alexander: Applications for assistance from foreign and indigenous firms are assessed against the same scheme criteria.

12 Oct 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment has been made of the impact that the European Commission's proposed Physical Agents Directive will have both generally and, in particular, on the farming industry; what representations it has made to Her Majesty's Government and the Commission on the proposed Directive, an…

Answer · Ross Finnie: The Scottish Executive has no functions in relation to health and safety.

11 Oct 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many times and which police boards did not take up their full entitlement to police grant in each of the past three years and at what percentage below the grant-aided expenditure provision the budget of each board was set.

Answer · Jim Wallace: The information requested is shown in the following tables (Figures given in).<P><TABLE BORDER CELLSPACING=1 CELLPADDING=7 WIDTH=609><TR><TD WIDTH="19%" VALIGN="TOP"><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=2><P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Force</FONT></TD><TD WIDTH="20%" VALIGN="TOP"><F…

9 Oct 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide details of any grants awarded to each police force for the last year in addition to core funding.

Answer · Jim Wallace: Grants worth over £10 million have been, or will shortly be, made available to forces in the current financial year, to meet special pressures which have arisen during the course of the year. These are in addition to grant aided expenditure. Figures, where a …

9 Oct 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) police vehicles there are and (b) manned police stations there are per square mile, in each police force area.

Answer · Jim Wallace: The information requested is not held centrally.

9 Oct 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) police officers and (b) civillian staff are currently employed by each police force, expressed per head of population in each police force area.

Answer · Jim Wallace: The number of police officers and civilians in each force at 30 September 2001, expressed per 1,000 population is shown in the following table.<P><TABLE BORDER CELLSPACING=1 BORDERCOLOR="#000000" CELLPADDING=7 WIDTH=616><TR><TD WIDTH="17%" VALIGN="TOP"><FONT …

9 Oct 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what level of funding (a) was received by each police force in each of the past three years, (b) is projected in each force for each of the next two years expressed per head of population in each police force area and (c) what the average funding was per head of population nationally.

Answer · Jim Wallace: The information requested is shown in the following table.<P>Police Funding Per Head of Population<TABLE BORDER CELLSPACING=1 CELLPADDING=7 WIDTH=491><TR><TD WIDTH="33%" VALIGN="TOP">&nbsp;</TD><TD WIDTH="21%" VALIGN="TOP"><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=2><P ALIGN="…

28 Sep 2001 · SPCB Written Question

To ask the Presiding Officer whether there are any plans to provide an enhanced and accessible out of hours IT support service for MSPs.

Answer · David Steel: The IT Helpdesk has new extended opening hours for MSPs during sitting days:<P>Tuesdays until 19.30<P>Wednesdays until 21.30<P>Thursdays until 21.30<P>Further information can be found on SPEIR at <A HREF="http://intranet/speir/Temp/bits.htm">http://intranet/s…

28 Sep 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will detail any occasions when it has submitted responses to consultation exercises being conducted by the European Commission direct to the Commission.

Answer · Jack McConnell: On no occasion has the Scottish Executive responded directly to the commission on a formal consultation exercise.<P>In association with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, the Executive did contribute a joint discussion paper in relation to the comm…

28 Sep 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the UK's response to the European Commission's Green Paper on the future of the Common Fisheries Policy was co-ordinated by it or by Her Majesty's Government and where the official or officials who wrote the final draft is or are based.

Answer · Rhona Brankin: Parts of the UK response were drafted in London and parts of it were written in Edinburgh. Fisheries Ministers in all of the Fisheries Departments in the UK agreed the final draft, which fully reflects Scottish priorities. It was sent to the Commission in the…

27 Sep 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether its rural policy and development research programme for 2001-02 includes a review of research into rural development and, if so, what the timetable for any such review will be.

Answer · Ross Finnie: The Executive's rural policy and development research programme for 2001-02, published on 31 July 2001, includes a proposal to carry out a review of research on rural development. It is intended that this study will commence shortly.

27 Sep 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to reduce the level of industrial fishing in the North Sea.

Answer · Rhona Brankin: The level of industrial fishing in the North Sea is determined annually at the European Fish Council of Ministers in December. The Executive has been working with DEFRA and Danish counterparts to collect evidence of the impact of industrial fisheries on white…

27 Sep 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what impact (a) climate change and (b) the lack of available food supply has had on fish stock levels in the North Sea.

Answer · Rhona Brankin: Fish stocks are highly variable and it is not yet possible to make direct or measurable linkages between fish stock abundance and climate change for North Sea stocks. As to food supply, there is no evidence that a lack of food availability has contributed to …

27 Sep 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps have been taken to protect the freshwater pearl mussel and whether any link has been established between the level of such mussel populations and the decline in salmon and sea trout numbers.

Answer · Rhona Brankin: The freshwater pearl mussel is protected from killing or exploitation by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. In addition to this, the Scottish Executive has identified 18 sites as proposed Special Areas of Conservation under the EC Habitats Directive, wher…

27 Sep 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will detail in descending order the top 50 recipients of agriculture subsidy, showing the amounts awarded to each recipient in each of the last three years and expressing each amount as a percentage of the total overall subsidy awarded in Scotland.

Answer · Ross Finnie: Details of the requested total payments per producer, in calendar years 1998, 1999 and 2000, are given in the table. Also indicated is the percentage of the total overall subsidy payment for that year. <TABLE BORDER CELLSPACING=1 CELLPADDING=2 WIDTH=597><TR><…

19 Sep 2001 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps are being taken to improve the availability of dental treatment services in Grampian.

Answer · Susan Deacon: Steps taken include:<DIR><P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">the availability of Scottish Dental Access Initiative grants to encourage practitioners to set up or expand NHS practices in areas such as Grampian of unmet patient demand or high oral health need;<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY"…

5 Sep 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of non-Scottish students graduating from dental degree courses in Scotland in each of the last three years remained in Scotland after graduation to undertake dental vocational training.

Answer · Susan Deacon: I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-17961.