Parliamentary questions
Stewart Stevenson
2,358 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.
18 Dec 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of passenger rail journeys undertaken in Scotland is on services provided by companies other than ScotRail.
Answer · Lewis Macdonald: The information requested can be obtained from tables 8.1 to 8.3 of <I>Scottish Transport Statistics no. 21, 2002 edition</I>, published by the Executive in August 2002, copies of which are available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 23316).
18 Dec 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many passenger rail journeys involved passengers standing for more than 10 minutes in each year since 1997.
Answer · Lewis Macdonald: The information requested is not held centrally.
18 Dec 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of passenger rail journeys undertaken do not exceed 10 minutes.
Answer · Lewis Macdonald: Relevant information is given in table 13 of <I>Scottish Household Survey Travel Diary results</I>, published by the Executive in February 2002, copies of which are available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 19620).
18 Dec 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many passenger rail journeys are undertaken each year.
Answer · Lewis Macdonald: The information requested is given in table 8.1 of <I>Scottish Transport Statistics no. 21, 2002 edition</I>, published by the Executive in August 2002, copies of which are available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 23316).
17 Dec 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive when the A90 between Perth and Aberdeen was last not subject to speed and carriageway restrictions caused by roadworks.
Answer · Lewis Macdonald: As a consequence of the series of major improvement and maintenance schemes on the A90, the last time there were no speed or carriageway restrictions at any point between Perth and Aberdeen was 21 April 2002.
11 Dec 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-31011 by Ross Finnie on 7 November 2002, how many fishing licenses issued by its Environment and Rural Affairs Department are being managed at ports outwith Scotland.
Answer · Ross Finnie: None. All fishing vessel licences issued by SEERAD are managed at ports of administration within Scotland.
11 Dec 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-31010 by Ross Finnie on 7 November 2002, how many fishing licenses have been allocated by its Environment and Rural Affairs Department (SEERAD) to boats (a) owned by non-UK nationals and (b) for which the port of registration is outwith Scotland.
Answer · Ross Finnie: SEERAD currently license 33 fishing vessels owned by non-UK nationals. Of these, 12 have a port of registration outwith Scotland.
10 Dec 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-31817 by Mr Andy Kerr on 5 December 2002, why figures for value or price are not recorded on the Property Pages website on the conclusion of a transaction on property advertised by it.
Answer · Andy Kerr: The Executive does not get involved in the contents of property deals and when the transaction is concluded the organisation advertising a particular property removes the property details from the site. The Scottish Executive property pages provide a site for…
10 Dec 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-31817 by Mr Andy Kerr on 5 December 2002, what methods have been used to assess the business value of the Property Pages website.
Answer · Andy Kerr: The effectiveness of the Scottish Executive public sector property website is assessed by monthly examination of the volume of business on the site and meetings approximately half-yearly with officials from the Scottish Property Network who run the site for t…
10 Dec 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to questions S1W-30639 and S1W-31818 by Mr Frank McAveety on 31 October and 5 December 2002 respectively, what sums from existing departmental running costs were used to develop and maintain the Older People's website.
Answer · Frank McAveety: The Older People's web section is an integral part of the Executive's website. The work to develop and maintain it is being carried out by staff in the Older People's Unit and is a routine part of their on-going work. It is not possible separately to identify…
6 Dec 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding it plans to make available through the farm waste grant scheme for implementing measures in respect of nitrate vulnerable 'ones.
Answer · Ross Finnie: Funding for the Nitrate Vulnerable Zone Grant Scheme is £6.8 million in 2003-04, £4.8 million in 2004-05 and £5.8 million in 2005-06.
6 Dec 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will detail the locations of sampling points in Banffshire and Aberdeenshire that were used in designating areas as nitrate vulnerable 'ones (NVZs); how often, and on what dates, tests were carried out at such locations; what levels of naturally occurring nitrates were found in…
Answer · Ross Finnie: The methodology for identifying and assessing groundwater monitoring sites is given in BGS report reference CR/02/139 titled "Additional groundwater nitrate monitoring sites for Scotland", which is publicly available through the Executive website. In establis…
3 Dec 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to amend existing flood prevention legislation to give local authorities powers to act where only one property is affected by flooding.
Answer · Allan Wilson: Existing flood prevention legislation does not preclude local authorities using their powers to act where only one property is affected by flooding. Accordingly, no amendment to the legislation is required.
3 Dec 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-31144 by Lewis Macdonald on 14 November 2002, whether it will detail the specific action that each (a) local authority and (b) commercial organisation has taken, or plans to take, to increase awareness of the Foolsspeed campaign.
Answer · Lewis Macdonald: The level of detail requested is not held centrally.
28 Nov 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether Faulds Advertising won the Learn To Let Go advertising account and whether the evaluation research debrief presentation of 14 December 2001 by Faulds placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre is the only research carried out into the effectiveness of the Learn To Let G…
Answer · Lewis Macdonald: All Scottish Executive advertising is fulfilled through the advertising roster rather than being tendered separately. When the Learn to Let Go campaign was being developed, Faulds were one of two agencies on the Scottish Executive's advertising roster, having…
28 Nov 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the contract documents issued to the three contractors in connection with the work to straighten the Midmill Bends at Hatton Cruden on the A90 have been withdrawn and what the reasons are for the position on the matter.
Answer · Lewis Macdonald: The contract documents for the A90 Hatton Bends Improvement scheme have been withdrawn for the reason given in the answer to question S1W-32124 on 12 December 2002. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the …
28 Nov 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether there has been any delay to the commencement of the work to straighten the Midmill Bends at Hatton Cruden on the A90; if so, what the reasons are for any such delay, and when the work will start and finish.
Answer · Lewis Macdonald: The A90 Hatton Bends Improvement scheme has been delayed because there were insufficient contractors on the final tender list to constitute a competitive tender process. The scheme is presently programmed to start before the end of 2003 and to take approximat…
28 Nov 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how people have (a) committed and (b) attempted suicide in each of the last 10 years, broken down by (i) gender, (ii) age, (iii) socio-economic class, (iv) occupation, (v) ethnicity and (vi) suicide method.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: (a) Information on the number of deaths attributed to intentional self-harm and events of undetermined Intentional for the years 1992 to 2001 are shown in the following Table 1.<P>Table 1: Number of Deaths Attributed to Intentional Self-Harm and Events of Und…
26 Nov 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1O-5943 by Cathy Jamieson on 21 November 2002, when it will issue its revised guidance to local authorities on school transport safety.
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: We intend to issue revised guidance early next year.
21 Nov 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-30863 by Lewis Macdonald on 19 November 2002 giving statistics on the number of page impressions viewed on the Learn to Let Go website, how many single visits the website had over the same period.
Answer · Lewis Macdonald: There have been 22,817 single visits to the website since its introduction in June 2001. The monthly figures are as follows:<TABLE BORDER CELLSPACING=1 CELLPADDING=2 WIDTH=269><TR><TD WIDTH="50%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT=16><P>2001</TD><TD WIDTH="50%" VA…
21 Nov 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the cost of developing the One Scotland. Many Cultures website was and how much has been budgeted for the maintenance of the site, inclusive of VAT in each case.
Answer · Margaret Curran: <A HREF="http://www.onescotland.com/">www.onescotland.com</A> has cost £38,775 to date, inclusive of VAT. No specific amount has been allocated for the maintenance of the site, which will be the responsibility of Executive officials with occasional support fr…
21 Nov 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S1W-30864 and S1W-30870 by Cathy Jamieson and Mr Andy Kerr on 15 November 2002, whether the statistics on hits to the National Debate on Education website in the answer to question S1W-30864 show the number of (a) hits to the entire site (successful), …
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: The statistics on hits to the National Debate website in the answer given to question S1W-30864 show page impressions for the homepages of the discussion and reflection phases of the debate since its launch on 20 March 2002. <P>The following table shows these…
21 Nov 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-30906 by Mr Andy Kerr on 21 November 2002, whether the research on the effectiveness of the Learn to Let Go campaign (Bib number 25242) was sent to the Scottish Parliament Information Centre in sufficient time to be available there on 21 November 200…
Answer · Andy Kerr: A copy of the research was sent to a named official at the Parliament's Reference Centre during the afternoon of 15 November. It was sent after my officials checked the procedure for placing material in the Parliament's Reference Centre, contained on page 25 …
21 Nov 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many hits the Older People's website has had in (a) total and (b) each month since its inception and how these figures compare to pre-launch projections.
Answer · Frank McAveety: The activity on the Scottish Executive website is measured in page impressions which is a universally recognised measure of website activity, sometimes referred to as website hits. The Older People's website has had a total of 9,691 hits between its inception…
21 Nov 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much it cost to develop the Older People's website and how much has been budgeted to maintain the website inclusive of VAT.
Answer · Frank McAveety: I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-30639 on 31 October 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.uk…
21 Nov 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-30870 by Mr Andy Kerr on 15 September 2002, how much specific business has been generated by its Property Pages website expressed in (a) value and (b) volume.
Answer · Andy Kerr: On 25 November, the number of properties being advertised through the website was 1,583. The number of public sector organisations using it was 53. <P>The value price or rent achieved on the conclusion of a transaction is not recorded.<P>As most properties ar…
19 Nov 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-30877 by Lewis Macdonald on 18 November 2002, whether the cost for Changing Speeding Behaviour in Scotland: An Evaluation of the 'Foolsspeed' Campaign is inclusive of VAT.
Answer · Lewis Macdonald: Yes.
19 Nov 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-30876 by Dr Richard Simpson on 18 November 2002, whether the cost for the "Know the Score" study by Lambda Research and Consultancy is inclusive of VAT.
Answer · Hugh Henry: The cost of £29,000 was inclusive of VAT.
19 Nov 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-30876 by Dr Richard Simpson on 18 November 2002, whether the "Know the Score" study by Lambda Research and Consultancy will be made available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre.
Answer · Hugh Henry: A copy of the Know the Score evaluation report was sent to the Parliament's Reference Centre in September 2002 (Bib. number 24390).
19 Nov 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-30876 by Dr Richard Simpson on 18 November 2002, whether it will give a breakdown of costs for each of the studies undertaken by Lambda Research and Consultancy and whether each of these studies will be made available in the Scottish Parliament Infor…
Answer · Hugh Henry: The following reports are available from the Parliament's Reference Centre. The cost of the project is given against each entry.<I><P>Business-Related bankruptcies under the bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 1985</I>, (Bib. number 24356) - contract cost £32,461.25 in…