Parliamentary questions

Murdo Fraser

2,062 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.

2 Nov 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how much it has paid to Caledonia Youth in each year since 1999.

Answer · Stewart Maxwell: Caledonia Youth has received funding from the Scottish Government in each year since 1999 as detailed in the following table.<table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=3> <thead> <tr> <td valign=bottom> Financial Year </td> <td valign=botto…

25 Oct 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when the Permanent Secretary was informed by the Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism of his personal shareholdings.

Answer · John Swinney: I refer the memberto answer to question S3W-5740 on 8 November 2007. Allanswers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website,the search facility for which can be found at <ahref="http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.sear…

25 Oct 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when the Permanent Secretary was informed by the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change of his personal shareholdings, in particular his shareholding in ScottishPower/Iberdrola.

Answer · John Swinney: The Permanent Secretaryhas been in discussion with all ministers about their financial and non financial interests since their appointmentsin May.

5 Oct 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to review any safeguards that exist to prevent the exposure of children to (a) political bias and (b) scientific inaccuracy or misrepresentation in the classroom, following the ruling of Mr Justice Burton in the High Court in London concerning the showing of the film, A…

Answer · Maureen Watt: I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-5294 on 2 November 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at <ahref="http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa…

5 Oct 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the film, An Inconvenient Truth, and supporting materials were assessed against any safeguards that exist to prevent the exposure of children to (a) political bias and (b) scientific inaccuracy or misrepresentation in the classroom before they were sent to schools.

Answer · Maureen Watt: The responsibilityfor the management and delivery of the curriculum is a matter for education authoritiesand head teachers, or in the case of independent schools, the boards of governorsand head teachers. It is, therefore, for each individual school to decide…

5 Oct 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what safeguards there are to prevent the exposure of children to (a) political bias and (b) scientific inaccuracy or misrepresentation in the classroom.

Answer · Maureen Watt: I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-5294 on 2 November 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at <ahref="http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/we…

4 Oct 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-28470 by Nicol Stephen on 28 November 2006, whether it stands by its statement that there are “estimated costs of around £150 million to replace loans with grants and around £1.6 billion to write off anticipated student loan liabilities” and, if not,…

Answer · Fiona Hyslop: It would not be appropriateto publish costings produced under the previous administration. These proposalswere not Scottish Executive policy at the time and the intentions of the then SNPopposition were not fully understood.

4 Oct 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-28470 by Nicol Stephen on 28 November 2006, whether it still believes that the SNP proposals on student funding would cost £1.7 billion to implement and, if not, how much it now believes they will cost and whether it will publish the costings on whic…

19 Sep 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S3W-980 and S3W-2155 by Fiona Hyslop on 3 July and 6 August 2007 respectively, why the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning stated on 13 June 2007 “Believe it or not, for the first time since the reformation, there has been a drop in t…

Answer · Fiona Hyslop: I admire themember’s dedication and erudition in identifying two exceptions to the broadand unarguable historic trend which I identified previously and am happy to beguided, in terms of detail, by his further research. But the issue of concernto Scottish peop…

19 Sep 2007 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what support it provides for CCTV schemes in town centres to help deter crime and antisocial behaviour.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: £4million Executive funding is available this year to local authority-ledCommunity Safety Partnerships to assist them in identifying and addressinglocal community safety priorities, including CCTV. Other funding streams, suchas quality of life funding, can al…

5 Sep 2007 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how it intends to reduce class sizes in Primary 1 to 3.

Answer · Adam Ingram: We will beworking with Education Authorities and Universities delivering initial teachertraining to ensure we can drive down class sizes in a managed and staged waywhich maintains teacher quality, recognises classroom pressures and continuityof class configur…

28 Aug 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the policy of Project Scotland is on funding placements with religious and faith-based organisations.

Answer · Jim Mather: Project Scotland is a company limited by guarantee and registered asa charity whose aims and objectives are to promote the welfare and relieve theneeds of the population in Scotland by encouraging and assisting young peopleto provide their skills and services…

23 Aug 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what rules it applies to (a) local authorities and (b) other public bodies with regard to granting funding to voluntary organisations which require that (i) recruits and (ii) volunteers be of a particular faith and whether it has any plans to revise such rules.

Answer · Jim Mather: We apply no rulesto other organisations about recruitment and funding of volunteers in faith situations.Funding decisions are matters within the discretion oflocal authorities but, like other bodies, they are required to comply with currentequality leg…

23 Aug 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what its policy is on granting funding to voluntary organisations who require that (a) recruits and (b) volunteers be of a particular faith.

Answer · Jim Mather: We support voluntaryorganisations to run and develop projects and services which fit our strategic objectives.We do not fund projects which promote one faith nor projects where potential recruits or volunteers are excludedfrom opportunities on the basis of th…

3 Aug 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the start date for the upgrade work to the A9 Ballinluig junction was moved as a result of either the outcome of the Parliament elections in May 2007 or of the subsequent formation of the new Scottish Executive.

Answer · Stewart Stevenson: The government attachesthe highest importance to taking the earliest steps to upgrade the A9 Ballinluigjunction.

19 Jul 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it provides any financial assistance to local authorities for the provision of staffed public toilets.

Answer · John Swinney: I refer the member to the answerto question S3W-2265 on 31 July 2007. All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility forwhich can be found at:<ahref="http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp…

19 Jul 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what its policy is on the provision of staffed public toilets in locations visited by high numbers of tourists.

19 Jul 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has carried out or is aware of any research into the importance of providing staffed public toilets in locations visited by high numbers of tourists.

Answer · John Swinney: Decisions concerning theprovision, management and funding of public toilets are for individual localauthorities and not a matter for the Scottish Executive. We have not conducted nor are we aware of anyresearch into the importance of providing public toilets …

18 Jul 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, following the publication of the Draft Referendum (Scotland) Bill, what estimate the Scottish Government has made as to what the level of deficit would be in an independent Scotland.

Answer · Stewart Stevenson: The Scottish Governmentintends to promote and encourage the maintenance and expansion of Scotland’s international air connections which avoid the needfor travellers to use connecting flights and reduce reliance on UK internal flights. The mechanism to assist …

16 Jul 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-980 by Fiona Hyslop on 3 July 2007, why, if formal statistics of participation in higher education are not available for the whole of the period since the Reformation, the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning stated to the Parliament…

Answer · Fiona Hyslop: I was making thepoint that the Scottish education system has been leading by example forcenturies. The Member may be interested in the facts and statistics describedin a book by Prof R.D. Anderson: Scottish Education since the Reformation,Studies in Scottish …

12 Jul 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many children with autism have been diagnosed as having Fragile X syndrome in each year since 1990.

Answer · Shona Robison: Children with autismspectrum disorder are most likely to be diagnosed in an outpatient clinic andmanaged in the community or general practice. Diagnostic information forpatients attending outpatient clinics is not available centrally.On-going research …