- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 July 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Hugh Henry on 8 August 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what research it has carried out into the impact of any increase in the supply of class A drugs in Scotland originating from Afghanistan following the invasion by US, UK and other NATO forces in 2001.
Answer
No such research has beencarried out by the Scottish Executive.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 July 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Hugh Henry on 8 August 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of class A drugs in circulation in Scotland it estimates originate from Afghanistan.
Answer
Information on thepercentage of class A drugs in Scotland estimated to originate from Afghanistanis not held centrally.
At the UK level, however,the “UK Threat Assessment 2006-07”, published by the Serious Organised CrimeAgency (SOCA) on 31 July 2006 estimates that 90% of the UK's identified heroinsupply originates in Afghanistan. The report is available at http://www.soca.gov.uk/assessPublications/downloads/threat_assess_unclass_250706.pdf.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 July 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 4 August 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the evidence to the Communities Committee by Johann Lamont at Stage 2 of the Housing Bill on 28 September 2005 (Official Report, Communities Committee, c. 2468-72) and the Stage 3 proceedings of the Bill on 24 November 2005 (Official Report, c. 21058-21118), when draft regulations pertinent to the house seller pack will be available; what progress has been made with regard to the “loan scheme” to fund such packs and, in particular, whether such loans will be secured loans and whether a seller can make repeat loan applications in respect of the same property should it fail to sell within the shelf life of the single seller survey, and what discussions it has had with building societies and other lenders regarding the status of the single seller survey.
Answer
Since the Housing (Scotland) Act2006 received Royal Assent we have been working with stakeholders including mortgagelenders on the design of the mandatory Single Survey scheme. I expect that draftregulations will be available next year. We intend, as far as possible, to go withthe grain of the current house buying and selling system. Discussions with lendersindicate that an arrangement similar to the present one under which they are providedwith transcripts of information from surveys in order to assess mortgage applicationsis most likely to meet their requirements for information from the single survey.
Work is also under way to developthe scheme of assistance under part 2 of the act. The form of any assistance forhouse sellers will be considered as part of that.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 July 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 3 August 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many fatal and serious road accidents there have been in the South of Scotland parliamentary region in each year from 1999 to date, broken down by road class and number.
Answer
The following table gives thenumber of fatal and serious road accidents by road class and number in the Southof Scotland Scottish Parliament Region in each of the years from 2002 to 2005. Asregards figures for the years from 1999 to 2001, I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-110 on 2 June 2003. All answers towritten parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the searchfacility for which can be found at:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.It should be noted that the followingstatistics are based upon the data which are held in the central statistical databaseand which were collected by the police at the time of the accident and subsequentlyreported to the Executive. They may differ from any figures which the local authoritywould provide now, because they do not take account of any subsequent changes orcorrections that the local authority may have made to the statistical information,for use at a local level, about the location of each accident, based upon its knowledgeof the road and area concerned.
Fatal and Serious Road Accidentsin South of Scotland Scottish Parliament Region
Road Class and Number | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 |
M74 | 8 | 10 | 9 | 8 |
A(M)74 | 7 | 9 | 3 | 9 |
A1 | 15 | 8 | 8 | 15 |
A1107 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
A198 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
A199 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
A6088 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
A6089 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
A6091 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
A6093 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
A6094 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
A6105 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 7 |
A6112 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
A6124 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
A6137 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
A68 | 6 | 10 | 6 | 6 |
A697 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 4 |
A698 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
A699 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 2 |
A7 | 14 | 8 | 9 | 14 |
A70 | 12 | 12 | 11 | 13 |
A701 | 8 | 6 | 15 | 10 |
A702 | 13 | 9 | 11 | 4 |
A703 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 2 |
A706 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
A708 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 1 |
A709 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 3 |
A71 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 3 |
A710 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
A711 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 3 |
A712 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
A713 | 7 | 9 | 12 | 8 |
A714 | 4 | 9 | 3 | 2 |
A716 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
A718 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
A719 | 5 | 9 | 5 | 5 |
A72 | 13 | 16 | 15 | 11 |
A721 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
A73 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 4 |
A735 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
A736 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 1 |
A737 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 1 |
A738 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
A74 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
A743 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
A745 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
A747 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
A75 | 19 | 16 | 15 | 20 |
A751 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
A755 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
A759 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
A76 | 13 | 9 | 14 | 16 |
A77 | 29 | 20 | 16 | 17 |
A78 | 2 | 7 | 7 | 4 |
A780 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
A781 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
A79 | 4 | 1 | 8 | 1 |
B1345 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
B1347 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
B1348 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
B1361 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
B1377 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
B6089 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
B6350 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
B6352 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
B6355 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
B6357 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 11 |
B6358 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
B6359 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
B6360 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
B6362 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
B6364 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
B6368 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
B6371 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
B6372 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
B6374 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
B6397 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
B6399 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
B6400 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
B6401 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
B6404 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
B6414 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
B6436 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
B6437 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
B6438 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
B6456 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
B6460 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
B6461 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
B699 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
B7004 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
B7005 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
B7009 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
B7011 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
B7016 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
B7017 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
B7018 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
B7019 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
B702 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
B7020 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
B7021 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
B7023 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
B7024 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
B7026 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
B7034 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
B7036 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
B7037 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
B7038 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
B7045 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
B705 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
B7052 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
B7065 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
B7068 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
B7076 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
B7077 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
B7078 | 10 | 10 | 7 | 3 |
B7079 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
B7080 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
B7081 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
B7083 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
B7084 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
B7085 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
B7086 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
B709 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
B710 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
B7106 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
B715 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
B721 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
B722 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
B723 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 4 |
B724 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
B725 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
B727 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
B729 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
B730 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
B733 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
B734 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
B736 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
B737 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
B740 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
B741 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
B742 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 2 |
B743 | 10 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
B746 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
B747 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
B749 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
B751 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
B752 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
B769 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
B778 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 0 |
B780 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
B793 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
B794 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
B795 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
B796 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
B797 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
C Roads | 11 | 10 | 7 | 12 |
Unclassified | 98 | 85 | 90 | 87 |
Total | 473 | 403 | 409 | 396 |
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 July 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 3 August 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive in how many fatal and serious road accidents were heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) involved in (a) total and (b) the South of Scotland parliamentary region, in each year from 1999.
Answer
The following table gives thenumbers of fatal and serious injury road accidents involving heavy goods vehiclesin (a) Scotland and (b) the South of Scotland Scottish Parliament regionin each of the years from 1999 to 2005. Some accidents involved more than one heavygoods vehicle.
Fatal and Serious Injury Road AccidentsInvolving Heavy Goods Vehicles
| Scotland | South of Scotland Scottish Parliament Region |
1999 | 223 | 55 |
2000 | 221 | 51 |
2001 | 253 | 48 |
2002 | 213 | 53 |
2003 | 225 | 41 |
2004 | 180 | 49 |
2005 | 175 | 36 |
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 July 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 3 August 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-14076 by Nicol Stephen on 22 March 2005, in how many fatal and serious road accidents were (a) exceeding the speed limit and (b) travelling too fast for the conditions contributory factors, from January 2005.
Answer
Data about injury road accidentsare collected by the police and reported to the Scottish Executive using the Stats19 statistical report form.
Statistical information aboutthe factors which may have contributed to the occurrence of an injury road accidentis only available if it occurred since the start of 2005, when the Stats 19 specificationwas expanded to include such information. The following table gives the statisticswhich are now available. It must be emphasised that the contributory factors shown in the Stats 19 returnsreflect the reporting officer’s opinion atthe time of making the report, and are not necessarily the result of extensive investigation:subsequent enquiries could lead to a change in the opinion of the reporting officer.The Stats 19 contributory factors are largely subjective, and depend upon the skilland experience of the reporting officer in reconstructing the events which led directlyto the accident, based upon the information available at the time of making thereport.
Fatal and Serious Road Accidentsin 2005 for which One or Both of the Specified Contributory Factors were Recorded
Contributory Factor | Fatal and Serious Accidents in 2005 (Provisional) |
Exceeding speed limit | 144 |
Travelling too fast for conditions | 289 |
One or both of these factors | 409 |
Three points should be noted.First, the results from the first year of the collection of new statistical information like this could be subject to “teethingtroubles”. Second, the total is less than the sum of the figures for the two factorsbecause there were some accidents for which both factors were reported. Finally,these figures are “provisional” because the data for 2005 have not yet been finalised- for example, contributory factors have not been supplied for about 5% of the injuryroad accidents which were reported for 2005. It is hoped to obtain these detailsbefore the final figures for 2005 are produced. There may, however, be some accidentsfor which the reporting officers cannot identify any contributory factors.
Analyses of the final contributoryfactor data for 2005 will be included in Road Accidents Scotland 2005, which isscheduled to be published in November 2006.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 July 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Hugh Henry on 2 August 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it agreed with and supported the Scottish Children's Reporter Administration (SCRA) view that it should not issue the Q4 Youth Justice Report prepared by SCRA in April 2006.
Answer
The first run of the 2005-06data (including data on the final quarter of 2005-06) was undertaken by the ScottishChildren’s Reporter Administration on 1 and 2 June 2006in accordance with agreed reporting timelines.
This reflects the processadopted in respect of 2004-05 data, where priority was given to providing thefull set of data rather than one quarter only.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 10 July 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 2 August 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how it defines a “good parent”.
Answer
The Scottish Executive’s visionis that children and young people should be safe, healthy, nurtured, achieving,included, active and respected and responsible to achieve the best outcomes inlife. The role of parents in achieving these positive outcomes for children isfundamental and the Scottish Executiveaims to support parents in achieving this goal through a range of policies andprogrammes.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 10 July 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 2 August 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what figures it holds on the number of children who have died as the result of “bad parenting”.
Answer
This information is notcollected or held centrally by the Scottish Executive.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 10 July 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 2 August 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many children referred to the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration on grounds of “lack of parental care” in each year since 2001 came from the top 10 most economically inactive communities, expressed (a) in real terms and (b) as a percentage of the total number of referrals for “lack of parental care”.
Answer
This information is not held centrally by the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA). The figuresprovided below by SCRA represent the children who were referred to the Children’sReporter under section 52(2)(c) of the Children’s (Scotland) Act1995 because they were “likely (i) to suffer unnecessarily, or (ii) to be impairedseriously in [their] health or development, due to a lack of parental care.” Itis only possible to provide this breakdown for 2003-04 and 2004-05 since the introductionof the SCRA Referral Administration Database (RAD).
There is no standard definitionof what is meant by an “economically inactive community”. The Annual Scottish LabourForce Survey (now know as the Annual Population Survey) is the main source for providingup-to-date information on economic inactivity (people who are not in employmentbut do not satisfy all the criteria for unemployment - this group comprises (1)those who want a job but who have not been seeking work in the last four weeks (2)those who want a job and are seeking work but are not available to start and (3)those who do not want a job).
Results from the Annual LabourForce Survey are available by a range of geographical areas (subject to the reliabilityof the results together with maintaining the confidentiality of individuals). SCRAdata is only reliably available at local authority area. Therefore, the followingtable shows data at local authority level. The top 10 most economically inactivelocal authorities are highlighted in bold in the following table. The percentageof children from those 10 areas referred to the Children’s Reporter under section52(2)(c), represented as a percentage of the total number referred under section52(2)(c), was 37.6% in 2003-04 and 32.1% in 2004-05.
Table: Children Referred to theReporter and Economic Inactivity Rates by Local Authority Area in 2003-04 and 2004-05.
Local Authority | 2003-04 | 2004-05 |
| Children Referred (1a) | Economic Inactivity Rates (Per Cent) (2a) | Children Referred (1b) | Economic Inactivity Rates (Per Cent) (2b) |
Aberdeenshire | 330 | 17.1 | 452 | 16.2 |
Angus | 132 | 21.2 | 121 | 19.5 |
Argyll and Bute | 252 | 19.8 | 345 | 19.1 |
City of Aberdeen | 646 | 20.3 | 1005 | 17.8 |
Clackmannanshire | 314 | 23.1 | 510 | 22.9 |
Dumfries and Galloway | 783 | 18.6 | 830 | 18.3 |
Dundee | 618 | 24.3 | 383 | 24.2 |
East Ayrshire | 158 | 24.0 | 199 | 24.4 |
East Dunbartonshire | 67 | 18.4 | 114 | 16.9 |
East Lothian | 371 | 21.4 | 325 | 18.5 |
East Renfrewshire | 154 | 17.7 | 74 | 16.6 |
Edinburgh | 2376 | 20.6 | 2507 | 19.7 |
Falkirk | 661 | 21.0 | 718 | 19.6 |
Fife | 615 | 20.3 | 765 | 18.7 |
Glasgow | 2047 | 30.1 | 1629 | 29.7 |
Highland | 854 | 15.5 | 947 | 14.4 |
Inverclyde | 442 | 27.0 | 531 | 24.5 |
Midlothian | 534 | 19.7 | 501 | 15.9 |
Moray | 288 | 16.9 | 280 | 20.1 |
North Ayrshire | 503 | 26.6 | 328 | 23.7 |
North Lanarkshire | 551 | 26.5 | 440 | 24.8 |
Orkney | 40 | 14.9 | 28 | 15.0 |
Perth and Kinross | 213 | 19.8 | 210 | 18.8 |
Renfrewshire | 644 | 21.9 | 493 | 21.7 |
Shetland | 48 | 13.2 | 57 | 13.6 |
South Ayrshire | 58 | 21.1 | 98 | 20.6 |
South Lanarkshire | 279 | 21.8 | 334 | 20.9 |
Stirling | 514 | 20.7 | 520 | 19.0 |
Scottish Borders | 418 | 17.2 | 469 | 17.9 |
West Dunbartonshire | 561 | 25.2 | 567 | 23.9 |
Western Isles | 93 | 15.0 | 115 | 18.9 |
West Lothian | 704 | 20.0 | 923 | 18.1 |
Total* | 16,268 | | 16,818 | |
Notes:
(1a) (1b) Source:SCRA Referrals Administration Database (RAD).
(2a) (2b) Source:Annual Scottish Labour Force Survey 2004-05.
*A child maybe referred in more than one local authority in the year. The total number of childrenreferred for Scotland is a count of each child once, and does not therefore reflectthe sum of the local authorities.