- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 July 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 14 August 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive when figures for 2005-06 on the number of referrals to the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration under section 52(2)(j) of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 will be published.
Answer
This is a matter for the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration.
- 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 Tom McCabe on 14 August 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what the cost to each local authority has been of administering housing benefit in each year since 1999.
Answer
The information requested iscontained in the following table:
Housing BenefitAdministration - Net Expenditure1
| Local Authority | 1999-2000 | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-042 | 2004-05 (2) |
| Scotland | 17,913 | 20,077 | 22,351 | 23,481 | 13,658 | 12,143 |
| Aberdeen City | 904 | 927 | 1,456 | 1,466 | 1,410 | 1,315 |
| Aberdeenshire | 321 | 545 | 895 | 973 | 896 | 950 |
| Angus | 350 | 352 | 509 | 565 | 396 | 464 |
| Argyll and Bute | 265 | 233 | 286 | 335 | 259 | 30 |
| Clackmannanshire | 155 | 146 | 4 | 140 | 102 | 111 |
| Dumfries and Galloway | 139 | 328 | 331 | 403 | 423 | 0 |
| Dundee City | 816 | 919 | 1,010 | 1,467 | 1,456 | 1,528 |
| East Ayrshire | 903 | 1,014 | 825 | 1,071 | 341 | 148 |
| East Dunbartonshire | 86 | 81 | 141 | 217 | 18 | -44 |
| East Lothian | 261 | 298 | 297 | 366 | 72 | 2 |
| East Renfrewshire | 270 | 232 | 236 | 261 | 138 | 211 |
| Edinburgh City | 5,030 | 5,943 | 4,779 | 4,012 | 3,529 | 3,407 |
| Eilean Siar | 63 | 75 | 119 | 137 | 92 | 139 |
| Falkirk | 401 | 393 | 692 | 733 | 456 | 573 |
| Fife | 872 | 1,128 | 1,062 | 1,446 | 808 | 1,279 |
| Glasgow City | 2,914 | 2,974 | 3,060 | 3,074 | -276 | -508 |
| Highland | 725 | 1,012 | 985 | 1,150 | 830 | 778 |
| Inverclyde | 154 | 136 | 265 | 262 | 171 | 66 |
| Midlothian | 293 | 271 | 576 | 591 | 136 | 213 |
| Moray | 117 | 151 | 227 | 265 | 189 | 245 |
| North Ayrshire | 208 | 256 | 514 | 544 | 277 | 52 |
| North Lanarkshire | 9 | -148 | -89 | 486 | -522 | -274 |
| Orkney Islands | 32 | 39 | 46 | 60 | 84 | 120 |
| Perth and Kinross | 216 | 252 | 317 | 241 | 102 | 129 |
| Renfrewshire | 753 | 709 | 968 | 837 | 561 | 110 |
| Scottish Borders | 180 | 237 | 264 | 205 | 84 | 191 |
| Shetland Islands | 133 | 121 | 102 | 114 | 76 | 62 |
| South Ayrshire | 128 | 48 | 641 | 559 | 202 | 217 |
| South Lanarkshire | 389 | 415 | 439 | 257 | 598 | 439 |
| Stirling | 441 | 463 | 503 | 235 | 110 | 128 |
| West Dunbartonshire | 275 | 236 | 226 | 364 | 201 | -21 |
| West Lothian | 110 | 291 | 665 | 645 | 439 | 83 |
Source: Asreported on the Local Financial Return LFR 9 for Housing.
Notes:
1. NetRevenue Expenditure to be financed by Grants,RSG, Council Tax and NDR.
2. Thesudden decrease in net expenditure from 2002-03 onwards is due to the abolitionof the specific grant for HB Administration. The grant transferred to an"other government grant" and so counts towards net expenditure. Thisitem is deducted from expenditure from 2003-04 onwards and leads to negativefigures for some councils.
- 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 Robert Brown on 9 August 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many meetings have ministers or their officials held with officials from the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) at which the SCRA’s annual report for 2005/06 was discussed since May 2006.
Answer
Scottish Executive officialshave held one meeting with the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration(SCRA) since May 2006 at which SCRA’s Annual Report 2005-06 was discussed.
Separately I have establisheda “task group” with representatives of SCRA, the Association of Chief PoliceOfficers in Scotland and the Association of Directors of Social Work. Inrespect of cases which otherwise might generate a referral to the reporter onnon offence grounds, the role of the group is to consider what appropriatealternatives might be available for the Police Service to adopt. Since May 2006the group has met twice.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 17 July 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Hugh Henry on 9 August 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what quantity of illegal drugs it estimates are brought into Scotland annually (a) via Scottish ports, (b) via Scottish airports and (c) across the border by car or train.
Answer
The Scottish Executive doesnot hold this information.
- 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 how many registered class A drug users there have been in Scotland in each year since the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.
Answer
There is no central registerof problem drug misusers in Scotland.
- 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 |
