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Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S2W-02641

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 September 2003
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 1 October 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will consider funding an application from the Waverley Route Trust in respect of its proposed research project on modification of the current railway specification to accommodate the movement of charter and freight trains and of express services taking under 50 minutes from Tweedbank to Edinburgh and a specialist technical, operational and business case study of the potential application of innovative approaches to the Borders railway.

Question reference: S2W-02637

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 September 2003
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 1 October 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to the fourth supplementary question to question S2F-194 by the First Minister on 11 September 2003, what criteria will be applied to assess the business case for the Borders Railway.

Question reference: S2W-02638

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 September 2003
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 1 October 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to the fourth supplementary question to question S2F-194 by the First Minister on 11 September 2003, whether the Waverley railway partnership has been advised of the criteria to be applied to assess the business case for the Borders Railway.

Question reference: S2W-02729

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 September 2003
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 1 October 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive how many community wardens are proposed and what funding is being allocated for them, broken down by local authority area.

The information requested onindicative allocations is available in Annex 3, page 25 of Building strong,safe and attractive communities: guidance for submissions, published in 2003,copies of which are available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number28543). Local authorities have been asked to submit proposals that have been developedtogether with their community planning partners for how these resources will beused.

Question reference: S2W-02730

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 September 2003
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 1 October 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment will be made of the effectiveness of the community warden scheme.

Question reference: S2W-02725

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 September 2003
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 1 October 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-1576 by Ms Margaret Curran on 13 August 2003, who, in addition to the Scottish Police Federation, responded to its plans for community wardens and whether it will place a copy of any such responses in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre.

Question reference: S2W-02521

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 September 2003
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 29 September 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive what publicity has been given to the Pass Plus scheme in each of the last five years.

The Pass Plus scheme has beendeveloped by the Driving Standards Agency (DSA), which chairs a board that promotesthe scheme throughout Great Britain.

The Pass Plus scheme providesa structured course of post-test training for newly-qualified drivers, and thosewho complete the course can benefit from discounted insurance rates from participatinginsurance companies. Pass Plus courses are provided by Approved Driving Instructors,registered by DSA, and the scheme is administered by the agency, with support fromthe motor insurance industry.

Publicity for the scheme is carriedout in a number of ways. The scheme is promoted in a DSA leaflet which is sent outwith the 800,000 provisional driving licences which are issued annually. The benefitsof the Pass Plus scheme are covered in DSA’s Arrive Alive Road Safety Programmefor young people. The scheme is promoted in DSA’s Drive On magazine, a copyof which is handed to successful driving test candidates by their examiner. Thereis also a dedicated Pass Plus website, and local Road Safety Officers are encouragedto promote the scheme. Some of the insurance companies involved in the scheme havetaken their own steps to promote the benefits of Pass Plus.

The table gives the number ofdrivers completing the course in Great Britain in each of the last five years.

1998-99	19,685
1999-2000	25,920
2000-01	40,668
2001-02	56,203
2002-03	70,084

Question reference: S2W-02522

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 September 2003
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 29 September 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has under its road safety responsibilities on the number of new car drivers in the 17 to 20 age range there have been in each of the last five years.

The table gives the numberof full driving licences that commenced between 1997 and the end of May 2002where the driver was aged between 17 and 20 years old and resided in Scotland.

Age when Licence Commenced	Commencement of Licence
1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002 (to 31 May)	Total
17	17,165	12,305	9,533	9,385	9,153	3,631	61,172
18	7,002	5,859	7,432	8,801	8,232	2,817	40,143
19	3,074	2,741	3,425	5,350	5,825	2,184	22,599
20	2,283	1,805	2,212	3,301	3,857	1,418	14,876
Total	29,524	22,710	22,602	26,837	27,067	10,050	138,790

Question reference: S2W-02651

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 September 2003
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 29 September 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive who reviews the positioning of fixed speed cameras and how often such reviews take place.

Question reference: S2W-02520

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 September 2003
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 29 September 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive what publicity has been given to the Arrive Alive Scheme in each of the last five years.

The Arrive Alive Road SafetyProgramme was launched in 1997 by the Driving Standards Agency (DSA). The programmeinvolves driving examiners visiting schools and colleges, and other organisationsconnected with the 16- to 19-year age group, and delivering road safety information.Every member of the audience at a presentation is issued with an information bookletabout the programme, and comprehensive folders are sent to any organisation thatexpresses an interest in hosting a presentation. There is a dedicated Arrive Alivewebsite and the DSA also regularly issues press releases about the programme andplaces articles in its Despatch magazine for the driver training industryand others with an interest in road safety.

In the last five years, the numberof presentations throughout Great Britain has increased substantially as shown in the table.

1998-99	300
1999-2000	880
2000-01	1,709
2001-02	2,726
2002-03	4,253
2003-04 (planned)	6,000