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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: S1W-27841

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 July 2002
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 20 August 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive how much has been spent on publicising the Protection from Abuse (Scotland) Act 2001.

Question reference: S1W-27840

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 July 2002
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 20 August 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to increase public awareness of the Protection from Abuse (Scotland) Act 2001 and, if so, what form publicity to this end will take.

Question reference: S1W-26059

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 May 2002
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 20 August 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the reports prepared for HM Prisons Barlinnie and Peterhead as part of the estates review and submitted to the Scottish Prison Service at the same time as the report Constructing the Future was submitted will be placed in the Scottish Parliament's Information Centre, detailing the reasons behind its response on this matter.

Question reference: S1W-27456

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 July 2002
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 12 August 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive what the annual running costs have been, excluding capital costs, for (a) Lochmaddy, (b) Tain, (c) Dingwall, (d) Portree and (e) Peebles sheriff courts in (i) 1999-2000, (ii) 2000-01, (iii) 2001-02 and (iv) 2002 to date.

The Chief Executive of the Scottish Court Service (SCS) has provided information on the running and general maintenance costs for each court. This information is set out in the following table. It excludes capital expenditure and staff-related costs. Information on 2002-03 is not yet available.

Court	1999-2000			2000-01			2001-02
	Running Costs	Maint-enance	Total	Running Costs	Maint-enance	Total	RunningCosts	Maint-enance	Total
Lochmaddy	£50,100	£4,800	£54,900	£53,500	£6,300	£59,800	£48,300	£1,300	£49,600
Tain	£60,000	£36,800	£96,800	£59,300	£54,300	£113,600	£61,000	£8,700	£69,700
Dingwall	£66,900	£3,600	£70,500	£72,800	£2,500	£75,300	£63,400	£35,100	£98,500
Portree	£45,500	£16,000	£61,500	£44,800	£6,200	£51,000	£46,100	£1,000	£47,100
Peebles	£50,700	£1,500	£52,200	£53,100	£3,400	£56,500	£53,100	£1,800*	£54,900

*In addition, SCS spent £35,500 in respect of stabilisation work at Peebles.

Question reference: S1W-27382

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 July 2002
Current Status: Answered by Richard Simpson on 9 August 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive whether there are any problems arising from the Data Protection Acts with regard to providing papers to approved youth workers and criminal justice social workers in respect of young offenders referred to them by the diversion from prosecution programmes.

Question reference: S1W-26853

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 June 2002
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 8 August 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-26250 by Hugh Henry on 17 June 2002, whether there is an accelerated procedure for accessing the central heating installation programme in cases of emergency and, if so, how such a procedure is publicised and in what circumstances it can be accessed successfully.

To be eligible for the central heating programme in the private sector all applicants or their partner must be aged 60 or over. Applications to date show that a very large number are in their 70s. All applicants would naturally like central heating as quickly as possible. The programme generally delivers central heating on a first come first served basis to avoid having to determine the relative needs of thousands of applicants, but exceptional cases will be considered on an individual basis.

Question reference: S1W-27454

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 July 2002
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 6 August 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive how many summary complaints have been dealt with at (a) Lochmaddy, (b) Tain, (c) Dingwall, and (d) Portree sheriff courts, whether proceeding to trial or otherwise, in (i) 1999-2000, (ii) 2000-01, (iii) 2001-02 and (iv) 2002-03.

The information provided by the Scottish Court Service for the number of summary complaints dealt with at each of the courts requested is set out in the following table:Sheriff Court - Summary Criminal

	1990-2000	2000-01	2001-02	April-June2002
Summary Complaints Registered
Lochmaddy	89	99	87	17
Tain	557	497	618	157
Dingwall	513	435	471	129
Portree	50	90	77	18
Summary Complaints Concluded
Lochmaddy	98	90	84	15
Tain	542	485	585	151
Dingwall	441	464	462	113
Portree	58	73	83	18
Summary Trials Evidence Led
Lochmaddy	4	4	8	5
Tain	41	31	26	7
Dingwall	27	17	28	12
Portree	7	8	6	2

Question reference: S1W-27459

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 July 2002
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 6 August 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive what the projected population is of the Peebles area for each of the next 10 years and whether such projections were taken into account when considering renovation or new build of the Peebles courthouse.

Population projections for areas smaller than council areas are not available. The latest, 2000 based, population projections up to the year 2016 for council areas within Scotland is published by the Registrar General in Table 1 of the booklet Population Projections, Scotland (2000 based). A copy of the booklet is available in the Parliament's Information Centre. This publication predicts a consistently decreasing population size for the Borders after 2003.Information on population trends was considered by the Scottish Court Service when examining the case for renovating Peebles Courthouse, but it was concluded did not materially affect the viability of Peebles Sheriff Courthouse.

Question reference: S1W-27455

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 July 2002
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 6 August 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive how many civil cases have been initiated at (a) Lochmaddy, (b) Tain, (c) Dingwall, (d) Portree and (e) Peebles sheriff courts in (i) 1999-2000, (ii) 2000-01, (iii) 2001-02 and (iv) 2002-03, broken down by type of case.

The information provided by the Chief Executive of the Scottish Court Service for each of the courts is set out in the following table:Sheriff Court Civil

	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	April-June2002
Ordinary Actions
Lochmaddy	37	43	30	6
Tain	119	150	148	36
Dingwall	243	229	214	51
Portree	89	86	70	19
Peebles	115	118	111	34
Summary Cause
Lochmaddy	10	14	11	2
Tain	175	188	126	8
Dingwall	109	99	119	22
Portree	45	39	43	3
Peebles	58	109	84	18
Small Claims
Lochmadday	47	23	26	1
Tain	283	148	120	17
Dingwall	258	171	163	30
Portree	100	59	45	14
Peebles	109	93	86	23
Total
Lochmaddy	94	80	67	9
Tain	577	486	394	61
Dingwall	610	499	496	103
Portree	234	184	158	36
Peebles	282	320	281	75

Question reference: S1W-27457

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 July 2002
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 6 August 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive how much has been spent on the refurbishment of Jedburgh Sheriff Court in each of the last five years.

I have been advised by the Chief Executive of the Scottish Court Service that it is not possible to provide a separate figure for refurbishment since some of the general maintenance expenditure on the court can include an element of refurbishment. The total spent on the maintenance and refurbishment of Jedburgh Sheriff Court in each of the last five years is set out in the following table. The expenditure in 2001-02 included a general redecoration of the court and provision of a new fire detection system.

Jedburgh Sheriff CourtMaintenance and Refurbishment Expenditure	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02
	£3,800	£28,700	£18,739	£14,600	£161,985