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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: S3W-00994

Asked by: Karen Whitefield, MSP for Airdrie and Shotts, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 June 2007
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 20 June 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the provision of 24/7 orthopaedic services is essential to accident and emergency services.

Question reference: S2O-11711

Asked by: Karen Whitefield, MSP for Airdrie and Shotts, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 January 2007
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 18 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to ensure that there is disabled access at all railway stations.

Question reference: S2W-29881

Asked by: Karen Whitefield, MSP for Airdrie and Shotts, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 15 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps are being taken to help people who are currently waiting for central heating systems and Warm Deal measures.

To address the continuing highdemand for the Executive’s successful central heating and Warm Deal Programmes weare allocating an additional £5 million, between now and the end of this financialyear to help an additional 5,000 householders who are currently waiting for centralheating installations and Warm Deal measures. This will enable even more peopleto benefit from these programmes which have made a considerable difference in thelives of thousands.

Question reference: S2W-29619

Asked by: Karen Whitefield, MSP for Airdrie and Shotts, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Johann Lamont on 7 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has decided what action it will take to address the issue of trustee remuneration and the provision of trustee indemnity insurance under the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005.

Following consideration of theissue, it is clear that the restrictions the 2005 act places on the provision oftrustee indemnity insurance are the cause of considerable concern within the charitysector. The issue of the provision of trustee indemnity insurance was not raisedduring the development or passage of the bill, and the difficulties arising fromthe restrictions on its provision were therefore unintended.

We have decided that we willtake action to address the problem and remove these restrictions on the provisionof indemnity insurance through amendment to the provisions in the Charity and TrusteeInvestment (Scotland) Act 2005. There are no suitable legislative vehiclesin the remainder of this parliamentary session to effect such an amendment and itis not possible at this point to commit to firm plans for legislation in advanceof the parliamentary election next year. However, we will work with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) and the charitable sector to determine theprecise nature of the legislative change that would be required, with a view todeveloping proposals which can form the basis of legislation to be brought forwardwhen a suitable opportunity arises.

Question reference: S2W-28664

Asked by: Karen Whitefield, MSP for Airdrie and Shotts, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 September 2006
Current Status: Answered by Johann Lamont on 26 October 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of Warm Deal insulation grants have been given to households with children in each year since the inception of the initiative and how many of these households were removed from fuel poverty as a result.

I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is asfollows:

Since 2001, the proportionof grants provided under the Warm Deal Programme to households with children, isas shown in the table below. This relates to work undertaken by EagaPartnership. The table also shows Warm Deal installations carried out by localauthorities in their own stock. However, no data is available regarding theproportion of households with children for the local authority installations.

Proportion of HouseholdsContaining Children

Year	Total Number of Warm Deal Installations by Eaga Partnership	Proportion of Households Containing Children	Total number of Warm Deal Installations by Local Authorities
2001-02	22,328	22%	18,549
2002-03	21,755	27%	8,237
2003-04	21,600	23%	5,920
2004-05	14,953	19.2%	4,060

Note: work undertaken byEaga Partnership was across all sectors of the housing stock. No data isavailable regarding the proportion of households with children, improved underthe local authority part of the programme.

Research has assessed theImpact on fuel poverty of the central heating programme, which includes warm dealmeasures, but not the impact of warm deal measures on their own. However, themost recent annual report on the central heating programme and warm deal showsthat over 2004-05 the warm deal achieved a predicted reduction in averageannual fuel bills ranging from £109 for tenants of private landlords to £19 fortenants of housing associations and £168 for local authority tenants. Thisfigure is not broken down by household composition.

The predicted reduction inhousing association properties reflects the fact that these properties tend tostart from a higher level of thermal efficiency due, for example, to thepresence of cavity wall or loft insulation. The potential gains are thereforemore modest than in other sectors.

Question reference: S2W-28663

Asked by: Karen Whitefield, MSP for Airdrie and Shotts, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 September 2006
Current Status: Answered by Johann Lamont on 24 October 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many central heating systems provided under its heating programmes have been installed in households with children in each year since the inception of the programmes and how many of these households were removed from fuel poverty as a result.

I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is asfollows:

Since 2001, the number ofhouseholds with children in local authority and housing association properties,which received central heating systems, is shown in the following table:

Year	Number of Central Heating Systems Installed in Households	Number of Households Containing Children
2001-02	4,948	822
2002-03	5,720	568
2003-04	6,588	1,275
2004-05	2,185	410

The programme in the privatesector is targeted at those over 60. There is no data available on the numberof households with children in the private sector who have benefited from theprogramme.

Research estimates that inthe first year of the central heating programme nearly nine out of 10 of thosewho were fuel poor when they entered the programme were lifted out of fuel povertyafter participating in it. In the second year of the programme this figure was72.5%. The figure is not broken down by household composition.

Question reference: S2W-28662

Asked by: Karen Whitefield, MSP for Airdrie and Shotts, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 September 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 24 October 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive by how much income levels for the lowest income groups have changed in each of the last five years.

Please refer to the tables inthe answer to question S2W-28661 on 24 October 2006,for estimates and levels of change in Scotland’s (equivalised net disposable household) income for thelowest groups over the last five years.All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facilityfor which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Question reference: S2W-28682

Asked by: Karen Whitefield, MSP for Airdrie and Shotts, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 September 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 24 October 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on the total amount spent by Scottish households on (a) gas and (b) electricity in the most recent year for which information is available.

Question reference: S2W-28661

Asked by: Karen Whitefield, MSP for Airdrie and Shotts, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 September 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 24 October 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive by how much average income levels in Scotland have changed in each of the last five years.

The following income estimatesare based on the Family Resources Survey. As such, year-on-year changes should betreated with caution due to sampling variation. Identification of trends must bebased on data for several years. The Scottish Executive has funded a doubling of the Scottish sample since 2002-03; estimates from 2002-03 should be less prone tofluctuation than those for earlier years.

Table:Median Equivalised Net Disposable Household Income in Scotland, byQuintile, 2000-01 to 2004-05 (£ Per Week)

	Quintile 1		Quintile 2		Quintile 3 (Scotland’s Overall Median)
	Before Housing Costs	After Housing Costs	Before Housing Costs	After Housing Costs	Before Housing Costs	After Housing Costs
2000-01	160	121	231	188	310	266
2001-02	171	131	247	202	326	280
2002-03	167	131	248	208	331	291
2003-04	177	136	266	225	346	310
2004-05	181	139	268	231	349	313

	Quintile 4		Quintile 5
	Before Housing Costs	After Housing Costs	Before Housing Costs	After Housing Costs
2000-01	406	357	609	539
2001-02	426	377	660	581
2002-03	430	382	629	573
2003-04	445	403	639	592
2004-05	451	415	646	602

Source: Households Below AverageIncome, DWP.

Table: Percentage Year-On-YearChange in Median Equivalised Net Disposable Household Income in Scotland, byQuintile (% Change)

	Quintile 1		Quintile 2		Quintile 31
	Before Housing Costs	After Housing Costs	Before Housing Costs	After Housing Costs	Before Housing Costs	After Housing Costs
2000-01 to 2001-02	7	8	7	8	5	5
2001-02 to 2002-03	-2	0	1	3	2	4
2002-03 to 2003-04	6	4	7	8	4	7
2003-04 to 2004-05	3	2	1	3	1	1

Source: Households Below AverageIncome, DWP.

Table: Monetary Change in MedianEquivalised Net Disposable Household Income in Scotland, by Quintile (£ PerWeek)

	Quintile 1		Quintile 2		Quintile 3
	Before Housing Costs	After Housing Costs	Before Housing Costs	After Housing Costs	Before Housing Costs	After Housing Costs
2000-01 to 2001-02	11	10	16	14	16	14
2001-02 to 2002-03	-4	0	1	6	5	10
2002-03 to 2003-04	9	5	18	17	14	19
2003-04 to 2004-05	5	3	2	6	3	4

	Quintile 4		Quintile 5
	Before Housing Costs	After Housing Costs	Before Housing Costs	After Housing Costs
2000-01 to 2001-02	20	20	52	41
2001-02 to 2002-03	4	5	-32	-8
2002-03 to 2003-04	15	21	11	19
2003-04 to 2004-05	6	12	6	10

Source: Households Below AverageIncome, DWP.

Notes:

1. Scotland’s overall median.

Quintile 1 is the lowest incomegroup, quintile 5 is the highest.

“Equivalised” income is usedto allow comparisons of living standards between different household types.

Net disposable household income:Total income from all sources (including Tax Credits) after deductions for incometax, National Insurance contributions, council tax, pension contributions and maintenancepayments.

Housing costs: Rent/mortgagepayments, water charges, structural insurance premiums, ground rent and servicecharges.

Figures may not sum due to rounding.

Question reference: S2W-28660

Asked by: Karen Whitefield, MSP for Airdrie and Shotts, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 September 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 5 October 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on what proportion of homes are heated by (a) gas and (b) electricity.