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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-20739

Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 25 November 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many police officers with a disability, as defined in the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, have been employed in each police force in each of the last 10 years and what percentage of the force strength this represents.

Question reference: S2W-20743

Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 25 November 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive whether any police force has been required to pay compensation under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.

Question reference: S2W-20741

Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 25 November 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on how many cases of discrimination against police forces under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 have been presented to industrial tribunals in each year since the Act came into force.

Question reference: S2W-20636

Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 23 November 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking within its responsibilities to make motorcycling safer.

The Scottish Executive is concerned about the number of motorcyclists injured in road accidents in Scotland and is committed to reducing casualties. Measures to improve motorcyclist safety involve a combination of engineering, enforcement and education.

Research on Motorcycle Accidents and Casualties in Scotland 1992-2002, published by the Executive in 2004, found that between 1996 and 2002 the number of motorcyclists killed or seriously injured on Scotland’s roads increased at an average rate of nearly 9% per year. It also found that the majority of fatal and serious accidents occurred on higher speed single carriageway rural roads. Copies of the research are available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 34279).

Motorcyclist deaths and serious injuries in 2003 were 8% lower than in 2002, and provisional figures for 2004 show a further 8% reduction compared with 2003.

The Executive has commissioned further research into risk taking behaviour and attitudes amongst motorcyclists. The objective is to inform action by Road Safety Scotland aimed at reducing motorcyclist casualties.

The Executive is aware of concerns raised about motorcycling accidents on the A82, A84 and A85 trunk roads and is trialling non standard signs warning of unmarked police motorcycle patrols in conjunction with speed enforcement action by the police.

The Executive also commissioned the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) to undertake an investigation, which involved an experienced motorcyclist riding and videoing sections of these routes, to identify specific motorcycling hazards. TRL’s report was completed in June 2005 and the Scottish Executive’s Accident Investigation and Prevention Unit is currently reviewing the findings and recommendations and how they can be applied on the trunk road network.

Question reference: S2W-20638

Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 23 November 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what funding it has allocated, or will allocate, to the Bikesafe initiative.

Question reference: S2W-20639

Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 23 November 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of road traffic accidents resulting in injury or death involved motorcyclists in each year since 1999.

Data about injury road accidents are collected by the police and reported to the Scottish Executive using the “STATS 19” statistical report form.

The following table gives the percentage of injury road accidents which were identified in the “STATS 19” returns, resulting in injury or death, involving motorcyclists in each year since 1999. The figure for 2004 is provisional.

Year	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
%	6.5	7.4	7.9	8.1	8.0	7.2

Question reference: S2W-20314

Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 17 November 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-19552 by Lewis Macdonald on 27 October 2005, whether the approved countries and the countries designated BSE-free are obliged to have controls to ensure that cattle feed used in those countries is free from Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease prions.

Question reference: S2W-20312

Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 16 November 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-19552 by Lewis Macdonald on 27 October 2005, which countries are designated BSE-free.

The Food Standards Agency advises me that the following countries are designated exempt from the requirements of the TSE Regulation (EC/999/2001): Australia, Argentina, Botswana, Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, Iceland, Namibia, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Singapore, Swaziland, Uruguay and Vanuatu.

This list is subject to change as the risk assessments of further countries are completed or circumstances change within countries already assessed.

Question reference: S2W-20313

Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 16 November 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-19552 by Lewis Macdonald on 27 October 2005, which countries are approved for the purpose of importing meat.

The Food Standards Agency advises me that lists of establishments in non-EU countries currently approved to supply animal products to the EU, are available on the Commission website listed by country and listed by animal product.

Country: http://forum.europa.eu.int/irc/sanco/vets/info/data/listes/list_all.html

Animal Product: http://forum.europa.eu.int/irc/sanco/vets/info/data/listes/list_prod.html.

Question reference: S2W-20315

Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 16 November 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-19552 by Lewis Macdonald on 27 November 2005, what controls are in place to ensure that meat imported from outwith the European Union is subject to the feed ban that prohibits the feeding of processed animal protein to livestock kept for the production of food.

The Food Standards Agency advises me that currently there is no requirement for countries outwith the EU to have a permanent feed ban in place prohibiting the feeding of processed animal protein to livestock kept for the production of food. The Commission requirement for all meat imports to be accompanied by health certification attesting that a feeding ban of mammalian protein is in place and effectively enforced will come into force by 1 July 2007.

Currently, meat imported into the EU must be accompanied by a health certificate declaring that the product is free from Specified Risk Material (SRM) and mechanically recovered meat and that the method of slaughter used prevents contamination from SRM. The removal of SRM is the primary health safeguard and removes over 99% of infectivity. Imports of meat from designated low-risk BSE countries are exempt from this requirement.