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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-03334

Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 October 2003
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 14 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-2237 by Malcolm Chisholm on 24 September 2003, on what total number of employees in each NHS board the National Insurance contribution figures are based.

The number of employees ineach NHS board area that the National Insurance contribution figures quoted inMr Chisholm’s answer to question S2W-2237 were based on is shown in thefollowing table:

Average Whole Time Equivalent Staff Numbers per NHS Board Area
	1998-99	1999-00	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03
Board Area	No.	No.	No.	No.	No.
Argyll and Clyde	8,312	8,361	8,580	8,865	9,231
Ayrshire and Arran	6,755	6,838	7,031	7,238	7,527
Borders	2,137	2,217	2,209	2,225	2,258
Dumfries and Galloway	3,180	3,286	3,346	3,376	3,329
Fife	5,316	5,658	5,625	5,934	6,237
Forth Valley	5,397	5,407	5,362	5,343	5,324
Grampian	8,772	10,058	10,334	10,564	10,774
Greater Glasgow	22,208	21,950	21,860	22,240	23,297
Highland	5,619	4,413	4,435	4,571	4,839
Lanarkshire	8,689	8,657	8,558	8,823	9,202
Lothian	15,222	15,605	15,941	16,452	16,850
Orkney	384	367	361	377	396
Shetland	362	362	366	392	421
Tayside	10,336	10,350	10,073	10,138	10,432
Western Isles	686	710	714	719	766
Total	103,373	104,240	104,794	107,256	110,882

Notes:

The figures represent theaverage number of whole time equivalent staff employed in each NHS board areaper year.

The figures are taken fromthe published annual accounts of NHS trusts and NHS boards for each respectivefinancial year.

The figures are disclosed asaverage whole time equivalent number of employees in the annual accounts ofeach NHS trust and board. The average whole time equivalent number of employeeswill be less than the total number of staff employed due to staff employed ondifferent working patterns.

Question reference: S2W-02997

Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 September 2003
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 14 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will provide a substantive answer to question S2W-2042 lodged on 13 August 2003.

Question reference: S2W-03066

Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 October 2003
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 14 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive what information or indicators it or other publicly-funded organisations publish on the quality of, and expenditure on, local authority maintained roads.

“Scottish Local Government Finance Statistics”, published by the Scottish Executive, contains important information about local authority roads performance. This publication is available at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bulletins/00283-00.asp.

The Chartered Institute of Public Finance Accountants also publish data, in its “Rating Review”, for example, this year in “Actuals of Income and Expenditure 2001-02” (Bib. number 26652) and “Estimates of Income and Expenditure 2003-04”(Bib. number 29256).

AuditScotland publishes a report which compares council's performance, including three statutory performance indicators which local authorities must publish each year:

The percentage of road network that should be considered for maintenance treatment.

The percentage of traffic light repairs completed within 48 hours.

The percentage of street light repairs completed within seven days.

Where a council operates a direct labour organisation to manage roads, it must prepare an annual report on its financial performance.

Question reference: S2W-03722

Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 October 2003
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 12 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to introduce free hearing tests for all, in light of the decision to introduce free eye and dental checks for all.

Question reference: S2W-03723

Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 October 2003
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 12 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive what the annual cost is to the NHS of administering hearing checks.

Question reference: S2W-03692

Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 October 2003
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 11 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive how many civil service jobs there were in (a) the Scottish Executive, (b) Executive agencies and (c) non-departmental public bodies in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area.

The full-time equivalentnumber of permanent staff employed in each year since 1999 in the core departmentsof the Scottish Executive is provided in Table A. Information on this basis isnot held routinely at the centre for agencies and associated departments butTable B provides the information held by the Scottish Executive for agenciesand associated departments for April 2000 and September 2003. Where availablethe figures are broken down by local authority area. The Scottish Executive does not hold data on non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs).

Table A: Civil Servants (Full-TimeEquivalents) in the Scottish Executive Core, by Local Authority Area.

Local Authority	Year
Local Authority	1999 Oct	2000 April	2000 Sept	2001 Sept	2002 Sept	2003 Sept
Scotland	3,417.3	3,925.3	3,934.2	3,949.1	4,110.6	4,260.6
Aberdeen City	-	14.5	28.4	1.0	-	-
Aberdeenshire	69.9	67.6	68.8	76.1	71.6	74.3
Angus	2.5	2.5	2.5	2.8	2.8	2.8
Argyll and Bute	22.5	24.5	22.5	27.5	26.5	25.5
City of Edinburgh	2,742.9	3,033.9	3,013.5	3,052.6	3,211.1	3,349.6
Clackmannanshire	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0
Dumfries and Galloway	33.0	33.0	34.0	32.0	36.2	36.2
Dundee City	36.0	49.4	48.4	41.0	36.0	36.0
Eeast Lothian	10.8	11.9	11.0	11.0	9.8	11.9
Eilean Siar	19.9	18.5	21.5	19.0	21.4	20.4
Glasgow City	211.9	366.2	386.0	381.7	385.4	399.6
Highland	64.8	74.9	84.5	80.5	80.0	72.3
Moray	6.0	6.0	6.0	8.5	10.5	9.5
Orkney	16.0	15.0	15.0	16.0	14.0	13.5
Perth and Kinross	40.0	36.0	40.0	38.8	42.8	43.8
Scottish Borders	38.0	40.5	41.5	41.0	40.5	45.0
Shetland	8.0	10.0	13.0	13.0	14.0	14.0
South Ayrshire	55.6	52.4	54.6	58.6	59.2	62.2
South Lanarkshire	21.9	23.5	22.0	23.0	25.4	25.0
Stirling	16.6	16.0	20.0	24.0	22.4	18.0
Outside Scotland	36.0	28.0	16.0	14.0	7.0	8.0

Table B: Civil Servants (Full-TimeEquivalents) in the Agencies and Associated Departments within the Scottish Executive Administration

Local Authority	Year
Local Authority	1999 April	2000 April	2001 April	2002 April	2003 April	2003 Sept*
Scotland	9,766.4	9,634.4	9,735.4	10,087.9	10,621.0	11,061.3
Aberdeen City	Not Available	473.9	Not Available			572.0
Aberdeenshire		305.5				277.1
Angus		101.6				93.0
Argyll and Bute		29.2				38.1
City of Edinburgh		3,466.1				4,161.0
Clackmannanshire		474.5				416.2
Dumfries and Galloway		221.4				222.9
Dundee City		67.3				117.3
East Ayrshire		59.7				67.4
East Dunbartonshire		154.0				175.8
East Lothian		23.8				22.7
Eilean Siar		13.6				16.6
Falkirk		414.5				558.8
Fife		109.1				112.9
Glasgow City		1,177.4				1,414.1
Highland		236.1				284.7
Inverclyde		271.2				321.9
Midlothian		-				0.4
Moray		32.2				28.7
North Ayrshire		-				1.0
North Lanarkshire		614.3				479.0
Orkney		37.6				29.3
Perth and Kinross		572.3				589.4
Renfrewshire		79.6				131.7
Scottish Borders		30.2				242.5
Shetland		14.9				14.3
South Ayrshire		45.0				50.6
South Lanarkshire		201.3				163.0
Stirling		303.1				351.5
West Dunbartonshire		40.9				50.2
West Lothian		63.1				57.0
Outside Scotland		1.0				-

Notes:

*Includes figures forCommunities Scotland.

Question reference: S2W-03443

Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 October 2003
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 11 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it, or any of its agencies, provided any financial support in connection with the bid for the new Inverness to Birmingham air route; what funding it will make available for the next three years; how much funding has been provided to date, broken down by individual payments; to whom such payments have been made, and what funding was provided prior to the awarding of the route in order to secure it.

Support was provided for theInverness to Birmingham service by Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd and the Interim RouteDevelopment Fund (IRDF), the details of which are commercially confidential.Investment from the IRDF goes to the airport operator to enhance the discountsit offers on landing charges for new direct air services, and no payments weremade prior to the commencement of this service.

Separately from the IRDF, Inverness andNairn Enterprise is providing assistance towards the training of pilots basedin the Highlands and Islands.

Question reference: S2W-03065

Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 October 2003
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 11 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has received the final report of the Scottish Road Maintenance Condition Survey, carried out by the Society of Chief Officers of Transportation in Scotland on behalf of COSLA, and, if so, whether it will make it available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre.

Question reference: S2W-02042

Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 August 2003
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 10 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-1477 by Nicol Stephan on 7 August 2003, what the detailed breakdown was of the #39 million construction cost of the Skye Bridge, including construction, fees, building of approach roads, and interest payments to the private financiers of the project and whether these costs were funded directly through public spending or through revenue from tolls.

Question reference: S2W-03241

Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 October 2003
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 4 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it, or any other publicly-funded body, provides funding to local authorities for improving access or facilities at schools for disabled pupils.

The Scottish Executive provides funding directly to local authorities in this area. It is providing £9 million in 2003-04 to support localauthorities to prepare and implement accessibility strategies under theEducation (Disability Strategies and Pupils’ Educational Records) (Scotland)Act 2002. Accessibility strategies plan to improve access, over time, to the curriculum,to the physical environment and to school information for pupils withdisabilities. Funding will increase to £17 million in 2004-05 and 2005-06.

Inclusionprogramme funding is also available to local authorities, which have beenallocated £20 million in 2003-04, £25 million in 2004-05 and £25 million in2005-06. This funding helps to support additional costs of including children withspecial educational needs, who may have disabilities, in mainstream schools.

This is in addition to thesubstantial general capital resources which authorities have at their disposalfor work on school buildings, including improvements to access and facilities,according to authorities’ priorities. These resources include the capitalallocations under which authorities spend in the region of £125 million a yearon school buildings, and the schools fund capital grant for improvements to theschool estate amounting to £36.7 million in the current financial year andrising to £76.7 million in 2004-05. The Scottish Executive has also announced financialsupport for authorities for school public private partnerships projects with acapital value of £2 billion which will contribute to the replacement andrefurbishment of schools across Scotland, including appropriate access requirements.