Questions and answers

Question reference: S3W-07023

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 26 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 5 December 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) individuals, (b) families and (c) children it estimates are in the three lowest income deciles identified in The Government Economic Strategy.

Question reference: S3W-06603

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 3 December 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average journey times will be between Croy and Edinburgh Waverley in the event of the Glasgow to Edinburgh main line being electrified and what the comparable average journey times are at present.

The improvementsproposed for the main Edinburgh to Glasgow line are part of a managed programme of change, providing a moreefficient and greener rail network in Central Scotland,delivering faster journey times, increased capacity and more services. It istoo early in the design of the scheme to produce a detailed timetable. However,the target for Edinburgh to Glasgow journey times is a reduction from around 50 minutes to around 35minutes.

At present theaverage journey time between Croy and Edinburgh Waverley is 38.5 minutes.

Question reference: S3W-06604

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 3 December 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average journey times will be between Falkirk High and (a) Glasgow Queen Street and (b) Edinburgh Waverley in the event of the Glasgow to Edinburgh main line being electrified and what the comparable average journey times are at present.

The improvementsproposed for the main Edinburgh to Glasgow line are part of a managed programme of change, providing a moreefficient and greener rail network in Central Scotland,delivering faster journey times, increased capacity and more services. It istoo early in the design of the scheme to produce a detailed timetable. However,the target for Edinburgh to Glasgow journey times is a reduction from around 50 minutes to around 35minutes.

The averagejourney time between Falkirk High and Glasgow Queen Streetat present is 23.5 minutes.

The averagejourney time between Falkirk High and Edinburgh Waverley at present is 32.5minutes.

Question reference: S3W-06605

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 3 December 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average journey times will be between Polmont and (a) Glasgow Queen Street and (b) Edinburgh Waverley in the event of the Glasgow to Edinburgh main line being electrified and what the comparable average journey times are at present.

The improvementsproposed for the main Edinburgh to Glasgow line are part of a managed programme of change, providing a moreefficient and greener rail network in Central Scotland,delivering faster journey times, increased capacity and more services. It istoo early in the design of the scheme to produce a detailed timetable. However,the target for Edinburgh to Glasgow journey times is a reduction from around 50 minutes to around 35minutes.

The averagejourney time between Polmont and Glasgow Queen Streetat present is 28 minutes.

The averagejourney time between Polmont and Edinburgh Waverley at present is 30.5 minutes.

Question reference: S3W-06407

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 3 December 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what gross domestic product per capita was in (a) 1950, (b) 1960, (c) 1970, (d) 1980, (e) 1990, (f) 2000 and (g) the most recent year for which figures are available and what comparative information it has for (i) each EU member state and (ii) each OECD nation.

Gross Domestic Product(GDP) per capita data are available for Scotland from 1989 onwards. Table 1 presents Scottish GDP per capita data for1990, 2000, and 2005, which is the most recent year. Table 2 presentscomparative information for the EU member states for 2005. Information onearlier years is available from the Eurostat web site at the following link:http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page?_pageid=1090,30070682,1090_33076576&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

Data on the OECDcountries are available from the OECD web site:

http://stats.oecd.org/wbos/default.aspx?datasetcode=SNA_TABLE1

Table 1: GVA perhead, Scotland and UK,£, current prices

Scotland	1990	2000	2005
Scotland	£8,507	£13,256	£16,944

Source:ONS.

Notes:GVA is equalto GDP at basic prices.

Table 2: GDP percapita, measured in Purchasing Power Standards (PPS), 2005

Ranking	Economy	PPS
1	Luxembourg	58,800
2	Ireland	32,200
3	Netherlands	29,500
4	Austria	28,700
5	Denmark	28,200
6	Belgium	27,500
7	United Kingdom	26,700
8	Sweden	26,600
9	Germany	25,600
10	Finland	25,600
11	France	25,500
12	Italy	23,600
13	Spain	22,900
14	Cyprus	20,900
15	Greece	19,400
16	Slovenia	19,400
17	Czech Republic	17,200
18	Malta	17,000
19	Portugal	16,900
20	Hungary	14,500
21	Estonia	14,000
22	Slovakia	13,400
23	Lithuania	12,000
24	Poland	11,400
25	Latvia	11,200
26	Bulgaria	7,900
27	Romania	7,700

Source:Eurostat.

Notes:These estimates for GDP per capita are measured in Purchasing Power Standards(PPS). PPS is a statistical currency unit produced by Eurostat which takesaccount of the different cost of living between countries and adjusts GDP percapita accordingly.

Question reference: S3W-06606

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 3 December 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average journey times will be between Cumbernauld and Glasgow Queen Street in the event of the line to Cumbernauld being electrified and what the comparable average journey times are at present.

The improvementsproposed for the main Edinburgh to Glasgow line are part of a managed programme of change, providing a moreefficient and greener rail network in Central Scotland,delivering faster journey times, increased capacity and more services. It istoo early in the design of the scheme to produce a detailed timetable. However,the target for Edinburgh to Glasgow journey times is a reduction from around 50 minutes to around 35minutes.

The averagejourney time between Cumbernauld and Glasgow Queen Streetat present is 27 minutes.

Question reference: S3W-06712

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 3 December 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the annual passenger numbers were at (a) Croy, (b) Cumbernauld, (c) Greenfaulds, (d) Falkirk High and (e) Polmont railway stations in each of the last 25 years.

The ScottishExecutive do not hold the information requested.

ScottishMinisters became responsible for the ScotRail Franchise in November 2005. Passengercounts are carried out as part of the First ScotRail Franchise for trainplanning purposes. The passenger counts carried out in 2006 returned thefollowing figures for average usage of the stations.

Station	Weekday	Saturday	Sunday
Croy	3,585	3,031	990
Cumbernauld	873	797	135
Greenfaulds	357	352	77
Polmont	1,985	1,855	821
Falkirk High	2,728	3,065	1,394

Question reference: S3W-06408

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 29 November 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what gross domestic product was in (a) 1975, (b) 1985, (c) 1995 and (d) 2005 and what comparative information it has for each other country listed in figure B2 of The Government Economic Strategy.

Gross DomesticProduct (GDP) data for Scotland and the UK,are presented in table 1. GDP data for the other countries listed in figure B2of the Government Economic Strategy (GES) are shown in table 2.

Table 1: GDP²for Scotland and UK,£, Millions, Current Prices

	1975	1985	1995	2005
Scotland	n/a	£25,223 million¹	£55,498 million	£86,324 million
UK	£99,266 million	£320,463 million	£640,416 million	£1086,859 million

Source ONS

Notes: 1. Datafor Scotland in 1985 is Total GDP at Factor cost (£million,current prices), ONS; Rest of the data is total GVA at current basic prices (£million), ONS.

2. GVA is equalto GDP at basic prices.

Table 2: GDP for SelectedCountries, US $, Constant Prices, Constant PPPs, OECD Base Year, Millions

Country	1975	1985	1995	2005
Ireland	$30,847 million	$43,714 million	$69,000 million	$141,251 million
Iceland	$3,585 million	$5,447 million	$6,452 million	$10,079 million
Norway	$71,399 million	$104,969 million	$137,160 million	$183,292 million
Finland	$71,100 million	$94,335 million	$107,007 million	$153,110 million
Denmark	$84,705 million	$110,996 million	$133,654 million	$164,472 million

Source: OECD.

Question reference: S3W-06438

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 29 November 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people in (a) Central Scotland parliamentary region, (b) each parliamentary constituency in Central Scotland parliamentary region, (c) Lanarkshire NHS board area and (d) Forth Valley NHS board area will benefit from the proposal to scrap prescription charges, as outlined in the Scottish Budget Spending Review 2007.

This information isnot held centrally.

The Scottish Governmentis committed to abolishing prescription charges for all in Scotland within the lifetime of this Parliament, and we are currentlyexamining in detail how best to deliver that commitment. Our proposals will benefitthe 50% of the population of Scotland who currently pay for their prescriptions,two thirds of whom are estimated to have a chronic condition.

We will make an announcementto Parliament in due course.

Question reference: S3W-06708

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 29 November 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average daily prison population has been in each year since 1960.

I have asked MikeEwart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

The average dailyprison population for each year since 1960 is given in the following table.

Year	Prison Population	Year	Prison Population
1960	2,821	1984	4,753
1961	2,997	1985	5,273
1962	3,238	1986	5,587
1963	3,504	1987	5,446
1964	3,250	1988	5,229
1965	3,381	1989	4,986
1966	3,858	1990	4,724
1967	4,238	1991	4,839
1968	4,541	1992	5,257
1969	4,834	1993	5,637
1970	5,003	1994	5,585
1971	5,338	1995	5,626
1972	5,220	1996-97	5,993
1973	4,810	1997-98	6,059
1974	4,689	1998-99	6,029
1975	4,951	1999-2000	5,975
1976	4,884	2000-01	5,883
1977	4,871	2001-02	6,186
1978	5,062	2002-03	6,475
1979	4,585	2003-04	6,621
1980	4,860	2004-05	6,779
1981	4,518	2005-06	6,857
1982	4,891	2006-07	7,183
1983	5,052

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