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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-15904

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 01 September 2008
Current Status: Answered by Bruce Crawford on 5 November 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive on what basis its decision to take a policy position on reserved matters is competent within the scope of the Scotland Act 1998.

The Scotland Act 1998 (as amended) sets out the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament and provides for many of the functions of the Scottish ministers. Nothing in the 1998 Act prevents the Scottish Parliament or the Scottish ministers from forming or expressing a view on a reserved matter. This is unsurprising given the relevance of reserved issues to many matters which are, in Scotland, devolved. Moreover, the memorandum of understanding between the UK Government and the devolved administrations, in place since devolution, expressly recognises that devolved legislatures are entitled to debate non-devolved matters.

Question reference: S3W-15908

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 01 September 2008
Current Status: Answered by Bruce Crawford on 5 November 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many of its staff will have their job descriptions amended to include responsibility for dealing with correspondence on reserved matters.

Question reference: S3W-15906

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 01 September 2008
Current Status: Answered by Bruce Crawford on 5 November 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive on how many occasions Scottish ministers have referred correspondence relating to reserved matters to UK ministers in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S3W-17262

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 27 October 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 5 November 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many offences involving guns in 2007-08 involved (a) shotguns, (b) handguns, (c) rifles and (d) airguns.

The latest statistics on firearm offences in Scotland are available in the annual publication Recorded Crimes and Offences Involving Firearms, Scotland, 2007-08 which is available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 46851). This publication includes statistics on the number of crimes and offences recorded by the police in which a firearm was alleged to have been used or where a firearm was stolen.

Statistics relating to total use of each weapons category are not available separately as only the main weapon used is recorded for each offence.

Number of crimes and offences recorded by the police in which a firearm was alleged to have been used, by main firearm used, Scotland 2007-08.

Main Firearm Used	Number of Offences
Shotgun	41
Rifle	18
Pistol/revolver	93
Air weapon	567
Imitation firearm	109
Unidentified	104
Other	193
Total	1,125

Question reference: S3W-17257

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 27 October 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 5 November 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) revenue and (b) capital expenditure and budget was for each police force in Scotland in real terms for each of the last three years and what the figures are anticipated to be for 2008-09.

Revenue and capital budgets for individual forces are not held centrally. Information on revenue and capital expenditure is shown in the following tables.

Police Revenue Expenditure

Actual Expenditure

Force	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
Central	45,873	48,343	52,025
Dumfries and Galloway	27,965	29,128	29,824
Fife	58,203	59,734	64,828
Grampian	90,120	95,035	99,373
Lothian and Borders	178,833	185,396	191,075
Northern	50,277	53,966	56,916
Strathclyde	476,424	496,307	504,443
Tayside	76,393	79,211	81,187

Source: Police Grant claims from individual forces for 2005-06 to 2007-08.

Expenditure at 2005-06 Prices

Force	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
Central	45,873	47,075	49,156
Dumfries and Galloway	27,965	28,364	28,179
Fife	58,203	58,167	61,253
Grampian	90,120	92,542	93,893
Lothian and Borders	178,833	180,533	180,537
Northern	50,277	52,551	53,777
Strathclyde	476,424	483,289	476,623
Tayside	76,393	77,133	76,710

Police Capital

Expenditure

Force	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09
Central	1,846	1,732	1,918	1,528
Dumfries and Galloway	981	946	867	918
Fife	1,966	2,721	2,432	2,273
Grampian	3,210	3,834	6,922	5,353
Lothian and Borders	6,258	5,715	10,918	16,179
Northern	3,865	2,273	2,136	2,834
Strathclyde	18,823	17,956	12,901	20,270
Tayside	2,614	2,717	2,200	2,414

Source: CR financial returns for 2005-06 and 2006-07. CRQ4 2007-08 for provisional figures and CRQ1 for 2008-09 forecasts.

Expenditure “ (2005-06 prices)

Force	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09
Central	1,846	1,687	1,812	1,444
Dumfries and Galloway	981	921	819	867
Fife	1,966	2,650	2,298	2,148
Grampian	3,210	3,733	6,540	5,058
Lothian and Borders	6,258	5,565	10,316	15,287
Northern	3,865	2,213	2,018	2,678
Strathclyde	18,823	17,485	12,190	19,152
Tayside	2,614	2,646	2,079	2,281

Question reference: S3W-17265

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 27 October 2008
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 5 November 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on (a) estimated expenditure on council tax benefit for 2007-08 and (b) by which route the payment of this amount was made.

Question reference: S3W-17263

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 27 October 2008
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 5 November 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive when ministers last approved the award of contracts for new (a) schools and (b) hospitals and for which projects.

The schools and health projects which have reached contract signature using PPP/NPD structures since May 2007 are provided in the following tables:

Schools Projects where Contract Signature has Been Approved Since May 2007

Project	Date
Falkirk Schools NPD	May 2007
East Dunbartonshire Schools PPP	August 2007
West Lothian Schools PPP2	August 2007
Perth and Kinross Schools PPP	October 2007
Aberdeen City Schools NPD	December 2007
Dumfries and Galloway Schools PPP	January 2008
West Dunbartonshire Schools PPP	January 2008
Inverclyde Schools PPP	October 2008

Health Projects where contract Signature has Been Approved Since May 2007

Project	Date
NHS Forth Valley - Forth Valley Acute Hospital Project PPP	May 2007
NHS Forth Valley - Clackmannanshire Community Health Services Project PPP	July 2007
The State Hospital	October 2007
NHS Fife - St Andrews Community Hospital and Resource Centre PPP	November 2007

Question reference: S3W-17256

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 27 October 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 5 November 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what the number of drink-related offences was in the last year for (a) 10 to 20-year-olds, (b) 21 to 30-year-olds, (c) 31 to 40-year-olds, (d) 41 to 50-year-olds, (e) 51 to 60-year-olds and (f) those over 60-years old.

Information on the number of drink-related offences in Scotland broken down by age is not held centrally. The following table, however, gives the total number of drink-related offences recorded by the police in 2007-08, broken down by crime/offence group.

Description of Crime/Offence	Recorded Crimes and Offences
Non-Sexual Crimes of Violence:
Causing death by careless driving when under influence of drink or drugs	1
Miscellaneous Offences:
Drunkenness	6,702
Offences by Licensed Persons	713
Other Offences Against Liquor Licensing Laws	1,017
Consumption of alcohol in designated places, byelaws prohibited	26,184
Drunk when riding a bicycle	55
Motor Vehicle Offences:
Drunk driving	10,697
Total	45,369

Question reference: S3W-17096

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 October 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 4 November 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive on which occasions since May 2007 Scottish police forces have pursued suspects or carried out investigations beyond their areas of operation and under what authority such action was taken.

Question reference: S3W-17244

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 27 October 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 4 November 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive which firms of solicitors and which advocates have provided legal advice to Scottish ministers in 2007-08 and what has been the cost in each case.

The undernoted firms provided legal advice to the Scottish ministers between April 2007 and March 2008. The total cost of that advice was £1,899,411.18. This figure includes fees charged by firms whose total fees during that period amounted to less than £1,000 (not listed), as well as VAT and outlays.

The undernoted advocates provided legal advice to the Scottish ministers during the same period. The cost of that advice was £952,481.09, including VAT.

Law Firms

DLA Piper

Harper MacLeod

Currie Gilmour

Pagan Osbourne

Simpson & Marwick

Ledingham Chalmers

MacLay Murray & Spens

Balfour & Manson

Brodies

Dundas & Wilson

Morton Fraser

Anderson Strathern

Pinsent Masons

Shepherd & Wedderburn

Advocates

Paul Cullen QC

A Dewar QC

I Duguid QC

R Keen QC

C Campbell QC (the Hon. Lord Malcolm)

G Moynihan QC

R Martin QC

S Woolman QC (the Hon Lord Woolman)

G Bell QC

R Anderson QC

J Wolffe QC

C MacNeill QC

L Murphy QC

J Mure

R Crawford

A Hardman

G Hawkes

B Heaney

A Poole

D Ross

D Sheldon

S Smith

K Springham

D Thomson

J Cherry

A Duncan

I Ennis

K McBrearty

E MacKenzie

M O''Carroll

A Summers

A Devlin

A McSporran

P McCormack

A Webster.