Thursday, 1 October 2009

Scottish Parliament Written answers

• Agriculture
  To ask the Scottish Executive whether linseed is imported into Scotland.
• Agriculture
  To ask the Scottish Executive when it expects to complete its revision of the Prevention of Pollution from Agricultural Activities Code.
• Animal Welfare
  To ask the Scottish Executive how many licences have been issued under the Licensing of Animal Dealers (Young Cats and Dogs) (Scotland) Regulations 2009.
• Animal Welfare
  To ask the Scottish Executive how many warrants have been issued under regulation 17(3) of the Licensing of Animal Dealers (Young Cats and Dogs) (Scotland) Regulations 2009.
• Drug and Alcohol Misuse
  To ask the Scottish Executive how many residential places there are for (a) alcohol and (b) drug rehabilitation, broken down by NHS board area.
• Education
  To ask the Scottish Executive when it will be in a position to outline its plan for the extension of outdoor education places for secondary schools pupils.
• Enterprise
  To ask the Scottish Executive how many companies or countries have intimated their intention to discontinue doing business with Scotland or Scottish companies following the Cabinet Secretary for...
• Equal Opportunities
  To ask the Scottish Executive what action it has taken in respect of the recommendations in the report, Valuable Assets - the role and status of classroom assistants , published by the Equal...
• Finance
  To ask the Scottish Executive, further to its progress report of 30 June 2009 to the Public Audit Committee on major capital projects with a value in excess of £50 million, under what...
• Finance
  To ask the Scottish Executive for what reason £3.7 million has been transferred from the Scottish National Heritage budget line to Local Government in 2009-10 and 2010-11, as described on...
• Finance
  To ask the Scottish Executive for what reason £0.3 million has been transferred from the Animal Health budget line to Local Government in both 2009-10 and 2010-2011, as described on page 110...
• Finance
  To ask the Scottish Executive what its justification is for the reduction in the budget of Marine Scotland from £75.5 million in 2009-2010 to £65.3 million in 2010-11, as described on...
• First Minister
  To ask the Scottish Executive what journeys have been taken by official car by the First Minister since September 2008.
• Genetically Modified Organisms
  To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on the proportion of animal feed sold in the United Kingdom being labelled as containing genetically modified organisms.
• Genetically Modified Organisms
  To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of animal feed sold in Scotland is labelled as containing genetically modified organisms.
• Genetically Modified Organisms
  To ask the Scottish Executive what the average content is of genetically modified organisms found in animal feed labelled as containing such organisms.
• Higher Education
  To ask the Scottish Executive how many university places it has funded in each of the last three years and how many it will fund in each of the next three years.
• Infant Mortality
  To ask the Scottish Executive what research it has commissioned to understand why stillbirth rates in Scotland are among the highest in Europe.
• Infant Mortality
  To ask the Scottish Executive what work has been carried out to understand why rates of stillbirth in Scotland have remained unchanged for the last 20 years.
• Infant Mortality
  To ask the Scottish Executive what efforts are being made to prevent more than 300 families every year experiencing the death of a baby.
• Infant Mortality
  To ask the Scottish Executive what work has been carried out to understand why Scotland’s intrapartum stillbirth rates have remained unchanged for the last 20 years.
• Infant Mortality
  To ask the Scottish Executive what is being done to ensure that parents do not experience the death of a healthy baby in the days immediately following birth.
• Infant Mortality
  To ask the Scottish Executive what is being done to understand what is behind the slight but steady increase in the rate of stillbirths in babies who are near the point of delivery.
• Joint Ministerial Committee
  To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will report on the outcome of the plenary meeting of the Joint Ministerial Committee on 16 September 2009.
• Justice
  To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on the reported recent comments of the Lord Advocate in relation to life sentences that in some exceptional cases a punishment part of the...
• Justice
  To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment it has made of reported calls from the Lord Advocate for guidance to be given to judges dealing with violent crimes involving knives and swords to...
• Justice
  To ask the Scottish Executive how many direct measures have been issued by procurators fiscal for vandalism in each month since February 2009, broken down by local authority area.
• Livestock
  To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of imported animal feed used in Scotland is soya.
• Livestock
  To ask the Scottish Executive what the total tonnage is of genetically modified soya used in feed fed to farm animals.
• Livestock
  To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of farm animals is fed entirely on grass.
• Livestock
  To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of total feed fed to farm animals is grass.
• Livestock
  To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will permit producers to carry out, record and report within-business moves of sheep on a batch basis following the introduction of EU Regulation 21/2004...
• Livestock
  To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will commit to the following individual or group of cross-compliance requirements during farm inspections following the introduction of EU Regulation...
• Livestock
  To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-26578 by Richard Lochhead on 18 September 2009, whether it will ask the Scottish Agriculture College to provide information on...
• Livestock
  To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-24870 by Richard Lochhead on 9 July 2009, what progress is being made by the inquiry into the Single Farm Payment in relation...
• Medication
  To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with NHS boards to support them in determining funding requests for off-label treatments.
• Medication
  To ask the Scottish Executive for which specific conditions off-label medicines are most commonly used in the NHS and what assessment it has made of the number of treatments that are frequently...
• Mental Health
  To ask the Scottish Executive how many beds in psychiatric units are dedicated to (a) children and (b) adolescents with learning difficulties.
• Mental Health
  To ask the Scottish Executive how many beds for forensic patients are dedicated to (a) children and (b) adolescents with learning difficulties.
• Mental Health
  To ask the Scottish Executive what funding has been put in place to meet the staffing needs of the new west of Scotland adolescent psychiatry inpatient unit.
• Ministerial Meetings
  To ask the Scottish Executive what meetings the Minister for Schools and Skills has held with UK Government ministers since his appointment and what issues were discussed.
• Procurement
  To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to ensure that businesses in publicly funded subcontract chains receive payment within a maximum of 30 days.
• Procurement
  To ask the Scottish Executive whether its forthcoming guidance note on procurement will ensure that community care service users whose service is being retendered will be able to apply for and...
• Public Sector Staff
  To ask the Scottish Executive how many staff in the Scottish Executive and its sponsored agencies applied for early retirement in 2008-09 and what the estimated cost is of such early retirements.
• Rural Development
  To ask the Scottish Executive what the total amount of financial support to date has been to successful applicants under the Rural Priorities scheme, broken down by total area farmed by the...
• Rural Development
  To ask the Scottish Executive what the cost is of financial assistance towards the costs of preparation of outcome plans by agents, or agents and specialists, given to applicants for support...
• Schools
  To ask the Scottish Executive when it will put the funding in place for new Lasswade and Newbattle high school buildings.
• Scottish Outdoor Access Code
  To ask the Scottish Executive what the definition of lightweight camping is as referred to in the Scottish Outdoor Access Code.
• Sport
  To ask the Scottish Executive when it will meet the SNP manifesto commitment to provide free swimming for school children.
• Sport
  To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has made to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s listed events review.
• Student Finance
  To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is aware that students up to the age of 60 in England and Northern Ireland are eligible for student loans.
• Student Finance
  To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that its policy of limiting eligibility for student loans to students under the age of 55 could be considered to be age discrimination.
• Student Finance
  To ask the Scottish Executive how many Scottish students have not yet received their student loan.
• Student Finance
  To ask the Scottish Executive whether there are delays at either the Student Awards Agency for Scotland or the Student Loans Company in processing Scottish students’ student loans.
• Suicide
  To ask the Scottish Executive how many suicides have been recorded over the last five years, broken down by Scottish Parliament constituency and expressed as a percentage of the Scottish average.
• Waste Management
  To ask the Scottish Executive what action is being taken to develop Scotland’s waste infrastructure to ensure that it is sufficient to meet the demands of current and future waste policy.
• Waste Management
  To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the report The Food We Waste in Scotland , by WRAP Scotland, what steps being taken to increase the separate collection of organic waste from domestic...
• Waste Management
  To ask the Scottish Executive how many local authorities operate kerbside collection of separated organic waste and how many of these collections accept food waste.
• Waste Management
  To ask the Scottish Executive how many local authorities provide facilities for the disposal of organic waste and how many of these facilities accept food waste.
• Waste Management
  To ask the Scottish Executive what the most environmentally sustainable way is for households to dispose of food waste.
• Waste Management
  To ask the Scottish Executive what it estimates to be the (a) volume and (b) proportion of food from (i) supermarkets, (ii) households, (iii) restaurants and other eating establishments and (iv)...
• Waste Management
  To ask the Scottish Executive for what reason £0.7 million has been transferred from the Zero Waste budget line to Food Industry Support in 2010-2011, as described on page 111 of the...
• Waste Management
  To ask the Scottish Executive whether the £25.3 million and £26.3 million transferred from the Zero Waste budget line to Local Government, as described on page 111 of the Scottish Draft...