Tuesday, 27 October 2009

Scottish Parliament Written answers

• Alcohol Misuse
  To ask the Scottish Executive what the basis was of the decision to provide the University of Sheffield with figures on alcohol consumption from 2003.
• Alcohol Misuse
  To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is concerned that the data on consumption of alcohol contained in the report, Independent Review of the Effects of Alcohol Pricing and Promotion , by the...
• Alcohol Misuse
  To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will request that the University of Sheffield recast its main assumptions in its report, Independent Review of the Effects of Alcohol Pricing and...
• Council Tax
  To ask the Scottish Executive how many people in Glasgow living in a household with an annual income of under £16,000 were affected by the freeze on council tax.
• Council Tax
  To ask the Scottish Executive how many people in Glasgow living in a household with an annual income of under £23,000 were affected by the freeze on council tax.
• Crime
  To ask the Scottish Executive how many incidents of shoplifting were recorded in 2008-09, broken down by local authority area.
• Crime
  To ask the Scottish Executive further to the publication of Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2008-09 , how many crimes of handling an offensive weapon were recorded by the police in 2008-09, broken...
• Crime
  To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the publication of Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2008-09 , what assessment it has made of the 24% increase in illegal cultivation of drugs offences and...
• Crime
  To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the publication of Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2008-09 , whether the increase by 24% to 609 offences of illegal cultivation of drugs represents an...
• Crime
  To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the publication of Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2008-09 , how many of the offences of illegal cultivation of drugs were recorded in each police force area.
• Crime
  To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the publication of Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2008-09 , what assessment it has made of the number of illegal importation of drugs offences compared with...
• Crime
  To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the publication of Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2008-09 , what assessment it has made of the 4% increase in (a) possession of drugs with intent to supply...
• Crime
  To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the publication of Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2008-09 , what assessment it has made of the 8% increase in the drug, other offences and money laundering...
• Crime
  To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the publication of Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2008-09 , how many drug crimes were recorded, broken down by (a) crime category as set out in Table A5 and...
• Crime
  To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the publication of Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2008-09 , what assessment it has made of the 3% increase in non-sexual crimes of violence in Grampian and...
• Crime
  To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the publication of Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2008-09 , what assessment it has made of the housebreaking rate in Aberdeen City compared with the...
• Crime
  To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the publication of Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2008-09 , how many housebreaking incidents there were in Aberdeen City in each of the last 10 years, also...
• Crime
  To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the publication of Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2008-09 , what assessment it has made of the 36% increase in racially aggravated offences in Grampian;...
• Crime
  To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the publication of Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2008-09 , what assessment it has made of the increase in crimes of dishonesty, including a 9% increase in...
• Crime
  To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the publication of Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2008-09 , what assessment it has made of the lack of a significant percentage reduction in recorded crimes...
• Crime
  To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the publication of Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2008-09 , how many crimes were recorded by the police in (a) Aberdeen City and (b) Aberdeenshire local...
• Crime
  To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the publication of Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2008-09 , how many offences were recorded by the police in (a) Aberdeen City and (b) Aberdeenshire local...
• Crime
  To ask the Scottish Executive how many people were convicted in relation to the 2,720 cases of housebreaking recorded in Edinburgh between April 2008 and March 2009.
• Crofting
  To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-27018 by Roseanna Cunningham on 24 September 2009, when the ring-fencing for the (a) Crofting Counties Agricultural and (b)...
• Crofting
  To ask the Scottish Executive in what way crofting will benefit from the £5.4 million paid by Highlands and Islands Enterprise for Beechwood Farm, formerly used as a bull stud.
• Culture
  To ask the Scottish Executive whether there are plans to alter the distribution of funding for the Youth Music Initiative from the Scottish Arts Council to local authorities and, if so, what...
• Domestic Abuse
  To ask the Scottish Executive what disposals were issued to people convicted in cases involving domestic abuse in the Lothian and Borders police force area in each of the last three years.
• Education
  To ask the Scottish Executive whether credit unions will be represented on the body devising the delivery plan for financial education in the classroom.
• Employment
  To ask the Scottish Executive for what reason the Cadet Vocational Qualification Organisation is not yet an accredited delivery organisation in Scotland, which would enable young people in the...
• Finance
  To ask the Scottish Executive what the provisional and outturn variances were for departmental expenditure limits (DEL) and other accounts outside DEL, in relation to allocation and consolidated...
• Flood Prevention
  To ask the Scottish Executive who serves on the COSLA and Scottish Executive group looking at funding for flood protection schemes and the distribution of future funds to local authorities; when...
• Food Standards Agency
  To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers £750,000 spent by the Food Standards Agency on consumer engagement on GM foods to be a good use of public money.
• Food Standards Agency
  To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is aware how often the head of the GM section of the Food Standards Agency and the head of abc, the umbrella group for the agricultural biotechnology...
• Food Standards Agency
  To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is able to provide details of any meetings between the head of the GM section of the Food Standards Agency and the head of abc, the umbrella group for the...
• Forestry
  To ask the Scottish Executive for what reasons the Inverinate and Dorusduain Forests are being put up for sale by the Forestry Commission Scotland and whether the local community has been asked...
• Housing
  To ask the Scottish Executive what the level of funding was in (a) 1999-00, (b) 2000-01, (c) 2001-02, (d) 2002-03, (e) 2003-04, (f) 2004-05, (g) 2005-06, (h) 2006-07 and (i) 2007-08 for...
• Housing
  To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-27284 by Alex Neil on 23 September 2009, when it expects to make a decision on the future of the Open Market Shared Equity...
• Housing
  To ask the Scottish Executive what the take-up rate was for (a) new supply shared equity or shared ownership homes, (b) open market shared equity homes and (c) rural home ownership grants in the...
• Housing
  To ask the Scottish Executive for what reason no council houses in the Highlands and Islands parliamentary constituencies (a) were completed in 2007-08 and (b) are anticipated to be completed in...
• Housing
  To ask the Scottish Executive for what reason no new supply shared equity houses in Orkney (a) were completed in (i) 2007-08 and (ii) 2008-09 and (b) are estimated to be completed in 2009-10.
• Housing
  To ask the Scottish Executive for what reason no new supply shared equity houses in Shetland (a) were completed in 2007-08 and (b) are estimated to be completed in 2009-10.
• Housing
  To ask the Scottish Executive for what reason there were no new supply shared equity completions in the Western Isles in (a) 2007-08 and (b) 2008-09.
• Housing
  To ask the Scottish Executive for what reason there were no actual sales under the Open Market Shared Equity Scheme in (a) Orkney, (b) Shetland, (c) the Western Isles and (d) Argyll and Bute in...
• Housing
  To ask the Scottish Executive what the management costs per housing unit are for (a) housing associations and (b) local authorities.
• Housing
  To ask the Scottish Executive what the management costs are per housing unit as a percentage of rental income for (a) housing associations and (b) local authorities.
• Housing
  To ask the Scottish Executive what the average rental cost is per housing unit for (a) housing associations and (b) local authorities.
• Housing
  To ask the Scottish Executive what housing rents are being charged by each housing association and local authority.
• Human Rights
  To ask the Scottish Executive how many human rights cases are pending against the Scottish Prison Service, broken down by type of claim.
• Human Rights
  To ask the Scottish Executive how much it has set aside to settle human rights cases.
• Income
  To ask the Scottish Executive how many people in Glasgow live in a household with an annual income of under £16,000.
• Income
  To ask the Scottish Executive how many people in Glasgow live in a household with an annual income of under £23,000.
• Justice
  To ask the Scottish Executive how many children under 16 have been charged by police in the Lothians region in each of the last three years, broken down by age (a) five and under, (b) 6 to 10 and...
• Police
  To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is committed to maintaining the 1,000 extra police officers recruited since May 2007.
• Police
  To ask the Scottish Executive how many of the additional police officers recruited since May 2007 are engaged in community policing, broken down by police force.
• Police
  To ask the Scottish Executive what actions it has taken to address the absence of a commonly agreed definition of and inconsistencies in approach to community policing across Scotland as...
• Police
  To ask the Scottish Executive what progress it has made on implementing each of the recommendations in the Justice Committee’s Report on Inquiry into Community Policing .
• Police
  To ask the Scottish Executive how many police forces follow the approach to community policing taken by Strathclyde Police.
• Police
  To ask the Scottish Executive how it defines community policing.
• Police
  To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that all police forces attach sufficient priority to community policing and, if not, what action it will take.
• Police
  To ask the Scottish Executive how many of the police officers recruited since May 2007 have been funded from (a) core police grant, (b) local authority funding and (c) Scottish Government...
• Police
  To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment it has made of the comment of the Chief Constable of Strathclyde Police to the Justice Committee on 6 October 2009 that maintaining police officer...
• Police
  To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on the comments of the Chief Constable of Strathclyde Police to the Justice Committee on 6 October 2009 in relation to possible staff...
• Police
  To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that any reduction in police staff numbers as described by the Chief Constable of Strathclyde Police to the Justice Committee on 6 October 2009...
• Police
  To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on the comments of Calum Steele of the Scottish Police Federation to the Justice Committee on 6 October 2009 that "the fundamental duty of any...
• Prescription Charges
  To ask the Scottish Executive how many people in Glasgow living in a household with an annual income of under £16,000 were affected by the extension of free prescriptions.
• Prescription Charges
  To ask the Scottish Executive how many children in Glasgow living in a household with an annual income of under £23,000 were affected by the extension of free prescriptions.
• Prison Service
  To ask the Scottish Executive how many foreign nationals are in custody in Scottish prisons, also broken down by gender and country of origin.
• Procurement
  To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of invoices from suppliers was paid by directorates supporting its Wealthier and Fairer strategic directive within 10 days of receipt in June 2009.
• School Meals
  To ask the Scottish Executive how many children in Glasgow living in a household with an annual income of under £16,000 were affected by the extension of free school meals.
• Schools
  To ask the Scottish Executive which primary school in Dumfries and Galloway was rebuilt or substantially refurbished in 2008-09, as stated in Table 4 of the School Estate Statistics 2009.
• Schools
  To ask the Scottish Executive which secondary schools in Dumfries and Galloway were rebuilt or substantially refurbished in 2008-09, as stated in Table 4 of the School Estate Statistics 2009.
• Scottish Government Funding
  To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding was allocated to the Children’s Services Women’s Aid Fund in (a) 2005-06, (b) 2006-07, (c) 2007-08 and (d) 2008-09.
• Voluntary Sector
  To ask the Scottish Executive how many, and which, voluntary sector organisations have had grants recalled by the Equality Unit since 2003 due to a failure to meet grant criteria and what the...
• Voluntary Sector
  To ask the Scottish Executive how many, and which, voluntary sector organisations have been allowed to carry grants forward to future financial years or had them reprofiled to that effect by the...
• Waste Management
  To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Scottish Environment Protection Agency has recently issued guidance to the demolition industry or landfill operators to ensure that construction waste...