Questions and answers

Question reference: S3W-11681

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 07 April 2008
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 22 April 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how much each local authority spent on collecting council tax in each of the last five years for which figures are available.

The information is contained in the following table:

Council Tax Collection (Including Council Tax Discounts and Community Charge Residual Costs) Net Revenue Expenditure (£000)

	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07
Scotland	37,294	37,551	36,507	38,346	40,541
Aberdeen City	1,448	2,295	1,819	1,771	1,315
Aberdeenshire	2,775	2,858	2,248	2,666	1,394
Angus	1,092	1,407	1,095	1,097	1,296
Argyll and Bute	531	672	665	750	697
Clackmannanshire	170	112	113	116	282
Dumfries and Galloway¹	885	-222	1,180	1,775	1,540
Dundee City	2,807	2,800	2,930	3,446	3,056
East Ayrshire	814	864	874	865	896
East Dunbartonshire	241	231	285	565	404
East Lothian	549	553	566	499	487
East Renfrewshire	204	263	325	333	263
Edinburgh City	1,379	1,663	1,455	1,308	4,738
Eilean Siar	304	358	387	463	356
Falkirk	70	102	34	106	14
Fife	1,873	2,150	2,176	1,538	2,426
Glasgow City	8,030	7,561	8,439	6,541	7,903
Highland	1,683	1,950	1,945	1,723	1,877
Inverclyde	427	468	286	450	210
Midlothian	598	770	637	816	823
Moray	742	849	780	791	848
North Ayrshire	702	898	756	1,275	956
North Lanarkshire	1,727	2,623	1,544	2,313	2,050
Orkney Islands	127	108	130	180	200
Perth and Kinross	1,107	1,268	1,202	1,172	860
Renfrewshire	814	868	772	852	946
Scottish Borders	246	320	298	930	749
Shetland Islands	163	217	156	219	209
South Ayrshire	682	975	558	750	111
South Lanarkshire	2,507	1,986	1,651	1,727	2,329
Stirling	326	254	109	267	392
West Dunbartonshire²	1,564	-39	456	330	194
West Lothian	707	369	636	712	720

Source: As reported by local authorities on the statistical return LFR 9 Central Services .

Notes:

1. Dumfries and Galloway''s credit figure is 2003-04 due to recovery of cumulative surcharges for previous years

2. West Dunbartonshire''s credit figure in 2003-04 is due to income generated from sales/rents/fees/charges exceeding costs debited to the account.

Question reference: S3W-11314

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 March 2008
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 18 April 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how the £2.5 million for a Healthy Living Centre Transition Fund, announced by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing on 19 February 2008, will be allocated.

NHS boards will manage the disbursement of the Governments'' Transition Fund to individual healthy living centres (HLC). Funding will be provided for HLCs that have good prospects for achieving sustainability beyond the transition funding and continue to have the support of their local partners. The level of transition funding provided for each healthy living centre will not exceed £100,000.

So far, funding has been allocated to NHS Fife and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde for HLCs in their area.

Question reference: S3W-11171

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 March 2008
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 17 April 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding has been allocated to each local authority for (a) 2008-09, (b) 2009-10 and (c) 2010-11 to promote safer routes to school and cycling, walking and safer streets projects.

The following table outlines how much funding local authorities have been allocated for cycling, walking and safer streets projects in 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11. Although local authorities are able to spend their CWSS allocation on safer routes to schools, additional funding for tackling the school run projects is awarded to Sustrans who allocate to local authorities through a bidding process.

	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11
	£ Million
Aberdeen City	0.365	0.365	0.365
Aberdeenshire	0.412	0.412	0.412
Angus	0.191	0.191	0.191
Argyll and Bute	0.163	0.163	0.163
Clackmannanshire	0.086	0.086	0.086
Dumfries and Galloway	0.262	0.262	0.262
Dundee City	0.249	0.249	0.249
East Ayrshire	0.212	0.212	0.212
East Dunbartonshire	0.191	0.191	0.191
East Lothian	0.170	0.170	0.170
East Renfrewshire	0.165	0.165	0.165
Edinburgh, City of	0.818	0.818	0.818
Eilean Siar	0.045	0.045	0.045
Falkirk	0.267	0.267	0.267
Fife	0.639	0.639	0.639
Glasgow City	1.021	1.021	1.021
Highland	0.374	0.374	0.374
Inverclyde	0.146	0.146	0.146
Midlothian	0.149	0.149	0.149
Moray	0.154	0.154	0.154
North Ayrshire	0.241	0.241	0.241
North Lanarkshire	0.579	0.579	0.579
Orkney	0.034	0.034	0.034
Perth and Kinross	0.247	0.247	0.247
Renfrewshire	0.304	0.304	0.304
Scottish Borders	0.196	0.196	0.196
Shetland	0.040	0.040	0.040
South Ayrshire	0.199	0.199	0.199
South Lanarkshire	0.544	0.544	0.544
Stirling	0.160	0.160	0.160
West Dunbartonshire	0.164	0.164	0.164
West Lothian	0.303	0.303	0.303
Total	£9.09 million	£9.09 million	£9.09 million

Question reference: S3W-11059

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 March 2008
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 16 April 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it will take to secure an increase in the carrying capacity of the undersea electricity cable from Carradale in Kintyre to Imachar in Arran.

Management of the Transmission Network in this area is primarily a matter for Scottish and Southern Energy and National Grid. We understand that there is interest in increased generation opportunities in the area, although the current system only provides limited potential for exporting electricity. Scottish and Southern Energy are currently reviewing transmission solutions to try to release additional capacity on this network. The Scottish Government is in contact with Scottish and Southern Energy on this issue and will meet National Grid very shortly.

Question reference: S3W-11170

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 March 2008
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 15 April 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people in each NHS board area were injured in cycling accidents in each of the last five years for which figures are available; how many resulted in (a) head injuries and (b) fatalities, and how many in each category were children.

Information on the number of hospital admissions due to cycling accidents in each of the last five years is shown in table 1, while table 2 shows the number of deaths due to cycling accidents.

Table 1. Number of Hospital Episodes as a Result of a Cycling Accident by NHS Board of Residence; for All Ages and Children; for all Injuries and only Head Injuries; for Financial Years of Discharge 2002-03 to 2006-07

NHS Board of Residence >	2002-03				2003-04
	All Ages		Children		All Ages		Children
	All Injuries	Head Injuries	All Injuries	Head Injuries	All Injuries	Head Injuries	All Injuries	Head Injuries
Ayrshire and Arran	94	35	57	25	102	49	62	33
Borders	32	12	22	11	19	13	13	8
Dumfries and Galloway	31	11	15	7	27	8	12	3
Fife	78	36	53	28	74	30	52	23
Forth Valley	56	24	37	17	60	26	40	21
Grampian	166	84	106	60	205	102	124	70
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	195	82	130	64	212	98	141	77
Highland	99	40	46	19	109	48	51	25
Lanarkshire	92	40	66	31	115	45	82	34
Lothian	147	53	89	39	156	56	88	33
Orkney	6	4	5	3	2	2	2	2
Shetland	12	7	9	6	4	1	3	-
Tayside	70	27	38	16	89	29	44	15
Western Isles	8	3	5	3	7	3	4	2
Scotland	1,086	458	678	329	1,181	510	718	346

NHS Board of Residence >	2004-05				2005-06
	All Ages		Children		All Ages		Children
	All Injuries	Head Injuries	All Injuries	Head Injuries	All Injuries	Head Injuries	All Injuries	Head Injuries
Ayrshire and Arran	101	44	54	32	87	35	55	26
Borders	31	19	19	12	25	11	12	6
Dumfries and Galloway	34	9	18	6	24	5	10	2
Fife	91	40	51	27	56	22	32	17
Forth Valley	74	40	53	31	70	28	51	22
Grampian	172	100	108	77	167	78	95	53
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	163	65	89	41	163	76	87	50
Highland	117	56	54	29	78	26	40	15
Lanarkshire	60	18	45	14	74	30	57	24
Lothian	173	56	93	41	189	62	105	44
Orkney	8	2	6	-	7	3	3	2
Shetland	2	-	2	-	1	1	-	-
Tayside	86	34	42	16	68	21	34	14
Western Isles	1	1	-	-	4	2	2	1
Scotland	1,113	484	634	326	1,013	400	583	276

NHS Board of Residence >	2006-07
	All ages		Children
	All Injuries	Head Injuries	All Injuries	Head Injuries
Ayrshire and Arran	91	27	54	20
Borders	41	17	22	8
Dumfries and Galloway	32	7	10	1
Fife	78	34	40	19
Forth Valley	54	26	30	18
Grampian	146	59	77	46
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	151	60	77	40
Highland	114	53	49	31
Lanarkshire	78	25	46	17
Lothian	165	77	76	42
Orkney	5	1	2	1
Shetland	3	1	1	1
Tayside	101	35	50	19
Western Isles	6	4	3	2
Scotland	1,065	426	537	265

Table 2. Number of Deaths as a Result of a Cycling Accident by NHS Board of Residence; for All Ages and Children; for Calendar Years 2002 to 2006

NHS Board of Residence >	2002		2003		2004
NHS Board of Residence >	All Ages	Children	All ages	Children	All ages	Children
Ayrshire and Arran	-	-	2	1	-	-
Borders	-	-	-	-	-	-
Dumfries and Galloway	1	-	-	-	-	-
Fife	2	-	1	-	1	-
Forth Valley	-	-	-	-	1	-
Grampian	1	-	4	-	-	-
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	1	-	1	-	-	-
Highland	2	-	3	-	-	-
Lanarkshire	1	-	-	-	-	-
Lothian	1	-	2	-	2	-
Orkney	-	-	-	-	-	-
Shetland	-	-	-	-	-	-
Tayside	-	-	2	-	1	-
Western Isles	-	-	-	-	1	-
Scotland	9	-	15	1	6	-

NHS Board of Residence	2005		2006
NHS Board of Residence	All Ages	Children	All Ages	Children
Ayrshire and Arran	-	-	-	-
Borders	-	-	1	-
Dumfries and Galloway	1	-	1	-
Fife	-	-	-	-
Forth Valley	-	-	-	-
Grampian	4	2	3	-
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	5	-	3	3
Highland	1	-	-	-
Lanarkshire	3	1	1	1
Lothian	-	-	1	1
Orkney	-	-	-	-
Shetland	-	-	-	-
Tayside	1	1	1	-
Western Isles	1	-	-	-
Scotland	16	4	11	5

Question reference: S3W-11056

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 March 2008
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 15 April 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what assistance is available to communities that have suffered infrastructure damage due to heavy storms.

As local authorities have a general duty to deal with emergencies there is no automatic entitlement to special financial assistance. In exceptional circumstances, however, local authorities can apply under the Bellwin Scheme for additional revenue funding to assist with the immediate and unforeseen costs in dealing with the aftermath of emergency incidents.

Full details of the Bellwin Scheme can be found on the Scottish Government website at:

.

Question reference: S3W-11057

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 March 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 10 April 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to ensure the safe and swift return of missing children.

There are a range of systems in place to support the safe return of children and young people who have gone missing. Professionals in the health and education sectors along with the police all have processes for identifying and responding to such instances. The sharing of information amongst professionals and across agencies is critical if these processes are to prove fully effective. Through the implementation of the getting it right for every child agenda, we are promoting improved culture, systems and practices to facilitate better inter-agency work across all dimensions. The HM Inspectorate of Education-led joint inspection of child protection services in Scotland specifically monitors how well service providers share information and intervene to protect children at risk, including children who have gone missing.

Specific recommendations on how best to improve the provision of appropriate services for young runaways are currently under development by the national working group on young runaways.

The Scottish Government is also consulting from 10 April 2008 on draft guidance for Safeguarding Children in Scotland who may have been Trafficked which includes principles for partnership working with the police in respect of missing children.

Question reference: S3W-11058

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 March 2008
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 27 March 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will consider raising the age at which alcohol can be purchased to 21 years.

Question reference: S3W-11051

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 March 2008
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 25 March 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of women have had smear tests in each of the last five years for which figures are available, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S3W-11093

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 March 2008
Current Status: Answered by Bruce Crawford on 19 March 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will publish its response to Ron Gould’s inquiry into the Scottish elections of May 2007.

I am today publishing the Scottish Government''s response to the Gould Report, and a consultation paper on decoupling the Scottish Parliamentary and local government elections. They are available on the Scottish Government''s website and .

The Gould Report demonstrates that the Scottish electoral system is fragmented and antiquated, with no clear lines of accountability for its management or to the people of Scotland. The Scottish Government believes that the Gould Report represents a unique opportunity to introduce the radical reforms necessary to address these underlying problems.

With this Parliament, the Scottish Government believes that the key step would be for clear and coherent responsibility for legislation and management of elections in Scotland to rest with the Scottish Government and the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish Government believes this is the most practical way to improve the management of elections, and would provide democratic accountability to the people of Scotland in line with the principles of devolution.

As well as this fundamental recommendation, the Scottish Government plans to take forward the other recommendations of the Gould Report. Today we are publishing a consultation paper on decoupling the Parliamentary and local elections. Further consultations will follow on the role of the Chief Returning Officer and on the design of ballot papers and other issues. The Scottish Government is determined that all decisions will be taken in good time for the next elections, and the problems experienced last May will not be repeated.

��˿��

Chamber and committees