Section E – Written questions lodged on 9 October 2009

Questions marked with a triangle (Δ) are initiated by the Scottish Executive in order to facilitate the provision of information to the Parliament.

Questions in which a member has indicated a declarable interest are marked with an "R".

S3W-28117 David Stewart: To ask the Scottish Executive what the terms of reference are for the Scotland Transerv report regarding congestion on the Kessock Bridge.

S3W-28118 David Stewart: To ask the Scottish Executive whether provisional financial resources have been set aside to take account of any work identified in the Scotland Transerv report regarding congestion on the Kessock Bridge.

S3W-28119 David Stewart: To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to resurface the Kessock Bridge before 2012 and, if so, when it will appoint the contractor; when the work will start; when the work will conclude, and whether it anticipates that the work will involve the closure of one or two lanes on the bridge for north and southbound traffic.

S3W-28120 David Stewart: To ask the Scottish Executive what duration it anticipates for lane closures on the Kessock Bridge during any resurfacing work.

S3W-28121 David Stewart: To ask the Scottish Executive whether a park-and-ride scheme will be put in place in North Kessock prior to any major roadworks taking place on the Kessock Bridge.

S3W-28122 David Stewart: To ask the Scottish Executive whether a ferry service for cars and pedestrians will be reintroduced from North Kessock to South Kessock prior to or during any major roadworks taking place on the Kessock Bridge.

S3W-28123 David Stewart: To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment has been made of the impact of rerouting traffic from the Kessock Bridge onto the old A9 through Clachnaharry and Beauly on congestion in Inverness and the communities along the old A9 route.

S3W-28124 David Stewart: To ask the Scottish Executive what provision has been made for access to the Kessock Bridge for emergency services during any period of resurfacing.

S3W-28125 David Stewart: To ask the Scottish Executive whether any resurfacing of the Kessock Bridge will be programmed to take place during a summer period.

S3W-28126 Mary Mulligan: To ask the Scottish Executive what housing rents are being charged by each housing association and local authority.

S3W-28127 Peter Peacock: To ask the Scottish Executive what the accumulated capital debt is of local authorities for capital works undertaken by traditional borrowing.

S3W-28128 Peter Peacock: To ask the Scottish Executive what the average debt repayment period is for capital spending financed by borrowing by local authorities for capital works other than roadworks.

S3W-28129 Peter Peacock: To ask the Scottish Executive what the estimated spend per annum is on maintenance of properties built by local authorities and financed by borrowing.

S3W-28130 Peter Peacock: To ask the Scottish Executive what it estimates the value to be of risk to properties built for and in the ownership of local authorities from damage and from buildings not performing to standard.

S3W-28131 Peter Peacock: To ask the Scottish Executive what assumptions are made in the draft budget for local government on the funding made available to local authorities to deal with building flood defences.

S3W-28132 Peter Peacock: To ask the Scottish Executive whether the draft budget for 2010-11 for local government has had or will have additional resource added over the current year to assist local authorities with expenditure on constructing flood defences.

S3W-28133 Peter Peacock: 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 that group will report and to whom, and whether its report will be made public.

S3W-28134 David Stewart: To ask the Scottish Executive how many hospital emergency admissions were recorded for diabetic ketoacidosis and hypoglycaemic coma in (a) 2007-08 and (b) 2008-09, broken down by (i) age, (ii) gender, and (iii) NHS board area.

S3W-28135 Irene Oldfather: To ask the Scottish Executive how it ensures confidentiality of patient records.

S3W-28136 Irene Oldfather: To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance it has issued regarding the sharing of patient information and whether a patient or a patient’s representative requires to give consent to information being shared.

S3W-28137 Irene Oldfather: To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance it issues to GPs regarding the sharing of patient information with care home staff and whether written consent to information being shared is required from the patient or the patient’s representative.

S3W-28138 Irene Oldfather: To ask the Scottish Executive whether hospital staff are entitled to share information with care home staff where the patient or resident has previously indicated that the primary point of contact should be the patient or resident, or the patient’s or resident’s representative.

S3W-28139 David Whitton: To ask the Scottish Executive how many applicants there were for the recently filled post of chief executive of Scottish Enterprise; how many were internal candidates, and how many were from abroad.

S3W-28140 David Whitton: To ask the Scottish Executive who decided on the details of the remuneration package for the post of chief executive of Scottish Enterprise.

S3W-28141 David Whitton: To ask the Scottish Executive whether consideration was given to removing the bonus element from the remuneration package for the post of chief executive of Scottish Enterprise. 

S3W-28142 David Whitton: To ask the Scottish Executive whether consideration was given to reducing the salary level for the post of chief executive of Scottish Enterprise, given that the remit of the agency has changed and staff numbers reduced. 

S3W-28143 Karen Gillon: To ask the Scottish Executive what support it will give to industrial museums in 2010-11.

S3W-28144 Karen Gillon: To ask the Scottish Executive how it will provide support to New Lanark Conservation Trust in 2010-11.

S3W-28145 Willie Coffey: To ask the Scottish Executive when it will publish the study conducted by AMEY on the Bellfield Interchange.

S3W-28146 Richard Baker: 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 funding, broken down by (i) police force and (ii) local authority area.

S3W-28147 Robin Harper: To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has been involved in or had input into any recent stakeholder meetings organised by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to discuss and promote solutions to dealing with construction waste containing special or hazardous materials such as plastic foam insulation containing ozone-depleting substances from steel-clad buildings.

S3W-28148 Robin Harper: 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 containing special or hazardous materials, such as plastic foam insulation containing ozone-depleting substances from steel-clad buildings, is disposed off correctly.

S3W-28149 Peter Peacock: To ask the Scottish Executive how many licences it issued for the control of ravens in each six month period from 1 January 2005 to 30 June 2009, broken down by (a) local authority area and (b) number of ravens covered by each licence.

S3W-28150 Peter Peacock: To ask the Scottish Executive how many ravens were killed under licences issued by it in each six month period from 1 January 2005 to 30 June 2009, broken down by local authority area.

S3W-28151 Peter Peacock: To ask the Scottish Executive how many licences were issued by Scottish Natural Heritage for the control of ravens in each six month period from 1 January 2005 to 30 June 2009, broken down by (a) local authority area and (b) number of ravens covered by each licence.

S3W-28152 Peter Peacock: To ask the Scottish Executive how many ravens were killed under licences issued by Scottish Natural Heritage in each six month period from 1 January 2005 to 30 June 2009, broken down by local authority area.

S3W-28153 Richard Baker: To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment it has made of the Chief Constable of Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary’s comments to the Justice Committee on 6 October 2009 that it may not be possible to maintain police officer numbers at current levels through 2010-11 (Official Report c. 2265).

S3W-28154 Richard Baker: To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of the comment of the Chief Constable of Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary to the Justice Committee on 6 October 2009 in relation to maintaining officer numbers through 2010-11 that "every force will have looked at profiles of what it might mean if budgets are not at the level that is hoped for" (Official Report c. 2265), whether it considers that this may mean a reduction in officer numbers in some forces.

S3W-28155 Richard Baker: 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 numbers at current levels would result in support staff redundancies (Official Report c. 2270).

S3W-28156 Richard Baker: 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 redundancies that "I am afraid that I take a fairly clear position on that. The public want to see police officers; therefore, we would turn first to the police support staff for voluntary redundancies" (Official Report c. 2271).

S3W-28157 Richard Baker: 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 redundancies that "at some point, if we could not balance the books, we would have to consider compulsory redundancies. I would look to shrink the police staff numbers before I shrunk police officer numbers" (Official Report c. 2271) and those of Dave Watson of Unison that the focus on police numbers is the wrong one (Official Report c. 2283).

S3W-28158 Richard Baker: 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 would impact on the roles carried out by police officers and is likely to negatively impact on the length of time that officers can dedicate to frontline policing (Official Report c. 2271) .

S3W-28159 Richard Baker: 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 Government must be the safety and security of the public. My fairly simple position is that cuts in funding are simply wrong" (Official Report c. 2284).

S3W-28160 Richard Baker: To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on the comments of John Speed of the Prison Officers Association to the Justice Committee on 6 October 2009 concerning a reduction in frontline prison staff that he stated has a massive impact on the health and safety of prison officers; whether it intends to take action and, if so, what action (Official Report c. 2285).

S3W-28161 Richard Baker: To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment it has made of the impact that (a) overcrowding and (b) reduced prison officer numbers is having on the safety of prison officers.

S3W-28162 Richard Baker: To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on the comments of Ken Ross of the Fire Brigades Union to the Justice Committee on 6 October 2009 that the effect of removing ringfencing for the fire service has led to the fire service having to "horse trade with other services to get the necessary funding, which is compromising the security of front-line services" (Official Report c. 2286).

S3W-28163 Richard Baker: To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is concerned at the comments of Ken Ross of the Fire Brigades Union to the Justice Committee on 6 October 2009 that the COSLA was unable to tell the fire service "what formula or criteria it was using to determine the allocation that the fire service was going to get" and that "it seems that there is no longer a clear and transparent set of criteria for setting fire and rescue service budgets" (Official Report c. 2286) and, if so, what action it will take.

S3W-28164 Richard Baker: To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on the comments of Ken Ross of the Fire Brigades Union to the Justice Committee on 6 October 2009 that "our priority is to ensure that at the very least the number of firefighters on the front line is maintained if not increased. That can be done by redirecting funding to the front line from other areas where we see duplication and waste" (Official Report c. 2295).

S3W-28165 Richard Baker: To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will commit to (a) maintaining or (b) increasing the number of firefighters on the front line in the future years.