- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 March 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Tricia Marwick on 18 April 2008
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what the cost has been of processing freedom of information requests to the Parliament in each month since the enactment of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.
Answer
The enclosed table sets out the cost of replying to freedom of information requests based on the time recorded by Freedom of Information Action Officers and Decision Takers who have prepared replies to FOI requests up until 6 March 2008. The time recorded does not include input by staff in SPICe (The Information Centre), the Directorate of Legal Services or the Media Relations Office because input in these areas is overarching and not necessarily specific to individual requests. The cost has been calculated at £35.39 per hour, the current hourly rate of a grade 5 member of staff.
| Year | Month | Total (£) |
| 2005 | 1 | 14,242 |
| | 2 | 10,033 |
| | 3 | 4,569 |
| | 4 | 3,617 |
| | 5 | 3,979 |
| | 6 | 13,246 |
| | 7 | 11,530 |
| | 8 | 4,192 |
| | 9 | 3,302 |
| | 10 | 10,291 |
| | 11 | 7,660 |
| | 12 | 2,219 |
| 2005 Total | | 88,880 |
| 2006 | 1 | 2,714 |
| | 2 | 5,124 |
| | 3 | 13,514 |
| | 4 | 2,571 |
| | 5 | 8,977 |
| | 6 | 2,155 |
| | 7 | 3,976 |
| | 8 | 1,991 |
| | 9 | 3,744 |
| | 10 | 1,977 |
| | 11 | 6,358 |
| | 12 | 3,319 |
| 2006 Total | | 56,420 |
| 2007 | 1 | 3,929 |
| | 2 | 8,005 |
| | 3 | 4,645 |
| | 4 | 4,749 |
| | 5 | 2,715 |
| | 6 | 2,216 |
| | 7 | 4,358 |
| | 8 | 1,690 |
| | 9 | 1,501 |
| | 10 | 1,483 |
| | 11 | 1,280 |
| | 12 | 416 |
| 2007 Total | | 36,986 |
| 2008 | 1 | 655 |
| | 2 | 1,232 |
| | 3 | 9 |
| 2008 Total | | 1,895 |
| Grand Total | | 184,181 |
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 March 2008
-
Current Status:
Answered by Tricia Marwick on 18 April 2008
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body on which occasions it has had to employ additional staff to deal with freedom of information requests to the Parliament since the enactment of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and what total costs arose from such action.
Answer
On one occasion on receipt of 39 FOI Requests submitted within a period of 17 working days. The cost incurred to date has been £1,053.18.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 March 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Tricia Marwick on 18 April 2008
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what the cost has been of processing freedom of information requests made to the Parliament by (a) members of the public, (b) MSPs, (c) parliamentary researchers and (d) journalists in each month since the enactment of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.
Answer
The enclosed tables set out the cost of processing freedom of information requests for the specified categories of requesters based on the time recorded by Freedom of Information Action Officers and Decision Takers who have prepared replies to FOI requests up until 6 March 2008. The time recorded does not include input by staff in SPICe (The Information Centre), the Directorate of Legal Services and the Media Relations Office because expertise in these areas is overarching and not necessarily specific to individual requests. The cost has been calculated at £35.39 per hour, the current hourly rate of a grade 5 member of staff.
| 2005 | Requests by Members of the Public (£) | Requests by MSPs | Requests by Parliamentary Researchers | Requests by Journalists |
| January | 1,481 | 0 | 0 | 10,328 |
| February | 336 | 150 | 0 | 4,675 |
| March | 941 | 1,593 | 0 | 531 |
| April | 1,010 | 0 | 725 | 1,324 |
| May | 510 | 62 | 0 | 1,478 |
| June | 2,777 | 0 | 823 | 9,632 |
| July | 1,796 | 306 | 18 | 9,373 |
| August | 73 | 71 | 396 | 3,551 |
| September | 2,179 | 0 | 0 | 1,123 |
| October | 1,577 | 0 | 0 | 8,679 |
| November | 437 | 0 | 18 | 6,781 |
| December | 888 | 0 | 0 | 1,331 |
| Total | 14,005 | 2,183 | 1,980 | 58,822 |
| 2006 | | | | |
| January | 184 | 0 | 0 | 2,353 |
| February | 1,074 | 71 | 0 | 2,663 |
| March | 2,552 | 0 | 593 | 7,458 |
| April | 754 | 0 | 0 | 1,340 |
| May | 5,452 | 0 | 0 | 3,304 |
| June | 1,046 | 0 | 0 | 717 |
| July | 2,207 | 0 | 0 | 1,770 |
| August | 1,067 | 00 | 0 | 796 |
| September | 600 | 1,476 | 1,239 | 191 |
| October | 110 | 0 | 0 | 727 |
| November | 2,821 | 340 | 115 | 3,082 |
| December | 2,374 | 0 | 106 | 549 |
| Total | 20,239 | 1,886 | 2,053 | 24,950 |
| 2007 | | | | |
| January | 876 | 0 | 71 | 2,858 |
| February | 2,601 | 0 | 00 | 5,404 |
| March | 379 | 138 | 65 | 3,948 |
| April | 889 | 248 | 0 | 2,986 |
| May | 156 | 0 | 0 | 2,535 |
| June | 230 | 1,299 | 0 | 687 |
| July | 1,109 | 239 | 328 | 2,638 |
| August | 177 | 0 | 0 | 1,194 |
| September | 672 | 53 | 0 | 775 |
| October | 274 | 0 | 0 | 1,059 |
| November | 18 | 53 | 0 | 1,200 |
| December | 257 | 0 | 0 | 159 |
| Total | 7,639 | 2,030 | 464 | 25,444 |
| 2008 | | | | |
| January | 319 | 0 | 88 | 53 |
| February | 487 | 35 | 0 | 710 |
| March | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 |
| Total | 805 | 0 | 88 | 772 |
| Grand Total | 42,688 | 6,134 | 4,585 | 109,988 |
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 March 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Tricia Marwick on 18 April 2008
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether the cost of processing freedom of information requests to the Parliament has risen in the last year.
Answer
The total recorded cost of processing freedom of information based on the time recorded by FOI Decision Takers and Action Officers who have answered requests indicates that despite an increase in the number of requests received from journalists during 2007 (outnumbering requests received from members of the public for the first time) the cost of processing has not risen in the last year.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 14 March 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Russell on 16 April 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Scottish Environment Protection Agency is under any statutory duty to give weight to the economic interests of developers in undertaking its statutory duties, beyond any general encouragement or guidance to act efficiently and as expeditiously as possible in conducting its affairs and dealing with planning applications.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-11032 on 16 April 2008 All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 14 March 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Russell on 16 April 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether correspondence from Mr Donald Macdonald and an enclosure of correspondence between HBOS and Highland Council intimating the prospective closure of the Macdonald hotel company and the complete resort operation, as received by email from the First Minister’s constituency office manager on 29 October 2007, was produced in hard copy and given to either the First Minister or his advisers by the First Minister’s private office.
Answer
They were not.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 14 March 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Russell on 16 April 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether there are standard operating practices and procedures in place in the First Minister’s private office for dealing with correspondence from constituents and others and, if so, whether it will publish these practices and procedures.
Answer
There are standard operating practices and procedures in place for management of the First Minister''s correspondence by his private office. These practices are in line with the Scottish Government ministerial correspondence administration guidance for staff and are unchanged from the previous administration. We have no current plans to publish this guidance.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 14 March 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Russell on 16 April 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether standard operating practices and procedures were applied by the First Minister’s (FM’s) private office in relation to the receipt of correspondence from Mr Donald Macdonald and an enclosure of correspondence between HBOS and Highland Council intimating the prospective closure of the Macdonald hotel company and the complete resort operation, received from the First Minister’s constituency office manager on 29 October 2007.
Answer
Yes.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 14 March 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Russell on 16 April 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what the reasons were for the First Minister circulating a briefing note commissioned by the Minister for Community Safety, and prepared by building consultants on behalf of the developer of Aviemore resort hotels, to the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment, the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change and the Minister for Environment.
Answer
The briefing note was forwarded by the First Minister''s private office to the ministers and a number of officials for background information following the approaches made by MSPs to the First Minister and others.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 14 March 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Russell on 16 April 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Scottish Environment Protection Agency is obliged under its statutory duties, or in guidance issued to it, to have regard to the economic interests of developers in making statutory determinations, beyond any general encouragement or guidance to act efficiently and expeditiously in conducting its affairs and dealing with planning applications.
Answer
SEPA has a general duty under section 32 of the Environment Act 1995 to have regard to the economic needs of any area when formulating proposals relating to any of the agency''s statutory functions. SEPA is also required to adhere to statutory guidance on Sustainable Development which requires the agency to ensure its actions do not unnecessarily constrain economic development, and to enforce high environmental standards whilst having regard to economic considerations.
When responding to planning consultations, SEPA takes into account sustainable development considerations including, if relevant, the financial and employment imperatives involved. The statutory guidance on Sustainable Development also makes clear that SEPA''s involvement in development planning is crucial in helping planning authorities to protect communities from inappropriate development and degradation of their local environment.
SEPA, like other public bodies, needs to be aligned with, and prioritise, the strategic objectives of the Scottish Government which include Wealthier as well as Safer and Greener.
Any question about how SEPA carried out its functions in relation to an individual case should be directed to its chief executive.
