- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 01 December 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Margaret Curran on 18 December 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what progress it has made towards achieving its target that no one should have to sleep rough.
Answer
The Scottish Executive has made great strides towards ending the need to sleep rough. The rough sleepingcount for May and October 2003 showed a significant drop in the extent of roughsleeping during that period. Five local authorities had a small shortfall intheir direct-access accommodation at the time of the October count. We areworking in partnership with these and other local authorities to continue toexpand the level of accommodation and support services available.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 07 August 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 29 September 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive how much it has spent on Microsoft software licenses in each of the last three financial years.
Answer
The Scottish Executive has in place two licensing agreementswith Microsoft which provide significant levels of discount on published list pricesfor Microsoft software.
We havea Select Agreement which offers participating organisations volume discount on Microsoftlist prices for their software licences. In addition, we have signed, in February2003, a three-year Enterprise Agreement with Microsoft which entitles us to receiveall upgrades for a defined list of software products (mainly MS Office) issued inthe agreement period. The terms of both agreements were negotiated by the Officeof Government Commerce on behalf of all government departments.
Expenditureon Microsoft software licenses in each of the past three financial years has been:
Year | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 |
Select Licences | £191,368 | £428,812 | £489,956 |
Enterprise Agreement | - | - | £911,518 |
Total | £191,368 | £428,812 | £1,401,474 |
The figuresnoted include Value Added Tax at 17.5% and reflect the discounts the Scottish Executive receives from the licensing agreements.The costs in 2000-01 and 2001-02 do not include any elements of technology refreshupgrades.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 September 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Mary Mulligan on 18 September 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it will take in respect of the erection of agricultural buildings that are inappropriate for a local area and exempt from planning consent requirements.
Answer
Permitted development rights(PDRs) grant planning permission across Scotland for various classes of minor development. Where PDRsapply to the erection of agricultural buildings, there is a restriction on thesize of the building and a prior approval procedure exists. This provides anopportunity for the planning authority to examine the siting, design andexternal appearance of the proposed building and to seek amendments ifnecessary or to refuse to allow a development to go ahead.
We are satisfied that thereare sufficient safeguards in place to guard against inappropriate developmentand we have no plans at present to alter the existing arrangements.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 07 August 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 4 September 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is in relation to the role of open source software in public sector IT procurement and what guidance it issues to public bodies on this matter.
Answer
Guidance on the use of opensource software by UK public bodies, including the devolved administrations, isset out in a policy statement, “Open Source Software, Use Within UKGovernment”, published by the Office of the e-Envoy on 15 July 2002. In supportof this policy, the Office of Government Commerce published a booklet “Guidanceon implementing Open Source Software” in September 2002. The Executive has notissued separate guidance.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 07 August 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 3 September 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on the use of proprietary and non-proprietary document formats where such documents are to be made publicly available and what guidance it issues to public bodies on this matter.
Answer
The Scottish Executive’s use of proprietary and non-proprietary software conforms to the UK Government’s policy which is described in Open Source Software – Use Within UK Government, which was published by the Office of the e-Envoy in July2002. The Scottish Executive has not issued additional guidance to Scottishpublic sector organisations although open standards generally are promotedthrough the Information Age Government Framework.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 07 August 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by John Scott on 1 September 2003
To ask the Presiding Officer how much the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB) has spent on Microsoft software licences for the Parliament's IT systems.
Answer
The SPCB has spent approximately£449,000 on current Microsoft Software Licences. This includes licences for desktopsoftware such as Microsoft Office and XP, as well as server operating systems, databasesand email systems.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 07 August 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Peter Peacock on 27 August 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the principles of open source are included in the teaching of IT and programming and, if so, how these principles are included.
Answer
School pupils studying National Qualification courses in computing or in information systems will learn about the various sources for software. At Higher level and above the teaching of software development and programming places considerable emphasis on modularity and re-usability, providing opportunities for teachers to make reference to the principles of an open source approach.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 June 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 19 June 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it will take following the publication of the Scottish European Pollutant Register by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency.
Answer
The industrial sites included in the pollution emissions register recently published by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) are already tightly regulated by SEPA. All sites are regulated under the Pollution Prevention and Control (Scotland) Regulations 2000 and the requirements of that regime mean that installations will have demonstrated, or will need to demonstrate, that they are using the best available techniques to prevent or minimise pollution.The Scottish Executive will encourage SEPA to develop the pollution emission register as quickly as practicable and in particular to improve the online search facilities and expand the scope of the information included. Improving public access to environmental information will highlight the progress of measures being taken to reduce industrial pollution in Scotland. The answer given to question S1W-33969 on 13 February 2003 sets out how SEPA plans to develop its online register. 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/search_wa.