Parliamentary questions
Fiona Hyslop
940 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.
16 Jan 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what monitoring it has undertaken of the effectiveness of the Partnership Action for Continuing Employment contingency plans.
Answer · Wendy Alexander: In March-April 2001 the Executive undertook a series of seminars to review the first year of operation of the Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE) framework.<P>In October 2001 the report<I> Partnership Action for Continuing Employment 2001 Revi…
16 Jan 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what analysis of any impact on the supply chain of the closures of the Motorola plant in Bathgate and the NEC plant in Livingston was undertaken by the Partnership Action for Continuing Employment team in West Lothian.
Answer · Wendy Alexander: I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-21949.
16 Jan 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what further special support it plans to offer West Lothian in light of the recent large scale redundancies and labour market statistics showing an increase in the claimant count level in the area.
Answer · Wendy Alexander: As I announced to Parliament in December, the Executive is making £6 million available to help implement the West Lothian Action Plan for economic development. This fulfils the commitment to provide up to £10 milion following the Motorola closure last year.<P…
16 Jan 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to improve the trunk road network in West Lothian.
Answer · Lewis Macdonald: We are committed to implementing the decisions that flow from the Central Scotland Transport Corridor Studies, which includes the A8/M8 corridor.
16 Jan 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what support it is giving, or intends to give, to any companies or other organisations that were suppliers of goods and services to the Motorola plant in Bathgate and/or the NEC plant in Livingston and have been or will be adversely affected by their closure.
Answer · Wendy Alexander: Following the closure of the Motorola plant in Bathgate, the Motorola Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE) team undertook a review of the likely impact of the closure on the supply base companies. The review concluded that while a few companies…
16 Jan 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Department of Trade and Industry played any role in action taken to alleviate the effects of recent redundancies in West Lothian and, if so, what role it played.
Answer · Wendy Alexander: The Executive has put in place the Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE) initiative which is a strategic national framework bringing together the relevant local agencies to alleviate redundancy situations. The local PACE teams have provided supp…
11 Jan 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much of the #16.7 million Regional Selective Assistance clawback from Motorola announced by the Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning on 25 April 2001 will be invested in West Lothian.
Answer · Wendy Alexander: I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-21786.
11 Jan 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how the #16.7 million Regional Selective Assistance clawback from Motorola announced by the Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning on 25 April 2001 will be allocated.
Answer · Wendy Alexander: On 25 April 2001 I announced in the Parliament that the Scottish Executive was setting aside up to £10 million to help fund the Motorola Taskforce's action plan.<P>On 20 December 2001 I announced in the Parliament that the Scottish Executive will provide £6 m…
11 Jan 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-18938 by Ms Wendy Alexander on 26 October 2001, whether the position in regard to the Motorola Taskforce remains the same.
Answer · Wendy Alexander: I announced in Parliament on 25 April 2001 that the Executive would set aside up to £10 million to fund measures which may be required by the closure of Motorola's Bathgate plant. The answer I provided to parliamentary question S1W-20969 details how much of t…
11 Jan 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the #2.5 million Regional Selective Assistance should be clawed back from the electronics company NEC Semi-conductors (UK) Ltd following the comments made by the Minister for Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning on 20 December 2001 (Official Report, col. 5066).
Answer · Wendy Alexander: I made clear in the Parliament on 20 December that while NEC's facility at Livingston is regarded as mothballed rather than closed, the outstanding grant of £2.4 million will not require to be repaid. A close watching brief on this will of course be maintaine…
11 Jan 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive when it will receive the #16.7 million Regional Selective Assistance clawback from Motorola announced by the Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning on 25 April 2001.
Answer · Wendy Alexander: Motorola repaid £16.75 million to the Executive in May 2001.
9 Jan 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has revised its systems for keeping Scottish Transport Group pensioners informed of the progress of their applications with regard to the wind-up of the Scottish Transport Group pension schemes and, if so, what its current arrangements are.
Answer · Lewis Macdonald: I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-17011. In addition, the Executive has taken the decision to issue a copy of the Scottish Transport Group Pension Funds Information Bulletin - December 2001 to each potential beneficiary who has registered…
9 Jan 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what analysis it has done of the efficacy of its pilot debtline in Fife.
Answer · Iain Gray: The debtline pilot in Fife is part of a joint pilot led by the Department of Trade and Industry. At present the advice work has not started and therefore no analysis has been done. However, we hope the pilot will be fully operational in the next few months.
9 Jan 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the remit is of its Constitutional Policy Unit.
Answer · Patricia Ferguson: The Executive's Constitutional Policy Unit works on a range of issues relating to the operation of the Scotland Act and the devolution settlement, including advice, guidance and training; relations with the UK Government and the other devolved administrations…
9 Jan 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what agencies, organisations or persons it instructs to draft both primary and subordinate legislation.
Answer · Patricia Ferguson: Primary and subordinate legislation on devolved matters is drafted by the Office of the Scottish Parliamentary Counsel in the Scottish Executive and by the Office of the Solicitor to the Scottish Executive, respectively.
7 Jan 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S1W-19322, S1W-19323, S1W-19324, S1W-19325, S1W-19326, S1W-19327, S1W-19328, S1W-19329 and S1W-19330 by Ms Wendy Alexander on 6 November 2001 why the information requested is not held centrally given the obligation on employers to make statutory redund…
Answer · Wendy Alexander: Under the provisions contained in Part IV of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, employers must notify the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, in writing, if they propose to make 20 or more redundancies within a month. The De…
7 Jan 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S1W-19322, S1W-19323, S1W-19324, S1W-19325, S1W-19326, S1W-19327, S1W-19328, S1W-19329 and S1W-19330 by Ms Wendy Alexander on 6 November 2001, why it does not hold centrally information on job losses in Scotland.
Answer · Wendy Alexander: The Scottish labour market is dynamic. The monthly labour market statistics from the Office of National Statistics give net employment changes from quarter to quarter. There are large shifts between employment, unemployment and inactivity each month/quarter. …
7 Jan 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it and Local Enterprise Companies are being informed by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) of any instances in Scotland of statutory notification to the DTI under Part IV of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, as amended by the Trade Union Reform…
Answer · Wendy Alexander: The Department of Trade and Industry makes available to the Scottish Executive the notifications of proposed redundancies in Scotland, provided in accordance with the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992.<P>This information is used as app…
7 Jan 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-20971 by Ms Wendy Alexander on 3 January 2002, why the information provided in response to question S1W-5623 was collected from reports in the daily Scottish newspapers rather than from Department of Trade and Industry information gleaned from submis…
Answer · Wendy Alexander: The information collected by the Department of Trade and Industry under the provision of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 gives details of proposed redundancies from individual companies. It is not known how many of the notified r…
13 Dec 2001 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it has taken in response to the report of the Social Justice Committee on the committee's response to petition PE242 by Action of Churches Together in Scotland, the Scottish Refugee Council and Amnesty International on asylum seekers.
Answer · Iain Gray: Fieldwork for Scottish Executive commissioned research on the impact of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 will get under way early in 2002.<P>Scottish Executive action in a number of areas includes improving access to specialist legal advice and assistance,…
13 Dec 2001 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it plans to take to ensure that there is an adequate supply of good quality affordable housing in Edinburgh.
Answer · Margaret Curran: I refer the member to answer given to question S1W-20928 on 7 January 2002.
13 Dec 2001 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether any waiting lists have been closed, including any which have been subsequently re-opened, in any hospital in the Lothian Health Board area in 2001.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: It is unacceptable for patients who need treatment from an NHS consultant to be refused admission to the waiting list for consultation. I am assured by NHS Lothian that, other than the case in Lothian Primary Care Trust which was highlighted in early December…
13 Dec 2001 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how it intends to fund the recommendations of the Deferrals Working Group published in December 2000 and the announcement made by the then Deputy Minister for Education, Europe and External Affairs on 12 June 2001 that children who become four in January or February and who have their en…
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: The working group on the re-integration of pre-school education grant considered the recommendations of the Deferrals Working Group as part of their examination of the costs of re-integration. They agreed that the additional costs associated with children who…
13 Dec 2001 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has issued good practice guidance common to all local authorities regarding the criteria for the exercise of local authority discretion over the provision of additional pre-school education for children born between September and December whose parents are considering deferral.
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: On 28 November the General Secretary of ADES issued guidance to all Directors of Education on local authorities' use of discretion over the provision of additional pre-school education for children born between September and December whose parents are conside…
13 Dec 2001 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to collect information on the number of (a) requests received from parents to defer entry to primary school and (b) the number of such requests which were granted from the school year 2000-01 to date, broken down by local authority area.
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: The Scottish Executive intends to collect information relating to deferral requests from local authorities as part of its annual survey of placing requests starting with school year 2001-02. The information will include the number of requests made to defer en…
12 Dec 2001 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to improve the public transport links between Edinburgh and West Lothian.
Answer · Lewis Macdonald: The Scottish Executive supports public transport improvements through the Public Transport Fund. To access the fund, local authorities present projects to the Scottish Executive, individually or in partnership with other local authorities, for consideration.<…
12 Dec 2001 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to support improvement to the railway infrastructure in West Lothian.
Answer · Lewis Macdonald: Railway infrastructure projects may qualify for financial assistance from either the Scottish Executive's Public Transport Fund (PTF) or Integrated Transport Fund (ITF). Bids under the PTF would have to satisfy eligibility criteria and compete with other bids…
12 Dec 2001 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S1W-19322, S1W-19323, S1W-19324, S1W-19325, S1W-19236, S1W-19327, S1W-19328, S1W-19329 and S1W-19330, by Ms Wendy Alexander on 6 November 2001, and to question S1W-5623 by Henry McLeish on 10 April 2000, at what date it ceased to collect and hold such …
Answer · Wendy Alexander: The information provided in response to question S1W-5623 was collected from reports in the daily Scottish newspapers. In November 2001, we reviewed the robustness of this information and considered that as the Executive could not vouch for its accuracy or co…
12 Dec 2001 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-15941 by Ms Wendy Alexander on 18 May 2001, how many of the "initial expressions of interest" in the Motorola facility it has followed up, and what the current status of each of those expressions of interest is.
Answer · Wendy Alexander: A small number of speculative enquiries have been received to date but there have been no firm offers acceptable to Motorola. Scottish Development International, in conjunction with Chesterton Blumenauer Binswanger, the property agents appointed by Motorola, …
12 Dec 2001 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-18938 by Ms Wendy Alexander on 26 October 2001, how much of the #10 million allocated has been spent by the Motorola Task Force.
Answer · Wendy Alexander: Expenditure reports from Scottish Enterprise Edinburgh & Lothian for the period 1 April 2001 - 17 December 2001 show total costs to date of £3.0 million. Total spending in respect of the work of the Motorola Taskforce on the Action Plan is anticipated to rise…