Parliamentary questions
Alex Fergusson
366 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.
6 Dec 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will ensure that Scottish Natural Heritage returns the hefted stock to Drumore Farm in Wigtownshire, in light of local concerns about their removal for the purpose of heather improvement.
Answer · Rhona Brankin: SNH is aware of local concerns and will undertake monitoring of the vegetation at Cairnsmore National Nature Reserve/Dromore Farm to assess when or if numbers of stock can be increased. The retention of half of the mid hill heft ensures that the stock numbers…
6 Dec 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that local expertise should be taken into account by agencies such as Scottish Natural Heritage when determining heather improvement policies.
Answer · Rhona Brankin: SNH has taken account of local expertise. Local concerns were expressed about SNH’s original intention to remove the stock completely from the mid hill heft at Dromore Farm. A meeting was held with those concerned and further expert advice was sought from bod…
6 Dec 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the removal of hefted flocks of sheep can aid heather recovery.
Answer · Rhona Brankin: The report by Scotland’s Moorland Forum <i>Principles of Moorland Management</i> suggests that where heather is being overgrazed then a reduction or even temporary removal of stock for a period of years is a way forward.</p>
30 Nov 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-680 by Mr Frank McAveety on 17 June 2003 which confirms that visitscotland.com is a commercial company, how the advertising of visitscotland.com's contact details on VisitScotland literature does not breach European State Aid rules.
Answer · Patricia Ferguson: I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-20286 on 17 November 2005. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at <a href="http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/weba…
30 Nov 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question by S2W-20286 by Patricia Ferguson on 17 November 2005, why the online booking facility on visitscotland.com is classed as being mainly for the provision of information and not as a purely commercial activity.
Answer · Patricia Ferguson: The visitscotland.com website is a highly popular source of information on the rich diversity of experiences which Scotland has to offer its residents and visitors. During the year to date, over 9.5 million people have used it in this way; some of these visit…
9 Nov 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive when enhanced external counterpulsation treatment will be available for suitable heart patients on the NHS.
Answer · Andy Kerr: Enhanced External Counter Pulsation Therapy (EECP) is not currently available in Scotland. It is for NHS boards to decide whether to offer the procedure.</p> <p>The Interventional Procedures Programme of National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (…
9 Nov 2005 · General Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what progress is being made to ensure that people with conditions such as Asperger¿s Syndrome are given the required level of support to enable them to access tertiary education.
Answer · Nicol Stephen: The Executive is committed to ensuring that individuals with complex additional support needs wherever possible have the same opportunities to access further and higher education as other students.</p>
2 Nov 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is in respect of the accumulated loss of £5.6 million declared in e-tourism Ltd's published accounts to December 2004.
Answer · Patricia Ferguson: The global tourism market is rapidly increasing its propensity to use the internet to make holiday bookings online and often at the last minute. visitscotland.com is designed to attract an increasing share of these bookings, with over £40 million worth of bus…
2 Nov 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive why the free advertising of contact details for Visitscotland.com, which is contained within almost every document produced by VisitScotland, does not breach European State Aid rules.
Answer · Patricia Ferguson: The visitscotland.com website - the website for Visit Scotland - provides a range of information on visiting Scotland and the reference to the website in Visit Scotland publications is in line with standard practice for both commercial and non-commercial orga…
1 Aug 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much will be raised from farmers to fund the Beef National Envelope scheme; what the administration costs of the scheme will be, and how much will be paid to farmers under the scheme.
Answer · Ross Finnie: Approximately £18 million willbe raised to fund the Scottish Beef Calf Scheme. The scheme is in its first yearand the administrative costs will be largely dependent on the number and complexityof claims submitted: costs of £0.5 million are currently anticipat…
14 Mar 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive who has the authority to change the rules of the Hospital Travel Costs Scheme in Scotland.
Answer · Andy Kerr: The patients’ travelling expenses schemes emanate from The National Health Service (Travelling Expenses and Remission of Charges) (Scotland) (No. 2) Regulations 2003 as amended by The National Health Service (Travelling Expenses and Remission of Charges) (Sco…
10 Mar 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many responses were received by the Deer Commission for Scotland to the recent close season consultation prior to the initial cut-off date of 4 February 2005 and how many were received after that date but before the extended deadline.
Answer · Lewis Macdonald: Responses received to the initial cut-off date of 4 February totalled 1,155 and a further 39 responses were received in the extended deadline period to 25 February.</p>
9 Dec 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many applications were made for electronically-powered wheelchairs and, of these, how many initial applications were successful and how many applications were successful on appeal in each NHS board area in each of the last five years.
Answer · Rhona Brankin: This information is not held centrally but the following information has been provided by the Rehabilitation Technology Information Service (ReTIS), which is being developed by NHS boards.</p><p>The number of powered wheelchairs issued by each of the five Sco…
24 Nov 2004 · General Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what flexibility individual local authorities will have in determining how their Supporting People grant allocation will be used.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: Local authorities have a great deal of flexibility to use their Supporting People grant as they judge best on any of the 21 prescribed housing support services in the light of local needs and priorities.</p>
26 Oct 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive when, and how, it will monitor and evaluate the comparative outcomes of Agenda for Change for various health professions in relation to recruitment and retention after December 2004.
Answer · Andy Kerr: Agenda for Change is a new UK level pay and conditions system for non-medical NHS staff.</p><p>Pay modernisation boards have been established across NHSScotland and these will work with the pay modernisation team for Agenda for Change and in partnership with …
26 Oct 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive when, and how, it will monitor and evaluate the comparative outcomes of Agenda for Change for various health professions in relation to the sector of the health service in which they work.
Answer · Andy Kerr: Agenda for Change is a new UK level pay and conditions system for non medical NHS staff.</p><p>In Scotland the Scottish Pay Reference and Implementation Group (SPRIG), a partnership body which advises Scottish ministers on the implementation of Agenda for Cha…
26 Oct 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive when, and how, it will monitor and evaluate the comparative outcomes of Agenda for Change for various health professions in relation to gender.
Answer · Andy Kerr: Agenda for Change is a new UK level pay and conditions system for non medical NHS staff.</p><p>In Scotland there will be a phased implementation of assimilation of staff onto Agenda for Change. This is not expected to be complete until the second half of 2005…
26 Oct 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive when, and how, it will monitor and evaluate the comparative outcomes of Agenda for Change for speech and language therapists and clinical psychologists at divisional, board and regional levels, given the equal value settlement.
Answer · Andy Kerr: Under the Agenda for Change job evaluation scheme, which was specifically designed for the NHS, all professional groups are assessed under the same evaluation criteria. One of the founding principles of this scheme is to ensure equal pay for work of equal val…
26 Oct 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive when, and how, it will monitor and evaluate the outcomes of Agenda for Change for speech and language therapists undertaking the same work in different parts of Scotland and what action it will take where outliers in the information gathered are identified.
Answer · Andy Kerr: <i>Agenda for Change</i> is a new UK level pay and conditions system for non medical NHS staff.</p><p>At UK level all aspects of the job evaluation process will be monitored by the Job Evaluation Working Party, reporting to the Shadow Executive of the new NHS…
26 Oct 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive when, and how, it will monitor and evaluate emerging skill mix and pay bands within speech and language therapy services at divisional, board, regional and national levels to ensure that patients receive the same quality and quantity of safe clinical care regardless of where they live an…
Answer · Andy Kerr: In terms of speech and language therapist pay bands this, in conjunction with all aspects of the job evaluation process, will be monitored by the Job Evaluation Working Party, reporting to the Shadow Executive of the new NHS Staff Council. This monitoring wi…
26 Oct 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what action will be taken centrally to ensure that recruitment to new speech and language therapist posts is not adversely affected, in light of the anticipated number of such therapists on pay protection as a result of Agenda for Change.
Answer · Andy Kerr: The levels of staff protection under Agenda for Change will not be fully known until the job matching and evaluation processes are complete.</p><p> On 1 September 2004, the Minister for Health and Community Care wrote to the Scottish Pay Reference and Impleme…
26 Oct 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the maximum acceptable level of pay protection for speech and language therapists will be as a result of the implementation of Agenda for Change.
Answer · Andy Kerr: The levels of staff protection under Agenda for Change will not be fully known until the job matching and evaluation processes are complete.</p><p>Under the original Agenda for Change partnership agreement, published in March 2003, the aim was that protection…
26 Oct 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to ensure that the outcomes of Agenda for Change are fair for speech and language therapists and their patients, in light of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists’ survey which showed that 90% of such therapists would consider leaving the profession …
Answer · Andy Kerr: The job profiles for speech and language therapists published in December 2003 have been the subject of further review at UK-level along with others from Allied Health Professionals. The reviewed profiles have been seen by the Society of Speech and Language T…
26 Oct 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether, in light of the position whereby speech and language therapists have not yet voted to support Agenda for Change and that the speech and language therapist family of profiles is not yet complete, it will issue directions to NHS boards to delay seeking job descriptions for these th…
Answer · Andy Kerr: The Speech and Language Therapists family of job profiles is complete. In common with other Agenda for Change profiles, these have been reviewed and await clearance by the Shadow Executive of the NHS Staff Council. Following clearance they will be re-publishe…
26 Oct 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps are being taken centrally to ensure rigorous implementation of Health Department guidance related to the job evaluation process, in particular with regard to taking adequate and informed evidence from staff and/or their managers, in light of experience reported by speech and la…
Answer · Andy Kerr: Agenda for Change is a new UK level pay and conditions system for non medical NHS staff.</p><p>At UK-level all aspects of the job evaluation process will be monitored by the Job Evaluation Working Party, reporting to the Shadow Executive of the new NHS Staff …
26 Oct 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what evidence from Agenda for Change project and early implementer sites was submitted in respect of the partnership agreement success criteria to support the conclusion of its Health Department and the Department of Health that implementation of Agenda for Change had been a success and t…
Answer · Andy Kerr: The Agenda for Change pay system began to be implemented in twelve NHS organisations in England in June 2003. The new pay system has also been subject to testing short of full implementation in four pilot sites in Scotland. Over the last year, the experience …
8 Oct 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many rural ownership grants were awarded in 2003-04 in each local authority area.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:</p><p>The number of rural home ownership grants (RHOG) that were awarded in each local authority in 2003-04 is as follows.</p><p>Number of RHOG Appr…
1 Oct 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of accommodation bookings received by VisitScotland have been processed entirely on-line and without the intervention of a call centre worker.
Answer · Patricia Ferguson: During the current year to date, the number of accommodation bookings that have been processed entirely on-line through the visitscotland.com website represents 6% of the total bookings generated by the company.</p>
6 Sep 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to review legislation in order to require commercial and local authority-contracted bus operators to accept all operators’ tickets.
Answer · Nicol Stephen: The Transport (Scotland) Act 2001 already contains the necessary powers, although as yet they have not been used by any local authority.</p>
23 Aug 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how it defines “communities” in relation to its intention to bring broadband to all communities by the end of 2005.
Answer · Jim Wallace: Through its broadband procurement, the Executive is seeking to ensure that there is access to affordable broadband services in every Scottish census output area (COA). This is an ambitious aspiration as COAs are the smallest geographic unitsused in the offici…