David Mundell

7 Feb 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions have taken place between the Scottish Tourist Board, the Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning and Minister for Transport on the signage from trunk roads for golf facilities available to tourists.

Answer · Sarah Boyack: Scottish Executive officials are in regular contact with the Scottish Tourist Board on a number of issues. In addition, they attend meetings of the Tourism Signposting National Working Group, a forum of representatives of the Scottish Tourist Board and Local …

7 Feb 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what support and advice is being made available to golf clubs to help them make their facilities more attractive to tourists.

Answer · Alasdair Morrison: The Scottish Golf Union and Scottish Enterprise Fife have developed a business planning package. This will be piloted in Fife initially, with the intention of extending nationwide. By the end of the year it will have reached over 100 clubs in Scotland.

7 Feb 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what mechanisms are in place to measure the impact of any funding provided to promote golf tourism.

Answer · Alasdair Morrison: Scottish Enterprise, Highlands & Islands Enterprise and visitscotland have jointly commissioned a National Golf Tourism Survey. This will assess customers demands and satisfaction levels. The results are due in January 2002.

7 Feb 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what funding has been made available and to whom to promote golf tourism in the South of Scotland

Answer · Alasdair Morrison: Ayrshire & Arran and Dumfries & Galloway Tourist Boards have been awarded £50,000 by visitscotland to develop golf marketing in their areas in partnership with the private sector.

7 Feb 2001 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what support it gives to local authorities in dealing with nuisance caused by seagulls.

Answer · Sam Galbraith: Local authorities have full powers to deal with such problems at their own discretion. Licences are issued by the Scottish Executive to cover situations where the lethal control of seagulls becomes necessary.

2 Feb 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will take any action on the information concerning e-commerce in Scotland in chapter 9 of the report Business in the Information Age: International Benchmarking Study 2000 by the Department of Trade and Industry.

Answer · Wendy Alexander: Chapter 9 of <I>Business in the Information Age </I>demonstrates that Scotland has made significant progress in the adoption of technologies for business purposes since the previous year, both relative to other regions of the UK and in actual terms. Scotland …

1 Feb 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive why the residents of Biggar were refused access to the research conducted in the area by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency last year in connection with the application by West of Scotland Water to release effluent into the River Clyde.

Answer · Sam Galbraith: The Scottish Environment Protection Agency advises that at no time did it refuse access to any environmental information in connection with the proposed discharge.

1 Feb 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what regulations are in place to govern the release of sewage effluent into the River Clyde by West of Scotland Water.

Answer · Sam Galbraith: Legislation governing the discharge of sewage effluent to controlled waters (including the River Clyde) includes the Control of Pollution Act 1974 (as amended) and the Urban Waste Water Treatment (Scotland) Regulations 1994.

1 Feb 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many civil service jobs have been moved to Dumfries and Galloway since July 1999 and how many will be moved to the area in the next 12 months.

Answer · Angus MacKay: The Scottish Executive and its agencies currently have around 230 posts in Dumfries and Galloway. There has been no transfer of Scottish Executive posts to this area since July 1999. Two new posts have been created in the region.<P>Last December I announced t…

31 Jan 2001 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to impose statutory duties relating to flood defence and flood warning.

Answer · Sam Galbraith: The Executive has no plans to impose statutory duties relating to flood prevention or flood warning beyond those introduced by the Flood Prevention and Land Drainage (Scotland) Act 1997.

26 Jan 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what studies it has made into the effect on the local food chain of depleted uranium shells fired into the Solway Firth.

Answer · Susan Deacon: Environmental monitoring of depleted uranium (DU) is undertaken by the Defence Evaluation Research Agency (DERA) Radiation Protection Services. The programme includes analysis of marine environmental samples collected in the Solway Firth area, and the reports…

24 Jan 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the announcement by the Office of the E-envoy on 16 January 2001 that more than 40% of UK government services are now available online, how many of its services are currently available over the Internet.

Answer · Angus MacKay: Current evidence suggests that, on the basis of the progress measures defined by the Office of the e-Envoy for its Electronic Service Delivery Progress Report, more than 25% of services provided by the Scottish Executive and its agencies are available online,…

23 Jan 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to ban, on safety grounds, mobile telephone masts on land it owns in the light of the decision by Kent County Council to do likewise.

Answer · Sam Galbraith: The Executive has no such plans.

23 Jan 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what studies it has conducted into the risks of having its websites "hacked" and what measures it is taking to ensure that any such attacks are not successful.

Answer · Angus MacKay: The Scottish Executive commissioned a study in August 2000, by an external company specialising in web security, to identify what if any vulnerability existed on its website. The Scottish Executive maintains a high level of IT security vigilance and keeps cou…

23 Jan 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-11900 by Sarah Boyack on 27 December 2000, what specific systems of audit and accountability will be applicable to the Strategic Rail Authority.

Answer · Sarah Boyack: As a Non-Departmental Public Body, established by the Transport Act 2000, the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) will be subject to external audit. Accountability for funding of the SRA by the Scottish Executive for the Scottish passenger rail franchise will be i…

23 Jan 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what studies it has conducted into the potential impact of the local loop unbundling process on rural economies and what steps it is taking to make rural businesses aware of the findings of any such studies.

Answer · Wendy Alexander: The Scottish Executive has commissioned Scottish Enterprise and Highlands &amp; Island Enterprise to collaborate on a study to investigate the potential impact of unbundling across Scotland. We will make the results of this study available to businesses.

23 Jan 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to assess the applicability in Scotland of Bristol City Council's decision to allow Internet voting in the referendum currently taking place.

Answer · Peter Peacock: The results of the referendum in Bristol showed that 2.68% of the total votes cast were done so by internet as opposed to 94.18% by post. Whilst there are no current plans to introduce alternative methods of voting in local government elections in Scotland, t…

23 Jan 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-11898 by Sarah Boyack on 27 December 2000, what specific measures through the Scottish passenger rail franchise it will take to ensure that the rolling stock for rural services and less profitable lines is of a high standard and of the same standard …

Answer · Sarah Boyack: We intend that our directions and guidance for the renewal of the Scottish passenger rail franchise will include references to improving the overall quality and specification of rolling stock in use across the entire Scottish passenger railway network. These …

19 Jan 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1O-2801 by Mr Alasdair Morrison on 18 January 2001, what steps it is taking to examine the town improvement 'one initiative operating in England and Wales and explore whether it could be applied in Scotland.

Answer · Peter Peacock: We are currently examining the viability of introducing Business Improvements Districts/Town Improvement Zones in Scotland. Informal consultation has already taken place with business representative organisations. The Scottish Valuation and Rating Council are…

19 Jan 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress it has made in implementing the recommendations of the Knowledge Economy Task Force.

Answer · Wendy Alexander: The conclusions of the Knowledge Economy Task Force will be reflected in the Scottish Executive report on the cross-cutting initiative on the knowledge economy which will be published shortly.

19 Jan 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the First Minister intends to visit Lockerbie Primary School and Lockerbie Academy when he is next in Dumfries and Galloway.

Answer · Henry McLeish: I have no immediate plans to visit Dumfries and Galloway, but I hope that it may be possible to visit the area at some point later in the year.

18 Jan 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether a slimming down of Visitscotland's management structure would be sufficient to deal with any problems which exist in relation to the performance of Visitscotland and reverse the drop in overseas visitors to Scotland.

Answer · Alasdair Morrison: The implementation of the recommendations contained in the recent Management Review of the Scottish Tourist Board is only one of the actions that are being taken to further support our tourism industry. The Executive's Tourism Strategy contains many new actio…

18 Jan 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the independent consultants currently working with Visitscotland are reviewing the Ossian project and what action it intends to take over the performance to date of the Ossian project.

Answer · Alasdair Morrison: The project is not at present being reviewed by independent consultants. Continuous improvements are being achieved in the performance of the website, which attracted over 3 million user sessions last year.

18 Jan 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the original registration procedure for the Ossian project was adequate; if so, why more companies did not register and what action it is taking to ensure that registration will increase in the future.

Answer · Alasdair Morrison: The registration procedure is an operational matter for the Scottish Tourist Board. I will ask the Chairman to write to you. The website now contains details of more than 17,400 businesses.

18 Jan 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is satisfied with the accessibility and structure of the Visitscotland website; if not, why adequate steps were not taken during the development of the website to ensure that it was easily located by Internet search engines and how much it will cost to correct any problems in …

Answer · Alasdair Morrison: I am satisfied with the progress that the Scottish Tourist Board is making in developing the visitscotland.com website. The action that the board is taking includes investing in improving accessibility through search engines. A new look site, which will inclu…

18 Jan 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide a breakdown by parliamentary constituency of the #20 million funding announced for libraries for a network of learning centres.

Answer · Allan Wilson: Distribution of the £11.5 million allocated for the development of the public library network is a matter for the New Opportunities Fund. I shall ask the Director to write to the member.

18 Jan 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what measures it has in place to increase the numbers of trained psychologists in the NHS across Scotland and in particular in the Dumfries and Galloway area in order to improve waiting times for initial appointments.

Answer · Susan Deacon: We have recognised the need to address issues of education, training and workforce planning for Clinical Psychologists. The Scottish Council for Postgraduate Medical and Dental Education (SCPMDE) was given responsibility for the support of the postgraduate tr…

15 Jan 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on the progress of projects which have received funding from the Modernising Government Fund and, in particular, the development of a new customer service centre in South Lanarkshire, the "eCare Project" and the use of telecommunication technology in public access…

Answer · Angus MacKay: On 18 December 2000 I announced £26 million of funding to support 36 projects. The funds have still to be drawn down and at the present time it is too early to say how the projects are progressing.<FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=2><P>All of the projects are being mon…

12 Jan 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance it issues on the maintenance of cycletracks, particularly in relation to sweeping and the removal of debris.

Answer · Sarah Boyack: In December 1999 the Scottish Executive published the consultation paper 'Cycling by Design' providing design guidance for all aspects of cycling infrastructure. Sections 12.40-12.71 inclusive of that document provides general guidance on the maintenance of c…

12 Jan 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what funds it has made available to Dumfries and Galloway Council for the maintenance of cycletrack and bridges within Dumfries and Galloway.

Answer · Sarah Boyack: The Scottish Executive does not allocate funds to councils for the maintenance of individual road elements such as cycletracks and bridges. Any increase in the length of road to be maintained by a local authority is taken into consideration by the method by w…