Parliamentary questions
Fergus Ewing
2,894 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.
15 Jun 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what system it has for assessing whether each commitment in A Partnership for A Better Scotland will provide value for money; who is involved in the operation of such a system, and whether any non-civil servants are involved in the operation of the system and, if so, who.
Answer · Andy Kerr: I have responsibility for monitoring delivery of <i>A Partnership for a Better Scotland </i>on Cabinet’s behalf and regularly meet individual portfolio ministers to discuss delivery issues. I am committed to ensuring that the Scottish Executive’s expenditure …
15 Jun 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether any information has been sought from carriers in respect of HITRANS' proposals for a Highlands and Islands air network and, if so, what information has been sought from carriers and, if not, when it intends to seek such information.
Answer · Nicol Stephen: The Scottish Executive has sought information from airlines. This information is aimed at assessing and validating the operational and technical feasibility of the proposals by the Highlands and Islands Strategic Transport Partnership (HITRANS) for an air net…
15 Jun 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what progress it has made in respect of the commitment in A Partnership for a Better Scotland to evaluate HITRANS' proposals for a Highlands and Islands air network; whether consultants have been appointed for this purpose and, if so, which consultants, what their remit is and when they h…
Answer · Nicol Stephen: The Scottish Executive has evaluated the initial report and is continuing its constructive dialogue with the Highlands and Islands Strategic Transport Partnership (HITRANS) on the additional work, commissioned by HITRANS, which includes an economic appraisal.…
15 Jun 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive which consultants are advising it in relation to the Skye Bridge PFI buy-out; whether it has set any date by which the consultants must report to it; whether negotiations with the Skye Bridge Company have commenced and when they expect them to be concluded; whether it will then complete t…
Answer · Nicol Stephen: The Executive has engaged Commerzbank AG to identify and analyse options to end the Skye Bridge tolls. In addition, JMP Consultants is providing technical advice and Scott Wilson Scotland is providing traffic analysis. We are taking all of this work forward a…
15 Jun 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the notice 52027-2004 in the Official Journal of the European Communities, whether it has invited tenders for the relocation of Scottish Natural Heritage headquarters and associated services and, if so, which are the four to six companies invited to submit such tenders and wha…
Answer · Allan Wilson: No, this is an operational matter for Scottish Natural Heritage.</p>
15 Jun 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what involvement it has had with the proposed closure of the Bailey bridge at Nairn harbour; whether any factual evidence as to the condition of the bridge has been made public and, if not, whether it will be, and what consultation there will be with the people of Nairn with regard to thi…
Answer · Nicol Stephen: The closure of the Bailey bridge at Nairn harbour is a matter for Highland Council as both the statutory harbour authority and the local roads authority. The Scottish Executive has no locus to intervene directly and it is the responsibility of the council to …
14 Jun 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether any (a) written or (b) oral report was made to any of its ministers, including the First Minister, by the Chief Executive of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and Head of Legal and Parliamentary Services in March 2002 regarding meetings and discussions of the Holyroo…
Answer · Patricia Ferguson: There is no record of any such written or oral report having been made to ministers in March 2002.</p>
14 Jun 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether all written reports by the Chief Executive of the Crown Office and the Procurator Fiscal Service and Head of Legal and Parliamentary Services to it, including to the First Minister, the former Minister for Parliament and the Minister for Parliamentary Business, have been provided…
Answer · Patricia Ferguson: The Executive has adopted the normal practice of providing papers up to the point at which an inquiry begins. The Executive has therefore provided copies of those reports made before 1 September 2003, the date on which Lord Fraser received his formal letter o…
9 Jun 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to amend the small business rates relief scheme and, in particular, whether businesses under the threshold will be able to benefit from the scheme automatically rather than by application and whether it intends to review the level at which the threshold for relie…
Answer · Andy Kerr: the Scottish Executive has no current plans to amend the Small BusinessRate Relief Scheme which has been in operation for less than 15 months. Underthe existing scheme, all subjects with a rateable value of £10,000 or under automaticallyreceive 5% relief. Onl…
9 Jun 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to S2W-8397 by Allan Wilson on 4 June 2004, whether it has received any advice on the value of (a) Knocknagael, (b) Beechwood and (c) Balrobert farm and whether it has received any advice from the Crofters Commission regarding these matters.
Answer · Allan Wilson: Ministers are advised from timeto time on matters relating to the value of the properties they own. A professional valuation has to be carried out everyfive years for inclusion in the annual accounts. These properties were last valuedas at 31 March 2003 by Bi…
9 Jun 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the statement by the Deputy Minister for Finance and Public Services to the Finance Committee on 13 January 2004 that he did not recognise the #45 million figure in respect of the relocation of Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) from Edinburgh to Inverness, whether the Executive …
Answer · Allan Wilson: I refer the member to the answergiven to question S2W-8598 on 11 June 2004. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for whichcan be found at <a href="http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webap…
2 Jun 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-8346 by Ross Finnie on 2 June 2004, whether it will make the report on the culls in Glenfeshie public and, if so, when.
Answer · Ross Finnie: The report on Glenfeshie was made public on Thursday 10 June and is available on the Scottish Executive website. A copy has been placed in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 32930). </p>
2 Jun 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to continue Minimum Practice Income Guarantee provision beyond 2006.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: Provision of the Minimum Practice Income Guarantee (MPIG) was agreed as part of the UK-wide negotiations on the new General Medical Services contract. Funding for the contract is in place for 2003-04 to 2005-06. Further negotiations will be held on a UK-basis…
2 Jun 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is satisfied that the Scottish Allocation Formula takes adequate account of rurality, and, in particular, the costs of providing out-of-hours cover in rural areas such as the highlands.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: As part of the UK-wide agreement over the new General Medical Services contract, we successfully negotiated a separate Scottish Allocation Formula to address particular issues such as remoteness and rurality. The formula is used to allocate practices global s…
2 Jun 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many GP Registrars it estimates there will be in (a) 2005-06 and (b) 2006-07.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: No targets have yet been set for GP Registrar numbers in 2005-06 and 2006-07. Planning for general practitioner numbers will be taken forward as part of the wider primary care workforce planning process, in the light of the new GMS contract. The results of th…
2 Jun 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the cost of administering the points system under the Primary Medical Services (Scotland) Act 2004 will be, in light of the commitment to ascertain this information given by its Senior Medical Officer to the Finance Committee on 2 September 2003.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The new General Medical Services contract took effect from 1 April 2004. As part of the implementation process a national reference group and working groups were set up to look at the key issues such as Finance and the Quality and Outcomes Framework. This wor…
27 May 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to introduce an ultrasound screening programme for risk families at risk and all 16-year-olds embarking on a sports career, as recommended by Scottish HART.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: In considering the introductionof population screening programmes, the Executive is advised by the National ScreeningCommittee (NSC), an independent UK-wide expert body. The NSC’s Child Health Sub-Grouphas advised that, in the light of current evidence, pre-p…
27 May 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive when Highland Council referred to it the application for closure of a stretch of the Mid-Coul road to Inverness Airport, following an objection being made; when it will make a decision in respect of the granting of a closure order, and whether it considers the instrument landing system to…
Answer · Nicol Stephen: The order was received by the Scottish Executive on 13 August 2003. A decision letter confirming the order was sent to HighlandCouncil on 1 June 2004. </p><p>The Executive regard the instrumentlanding system as important and helped to fund it. The system will…
20 May 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will make representations to Her Majesty's Government in respect of adding impingement syndrome of the shoulder to the list of prescribed diseases and whether it has made any representations to the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council about the matter and whether those who have…
Answer · Lewis Macdonald: This is a reserved matter. Thedecision on which diseases should be prescribed for Industrial Injuries DisablementBenefit purposes is a matter for the Department of Work and Pensions acting on advicefrom the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council and that body i…
20 May 2004 · SPCB Written Question
To ask the Presiding Officer what the present estimate is of losses arising from the failure of Flour City Architectural Metals (UK) Limited and whether this represents an increase from the total previously estimated.
Answer · George Reid: I refer the member to the answergiven to question S1W-30745 on 14 November 2002, and confirm that there has beenno change to the previously reported cost to the project of £3.85 million.</p>
20 May 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the comments made by the Deputy Minister for Environment and Rural Affairs in the members' business debate on the Livestock Improvement Scheme on 19 May 2004 that the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs' legal advice is “categorical” (Official Repo…
Answer · Allan Wilson: I am not prepared to divulgethe terms of the legal advice to Scottish ministers and I am unable to provide thelegal advice obtained by DEFRA. However, I am willing to clarify the position asfollows: </p><p>State aids to agriculture are governed by the Communi…
20 May 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to sell its stud farms in the Highlands and Islands and, in particular, Beechwood Farm and Knocknagael Farm.
Answer · Allan Wilson: There are no current plans tosell Beechwood Farm or Knocknagael Farm.</p>
20 May 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-8057 by Ross Finnie on 19 May 2004, which officials from its Environment and Rural Affairs Department, the Food Standards Agency, the State Veterinary Service and Forestry Commission Scotland are preparing the report for ministers on the conduct of r…
Answer · Ross Finnie: The report was prepared withcontributions from all these bodies. It is current practice not to nameindividual officials.</p>
19 May 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-7432 by Ross Finnie on 4 May 2004, on what date it expects to receive the report on the culls in Glenfeshie.
Answer · Ross Finnie: Ministers received the reporton 26 May 2004.</p>
13 May 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many people reside permanently in caravans and, of these, how many are travelling people.
Answer · Margaret Curran: The 2001 Census records 8,187people (4,547 households) living in a caravan or other mobile or temporary structureat the time of the census.</p><p>The total gypsy/traveller populationwas estimated in July 2003 to be 1,789 people (559 households), compared with…
13 May 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the estimate is of the final expenditure under the 2003 fishing vessel decommissioning scheme and, if this is less than the total of #40 million, whether the unused surplus will be earmarked for other financial assistance to the fishing industry and, if not, for what purpose it will …
Answer · Ross Finnie: We made provision for expenditureof up to £40 million on the 2003 decommissioning scheme. In the event, expenditureon decommissioning is expected to come to just over £30.5 million.</p><p>Any funds allocated to decommissioningand not used for that purpose wil…
11 May 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-7480 by Malcolm Chisholm on 11 May 2004, when it received the final report referred to in the answer; whether the final report will be published before the summer recess, and whether it intends to publish the preliminary report and what the reason is…
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The Temple Report – <i>SecuringFuture Practice</i> – was commissioned by the Executive and submitted on 17 December 2003. </p><p>Following this, preliminary clarificationof the detail within the report was sought and provided.</p><p>Medical education can be c…
5 May 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive who has been awarded the contract to publish the report of the Holyrood Inquiry.
Answer · Patricia Ferguson: Arrangements for the publicationof the Holyrood inquiry report are a matter for Lord Fraser.</p>
5 May 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive which external officials are preparing a report for ministers on the conduct of recent culls in Glenfeshie and, in particular, the role of the Deer Commission for Scotland.<p> The member has provided the following Gaelic translation:<p> A dh' fhaighneachd de Riaghaltas na h-Alba cr iad n…
Answer · Ross Finnie: Thereport is being prepared by Scottish Executive Rural Affairs Department officials,with input from the Food Standards Agency, the State Veterinary Service and ForestryCommission Scotland.</p><p><i>The minister has provided the following Gaelic translation:…
30 Apr 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to paragraph 7.15 of the Scottish Ministerial Code regarding adequate notice to MSPs of ministerial visits to their constituencies, what period constitutes such notice; if there is no minimum notice, whether it will now introduce one, and whether it considers (a) 24 and (b…
Answer · Andy Kerr: Ministers attach a great dealof importance to ensuring that constituency and list MSPs and MPs receive earlynotification of ministerial visits. There is no minimum period of notice, sinceministerial plans may change at short notice. Ministers appreciate the v…