- Asked by: Irene Oldfather, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 June 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 13 June 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of the fact that the proposed community casualty unit at Ayrshire Central Hospital in Irvine is expected to take away 60% of casualty cases from Crosshouse Hospital accident and emergency (A&E) department in Kilmarnock and that Crosshouse Hospital will not now be required to pick up any additional cases due to the closure of the Ayr A&E unit, whether any consideration has been given as to the sustainability of A&E services at Crosshouse Hospital.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-645 on 13 June 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Irene Oldfather, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 June 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 13 June 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what facilities are planned for the community casualty unit at Ayrshire Central Hospital in Irvine.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-645 on 13 June 2007. All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament’s website; the search facility forwhich can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Irene Oldfather, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 May 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 8 June 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans, in conjunction with Scottish Water, to review water and sewerage charges.
Answer
The Scottish Executive intendsto consult on its principles of charging for the period 2010-14 in the autumn.
- Asked by: Irene Oldfather, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 May 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 8 June 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will consider any discount measures for churches and charitable organisations should it decide not to renew the current water and sewerage charge exemption scheme beyond 2010.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-326 on 8 June 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Irene Oldfather, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 May 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 8 June 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will consider the further extension of the water and sewerage charge exemption scheme for churches and charitable organisations beyond its scheduled end date in 2010.
Answer
The Scottish Executive’s generalpolicy is that all customers, including charitable organisations and other organisationswhich serve a public function, should contribute to the cost of the water servicesthat they use. Some of these organisations are currently exempt from paying waterservices charges under the water services charges exemption scheme.
The Executive previously extendedthis scheme from 2006-10 to allow more time for these organisations to prepare topay for their water services. It now intends to consult on its wider principlesof charging (including its consideration of the exemption scheme) for 2010-14, whichit expects to publish in the autumn.
- Asked by: Irene Oldfather, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 May 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 8 June 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will give any consideration to banning vessels from fishing for spurdog on Scottish sea lochs during the height of the spurdog breeding season.
Answer
Scientific advice indicates thatspurdog can be vulnerable to over exploitation and recommends that there shouldbe no targeted fishing. Whilst current EUlegislation prohibits such a fishery in the North Sea, the prohibition does notapply to the North East Atlantic area. Consideration is currently being given at the EUlevel to extending the prohibition to all EU waters.
- Asked by: Irene Oldfather, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 May 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 6 June 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what analysis it has carried out of the presence of the spurdog species in sea lochs.
Answer
During 2005,Fisheries Research Services conducted surveys in the Loch Sunart and Loch Hournareas as part of research into the use of inshore habitat by juvenile fish. Spurdog,in the weight range 12 to 20 kilograms, were found in quite large numbers inthose areas.
- Asked by: Irene Oldfather, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 May 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 6 June 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is aware of any threat to the spurdog species caused by overfishing, particularly in light of concerns that reproductive females, which are pregnant for nearly two years, are targeted by fisheries due to their large size.
Answer
I am aware that scientificadvice indicates that Spurdog, which is a slow developing species with lowfecundity, can be vulnerable to over exploitation and recommends that there shouldbe no targeted fishing.
- Asked by: Irene Oldfather, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 May 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 31 May 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what priority it will place on encouraging economic development in Scotland.
Answer
In his statement to parliamentlast week, the First Minister set out the future direction of economic policy inScotland. He made clear that delivering faster and more sustainable growth is thisgovernment’s overarching priority.
In particular, we have set ourselvesan explicit objective to increase Scotland’s rate of growth to at least match UK growth duringthis parliamentary term. Equally important, we have set ourselves a further objectivethat all our citizens should benefit from this growth and that this growth shouldbe environmentally sustainable.
Economic success is the prerequisiteof every other priority for this government, whether that is a world-class educationsystem, a properly funded and respected national health service or getting peopleinto employment as a means of fostering a sense of responsibility and social cohesion.
- Asked by: Irene Oldfather, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 16 March 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 23 March 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to ensure that bus drivers are aware of the terms of the Thistle Travel Card scheme and treat passengers presenting such cards with due patience and consideration.
Answer
The Executive initiallyprovided funding of £50,000 to ENABLE to produce the Thistle Card, guidance tolocal authorities and promotional materials. In 2003-04 an additional £21,557 wasprovided to produce further leaflets and promotional material for the scheme. Afurther £29,258 was later awarded to ENABLE to carry out research into theeffectiveness of the scheme.
Officials are currently workingclosely with ENABLE to re-launch the scheme and devise an appropriate trainingprogramme for transport operators, with funding from the Executive.
