- Asked by: Trish Godman, MSP for West Renfrewshire, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 03 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Elish Angiolini on 17 November 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive how many cases in the (a) Sheriff and (b) High Court involving allegations of physical and/or sexual abuse against children have been abandoned in the last four years because of the (i) unwillingness or (ii) inability of child witnesses to undergo cross-examination by defence lawyers.
Answer
The information requested isnot available. The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service operates a casetracking system and does not have a statistical database from which this informationabout cases involving physical and/or sexual abuse of children could beextracted.
- Asked by: Trish Godman, MSP for West Renfrewshire, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 03 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 17 November 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive how many sheriff courts are fitted with CCTV systems for interviewing witnesses and how many of these are used for High Court hearings.
Answer
Seven sheriff courts havepermanently installed CCTV systems. These are at Edinburgh, Paisley, Aberdeen, Inverness,Stonehaven, Dundee and Glasgow.
The High Courts in Edinburghand Glasgow also have permanently installed CCTV facilities.
Whilst on circuit, the HighCourt has access to the facilities which are available within the appropriatecourt.
In addition, there aremobile units available within each Sheriffdom which can be utilised.
- Asked by: Trish Godman, MSP for West Renfrewshire, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 03 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 17 November 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive how many cases have been abandoned or postponed in the (a) sheriff and (b) High Court because of the absence of members of juries in the last four years and what action has been taken in relation to those who were absent for spurious reasons.
Answer
No cases have been abandonedor postponed in the High Court or Sheriff Court during the last four yearsowing to the absence of a juror. On occasion proceedings may be delayed for ashort time if a sitting juror is delayed in attending court owing to travelproblems, but detailed records are not kept of such occurrences.
- Asked by: Trish Godman, MSP for West Renfrewshire, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 29 September 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 30 October 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it will take to tackle bed blocking involving people with alcohol-related illnesses.
Answer
The Executive has provided£30 million in 2003-04 to local authority and NHS partnerships to address theproblem of delayed discharge. The partnerships are implementing local joint actionplans that aim to reduce the number of delayed discharges in their area. These planstarget all delays, including people with alcohol-related illnesses.
- Asked by: Trish Godman, MSP for West Renfrewshire, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 29 September 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 30 October 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what financial assistance has been given to the Drinkwise campaign and what level of funding will be awarded to it for the next three years.
Answer
The Executive gave a totalof £1,282,130 to support Drinkwise from 1996 until March 2003 when the campaignwas superseded by the Executive’s Healthy Living Alcohol campaign.
- Asked by: Trish Godman, MSP for West Renfrewshire, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 29 September 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 30 October 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive when additional funding will be provided for its implementation of its plan for action on alcohol problems in (a) Renfrewshire and (b) Scotland.
Answer
The partnership agreement commitsthe Executive to increasing resources to tackle alcohol problems. Decisions onthe level of future funding will be made following a review of the scale of theproblem and submission of outstanding financial information from local alcohol actionteams.
- Asked by: Trish Godman, MSP for West Renfrewshire, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 29 September 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Margaret Curran on 27 October 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding it has committed to social inclusion partnerships (SIPs) for the next three years for programmes dealing with alcohol misuse.
Answer
I have asked Angiolina Foster, Acting Chief Executive of Communities Scotland, to respond. Herresponse is as follows.
Future SIP fund coreallocations have been confirmed to March 2005 and in total will amount to £60 million.It will be a matter for local decision how these resources are used but theywill be available to meet a range of local priorities, including tacklingalcohol problems.
- Asked by: Trish Godman, MSP for West Renfrewshire, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 June 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 26 June 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive whether recent discussions have taken place with Caledonian MacBrayne concerning the ordering of replacement vessels for its passenger ferry fleet.
Answer
We are considering, in conjunction with Caledonian MacBrayne, our future infrastructure and vessel investment requirements as part of the development of the final tender specification for the Clyde and Hebrides ferry services tendering exercise. Decisions about future investment in vessels or infrastructure will be made later this year when a number of investment appraisals being undertaken by the company are complete.
- Asked by: Trish Godman, MSP for West Renfrewshire, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 June 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 26 June 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what the age profile is of the vessels in Caledonian MacBrayne's passenger ferry fleet.
Answer
Caledonian MacBrayne currently operates a fleet of 30 vessels. The year of build for the fleet is shown, in banded form, in the following table:
| Year of Build | Number of Vessels |
| 1998-2003 | 5 |
| 1993-97 | 4 |
| 1988-92 | 6 |
| 1983-87 | 6 |
| 1978-82 | 1 |
| 1973-77 | 8 |
A further new vessel will be introduced to the fleet over the summer and one of the vessels in the oldest category is likely to be withdrawn in the autumn.
- Asked by: Trish Godman, MSP for West Renfrewshire, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 June 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Frank McAveety on 24 June 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive how many listed industrial buildings have been de-listed and subsequently demolished in each of the last four years.
Answer
I have asked Graeme Munro, Chief Executive of Historic Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:A number of buildings are removed from the statutory list of buildings of architectural or historic importance each year because they are no longer, through partial demolition or major alteration, of sufficient interest to merit protection under the legislation. In a few cases, buildings have been taken off the list because, as uninhabited structures, they are better protected as scheduled monuments. No records are kept centrally on what happens to buildings once they have been delisted. The following industrial buildings have been delisted over the last four years:Alloa Tannery Auchtermairnie Mill Former Caledonian Works, Glasgow (dismantled for re-erection)Former Greenhead Engine Works Former Vulcan Tube Works, Glasgow Kilmaurs Mill Robertland Mill Taynuilt Railway Station Woodmill Mill, Dunfermline Three listed industrial buildings have been demolished on public safety grounds in the last four years, all in Glasgow:Watson Street Warehouse Candleriggs Warehouse, Merchant Village Clyde Place Transit Shed Six listed industrial buildings have been demolished in the last four years with Listed Building Consent on the grounds that all alternative uses had been explored without success:Bridgend Mills, Dalry, Ayrshire Tullibody Tannery, Clackmannanshire Greenhead Engine Works, Glasgow Locher Works, Bridge of Weir, Renfrewshire Ferguslie Thread Works, Dining Hall Counting House and Linside Mill, Paisley In addition, five listed industrial buildings have been lost to fire, with consequential demolition in some cases:Clyde Lead Works, Cornwall St, Glasgow Weensland Mill, Hawick Larchfield Works, Dundee British Ropes, Dalmarnock Rd, Rutherglen Phoenix Tube Works, 26 and 50 Dalmarnock Rd (two items), Rutherglen, Glasgow.
