- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 14 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to change the categorisation of racing pigeons to make them a protected species.
Answer
No.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 14 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what methodology is employed by the raptor study groups contracted by Scottish Natural Heritage and whether it will review this method of assessing the raptor population.
Answer
I understand from Scottish Natural Heritage that Raptor Study Group members collect data on numbers, breeding distribution and breeding success of raptors throughout Scotland. SNH licenses this work as part of its ongoing surveillance and monitoring of birds of prey in Scotland, and continues to review and develop its collection and analysis of data on all changes to the natural heritage.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 14 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide a breakdown of spending on assistance for individual learning accounts by it and its agencies for each of the past two years and the current year, broken down by local enterprise company area.
Answer
All expenditure on Individual Learning Accounts (ILAs) has been directed through the Enterprise Network.
During 1999-2000 the Enterprise Network spent £1.2 million on developing the ILA model and determining operational requirements, as well as piloting the design. This also included an allocation of £0.4 million to Scottish Enterprise Grampian for its pilot, of which £0.3 million was for the payment of incentives to ILA holders.
Some further learning account projects were also run by a number of LECs, including Fife, during 1999-2000 using European Objective 4 funding together with their own discretionary funds. Information on the costs to individual LECs is not available.
Whilst a number of spending commitments have been made in the current year, actual expenditure to date by the Enterprise Network as a whole, including the LECs, has been £30,000.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 14 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what its estimates are of forestry related exports from Scotland in each of the past three years.
Answer
The latest available data on forestry exports from Scotland are provided in the tables below:
| Exports to the rest of the UK£ million | Exports to the rest of the world£ million |
Forestry Harvesting | 1996 | 75.5 | 14.2 |
| | 1995 | 52.8 | 7.7 |
| | 1994 | 27.2 | 2.3 |
Source: Scottish Input-Output Tables and Multipliers 1996, 1995, 1994; Table 3.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Peter Peacock on 14 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what the estimated value is of the outstanding repair and maintenance requirements of secondary schools in Kilmarnock and Loudoun.
Answer
The overall management of their school building stock is a matter for individual education authorities. Detailed information of the kind requested is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 14 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to implement emergency measures to deal with the current state of the dairy industry in Ayrshire.
Answer
The Scottish Executive recognises the difficult times affecting dairy farmers in Ayrshire. This is why the dairy sector was included in the recent special aid package announced on 30 March. The position is being kept under review. However, it is important to recognise that the nature of European Union dairy regime and the tightly drawn state aid rules mean that it is difficult to provide direct assistance outwith the normal rules.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 14 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what number and percentage of bank account arrestments were exercised last year on people who were on benefits at the time of arrestment.
Answer
The information requested is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 14 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what its plans are for tackling unemployment in Hamilton and Bellshill.
Answer
I would refer Mr Neil to the answer which I gave to his earlier question on this subject on Thursday 8 June (S1W-7197).
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jackie Baillie on 14 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide an estimate, by local authority area, of the shortage of high support and medium support housing units required to meet the needs of people with severe learning difficulties; what is the actual and projected spend on such units by local authority for the current year and each of the next two years, and whether it has a different policy for supporting those who are coming out of residential care into the community and those who are coming from a family care environment as to their eligibility for such units.
Answer
Information on the shortage of high support and medium support housing units by local authority area to meet the needs of people with severe learning disabilities is not held or collected centrally.
Levels of actual and estimated spend on such units owned by local authorities are a matter for local authorities themselves to determine in the light of local estimates of need.
It is also for local authorities to determine how such units are allocated.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 14 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what has been the number of redundancies in the forestry and related industries since May 1999.
Answer
The information requested on redundancies in the forestry and related industries is not held centrally.
