- Asked by: Ben Wallace, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 February 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 7 March 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive to provide a breakdown of the (a) Objective 1; (b) Objective 2 and (c) Objective 5b Scottish structural fund payments received from Her Majesty's Treasury in each year from 1996 to 1999.
Answer
Payments received from the European Commission via the Bank of England and Treasury were as follows:
| £ Sterling |
| 1996* | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 |
| Objective 1 | 43,559,706 | 18,406,782 | 57,027,107 | 12,120,275 |
| Objective 2 | 154,475,536 | 52,548,874 | 27,581,266 | 53,658,049 |
| Objective 5b | 16,016,369 | 18,176,519 | 9,925,675 | 11,418,794 |
| Total | 214,051,612 | 89,132,175 | 94,534,047 | 77,197,118 |
*Calendar YearThe payments are a mixture of payments on account and the balance of final claims due so far for the 1994-99 Programmes. As such, they are not directly comparable to either the commitment or grant expenditure figures for the Programming period to date.
- Asked by: Ben Wallace, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 February 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 7 March 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-4167 by Mr Jack McConnell on 16 February 2000, what legal status and terms of articles of association organisations must have and what activities, broken down by the general subject areas covered by Objective 2 and Objective 3, they must be involved in to be eligible to apply directly for European Structural Funds support.
Answer
European Structural Funds support is provided to public sector bodies, including the higher and further education sectors and to voluntary organisations, industry training organisations, registered charities and Trusts, where their memoranda and articles of association are focused on actions in support of economic and social development.Project applications for both Objective 2 and in Objective 3 must be eligible within the rules as laid down by the EC Council Regulations. Applications are considered on their merits in light of the set criteria agreed by Programme Monitoring Committees.
- Asked by: Ben Wallace, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 February 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 1 March 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to review current provisions for dental care in Scotland.
Answer
The provision of general dental services is kept under review by health boards and Primary Care NHS Trusts, which work to ensure availability of and improvement in dental services.
- Asked by: Ben Wallace, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 February 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 1 March 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether all funds from the last European Structural Funds round have been allocated.
Answer
Yes.
- Asked by: Ben Wallace, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 February 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 1 March 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-2420 by Mr Jack McConnell on 7 December 1999, when it expects to have available a more comprehensive assessment of the costs of answering parliamentary questions and whether this will include a detailed breakdown of the #100 average cost of answering a parliamentary question.
Answer
We are finalising the arrangements for a major study to assess the amount of time Scottish Executive staff spend on dealing with parliamentary questions. This exercise will involve tracking up to 500 written and 200 oral questions. The data gathered from this exercise will be used to calculate the average costs of answering both written and oral questions. We expect the survey to be completed in May and a report, which will include details of the calculation of average costs, will be made available to the Parliament shortly thereafter.
- Asked by: Ben Wallace, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 February 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 24 February 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has plans to exempt Scottish students on specialist courses in England which are unavailable at Scottish institutions from paying tuition fees.
Answer
In the programme of proposals debated and agreed in Parliament on 27 January, we explained the exemption from making a contribution to tuition fees from academic year 2000-01 would only apply to Scottish domiciled and EU students attending Scottish institutions.In saying that I want to stress that no Scottish student studying in England, Wales or Northern Ireland will be worse off than under the present arrangements.We will, however, continue to examine this issue, and others that arise from our proposals, as the work on the detail of the new support scheme progresses.
- Asked by: Ben Wallace, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 February 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 16 February 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether organisations such as Care and Repair will be eligible to apply for European funding under the new structural funds plan.
Answer
The eligibility of organisations to apply directly for European Structural Funds supports depends on a number of factors, including legal status, the terms of any memorandum and articles of association, the activities which the organisation normally engages in and the nature of the project itself. Potential applicants therefore have to be considered on an individual basis, and they should approach the Scottish Executive Development Department for more definitive guidance.
- Asked by: Ben Wallace, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 20 January 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what guidelines were issued to health boards before Christmas in relation to epidemics or winter emergencies.
Answer
Guidance was issued to all Health Boards on the importance of robust planning to manage emergency admissions, seasonal pressures and other peaks in demand. Guidance was also issued by the Chief Medical Officer in Scotland on the administration of flu and pneumonic vaccines to at-risk groups.
- Asked by: Ben Wallace, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 December 1999
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 28 December 1999
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will be monitoring centrally the distribution of Objective 3 funding by geography and grant si'e.
Answer
Yes. The Scottish Executive will monitor the new Objective 3 Programme in a number of ways, including the geographical distribution of the grant awards and the amounts of grant awarded to individual projects.
- Asked by: Ben Wallace, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 25 November 1999
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Current Status:
Answered by David Steel on 8 December 1999
To ask the Presiding Officer under what statutory authority the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body can meet an MSP's legal expenses.
Answer
The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body operates under the statutory authority of the Scotland Act 1998. Under section 21 of the Act it provides the Parliament, or ensures that the Parliament is provided, with the property, staff and services required for the Parliament's purposes. It is in reliance on that statutory authority that the SPCB has agreed to meet an MSP's legal expenses in connection with a court case brought against that Member but which raises important issues of principle concerning the Parliament's main purposes, and the powers of the courts to intervene in them. The judgement itself addressed these wider issues.
