Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S1W-13248

Asked by: Colin Campbell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 February 2001
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 30 March 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will make representations to Her Majesty's Government regarding the implications for rural communities of any impact which the proposed changes to EC Directive 97/67/EC on the common rules for the development of the internal market for postal services will have on the economic viability and future role and functions of post offices in remote and rural areas, particularly in the Highlands and Islands.

The Scottish Executive is in regular contact with the United Kingdom Government on a wide range of issues, including moves to promote liberalisation of European postal markets. The Executive is committed to the maintenance of the universal service throughout Scotland at an uniform tariff and recognises the importance of the availability of postal services in rural areas. The Executive welcomed the UK Government's announcement last year that the current size of the rural Post Office network will be maintained until 2006 except where closures are unavoidable.

Question reference: S1W-14254

Asked by: Colin Campbell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 March 2001
Current Status: Answered by Wendy Alexander on 30 March 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-13571 by Ms Wendy Alexander on 9 March 2001, what representations it has made, or plans to make, to Her Majesty's Government to encourage Scottish businesses, in co-operation with the Defence Diversification Agency, to diversify from defence output to civil output within the defence industry.

Question reference: S1W-14252

Asked by: Colin Campbell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 March 2001
Current Status: Answered by Wendy Alexander on 30 March 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-13571 by Ms Wendy Alexander on 9 March 2001, whether it will detail all activities on which it and the Defence Diversification Agency have worked and are currently working in order to encourage the widest exploitation of defence-derived technology.

Question reference: S1W-14253

Asked by: Colin Campbell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 March 2001
Current Status: Answered by Wendy Alexander on 30 March 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-13571 by Ms Wendy Alexander on 9 March 2001, whether it will detail any areas or initiatives which have allowed Scottish businesses to lessen their dependence on the manufacturing of defence equipment and to diversify within the defence industry.

Question reference: S1W-14257

Asked by: Colin Campbell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 March 2001
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 30 March 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how local authorities fund preparatory work on flood prevention schemes which they submit to it for consideration and whether it has any plans to provide funding to cover the costs of such work, irrespective of the outcome of the submission.

It is for local authorities to fund the preparatory work on flood prevention schemes from the resources they have available. The single capital allocation includes provision for flood prevention measures, which may be used to cover scheme preparation costs. In the case of major flood prevention schemes additional resources may be made available by the Executive. The Executive has no plans to change the existing arrangements.

Question reference: S1W-12971

Asked by: Colin Campbell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 January 2001
Current Status: Answered by Jack McConnell on 22 March 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive which local authorities have distributed all of the funding allocated to them under the Excellence Fund to their schools; what proportion of funding each of the local authorities which have not distributed all of their funding to schools has retained centrally; whether any such centrally retained funding can be spent for purposes other than those specified under the Excellence Fund and, if not, how it checks that such funding is spent solely for the purposes specified.

The Executive does not collect information at the detailed level which would be necessary to identify the extent to which Excellence Fund resources are distributed for direct spending by schools. In terms of the grant offer letter and the claim forms which have to be submitted for each programme of the fund, authorities give undertakings that the grant has been used for the purposes for which it has been offered. The detailed distribution of funding will differ from programme to programme and authority to authority.

Question reference: S1W-13571

Asked by: Colin Campbell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 February 2001
Current Status: Answered by Wendy Alexander on 12 March 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has made or will make to Her Majesty's Government in relation to the potential impact on the local economy of any decline in Ministry of Defence orders placed with the Defence Diversification Agency at Rosyth and what the outcome of any such representations has been to date.

Question reference: S1W-12386

Asked by: Colin Campbell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 January 2001
Current Status: Answered by Jack McConnell on 6 March 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-12056 by Mr Jack McConnell on 4 January 2001, what specific issues it made contributions to in the preparations for the Inter-Governmental Conference in Nice; at what stage in each of these issues it was involved, and how often and to what extent the Scottish view prevailed over or modified any divergent United Kingdom view on each of these issues.

Question reference: S1W-12055

Asked by: Colin Campbell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 December 2000
Current Status: Answered by Jack McConnell on 5 March 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many of its ministers or officials were at the Inter-Governmental Conference in Nice.

Question reference: S1O-03043

Asked by: Colin Campbell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 February 2001
Current Status: Answered by Wendy Alexander on 1 March 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has made or will make to Her Majesty's Government regarding the potential impact on employment in Scotland of a defence diversification policy and budget which provides increased assistance to companies diversifying as a result of Ministry of Defence savings in Scotland or other changes in the defence industry.