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-06387

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 April 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sam Galbraith on 11 May 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive how many schools, broken down by local authority area, have a member of staff who has received training in the management of pupils with asthma when they are in school.

Question reference: S1W-04696

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 February 2000
Current Status: Answered by Jack McConnell on 2 May 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list those councils which have disputed their local government finance settlements for 2000-01 and whether it will detail its response to each.

As in previous years, the distribution of the 2000-01 local government finance settlement has been calculated on a basis agreed through collective consultation with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities. A number of councils have made representations to me in terms of how the settlement has impacted on them and my response has been to explain the background to our decisions and to take on board their representations for future discussions.

Question reference: S1W-05700

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 March 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sarah Boyack on 28 April 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will address the concerns of the Scottish fish processing industry about the impact on the industry and the jobs it provides of the latest changes to the North of Scotland Water Authority effluent and water charges by introducing a new mechanism for capital investment cost recovery by water authorities.

North of Scotland Water Authority, in common with the other two Scottish water authorities, is committed to a significant capital investment programme to meet exacting standards of wastewater discharge and drinking water quality. This will deliver essential improvements to public health and the environment for the Scottish people.

I am aware of the Scottish fish processing industry's concerns over water and trade effluent charges made by the North of Scotland Water Authority. In relation to effluent charges, all of the water authorities have been moving towards full cost recovery, on the "polluter pays" principle. To do otherwise would result in other water charge paying sectors subsidising certain areas of industry, and that would be neither fair nor equitable. I understand that North of Scotland Water Authority has made a number of adjustments to its charges scheme in order to help the fish processing industry.

The authorities' capital and operating costs are met by a combination of borrowing consents from central government and income from customer revenues. I do not consider that a new mechanism for capital investment cost recovery provides a means of addressing the fish processors' concerns.

Question reference: S1W-04836

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 March 2000
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 26 April 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to introduce pilot schemes to allow greater prescribing of drugs and medicines by pharmacists.

A Project Board has been formed to take forward the planning of this initiative which I announced on 8 November 1999 in my speech to the National Symposium on "Pharmacy and the NHS in Scotland". Our intention is to have pilot schemes up and running by the end of this year, which will allow community pharmacists to supply to specific patients, direct and free of charge, certain Pharmacy and General Sales List medicines which would otherwise have been obtained on prescription from a GP.

Question reference: S1W-06084

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 April 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sarah Boyack on 20 April 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has been asked by representatives of the Scottish fishing fleet, or others who sail off the East Aberdeenshire coast, to make representations to Her Majesty's Government requesting that the foghorn at Boddam Lighthouse be brought back into service pending consultation with all interested parties and whether it has made, or will make, such representations.

Safety of navigation is a reserved matter and the responsibility of the Department of the Environment Transport and the Regions. Under the Merchant Shipping Act 1995, management and superintendance of all lighthouses, buoys and beacons off the Scottish coastline falls to the Northern Lighthouse Board. The board consults with a range of interested parties, including fishing interests, in determining the need for fog signals.

The Scottish Executive maintains regular contact with Her Majesty's Government on a range of issues including matters relating to maritime safety.

Question reference: S1W-05303

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 March 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sarah Boyack on 13 April 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether, following the latest deaths at the Ellon junction on the A90, it will now take immediate action to improve road safety on the A90 between Aberdeen and Peterhead.

Question reference: S1W-05701

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 March 2000
Current Status: Answered by John Home Robertson on 11 April 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it intends to take to implement a single licence system to enable Scottish herring fishermen to operate in both the North Sea and off the West coast.

Single area licensing for herring fisheries was introduced in the UK in 1996 to safeguard North Sea stocks.

A review of pelagic management arrangements in the UK was undertaken jointly by the industry and Fisheries Departments last year. The working group's report, a copy of which was placed in SPICe in January, recommended retention of single area licensing for herring but with some relaxation in the arrangements for uplifting licences. A further review will take place towards the end of the year.

Question reference: S1W-05576

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 March 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sarah Boyack on 6 April 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will provide substantive answers to questions S1W-4449, S1W-4450 and S1W-4451 on Scottish trust ports, and why it has not answered them to date.

Question reference: S1W-05571

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 March 2000
Current Status: Answered by Iain Gray on 6 April 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether Aberdeenshire Council has received direct funding for use by voluntary drug and alcohol support groups.

Question reference: S1W-05572

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 March 2000
Current Status: Answered by John Home Robertson on 6 April 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to introduce contraceptive measures to the Scottish seal population to control the current high level of seal numbers which is affecting Scottish fisheries.

There are at present no plans to introduce contraceptive measures to control the Scottish seal population but the Scottish Executive will continue to assess the potential of any such measures on an ongoing basis.

In 1998, the Executive asked the Special Committee on Seals (SCOS) of the Natural Environment Research Council to assess whether contraceptive sterilisation of seals might be feasible to stabilise or reduce Scottish grey seal numbers. Canadian research had proved that a viable sterilisation method was available.

On the basis of advice provided by SCOS it was concluded that there would be considerable practical and financial problems involved in attempting a successful sterilisation programme using this method in Scotland. Scottish seal populations are more scattered and more wary of humans than in Canada. In order to stabilise the grey seal population at its 1997 level of 95,000 it was estimated that a total of 14,000 adult females would need to be sterilised in the first year with gradually reducing annual numbers thereafter reaching 3,000 after some seven years. In order to reduce the seal population below this level, much greater numbers of seals would need to be sterilised. In the meantime the existing population would, of course, continue to eat fish.