- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 04 February 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 18 February 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what the estimated cost will be to the NHS in 2002-03 of the increased rates of employers' National Insurance Contributions.
Answer
The actual cost of employer's National Insurance Contributions is dependent on the staff mix within each NHS board. The overall costs are not held centrally but will be available from each NHS board.The cost of employer's National Insurance Contributions will be met from NHS board's unified budgets which are to increase by 7.2% on average in 2002-03.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 04 February 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 18 February 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to introduce a pilot scheme, similar to the one in England, whereby speed cameras are painted yellow to make them more visible to motorists thereby encouraging them to reduce their speed.
Answer
The Scottish Executive agrees with the proposals to make speed cameras more conspicuous. Discussions are taking place with the police and other interested parties to determine how best this should be done.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 04 February 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Peter Peacock on 18 February 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what the estimated costs will be to local authorities in 2002-03 of the increased rates of employers' National Insurance Contributions.
Answer
We do not make separate estimates for the wide range of individual factors that might impact on local authority expenditure levels. The actual costs of National Insurance Contributions by local authority employers will depend, in part, on local policy choices about staffing levels, etc.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 04 February 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 18 February 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with local authorities on limiting damage and nuisance caused by seagulls.
Answer
The last meeting with local authority representatives to discuss this subject took place in September 2000. Policy in relation to problems caused by gulls is clear and well-established.Where a threat to public health or public safety exists, local authorities already have discretionary powers (under general licence SEGEN/10) to control herring gulls and greater and lesser black-backed gulls. In addition, action can be taken by local authorities to limit the availability of food in urban areas and to reduce the attractiveness of potential nesting and roosting sites.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 01 February 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 15 February 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-21265 by Mr Andy Kerr on 16 January 2002, how it plans to promote the e-Government Interoperability Framework across public bodies.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-21249 on 17 January 2002. In addition to the information given there, the bidding guidance for the Modernising Government Fund (MGF) states that all MGF projects will be required to comply with the interoperability standards (including eGIF) before MGF funding is awarded.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 01 February 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 15 February 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive when the new train crew depot at Dumfries as announced in the strategic plan of the Strategic Rail Authority is due for completion.
Answer
This is an operational matter for ScotRail. I understand, however, that this depot began operation in August 2001, and is expected to become fully operational in the course of this year.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 01 February 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 15 February 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-21264 by Mr Andy Kerr on 16 January 2002, when e-voting will become an option for Scottish voters.
Answer
It is possible that e-voting pilots will be available in 2003. However, this will depend on the final proposals being agreed with all relevant parties, including the Scottish Executive, local authorities and the Electoral Commission.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 01 February 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Wendy Alexander on 15 February 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive how much Scotland will receive of the #7.6 billion investment by Her Majesty's Government on science, engineering and technology in 2003-04.
Answer
The total provisional expenditure referred to, which is shown in Table 2 of the Department of Trade and Industry's publication The Forward Look 2001, includes budget figures for a variety of programmes, some of which apply only in England; some apply only in the Devolved Administrations; some apply across the whole of the UK. Within the total planned expenditure of £5.1 billion shown in this table on UK civil science, engineering and technology, it is estimated that over £0.5 billion will be spent in Scotland by the Scottish Executive, the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council, the Department of Trade and Industry and the UK Research Councils. Figures are not available on how much of the £2.2 billion planned research and development expenditure by the Ministry of Defence will be spent in Scotland. The remaining £0.3 billion relates to UK contributions to EU research programmes.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 01 February 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 15 February 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will detail the plans to tackle trespass and vandalism on railways as announced in the strategic plan of the Strategic Rail Authority.
Answer
Railway safety is a reserved matter. This includes issues surrounding trespass and vandalism. It is for the Health and Safety Executive, in conjunction with the Strategic Rail Authority, to set out plans to tackle trespass and vandalism.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 01 February 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Wendy Alexander on 15 February 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-21287 by Ms Wendy Alexander on 16 January 2002, when the Accessing Telecoms Links Across Scotland project by Scottish Enterprise will be completed.
Answer
Scottish Enterprise launched phase 1 of the Accessing Telecoms Links Across Scotland project (ATLAS) on 4 February 2002. The project has the aim of substantially cutting high bandwidth telecoms costs for Scottish businesses. Phase 1 of Project ATLAS will be operational by the end of this year.
