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-17414

Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 August 2001
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 29 August 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-15199 by Ross Finnie on 18 June 2001, what the current status is of the Dumfries and Galloway economic recovery plan.

A working group comprised of officials from the local council and agencies as well as the Scottish Executive has met on several occasions to provide strategic co-ordination of the recovery plan. The announcements of extra Scottish Executive resources to alleviate hardship and assist recovery were influenced by these discussions. The group will continue to take stock of the progress in each of the main areas of the plan.

Question reference: S1W-17416

Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 August 2001
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Morrison on 29 August 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what impact the funding allocated to VisitScotland prior to 2 August 2001 in connection with the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak has had to date on (a) the number of tourists visiting and (b) the level of tourist spending in (i) Dumfries and Galloway and (ii) Scotland, compared in particular with the number of visitors and level of spending anticipated had this funding not been made available.

The Executive is working with VisitScotland to monitor the effectiveness of the actions put in place to assist the tourism industry to recover from the effects of foot-and-mouth disease. It is not, however, possible at this time to make the assessment requested and Mr Mundell will appreciate that tourist demand is affected by a number of factors. Much of the funding provided prior to 2 August was also used to alleviate immediate hardship.

Question reference: S1W-16523

Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 June 2001
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 13 August 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to grant licences for shooting game in Dumfries and Galloway in 2001-02 and, if so, what conditions will apply.

The shooting of game within Dumfries and Galloway will not be subject to any extra licensing system as a result of Foot and Mouth Disease. Shooting within the Infected Area is restricted by Section 29 of the Foot and Mouth 1983 Order.Elsewhere, shooting is allowed, but in order to ensure biosecurity, the Scottish Executive issued guidance on shooting on 4 July and published a code of conduct for grouse shooting on 20 July.

Question reference: S1O-05504

Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 June 2001
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 28 June 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how it will respond to the reports of the inquiries into the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak.

I wrote to the Convenor of the Rural Development Committee on 16 July to make the Committee aware of the publication of the first of the official GB Inquiries into foot-and-mouth disease and explaining that the Scottish Executive would respond collectively to the conclusions and recommendations from the Royal Society, Royal Society of Edinburgh and Dr Iain Anderson's Lessons to be Learned reports. I plan to let the committee have the Executive's detailed response to the three reports this autumn.

Question reference: S1O-05281

Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 June 2001
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 28 June 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what decision it has reached on which first-round funding bids to improve school buildings have been successful.

Question reference: S1W-15842

Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 May 2001
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 27 June 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many claims for compensation have been upheld by each water authority since 1997 and what the reason for the decision was in each case.

Question reference: S1W-15840

Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 May 2001
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 27 June 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how much compensation has been paid out by each water authority since 1997.

The following tables set out, by authority, the compensation payments made by the three water authorities, as far as the information is available. The water authorities pay compensation when levels of service fall below expected standards. Customer service standards were revised and standardised, with increased payments, across the three authorities in October 2000.Payments are also made in respect of a) public liability claims for injury, property damage, utility damage and b) ex gratia payments for which an authority has no legal liability. In the public liability claims tables, the figure for the total number of claims made includes claims which are outstanding and have not been resolved.

East of Scotland Water

Customer Standards

	2000-01		1999-2000		1998-99		1997-98
Standard	No.	Value (£)	No.	Value (£)	No.	Value (£)	No.	Value (£)
Late Response to Complaint	7	140	12	140	53	400	11	150
Supply Interruptions	99	7,280	9	300	1	70	-	-
Internal Sewer Flood	44	14,659	51	7,709	69	13,043	62	9,138
Missed Appointments	10	500	-	-	-	-	-	-
Late Response to Billing Enquiries	492	9,730	-	-	-	-	-	-
Meter Survey Failures	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Meter Installation Failures	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Failure to make automatic payment for Guaranteed Service Standard failure	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Totals	652	32,309	72	8,149	123	13,513	73	9,288

Public liability (PL) and ex gratia payments

	2000-01		1999-2000		1998-99		1997-98
	No.	Value (£)	No.	Value (£)	No.	Value (£)	No.	Value (£)
Total PL Claims	293		373		316		182
Total PL Claims Paid	282	708,493	313	426,679	277	554,991	126	367,746
Injury	42	71,305	77	83,683	81	168,140	44	130,591
Property damage	86	558,158	74	199,457	32	227,695	6	148,205
Utility damage	154	79,030	162	144,539	164	159,156	76	88,950
Ex-gratia payments	295	53,241	204	33,677	10	2,767	2	512

North of Scotland Water

Customer standards

	2000-01		1999-2000		1998-99		1997-98*
Standard	No.	Value	No.	Value	No.	Value	No.	Value
Late Response to Complaint	7	140	-	-	9	90	-	-
Internal Sewer Flood	93	24,451	17	1,953	31	4,158	-	-
Supply Interruptions	209	5,020	93	2,240	23	280	-	-
Late Response to Billing Enquiries	7	140	3	60	1	10	-	-
Missed Appointments	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Meter Survey Failures	5	100	1	20	-	-	-	-
Meter Installation Failures	9	180	-	-	-	-	-	-
Failure to make automatic payment for Guaranteed Service Standard failure	1	20	-	-	-	-	-	-
Totals	331	30,051	114	4,273	64	4,538	-	-

*Figures for 1997-98 are not available.Public liability (PL) and ex gratia payments

	2000-01		1999-2000		1998-99		1997-98
	No.	Value (£)	No.	Value (£)	No.	Value (£)	No.	Value (£)
Total PL Claims	498		381		444		369
Total PL Claims Paid	171	78,642	216	116,877	240	199,368	194	137,878
Injury	4	7,144	4	5,120	6	12,718	12	32,196
Property damage	144	61,238	181	98,706	197	138,731	148	84,229
Utility damage	23	10,260	31	13,051	37	47,919	34	21,453
Ex gratia payments	49	6,166	46	3,257

West of Scotland Water

	2000-01		1999-2000		1998-99		1997-98
Standard	No.	Value	No.	Value	No.	Value	No.	Value
Late Response to Complaint	52	1,110	6	60	2	20	--	--
Internal Sewer Flood	*	30,823	242	35,968	26	1,762	3	175
Supply Interruptions	12	370	14	140	--	--	--	--
Late Response to Billing Enquiries	356	7,120	--	--	--	--	--	--
Missed Appointments	9	160	10	100	--	--	--	--
Meter Survey Failures	1	20	--	--	--	--	--	--
Meter Installation Failures	1	20	3	30	--	--	--	--
Failure to make automatic payment for Guaranteed Service Standard failure	--	--	5	50	--	--	2	20
Totals	*	39,813	282	36,386	28	1783	5	194

* Full data not yet available Public liability (PL) and ex gratia payments

	2000-01		1999-2000		1998-99		1997-98
	No.	Value (£)	No.	Value (£)	No.	Value (£)	No.	Value (£)
Total PL Claims	794		1,364		1,398		1,586
Total PL Claims Paid	226		642		690		743
Injury	17	8,652	41	42,578	74	72,016	102	153,984
Property damage	99	136,800	414	914,261	494	461,206	467	515,710
Utility damage	110	59,255	187	284,262	122	142,094	174	131,566
Ex gratia payments^†	*	39,811	*	58,810	256	19,065	167	11,751

* Full data not yet available.^†The above figures exclude ex gratia payments made under the Burncrooks Incident. In 1998, 27,719 ex gratia payments were made to customers affected by the Burncrooks Incident amounting to a total of £1,385,950.

Question reference: S1W-15841

Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 May 2001
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 27 June 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many claims for compensation each water authority has received since 1997.

Question reference: S1W-16195

Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 June 2001
Current Status: Answered by Wendy Alexander on 19 June 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what response it has made to the comments by Thus and Cable & Wireless on its broadband strategy, as outlined in Business AM on 5 June 2001.

Question reference: S1W-16194

Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 June 2001
Current Status: Answered by Wendy Alexander on 19 June 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what the timetable is for providing the necessary telecommunications infrastructure to enable broadband Internet access across Scotland.