Chamber and committees

Engineering risksfor these projects have been assessed as part of the normal risk assessment processesof Transport Scotland. The conclusions were reflected in the minister’stransport statement of 27 June 2007.

The Cabinet Secretaryfor Health and Wellbeing has asked NHS Ayrshire and Arran and NHS Lanarkshire to provide revised proposals that will see accidentand emergency services continue at their main hospital sites. As such, the proposalswhich the boards submit for independent scrutiny will not include the original proposals.

It will be for eachof the NHS boards to identify a preferred service option through effective optionappraisal, as informed by the report of the Independent Scrutiny Panel. The panelwill, however, comment on the proposed approach to option appraisal which will besubmitted by the boards along with their revised options and supporting evidence.

The strategic networkwas last reviewed overall in the public consultation Shaping the Trunk Road Networkin 1994-95 (the previous review was 1946). This was linked to the reorganisationof local government at the time. Following this, a number of trunking and detrunkingOrders were made, making changes to the local and trunk network.

The criteria appliedare set out in the 1995 Scottish Office document Local Government Reform Shapingthe Trunk Road Network The Government’s Response. A copy is available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 9674).

Ministers did notrequest that the Forth Estuary Transport Authority (FETA) notify its employees priorto the announcement to abolish tolls. When employees were informed is a matter forFETA.

The proposals to abolishthe tolls were well publicised and contained in this Government’s pre-election documentA New Approach: Our First Steps.

The Future Developmentof Air Transport in the UK: Scotland, publishedin July 2002, provided an analysis of the economic impact of airport developmentin Scotland in the context of establishing a UK-wide policyframework for the development of air travel to 2030. This national consultation,published by the Department for Transport (DfT) and the Scottish Executive, wasthe precursor to The Future of Air Transport, the Air Transport WhitePaper published by DfT in December 2003. The white paper, updated by a progressreport published by DfT with Scottish Executive input in December 2006, sets outa policy framework for the development of air travel in the UK up to 2030 againstwhich airport operators, airlines and governments can plan ahead.

On 28 June 2007, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing announcedour intention to develop and publish by the end of this year a refreshed actionplan to implement the principles for health care policy and delivery that were outlinedin the Kerr report. Our action plan will include a new and ambitious target forNHS waiting times: a new whole journey waiting time target of 18 weeks from generalpractitioner referral to treatment. The action plan will set out how we intend tomeet the target by December 2011.

Officials in my departmentare undertaking work on estimates of the costs of introducing the whole journey18-weeks target. This work is on-going. It is not planned to commission independentexpert studies to investigate the practicalities and costs of introducing the target.

Details of our spendingplans for the Health Service in Scotland will be setout in the Comprehensive Spending Review, which is expected to be announced in theautumn.

I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-2943 on 23 August 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The measure of trafficflow on trunk roads is the Annual Average Daily Flow (AADF). The minimum and maximum AADF for each trunk roadin the south-west and north-west trunk road operating company areas is as follows:

		Annual Average Daily Flow Range
Route	Unit	Min	Max
A80	SW	9,921	29,534
A9	NW	1,678	36,425
A75	SW	4,016	21,828
A76	SW	2,932	11,471
A77	SW	2,976	33,093
A78	SW	6,088	30,107
A82	NW	2,184	29,999
A83	NW	2,118	6,630
A84	NW	3,465	7,041
A85	NW	2,185	16,387
A86	NW	1,066	1,256
A87	NW	1,187	4,976
A99	NW	1,943	1,943
A701	SW	4,834	50,168
A725	SW	25,939	56,998
A726	SW	23,423	23,423
A737	SW	10,108	59,571
A738	SW	18,682	18,682
A751	SW	1,443	1,443
A828	NW	1,903	4,847
A830	NW	973	8,166
A835	NW	1,775	9,611
A887	NW	963	963
A889	NW	679	679
A898	SW	27,261	27,261
M8	SW	36,892	113,666
M73	SW	35,945	38,706
M74	SW	6,602	83,359
M77	SW	33,331	59,871
M80	SW	44,866	56,424

 

Transport Scotlandhas operational responsibility for this matter and can be contacted for furtherinformation if required.

Dunoon Pier is ownedby Argyll and Bute Council and the Council was responsible for the improvement worksat the pier. The Scottish Executive’s role was as a co-funder of the project. Thecouncil, the Scottish Executive and HITRANS contributed to the cost of the linkspan.I understand that no other organisation was asked to contribute towards the costof the linkspan.

The Scottish Executivehas no plans at present to extend the eligibility criteria for the Scotland-WideFree Bus Travel Scheme and ferry concessions for older and disabled people. We have,however, given a commitment to review the scheme in its third year of operation.Representations have been received from various bodies about extending eligibility.