- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 December 1999
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 22 December 1999
To ask the Scottish Executive what input it will have into the meeting organised by the Department of Trade and Industry for 20 December 1999 to discuss the loss of jobs at the Barmac fabrication yards.
Answer
The Oil and Gas Industry Task Force, of which I am vice-chair, has agreed to establish an Oil and Gas Fabrication Support Group to address the difficulties faced by all the fabrication yards in the UK. The Group had a preliminary meeting on 20 December to discuss how to manage the changes that face the industry. The Scottish Executive will play its full part in this Group, which will also involve the Department of Trade and Industry, local enterprise agencies and training and export agencies.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 06 December 1999
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 20 December 1999
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will state for the financial year 1997-98 the amount of money spent as a proportion of the total budget of the Scottish Arts Council on (a) opera, (b) traditional Scottish music, (c) ja'' and (d) ballet.
Answer
The grant in aid received by the Scottish Arts Council in 1997-98 amounted to £27,313,000. From this the allocations were:
| | £000 | % |
| a) Opera | 6,074 | 22.23 |
| b) traditional Scottish music | 177 | 0.65 |
| c) jazz | 223 | 0.82 |
| d) ballet | 2,453 | 8.98 |
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 03 December 1999
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 17 December 1999
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that doctors should be allowed to refuse necessary medical treatment to a patient solely for the reason that the patient is pursuing litigation for industrial injury, and whether doctors can as a precondition of carrying out such treatment insist that the patient discontinues a legal action for recovery of damages for personal injuries.
Answer
Doctors owe a professional duty of care to their patients. They should do their best to establish and maintain a relationship with each patient and treatment should be based on the exercise of their clinical judgement, assessing the patient's needs and the likely effectiveness of the treatment.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 03 December 1999
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 17 December 1999
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the practice of declining medical treatment to a patient unless the patient discontinues legal action for the recovery of damages for personal injuries is an infringement of that patient's human rights and in particular of the right to a fair and public hearing under Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights as amended to include the provision of Protocol No.11.
Answer
A patient's right to pursue an action for recovery of damages for personal injury is a separate matter from and should not be related to the provision of medical treatment to that patient if such treatment has been considered necessary and appropriate in a doctor's clinical judgement. Whether the circumstances pertaining to a particular patient amount to a breach of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights would have to be considered on the facts of that case.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 28 October 1999
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 16 December 1999
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has received representations from Highlands and Islands Enterprise on the consultation paper Tackling Congestion; whether it supports Highlands and Islands Enterprise's suggestion that the value of the element of the fuel duty escalator collected in designated "extreme rural areas" be returned by Her Majesty's Government to those areas to fund essential transport provision, and whether the estimated amount of such value is approximately #12 million per annum.
Answer
The Executive has received a response from Highlands and Islands Enterprise to its consultation paper Tackling Congestion. A copy of this response has been lodged with the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe). The Executive is considering that response, and has taken into account the views of Highlands and Islands Enterprise and others in its regular meetings with the UK government on this and other reserved issues.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 04 October 1999
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 16 December 1999
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is aware of the health implications of the study Mortality and Morbidity of members of the British Nuclear Tests Veterans Association and their families by Sue Rabbitt Roff of the University of Dundee, and whether it will contact each of the survivors resident in Scotland to establish the state of their health.
Answer
The possible consequences of nuclear weapons tests are reserved matters. All UK citizens are, of course, entitled to receive NHS treatment for whatever ailments they have.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 04 October 1999
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 16 December 1999
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will make representations to Her Majesty's Government regarding the plight of the survivors of the UK nuclear weapons test carried out in Australia and at Kiribati between 1952 and 1963 who are resident in Scotland and, in particular, urge it to reassess previous decisions to refuse such survivors compensation and/or backdated pension payments.
Answer
The possible consequences of nuclear weapons tests are reserved matters.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 1999
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 16 December 1999
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish any letters or other communications to third parties inviting views in connection with the appointment of a new Chairman of Caledonian MacBrayne and, in particular, whether the recipients of any such letter or other communications were (a) invited to respond in confidence (b) assured that their reply would be confidential or (c) given other advice as to whether their reply would or would not be treated as confidential and, if (c), what that other advice was.
Answer
We have no plans to publish letters to third parties. The advertisement for the post of Chairman to Caledonian MacBrayne Limited stated that all correspondence would be treated strictly in confidence. This includes correspondence with referees. Referees were sought in respect of all candidates invited to interview. Referees were provided with the criteria for the post, which were agreed by Ministers at the outset, a background note on the Company and details on the role of Chairman. They were asked to report frankly on their view of the candidate's suitability for the post and were advised in writing that any information provided would be treated in the strictest confidence.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 07 October 1999
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 15 December 1999
To ask the Scottish Executive what instructions or guidance was given to officials by any current or former Minister regarding the implementation of the decision to allow Highland Council to erect road signs in Gaelic and English.
Answer
Highland Council wrote in December 1998 to the Scottish Office Minister for Housing, Transport and European Affairs requesting permission to erect road signs in Gaelic and English throughout its area.
No decision had been reached on the request prior to 1 July 1999, when the Scottish Executive assumed its full powers. I considered the matter and instructed my Private Secretary to write to Highland Council indicating that I was not minded at that time to grant this permission. That letter issued on 20 August.Following representations from and useful discussions with Highland Council on 4 October I decided to permit the Council to erect bilingual directional traffic signs on local roads throughout its area. I wrote to the Council to that effect on 6 October.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 November 1999
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 13 December 1999
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will introduce legislation to enable or require the appointment of a curator ad litem in litigation where (a) one of the parties is a body funded in whole or in part from public funds, and (b) where there is, in the conduct by such body in relation to such litigation, a conflict of interest or (c) it is otherwise in the public interest for such appointments to be made.
Answer
There are no plans to introduce such legislation. In addition to the powers to appoint curators ad litem in specific circumstances provided for in primary and secondary legislation including the Rules of Court, Judges and Sheriffs have an inherent common law power to make such an appointment where it appears to them that the litigant is incapable of conducting litigation on his or her own behalf.
