- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 September 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 24 October 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the funding package for local government is sufficient to ensure that street lighting is maintained and that lights are neither turned off nor dimmed during hours of darkness.
Answer
The Executive supportslocal authority core revenue expenditure through its block grant. In distributingthis block grant, the Executive provides support of approximately £365 million perannum through the roads maintenance, winter maintenance, road lighting and roadadministration Grant Aided Expenditure (GAE) lines. As part of Spending Review 2004, the Scottish Executiveprovided local authorities with an additional £60 million in GAE for each of 2006-07and 2007-08 for road maintenance, winter maintenance and street lighting. It is for each local authority to decide howbest to allocate its block grant, based on its local needs and priorities.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 02 October 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 17 October 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will take any steps to promote the continuance and survival of community radio stations.
Answer
Broadcasting is a reserved matterand is the responsibility of the Department for Media, Culture and Sport (DCMS).
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 02 October 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 17 October 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is aware of charges being faced by community radio stations in respect of broadcasting over the web; whether it will take any steps to protect community radio from the financial consequences of any such charges; whether it considers that any legislative reform should be made to protect community radio from such charges, and what representations it has made to Ofcom on these matters.
Answer
Broadcasting is a reserved matterand is the responsibility of the Department for Media, Culture and Sport (DCMS).
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 02 October 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 17 October 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has had any contact with community radio stations such as Lochbroom FM, Oban FM, Argyll FM, Caithness FM, Nevis Radio, Speysound Community Radio, Isles FM, Ross FM, Two Lochs Radio, Cuillin FM and Ness Community Radio and whether it has any concerns that the existence of any of these community radio stations could be jeopardised by the impact of charges made by Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL) and the Performing Right Society (PRS).
Answer
Broadcasting is a reserved matterand is the responsibility of the Department for Media, Culture and Sport (DCMS).
The Phonographic PerformanceLtd (PPL) is a not for profit organisation that issues licences to play music inpublic places and collects royalties for the recording companies and performersfor their rights in the sound recording. A PPL licence is therefore required whena radio station plays music or other sound recordings. The Performing Rights Society(PRS) issues licenses and collects royalties for composers and publishers.
Any concerns about the impactof charges by these organisations should be raised with the independent regulatorfor the UK communications industries, Ofcom, through its website at
www.ofcom.org.uk or by writing to Ofcom, RiversideHouse, 2a Southwark Bridge Road, London, SE1 9HA.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 October 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 10 October 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide assurances to the staff of the Crofters Commission that they will not lose their status as civil servants in future and that it will not be within the remit of the inquiry into crofting to propose that the commission should become a non-departmental public body.
Answer
I can give no suchassurance.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 October 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 10 October 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the staff of the Crofters Commission will be represented on the committee of inquiry on the future of crofting.
Answer
Decisions about thestructure and membership of the committee of inquiry have yet to be made.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 29 September 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 9 October 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will review its position on classifying the Inverness link route as a trunk road and what the impact of such a classification would be on the Executive’s transport budget.
Answer
The Inverness Southern Distributor Road is a local road and the responsibility of Highland Council.
The Scottish Executive has no plans at present to review the trunk road network.
The possibility of investment on the Inverness Southern Distributor Road, as a regionally significant link, is a matter for Highland Council to discuss with HITRANS in the context of the regional transport strategy.
The Scottish Executive support HITRANS through a capital allocation of £3.53 million in the current financial year (2006-07).
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 September 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 6 October 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what Transport Scotland’s projected running costs are in total and broken down into (a) accommodation, (b) salary and (c) other staff costs for (i) 2006-07, (ii) 2007-08, (iii) 2008-09 and (iv) 2009-10.
Answer
The Transport Scotland BusinessPlan 2006-07, published on 19 April 2006, indicates in Annex E, the details of spending programmesfor 2006-07 and 2007-08 financial years.
Spending plans for future years2008-09 and 2009-10 will be determined at the next comprehensive spending review(SR07) and therefore it would be too early to anticipate the outcome of this process.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 September 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 6 October 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what functions were transferred from its Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning Department to Transport Scotland.
Answer
Transport Scotland startedwork as an executive agency in January 2006. The agency is responsible for helpingto deliver the Executive’s £3 billion capital road and rail investment programmeover the next decade, overseeing the safe and efficient running of Scotland’s trunkroads and rail networks and establishing and running a national scheme for concessionarytravel in Scotland.
The Scottish Executive’s TransportGroup remains responsible for:
Coordinatingthe National Transport Strategy for Scotland;
Liaisonwith regional transport partnerships, including monitoring of funding;
Sustainabletransport, road safety and accessibility;
Localroads policy and casework;
Aviation,bus, freight and taxi policy, and
Ferries,ports and harbours.
Further information on the functionsof Transport Scotland can be accessed on its website at:
http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/index.aspx?pageID=1.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 September 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 6 October 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what the total cost was of setting up Transport Scotland.
Answer
As part of the last spendingreview (SR04) settlement, funding was allocated to Transport Portfolio to take forwardour Partnership Commitment to bring forward proposals for a Strategic TransportAuthority, as an agency within the Executive directly accountable to ministers.
Funding of £1.2 million - £2.8million - £3.3 million for years 2004-05, 2005-06 and 2006-07 was ring-fenced atSR04 to take forward the establishment of Transport Scotland the new Executive Agency.
Transport Scotland is stillin its infancy with the building fit-out and relocation of staff being approachedin two phases. This started in May 2006, but the final move of staff has only justbeen undertaken.
The Transport Scotland 2006-07Annual Report will reflect the total actual expenditure of one-off costs relatedto the set-up and establishment of Transport Scotland.
