- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 March 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 29 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what powers in respect of railways it considers should be conferred on regional transport partnerships.
Answer
It is our intention that the new regional partnership in the west of Scotland will have a role in the development, management and monitoring of rail services in its area. Other regional transport partnerships could, in due course, request a similar role.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 11 March 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 29 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that the determination of speed limit orders should continue to be dealt with by its Trunk Roads Network Management Division; whether it is satisfied that the division has sufficient local knowledge to be best placed to determine such matters, and whether there are any plans to devolve such matters to regional transport partnerships.
Answer
The determination of speed limit orders is currently dealt with by the Trunk Road Network Management Division on behalf of Scottish ministers, as the Trunk Roads Authority. Consideration of such orders is progressed in consultation with other stakeholders including the police and local authorities and is also based on advice from the Trunk Road Operating Companies. The determination of speed limits is therefore based on information collected from a number of sources, using both local and detailed technical knowledge and experience.
The functions of the Regional Transport Partnerships will be decided on their establishment and in light of their Regional Transport Strategies. In the longer term it may be possible for the partnerships to take on functions currently exercised by Scottish ministers.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 March 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 29 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether, in light of the forthcoming devolution of railway powers to Scotland, it will urge Network Rail to supply maintenance and renewal budgets for Scotland and to appoint a director for Scotland as a single point of contact for the Executive, with the three main management streams affecting infrastructure and operations and enhancements within Network Rail reporting to this post.
Answer
In future, we expect Network Rail to report separately on its expenditure and performance in Scotland. The Office of Rail Regulation has outlined its intentions in the
Structure of Costs and Charges Review Initial Consultation Document and will shortly consult on this matter.
Network Rail’s internal management arrangements are a matter for the company.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 29 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on the price sought by Network Rail in respect of the grant of a servitude right for a bridge over the Inverness to Aberdeen railway to enable the proposed airport access road to proceed; what powers of intervention it, or any other body, has on this matter and whether such powers will be used, and what effect the action taken on this issue will have on the European funding available for the access road.
Answer
This is a matter for Network Rail, Highland Council and the other parties involved in the development of the bridge and the proposed airport business park.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 March 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 22 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will set out the methodology to be applied for Freight Facilities Grants where the operation is cross-boundary.
Answer
The standard procedure for handling cross-border Freight Facilities Grant (FFG) applications is for the assessment process to be undertaken by the administering authority in the country in which the capital expenditure will take place and for any award of grant to be funded by that authority. The environmental benefits generated by saving lorry miles in England and Wales can be taken into account by the Executive.
If a cross-border rail FFG project involves capital expenditure in Scotland, as well as England or Wales, the expenditure in Scotland would be funded by the Scottish Executive, any expenditure in England by, at present, the Strategic Rail Authority (depending on resource availability) and any expenditure in Wales by the Welsh Assembly Government.
If a cross-border water FFG project involves capital expenditure in Scotland, as well as England or Wales, the expenditure in Scotland would normally be funded by the Scottish Executive, any expenditure in England would be funded by the Department for Transport (DfT) and any expenditure in Wales would be funded by the Welsh Assembly Government. However, the DfT can contribute to the funding of water FFG projects in Scotland and have done so in the past.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 March 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 22 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether raptor study groups, funded by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) to monitor nests, are obliged to disclose nest sites to SNH.
Answer
This is an operational matter for Scottish Natural Heritage.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 March 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 22 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that increases in the premiums for insurance cover for businesses which provide outdoor education are a barrier to the provision of outdoor education experiences for young people; whether it will commission research into this field, and, in particular, whether it will issue a questionnaire to businesses providing outdoor education to obtain information on the costs of such cover and further details of their outdoor education activities in order to assess the extent to which this is an issue.
Answer
We share the general concern over increases in the cost of liability insurance premiums. The level of premium costs is of course an issue for the insurance market as a whole. We keep in touch with the work of the Insurance Cover Working Group, established by the UK Government, to act as a forum for on-going dialogue with the insurance industry and other interests. We are aware that some commercial providers of outdoor activities have concerns about the impact of increased insurance premiums. However, we have no plans to commission research or conduct a survey of outdoor education businesses. Our contacts with outdoor education interests do not suggest that the cost of insurance cover impacts on the ability of local authorities to locate and access enough suitable providers of outdoor education activities.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 January 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 22 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will not make a ministerial statement or lodge a motion for debate on the future of the Clyde and Hebrides ferry services and, in particular, the issue of tendering and whether tendering is necessary, until such time as there has been a reasonable opportunity for those MSPs who wish to hold a meeting with the European Commission officials to do so and whether the Minister for Transport will discuss the timing of any such statement or debate with MSPs from opposition parties.
Answer
During the parliamentary debate on ferry services on 8 December 2004, the Parliament expressed concerns regarding the tendering process. I agreed to discuss these concerns with the European Commission and raised this issue with the European Transport Commissioner, M Barrot, when I met him in Brussels on 9 December. Following that meeting I wrote to M Barrot asking whether there was any way, within the terms of European law to allow the Clyde and Hebrides services to continue to be delivered on a subsidised basis without the need to tender. Further discussions are taking place between the Executive and the European Commission and I will report back to Parliament on this issue as soon as possible.
I appreciate members’ concerns on this issue and propose to hold appropriate consultations with all MSPs with an interest.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 28 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 22 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has the competence to establish a rail passengers' committee to represent the interests of passengers; if so, whether it will establish such a committee, and whether it will confer on it legal powers identical in substance to those of the current rail passengers' committee which is scheduled to be discontinued by the Railways Bill.
Answer
The Scottish ministers have the competence to establish a rail passengers’ committee in Scotland.
Passenger representation will continue to have an important role in Scotland. We are considering the best arrangements for achieving that.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 07 March 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 21 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it has taken to promote the use of deer whistles to prevent accidents and whether it will invite the Deer Commission for Scotland to study the findings of the project funded through the Californian Office of Traffic Safety in the County of Modoc, California, which showed that, in a period of about two years when 1,648 air actuated and electronic deer whistles were distributed free to drivers, there was a 99.6% level of confidence that deer whistles were responsible for the reduction in the number of collisions with deer involving vehicles fitted with these whistles.
Answer
The Deer Commission for Scotland will consider all viable options in their on-going research, consideration and priority site action on deer related road accidents.
