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: S2W-10201

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 September 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 29 September 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it supports the use of single crewed ambulances deployed on the instructions of the Scottish Ambulance Service.

Where the Scottish Ambulance Service assesses that an area should be served by an accident and emergency unit, then a double crewed unit is what should be provided. There may be circumstances where, for example, a member of staff reports sick at short notice and the service is unable to secure a relief member. In these circumstances, a single-crewed unit may be used. Such cases should only arise in the most exceptional of circumstances. Where a single-crewed unit isdeployed, a double-crewed vehicle will also be dispatched where required. Themember is aware that I have recently written to the Chairman of the ScottishAmbulance Service to make it clear that I expect to see service improvementdelivered to urban and rural areas of Scotland in equal measure and that there should be a reduction in the number of occasions when a single crewed ambulance is dispatched.

Question reference: S2W-09972

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 August 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 17 September 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to the statement issued by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) on 28 July 2004 regarding the financial package for SNH staff approved by the Executive, what the phrase “with some added options to leave early” means and what the estimated cost is of such options.

Question reference: S2W-10074

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 August 2004
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 17 September 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Minister for Transport has received a written invitation dated 10 August 2004 inviting him to visit the A96 to view traffic conditions on that road; if so, whether the minister will accept that invitation, on what date and time the visit will take place and whether the minister will agree to speak at public meetings in Inverness and Nairn in order to communicate the Executive’s policy on the A96, in particular regarding the rejection of the case for upgrading of the road.

Question reference: S2W-10318

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 September 2004
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 16 September 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what methodology is used by the “cod association” when calculating figures in respect of catches of west of Scotland cod and nephrops and whether such figures fairly reflect the by-catch of cod in the west of Scotland nephrops fishery.

Figures demonstrating the level of association between West of Scotland cod and Nephrops are calculated by comparing landings data for the two species, by ICES statistical rectangle and by the proportion of cod and Nephrops landed per individual trip. This enables the identification of those fisheries occurring in areas inhabited by Nephrops which could be described as mixed fisheries, where both Nephrops and a significant amount of cod is caught, and those where the catch landed is almost entirely comprised of Nephrops.

The most recent complete data (for 2003) provide an accurate picture of the level of cod by-catch in the Nephrops fishery, which shows that some 75% of Nephrops trips accounting for about 80% of Nephrops landings, individually, have very low by-catch rates (1% cod) and, overall, account for a fractional amount of total west coast cod landings (about 1.5%). The remaining 25% of trips taking 20% of the Nephrops landings could be described as mixed fisheries and, while the rate of cod by-catch in these fisheries is still relatively low, these collectively account for some 13% of total landings of the depleted West of Scotland cod stock.

Question reference: S2W-10111

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 August 2004
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 16 September 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what direct financial benefit will accrue to it from renewable energy developments.

Question reference: S2W-09890

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 06 August 2004
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 15 September 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether, under its proposals for a beef national envelope, it will impose any retention period on those calves on which subsidies will be paid and, if so, what that period will be and when details will be communicated to farmers.

Question reference: S2W-10072

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 August 2004
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 14 September 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is satisfied that local authorities ensure a political balance of parties’ representatives on each council in allocating councillors to committees; whether it will publish evidence it has received in respect of the track record of local authorities in this regard; whether it will make it a statutory duty to ensure such political balance by implementing sections 15 to 17 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989; whether it is satisfied that the current voluntary approach to political balance is working, and whether it will make the evidence that it has considered in this regard available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre.

Sections 15 to 17 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 would place a duty on local authorities to ensure that the political balance on council committees reflects the political balance on the council itself. We have received a small number of representations on this issue, but we are not aware of any widespread view that the current voluntary approach is failing. The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities have confirmed that the issue has not been raised with them and that they see no reason to impose a statutory duty on councils. We will, however, keep the position under review, particularly in the context of the introduction of the single transferable vote for local government elections.

Question reference: S2W-09850

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 06 August 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 13 September 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the statement issued by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) on 28 July 2004 which states that the financial package for SNH staff has been approved by the Executive, how many posts will be relocated to Inverness and how many will remain in Edinburgh; what the estimates are of the total cost of the package, broken down into redundancy payments and payments to staff who choose to relocate; what the estimate is of the total cost of the package assuming (a) all and (b) no staff move; what the maximum redundancy payment is that would be paid to any SNH employee and whether that sum is more or less than the sum of #250,000 reported in the press; whether any “signing on” or “staying on” offer has been made, or paid, to staff of other public sector bodies and, if not, whether the Executive considers that payments for SNH staff have set a precedent that may lead to claims by those who are relocated in the future.

Decisions on future organisation and staffing levels will be for SNH Management in the first instance. However, we announced in October 2003 that the Executive had agreed with SNH proposals to retain up to 50 posts in the Edinburgh area beyond the date of the main move, reducing to 25 in the longer term and the SNH Relocation Plan assumes 278 staff in the new Inverness HQ in 2006, rising to 303 in 2010.

The Executive supports SNH management in its objective of encouraging staff to relocate and on 30 March ministers approved its Human Resources package of measures which seeks to maximise the number of staff who will choose to relocate, while providing value for money and securing business continuity. Tavish Scott made clear to the Finance Committee that the terms offered to staff of public sector bodies will, as in this instance, depend on the specific circumstances of each relocation.

The cost of the package and of the different elements cannot be assessed accurately at this stage. The variable factors include the number of staff opting to relocate and the length of service and salary level of those who do not. Any severance payments will be paid in accordance with the standard Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme rules. I understand that SNH expect to undertake a staff survey once staff have had an opportunity to consider the options the results of which will enable SNH to update the cost assumptions in the project plan. A revised version of the project plan is likely to be available in the autumn following completion of the tender process for the building procurement at which stage a copy of the plan will be placed in SPICe.

Question reference: S2W-09555

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 July 2004
Current Status: Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 10 September 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to the email regarding Holyrood landscaping of 2 July 1999 (Holyrood Inquiry reference SE/9/011 under “Landscaping”), what the agreement made by the First Minister was; whether the agreement was that the landscaping would have a budget of #10 million; on what date the agreement was made, and who was notified of the agreement in the civil service and the Parliament.

The other papers submitted by the Scottish Executive to the Inquiry on this issue (for example SE/9/013 and SE/9/051) make it clear that the agreement referred to was that the Scottish Executive would meet the costs of roadworks and landscaping associated with the Holyrood building project. There is no indication from the papers the Scottish Executive has on this matter that a budget for the works formed part of that agreement.

Question reference: S2W-10019

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 13 August 2004
Current Status: Answered by George Reid on 10 September 2004

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what information it has on whether Lord Fraser will be making public the terms of any “Salmon letters” that he may issue to those whom he is identifying as being mentioned by name in his report into the Holyrood parliament building project or at fault in relation to the project and whether any ensuing correspondence or other communication between the inquiry and the recipients of such letters will be published.

Lord Fraser on 2 April 2004 stated that anyone who might be the subject of criticism in his report would be privately notified and afforded the opportunity to “get me to revise my thinking of that criticism, and they can do this either privately or, if they wish, they can do so in a public forum”. Accordingly, it is a matter for those who receive a letter containing the provisional text of thecriticism from Lord Fraser to elect how to respond. It is my understanding thatsuch correspondence will not be published by Lord Fraser.