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-05618

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 27 February 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking, or plans to take, to improve the time within which housing associations pay their bills to suppliers; whether each such association publishes a record of the percentage of bills paid within 30 days and, if not, whether the Executive will require them to do so.

I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive, Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is asfollows:

Registered Social Landlords(RSLs) are regulated and inspected by Communities Scotland. Communities Scotlanddoes not, however, get involved in the different payment arrangements thatexist between individual RSLs and their suppliers.

RSLs are independentbusinesses and it is up to the RSL to agree the terms of any contract enteredinto with a supplier; payment terms will differ from supplier to supplier.

The Confederation of BritishIndustry Prompt Payers Code encourages payment within the suppliers terms andthe Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 encourages creditorsto pay within the terms of their contract and allows a right to claim interestfrom all businesses for late payment of bills.

As the regulator, we expectRSLs to pay contractors promptly, within the terms of the contract. During ourperiodic inspections, we will examine how well an RSL is performing in thisarea. If we find that an RSL is making late payments without due cause then wewould investigate this and expect the RSL to take corrective action.

There are no plans to requireRSLs to publish a record of how promptly they pay their suppliers.

Question reference: S2W-05944

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 February 2004
Current Status: Answered by George Reid on 26 February 2004

To ask the Presiding Officer which west of Scotland companies the Presiding Officer was referring to in his speech to the Parliament on 5 April 2000 when he assured the Parliament that such companies were to “manufacture off site everything from the concrete MSP office modules to the specialist windows”; why this assurance was given to the Parliament; who advised the Presiding Officer that this was the case; where the information referred to was obtained; what contact has been made with the firms in question, and whether any apology is due to them and, if so, by whom.

Question reference: S2W-04936

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 December 2003
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 24 February 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has received the study into autism involving Autism Unravelled, Action Against Autism, Food and Behaviour Research, Oxford and Stirling universities and the Rowett Research Institute in Aberdeen.

Question reference: S2W-05768

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 23 February 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive at what point in the negotiations at the December EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council the UK delegation ceased to make the requirement that the 10% reduction in the west of Scotland nephrops quota, introduced at the December 2000 Council, be reinstated and why this was not pursued as a key requirement.

We believe that there is a crediblescientific argument for restoring the 10% cut in the West of Scotland nephrops totalallowable catch (TAC). However, our arguments were hampered because thescientific advice from the International Council for the Exploration of theSeas (ICES) does not currently support such an increase and associated catchstatistics suggest that the industry does not catch its existing quota in full.

Question reference: S2W-05909

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 13 February 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Scottish Fire Service has purchased private cars from public funds for the use of senior management and, if so, (a) how many it has purchased, broken down by brigade area and (b) whether this expenditure is justified and what action it will take in respect of the matter.

Question reference: S2W-05765

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 10 February 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, in respect of the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak, whether all outstanding claims from farms and/or businesses have been settled and, if not, whether it will provide a breakdown of payments due by (a) it, (b) local authorities, (c) enterprise companies and (d) other public bodies.

Question reference: S2W-05769

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 10 February 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of the entitlement to the west of Scotland nephrops quota is held by non-active interests.

Question reference: S2W-05767

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 10 February 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Minister for Transport has any plans to visit the west Highlands in response to any concerns expressed by motorists in relation to the A82, with particular reference to the upgrade of the road between Tarbert and Inverarnan, and whether the upgrade will be included in the next round of trunk road improvements.

I have no current plans tovisit the west Highlands in relation to driving conditions on the A82. A routeaction plan has been commissioned which will identify measures to improve roadsafety and reduce journey times between Tarbet and Fort William. Anyproposals to emerge from the study would be candidates to be consideredalongside emerging and new improvement proposals across the trunk road networkwhen looking at priorities for future expenditure programmes.

Question reference: S2W-05755

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 26 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 9 February 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-5091 by Mr Andy Kerr on 21 January 2004, whether it will provide a breakdown of the #6.7 million capital expenditure on the Holyrood project in 1998-99 into payments (a) to architects (b) to the construction manager (c) to construction engineers (d) to quantity surveyors (e) to other consultants and (f) on the building itself.

	Breakdown	Cost
(a)	Architects	£1.2 million
(b)	Construction Management	Nil
(c)	Construction Engineers	£0.9 million
(d)	Quantity Surveyors	£0.3 million
(e)	Other Consultants	£0.4 million
(f)	On Building (Site acquisition and preparation)	£3.9 million
Total		£6.7 million

Question reference: S2W-05701

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by George Reid on 6 February 2004

To ask the Presiding Officer whether any errors, as referred to in 8.5 of the pro forma trade contractors agreement in the Construction Management Agreement for the Holyrood project, have been detected in the drawings and designs provided by Flour City (UK) Ltd.