- Asked by: John Farquhar Munro, MSP for Ross, Skye and Inverness West, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 December 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 8 January 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive what the 2007-08 real-terms equivalent combined baseline budget is for Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Skills Development Scotland in the Highlands and Islands and the Business Gateway scheme in all local authorities in the Highlands and Islands for each year of the current spending review period.
Answer
No direct budget existed for Skills Development Scotland (SDS) in 2007-08 and the contribution to this area from Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) was held in its published budget. Decisions on programme spend within the Highlands and Islands are an operational matter for SDS.
There is currently no Business Gateway service in the Highlands and Islands and therefore there is no baseline budget in HIE. The Scottish Government, COSLA, Highlands and Islands local authorities and HIE are currently discussing introducing the Business Gateway there but local authorities have not yet finalised their individual plans for the new service. Once agreement is reached about the overall transfer of funding, it will be for COSLA and Highlands and Islands local authorities to discuss how such funds are to be distributed amongst the local authorities.
The overall real terms budgets for Highlands and Islands Enterprise and Skills Development Scotland are:
| | 2007-08 (£ million) | 2008-09 (£ million) | 2009-10 (£ million) | 2010-11 (£ million) |
| Highlands and Islands Enterprise | 89.0 | 73.3 | 69.75 | 67.98 |
| Skills Development Scotland | 0 | 170.75 | 168.51 | 157.97 |
- Asked by: John Farquhar Munro, MSP for Ross, Skye and Inverness West, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 08 December 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 8 January 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive whether any accidents or injuries were reported on the A87 on Skye on Friday 5 December 2008 and whether the road was adequately gritted that morning.
Answer
Transport Scotland holds information about personal injury accidents on the trunk road network. This information is provided by the police and takes approximately three months to be verified and submitted. At present, Transport Scotland has no accident data for the A87 on Skye on 5 December 2008.
The A87 was salted by Scotland TranServ in accordance with the winter maintenance plan for the North West Operating Company area and this included one treatment on the evening of 4 December 2008 and three treatments on 5 December 2008.
- Asked by: John Farquhar Munro, MSP for Ross, Skye and Inverness West, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Russell on 27 November 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the development functions of the Crofters Commission have been transferred to Highlands and Islands Enterprise.
Answer
Discussions between the Scottish Government, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and the Crofters Commission relating to the transfer of crofting development functions to Highland and Islands Enterprise are on-going. To date, there has been no transfer of resources to Highlands and Islands Enterprise.
- Asked by: John Farquhar Munro, MSP for Ross, Skye and Inverness West, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 November 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Russell on 27 November 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has sold Beechwood Farm in Inverness and, if so, (a) to whom, (b) how many acres were sold and (c) for what price and, if not, whether it intends to sell (i) Beechwood, (ii) Knocknagael and (iii) Balrobert farms.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-17877 on 27 November 2008. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.
- Asked by: John Farquhar Munro, MSP for Ross, Skye and Inverness West, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 November 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Russell on 26 November 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how it intends to dispose of the bulls used in the Bull Hire Scheme.
Answer
The Scottish Government, as noted in its response to the Final Report of the Committee of Inquiry on Crofting, intends to offer, as a transitional measure, existing stud farm bulls, at a cost not exceeding current annual hire costs, to crofting groups which have used stud farm bulls in the past three years.
The Crofters Commission will shortly be writing to all groups who used the hire service in the past three years to invite them to express an interest in acquiring a bull permanently in the spring/summer of 2009. This will allow the Crofters Commission to assess requirements and initiate discussions with interested groups with a view to issuing bulls in time for the 2009 season.
Bulls not required for this transitional measure will be disposed of at commercial livestock markets.
- Asked by: John Farquhar Munro, MSP for Ross, Skye and Inverness West, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 20 November 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has plans to bring forward transport infrastructure investment ahead of the strategic transport projects review.
Answer
We have a fully committed programme of transport infrastructure investment to 2012. We have already brought forward plans for the Edinburgh-Glasgow Improvement Programme as part of the Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR) and the Forth Replacement Crossing is also being taken forward on that basis.
The STPR is currently in the process of concluding and ministers are considering the emerging findings. It is expected there will be an announcement on the outcome of the review later this year.
- Asked by: John Farquhar Munro, MSP for Ross, Skye and Inverness West, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 October 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 30 October 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what assurance it can give about the continuation of accident and emergency cover at Portree Hospital from 8 am until 11 pm.
Answer
It is the responsibility of individual NHS boards to plan and provide high-quality, safe and sustainable healthcare services that meet the needs of their population.
If NHS Highland were to propose any significant changes to the way services are currently provided, these would be subject to public consultation and would ultimately come to me for consideration and a final decision.
- Asked by: John Farquhar Munro, MSP for Ross, Skye and Inverness West, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 October 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Russell on 28 October 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has undertaken any surveys into the predation of lambs by sea eagles across all areas where there are sea eagle populations and whether it will undertake such a survey covering the lambing season in 2009.
Answer
The Sea Eagle Project partners, comprising Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and latterly the Forestry Commission Scotland for the east coast undertake annual monitoring of sea eagle breeding performance which also includes an assessment of sea eagle diet across a number of accessible nests. This work has allowed the partners to build up a picture of sea eagle diet across the current range of sea eagles over the last 10 years.
SNH will be commissioning additional research work on sea eagle diet in 2009, with representatives from the RSPB and the Scottish Crofting Foundation on the steering group overseeing the study. This work will look at particular aspects of sea eagle diet and livestock health, in particular the extent to which sea eagles predate livestock and the general health of lambs taken as live prey or as carrion. The research will have its focus on Gairloch and the surrounding area but further work is also planned for the Western Isles in a separate project. In addition, continuing effort will be made to recover prey items from nests across the breeding range.
- Asked by: John Farquhar Munro, MSP for Ross, Skye and Inverness West, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 October 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 28 October 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to improve the range of medical services offered at Portree Hospital.
Answer
It is the responsibility of individual NHS boards to plan and provide high-quality, safe and sustainable healthcare services that meet the needs of their population.
As such, the provision of services at Portree Hospital is a matter for NHS Highland.
- Asked by: John Farquhar Munro, MSP for Ross, Skye and Inverness West, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 October 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 28 October 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what assurances it can give about the future role of Portree Hospital and whether it will make a ministerial statement on this issue.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-16865 on 28 October 2008. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
