Chamber and committees

The Scottish Executive is in regular contact with the UK Government on a wide range of issues, including mobile phones and driving.

As with the majority of water supply catchment areas in Scotland, there are sheep on the catchments for the Edinburgh water supply reservoirs. These catchments are privately owned and Scottish Water cannot control sheep farming activities carried under good agricultural practice. In this respect, Scottish Water does not have information on the numbers of sheep on the catchment and would not seek to have them removed. Scottish Water does, however, have a good working relationship with landowners and farmers in these areas.The storage of water in reservoirs is only one part of the water supply cycle and the treatment process is the principle line of defence in safeguarding public health. All of the water treatment works that supply Edinburgh have the necessary filters to remove particulate material. There is no evidence that the presence of sheep on the catchment areas has had any adverse effect on public health.

The Scottish Executive is aware of the concerns being expressed by business about the potential impact of increased insurance premiums, and we are already in contact with the UK Government on this issue.

All local authorities in Scotland have a duty under the Environment Act 1995 to review and assess air quality in their areas against the air quality objectives contained in the Air Quality Strategy for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. If this exercise shows that any of the objectives is unlikely to be met by the required dates, the authority must take steps to work towards the objectives concerned by declaring an Air Quality Management Area and drawing up an air quality action plan.Part of the review and assessment process is to identify potential pollution hotspots and to undertake any further monitoring or other work considered necessary. Therefore it is for the City of Edinburgh Council to decide on the requirements for monitoring air quality in Holyrood Park. To date, the council has not identified any problems with air quality in the area. However, the situation will be kept under review as part of on-going local air quality management.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-29111 today. All answers to written PQs are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.

Under the Transport Act 2000, the Scottish ministers can give statutory advice to the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) on cross-border franchises, and did so for the East Coast Main Line extension in September 2001. The Scottish ministers advised that the development of a Parkway station in East Lothian should be considered. A copy of the advice submitted on the franchise extension is available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 15773).

Officials at Scottish Enterprise Edinburgh and Lothians have arranged to meet with senior management at Convergys Ltd to establish its future plans for the operations in Edinburgh. In addition, officials have been in touch, through the receivers, with the former employees of Telesens to make them aware of the assistance available to help them find alternative employment.

Scottish ministers have no direct locus in how football is governed. It is a matter for the Scottish Football Association as the recognised governing body of the sport of Association Football in Scotland. I do not anticipate that any strategic decisions about future public funding for football will be reached until the outcome of the review by independent consultants of youth football development in Scotland is known.

Local authorities have the power to apply to the sheriff court for an anti-social behaviour order. Housing associations (and any other landlord) can request that the local authority apply for an order on their behalf. The Criminal Justice (Scotland) Bill will give courts the power to grant an interim anti-social behaviour order to take effect pending the outcome of the substantive application. This will provide more immediate relief from anti-social behaviour.

Such guarantees are already in place. Under the Employment Rights Act 1996, the Department of Trade and Industry can pay redundancy pay and certain other debts owed to former employees of insolvent companies out of the National Insurance Fund. This legislation implements the EU Insolvency Directive and guarantees a basic minimum of payments to employees of insolvent employers who would normally have to wait some considerable time for payment as creditors in the insolvency proceedings.The Redundancy Payments Service has investigated the transfer of business from Telesens to Convergys and is satisfied that the dismissals were either unconnected with the transfer, or were made for economic, technical or organisation reasons entailing changes in the workforce. This means that liability for payment lies with the National Insurance Fund. The payments for the former employees have been processed and they should by now have received payment.