- Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 March 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 24 March 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide details of and publish a timetable for the implementation of a programme of strategic environmental assessment.
Answer
The EC Directive on Strategic Environmental Assessment is not yet finalised. The current draft allows member states three years to transpose its requirements into national law.
- Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 March 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 24 March 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it undertakes testing for radioactive pollution on the foreshore of the Ayrshire and Solway coasts and, if so, to detail the materials tested for and the test results.
Answer
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) carries out a comprehensive programme of monitoring of environmental radioactivity in Scotland. The programme includes monitoring of the Ayrshire coastline around the Hunterston A and Hunterston B nuclear licensed sites as well as monitoring the Solway coast to assess the impact of liquid radioactive waste from the Chapelcross nuclear licensed site. SEPA also carries out monitoring on the Solway coast to determine the impact of discharges from Sellafield on the Scottish environment.
The materials sampled on the Ayrshire and Solway coastlines include sediment, seaweed, and turf samples. In addition, SEPA takes measurements to assess dose rates.
Full details of the monitoring and assessment of radioactive pollution around the Scottish coast are published annually in the Radioactivity in Food and the Environment (RIFE) report. A copy of the current report (RIFE-4) is in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre.
- Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 March 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 24 March 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish any plans and documentation it holds or has received relating to the City of Edinburgh Rapid Transport scheme.
Answer
No. This project is the responsibility of Edinburgh City Council who have already published plans and consulted extensively.
- Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 March 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 24 March 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish the projected passenger use studies relating to the City of Edinburgh Rapid Transport scheme (CERT) and, if no such studies are available, what it understands CERT's projected passenger use to be.
Answer
The publication of such information is entirely a matter for the City of Edinburgh Council.
- Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 March 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 24 March 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to bring forward a Bill on strategic environmental assessment.
Answer
We have no plans at this stage.
- Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 24 February 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 21 March 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will detail for each year since 1995 (a) the costs of the Lingerbay Inquiry, (b) the number of its staff engaged in the consideration of the report and (c) the associated staff costs.
Answer
The costs, up to April 1999, of the Reporter and support staff costs, hire of inquiry venue, travel and subsistence and advertisement of the inquiry arrangements were £162,800. The annual costs are set out below. It is not possible, however, to separate the number of staff engaged in the consideration of the report and their costs from general departmental running costs.
| 1994-June 1995 (end of public local inquiry) | £75,300 |
| July-December 1995 | £10,000 |
| 1996 | £20,000 |
| 1997 | £32,000 |
| 1998 | £20,000 |
| 1999 | £ 5,500 |
- Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 February 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 21 March 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it is making to the multi-modal study on the M74 regarding the possible effects on employment in Glasgow of traffic congestion and to provide details of these representations.
Answer
Responsibility for developing proposals for the M74 Northern Extension rests with the City of Glasgow and South Lanarkshire Councils.
- Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 February 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 21 March 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has information regarding the number of road accidents involving foreign tourists travelling on the road network and to detail the accidents and their localities.
Answer
The information requested is not at present held centrally. However, a recent change in the information collected on the STATS 19 accident report form means that in future years statistics will be available centrally on the number of injury road accidents involving vehicles whose drivers are known to be non-UK residents.
- Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 17 February 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 21 March 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of the rail network is electrified and when the last area of the network was electrified.
Answer
23.6% of the route network in Scotland is electrified. The last area of the network electrified was in the summer of 1999.
- Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 28 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Colin Boyd on 20 March 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Lord Advocate has seen the Boscombe Down report on FADEC and, if so, whether it was disclosed to the Fatal Accident Inquiry into the Chinook helicopter crash on Mull of Kintyre in 1994 and, if not, whether he will request a copy.
Answer
As has already been explained, allegations about the FADEC software were not made until after the Fatal Accident Inquiry had taken place. The Minister of State at the Ministry of Defence explained to the House of Lords on 1 November 1999 (HL Debs, Col 656), that Boscombe Down was unable to evaluate FADEC because it did not have the necessary equipment. In answer to a request from the Crown Office for information about the allegations about FADEC, the Ministry of Defence also explained that for that reason the evaluation had been contracted out to those who did have the necessary equipment and that it had been found that FADEC posed no flight safety risks. The solicitors, who had raised the question about FADEC, were advised in writing of the position.The recent National Audit Office report bearing on this matter is under consideration and the matter will be looked at again following the consideration of that report by the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee.
