- Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 12 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Alasdair Morrison on 26 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive how many Gaelic speakers it expects to be resident in Scotland in (a) 2005, (b) 2010 and (c) 2015.
Answer
No official projection of the number of Gaelic speakers in Scotland is made.
- Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 12 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 26 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it will take to promote improvements in the standard of bathing waters at the seven Scottish bathing beaches recently found to have failed to meet the European Union's minimum standards.
Answer
The Scottish Bathing Waters 1999 Bathing Water Quality Results report published by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency contains information on the work which is being done at each bathing water. A copy of this report has been placed in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 6757).
- Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 12 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Alasdair Morrison on 26 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive how many Gaelic speakers aged 15 or less it expects to be resident in Scotland in (a) 2005, (b) 2010 and (c) 2015.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer I gave to question S1W-7845.
- Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 12 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Alasdair Morrison on 26 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what expert advice from language planners and other linguistic authorities has been taken with regard to any official projections of the number of Gaelic speakers resident in Scotland in 2005, 2010 and 2015.
Answer
No official projections of the numbers of Gaelic speakers have been made. The Executive's policy is that there should be opportunities for learning and using the language, in particular by supporting Gaelic-medium education where parents request it for their children.
- Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 05 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 19 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive how much was spent on vehicle fuel by the (i) National Museum of Scotland, (ii) National Library of Scotland and (iii) National Galleries of Scotland during 1999.
Answer
Expenditure on vehicle fuel during 1999 was as follows:
National Museums of Scotland | £4,585 |
National Library of Scotland | £2,273 |
National Galleries of Scotland | £3,872 |
These figures do not include the costs of vehicle fuel incurred in the course of official duties by members of staff in private vehicles. This information is not readily available.
- Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 14 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what its policy is towards access to any governmental records held in Scotland which are presently closed to researchers for periods from 30 to 100 years.
Answer
No file is totally closed. Any file may be made available to those who have a legal right to see it, and any decision on access by researchers is made in the spirit of the Code of Practice on Access to Scottish Executive Information introduced on 1 July 1999.
It is the policy of the Scottish Executive that as few files as possible should be subject to a "closure" period of more than thirty years, and a programme carried out in 1995 to examine all files in this category ensured that only very sensitive, mainly personal ones, are still not openly accessible.
Policy in this whole area will be reviewed in the context of the forthcoming Freedom of Information legislation.
- Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 13 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will confirm its commitment to the Larkhall rail link in the light of the threat to DAKs Simpson jobs in Larkhall and the need to improve the transport infrastructure of the town, and when the link can be expected to open.
Answer
The Larkhall to Milngavie rail route project is the responsibility of the Strathclyde Passenger Transport Authority as the public passenger transport body for the area. The Scottish Executive regards this as an important project. The authority was awarded £5 million of additional capital consent to develop it under the Public Private Partnership arrangements. Following submission of the authority's Outline Business Case a number of issues still need to be resolved before the authority completes its Final Business Case for the project.Following receipt of the Final Business Case, which is expected in summer 2000, a decision will be taken about the project's suitability for level playing field support under the private finance arrangements.
- Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 8 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with the National Heritage Lottery Fund with regard to support for Scottish museums.
Answer
None. The allocation of National Lottery funds is a matter for the distributing bodies themselves.
- Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 May 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 7 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive how many beds there will be in the new Netherton Hospital, Lanarkshire and how many of these will be acute beds.
Answer
The new District General Hospital at Netherton, Wishaw (Wishaw General), will have 633 inpatients beds: comprising 454 acute, 110 obstetric/neonatology and 69 acute psychiatry and long stay psychogeriatric.
The hospital will also have 56 day beds and 45 day hospital places.
- Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 22 May 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 5 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will conduct a full and independent review of all criminal prosecutions in which fingerprint identification was provided by the staff of the Scottish Criminal Records Office, with particular reference to those cases in which identification was provided by Charles Stewart, Hugh McPherson, Fiona McBride or Anthony Joseph McKenna, fingerprint officers involved in the case of Shirley McKie, and whether it will instruct the management of the Scottish Criminal Records Office to suspend these officers until the outcome of the review is known.
Answer
I refer the member to the reply I gave to question S1W-6949. A review by HMCIC which is inspecting the standards and quality within the Fingerprint Section at Scottish Criminal Record Office is ongoing. In the interests of all parties involved it would be appropriate to await the outcome of this before making any comment.
