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: S1W-06147

Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 April 2000
Current Status: Answered by Wendy Alexander on 2 May 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-4570 by Ms Wendy Alexander on 3 March 2000, whether it intends to take any action to address the issue of damp and condensation in North Ayrshire's Council housing stock.

Some 1,300 council houses in North Ayrshire were insulated in 1999-2000 through the Warm Deal grant allocated to the Council by the Executive. For this financial year, the council has total resources of some £6 million for capital investment in its own housing stock. It is for the council to decide how best to deploy these resources to meet housing need in North Ayrshire, including tackling dampness and condensation.

Question reference: S1W-06148

Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 April 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sarah Boyack on 2 May 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive what grants are available for local authorities to upgrade unadopted roads to a standard suitable for adoption.

Question reference: S1W-06149

Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 April 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sarah Boyack on 2 May 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive what grants are available for those served by unadopted roads to upgrade them to a standard suitable for local authority adoption.

Question reference: S1W-06408

Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 April 2000
Current Status: Answered by Henry McLeish on 28 April 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will answer my questions S1W-5738 and S1W-5739, lodged on 30 March 2000.

Question reference: S1W-05738

Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 March 2000
Current Status: Answered by Henry McLeish on 27 April 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is currently investigating Developing North Ayrshire and what the scope of any such investigation is.

Question reference: S1W-05739

Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 March 2000
Current Status: Answered by Henry McLeish on 27 April 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to give the workforce of Developing North Ayrshire the opportunity to give their views on the management of the organisation in any investigation.

Question reference: S1W-06088

Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 April 2000
Current Status: Answered by Jack McConnell on 20 April 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will take steps to address any financial problems faced by Irvine's Compass Centre for mental health and any resultant job losses as a result of the gap in European Objective 3 funding.

As I explained to the European Committee on Tuesday 4 April, I am concerned about the position of a number of voluntary organisations sponsoring European Social Fund projects who were facing a gap in funding between the closure of previous structural fund programmes and the introduction of new ones. I have therefore put in place a guarantee in relation to the funding gap for these organisations to enable them to plan effectively for the new programme and I have asked officials to bring forward as a matter of urgency recommendations as to how such a scheme should work.

Question reference: S1W-06089

Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 April 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sarah Boyack on 20 April 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether any financial backing from it for a Larkhall rail link will be subject to the conclusion of a Public Private Partnership.

A condition of all PPP projects is that they should be able to demonstrate value for money. Consequently, the Scottish Executive's funding of £5 million from the 1998 Transport Challenge Fund towards the cost of the Larkhall to Milngavie Rail route and the level playing field support of up to £2.26 million per annum, for which the project may be eligible as part of the PPP arrangements, depends upon value for money being demonstrated satisfactorily in the full business case for the project which the Strathclyde Passenger Transport Authority is still preparing.

Question reference: S1W-05740

Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 March 2000
Current Status: Answered by Jack McConnell on 13 April 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive what grants of European Union funding have been received by Developing North Ayrshire in the current financial year.

Question reference: S1W-05114

Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 March 2000
Current Status: Answered by Jack McConnell on 6 April 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive what the projected cost is, including materials, labour, furnishings and VAT, of the current refurbishment of St Andrew's House and how this compares with the originally estimated cost of (a) a full refurbishment and (b) the minimum refurbishment required to upgrade St Andrew's House to an acceptable standard.

The projected cost for the refurbishment of St Andrew's House is £20 million, in line with the original estimate for this work.

Most of the major systems in the building date from the 1930s. They no longer meet modern standards and major remedial work was required to allow continued use of the building for the long term.

A survey of the building prepared by independent consultants in 1994 suggested that a full refurbishment undertaken then would have cost £23 million. Consideration was given in 1998 to lesser and alternative refurbishment packages costing £13.2 million and £20 million. The less extensive of these covered essential repairs to the fabric of the building, removal of asbestos and a range of IT and electrical works. The additional work undertaken for the larger alternative, which has proceeded, includes a replacement of the windows, with consequential energy savings, and the range of construction works necessary to create a substantial amount of open plan space. This will lead to running cost savings once refurbishment is complete.