Questions and answers

Question reference: S1W-12317

Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 January 2001
Current Status: Answered by Sam Galbraith on 26 January 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive which area waste plans have now been lodged with it; which plans contain proposals for incineration; whether any plan proposes incineration schemes unrelated to energy from waste projects and whether it will estimate the indicative capital costs of full implementation of all incineration proposals contained in the plans.

Question reference: S1W-12315

Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 January 2001
Current Status: Answered by Sam Galbraith on 26 January 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has carried out any audit of planning policy departures by planning authorities in recent years; what trends, if any, it has detected in the volume, frequency, or significance of departures, in general or in the case of any specific authorities; what assessment it has made of the significance of cumulative departures, in general or in the case of any specific authorities; whether it plans to increase scrutiny of notified planning decisions and notices of intention to develop and whether it has any proposals to improve monitoring and control of development contrary to the provisions of development plans.

The table shows the numbers of planning applications relating to developments representing departures from relevant development plans, by local authority area. Overall, approved departures as a proportion of applications determined are fairly constant at 13 or 14 per thousand, but there are variations between authorities. The Planning Audit Unit will pursue the reasons for such variations.Planning authorities are required, before granting planning permission, to notify the Scottish Ministers of any such cases that they consider to represent significant departures. The number notified in each year is shown in the last row of the table.The Executive's policy in relation to development contrary to development plans is set out in National Planning Policy Guideline 1 (Revised 2000): The Planning System.Current scrutiny and monitoring arrangements are considered adequate and we have no plans to change them.

Development Plan Departures

	Applications advertised as potential departures				Applications approved as departures from DP				Approved departures per 1000 applications determined
	96-97	97-98	98-99	99-00	96-97	97-98	98-99	99-00	96-97	97-98	98-99	99-00
Aberdeen City	24	22	19	20	5	6	10	7	2	3	5	3
Aberdeenshire	75	59	81	128	66	60	79	95	19	17	24	29
Angus	8	81	21	14	4	10	15	8	3	8	13	7
Argyll and Bute	58	74	79	140	17	14	10	20	14	10	8	15
Clackmannanshire	0	0	1	9	0	0	0	5	0	0	0	14
Dumfries & Galloway	36	38	60	33	17	0	10	0	10	0	6	0
Dundee City	9	40	33	51	7	32	21	43	8	36	28	52
East Ayrshire	46	47	55	31	43	38	46	22	54	49	60	28
East Dunbartonshire	10	57	26	51	0	0	3	9	0	0	4	12
East Lothian	2	19	6	24	13	35	8	4	13	32	9	4
East Renfrewshire	11	9	15	15	1	3	7	12	2	5	11	18
Edinburgh	84	100	84	74	81	100	81	63	31	31	25	15
Falkirk	27	48	62	80	4	3	1	6	5	7	1	7
Fife	72	69	28	32	6	21	37	11	2	6	11	3
Glasgow City	80	79	62	59	58	51	47	18	19	16	16	6
Highland	*	*	75	101	*	*	23	38	*	*	7	11
Inverclyde	22	23	22	18	8	7	9	10	16	12	19	20
Midlothian	0	0	0	20	1	0	2	4	2	0	3	6
Moray	6	6	16	5	5	4	2	4	5	4	2	4
North Ayrshire	41	47	54	60	12	4	12	11	15	6	16	14
North Lanarkshire	35	44	42	56	17	27	22	31	12	17	14	21
Orkney	10	17	16	13	5	15	10	5	17	50	26	12
Perth and Kinross	103	93	109	87	34	30	44	44	18	17	27	25
Renfrewshire	41	27	48	49	6	22	3	2	7	22	3	2
Scottish Borders	60	57	70	29	5	0	5	2	3	0	3	1
Shetland	36	25	19	5*	14	8	0	1*	35	20	0	6*
South Ayrshire	89	126	182	147	55	74	29	15	39	67	24	12
South Lanarkshire	27	32	37	48	12	8	20	25	7	5	12	15
Stirling	11	0	2	5	11	3	6	5	12	3	7	5
West Dunbartonshire	25	29	17	32	18	16	12	17	45	32	27	34
West Lothian	21	28	35	43	9	15	14	16	9	15	14	17
Western Isles	0	0	0	4	0	0	0	4	0	0	0	13
SCOTLAND	1069	1238	1376	1483	534	606	588	557	13	14	14	13
Number of cases notified to the Scottish Ministers as significant departures	33	38	54	76
Missing/incomplete return*

Question reference: S1W-12274

Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 January 2001
Current Status: Answered by David Steel on 25 January 2001

To ask the Presiding Officer what capital contracts are currently out to tender, in relation to the Holyrood Project, indicating in each case the timescale for return of tenders, award of contracts, commencement on site and completion of works.

The Convener of the Holyrood Progress Group has provided a list of contracts which are currently out to tender, including those where tenders have been returned but the contract award has still to be made, as follows.

1. MSP Building Cladding.

2. Queensberry House New Windows/Doors.

3. MSP Building Roofing.

4. Queensberry House External Render.

5. MSP Building Carpentry & Joinery.

6. Mechanical & Plumbing, West.

7. Electrical West.

8. Broadcasting & Allied Systems.Under Construction Management arrangements, individual works package contracts proceed according to timescales set out in the strategic construction programme. The programme is updated and rescheduled on an ongoing basis to obtain best value for money and to achieve the target completion date which remains as 31 December 2002.

Question reference: S1W-12276

Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 January 2001
Current Status: Answered by David Steel on 25 January 2001

To ask the Presiding Officer what works packages have still to go out to tender in relation to the Holyrood Project and what the indicative timescale is in each case for issuing and return of tenders, award of contract and commencement and completion of works.

The information is as follows:

1. Assembly Building Brick/Blockwork.

2. General Builderswork.

3. Assembly Building Foyer Frame & Glazing.

4. Assembly Building Specialist Glazing.

5. Assembly Building Cladding.

6. Assembly Building/Canongate Roofing

7. Assembly Building Timber Trusses.

8. Canongate Constituency Wall.

9. Fire Stopping (Whole Site).

10. Assembly Building/Canongate Fire Protection Steelwork.

11. Queensberry House Ceilings/Partitions/Plasterboard.

12. MSP Building Ceilings/Partitions.

13. Queensberry House Suspended Ceilings.

14. Assembly Building Ceilings/Partitions.

15. Queensberry House Raised Floors.

16. Assembly Building Raised Floors.

17. MSP Building Stone Floors/Screeds

18. Queensberry House Stone Floors/Screeds.

19. Assembly Building Stone Floors/Screeds.

20. MSP Building Floor Covering.

21. Queensberry House Timber/Vinyl Flooring.

22. Assembly Building Timber Flooring.

23. Assembly Building Carpet & Vinyl Flooring.

24. Queensberry House Carpentry & Joinery.

25. Assembly Building Carpentry & Joinery.

26. Queensberry House Metal Blast Windows/Doors.

27. Assembly Building Metal Doors/Shutters.

28. MSP Building Architectural Metalwork.

29. Queensberry House Architectural Metalwork.

30. Assembly Building Architectural Metalwork.

31. MSP Building Decoration.

32. Queensberry House Decoration.

33. Assembly Building Decoration.

34. MSP Building Toilet/Fitness/Changing Fit Out.

35. Queensberry House Toilet Fit Out.

36. Assembly Building Toilet Fit Out.

37. Furniture/Fittings/Equipment.

38. Filing Systems.

39. Catering Equipment (Whole Site).

40. Bar & Restaurant Fit Out (Whole Site).

41. Audio Visual Equipment (Whole Site).

42. Signage.

43. Cleaning Cradles.

44. Mechanical & Plumbing East.

45. Fire Alarm & Protection (Whole Site).

46. Building Maintenance System (Whole Site).

47. Commissioning (Whole Site).

48. Electrical East.

49. Structured Cabling (Whole Site).

50. Security (Whole Site).

51. Electricity Incoming (Whole Site).

52. Water Incoming (Whole Site).

53. Gas Supply (Whole Site)

54. IT/Communications (Whole Site).

55. Sewer Connections.

56. Cable/Satellite.

57. Hard Landscaping.

58. Soft Landscaping.I am informed by the Convener of the Holyrood Progress Group that, while a broad time frame was included as part of the Stage D Scheme Design report, it would be misleading to give definitive programme dates relating to the award, site start and completion of the above packages. These are liable to change in line with arrangements made by the Construction Manager, who is employed to manage a dynamic programme, to the overall benefit of the project. The programmed building completion date remains as 31 December 2002.

Question reference: S1W-12277

Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 January 2001
Current Status: Answered by David Steel on 25 January 2001

To ask the Presiding Officer whether the value of any works package contracts let to date in relation to the Holyrood Project could be identified without prejudice to later, similar tendering exercises and, if so, whether the details of any such contracts can now be made available.

The Holyrood Progress Group has previously indicated that it will be happy to release values of contracts awarded where they do not prejudice the future commercial interests of the Parliament or the individual contractors concerned. The Project Team is now in the process of establishing procedures to set this exercise in motion and a report will be made to MSPs as soon as the information becomes available.

Question reference: S1W-12272

Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 January 2001
Current Status: Answered by David Steel on 25 January 2001

To ask the Presiding Officer which of the works package contracts let in relation to the Holyrood Project have been completed; whether each ongoing contract is proceeding according to the agreed timescale, and what the original and revised date of completion is in each case where any contract has been subject to delay.

The Convener of the Holyrood Progress Group has provided a list of works package contracts, which have been completed to date, as follows:

1. Retention West Basement

2. Excavation West

3. Well Probing

4. Well Drilling

5. Piling West Basement

6. Substructure West Basement Ongoing contracts are proceeding according to timescales set out in the Construction Manager's strategic construction programme which continues to have a target completion date of 31 December 2002.

Question reference: S1W-12280

Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 January 2001
Current Status: Answered by David Steel on 25 January 2001

To ask the Presiding Officer whether all works packages issued to date, and to be issued, in relation to the Holyrood project contain or will contain penalty clauses to protect the client's interest against late completion or other contingencies and whether the value of penalty clauses is calculated in relation to a standard formula or to contract-specific assessments of the possible costs to the client in each case of failure by contractors to achieve completion dates.

The Convener of the Holyrood Progress Group has informed me that works package contracts stipulate that trade contractors will be liable for all damage, expense, loss or cost suffered or incurred by the client due to default by the trade contractor, including failure to achieve completion dates. It is not considered appropriate to include specific penalty clauses in works contracts for the new Parliament building since their inclusion can lead to increased tender prices.

Question reference: S1W-12279

Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 January 2001
Current Status: Answered by David Steel on 25 January 2001

To ask the Presiding Officer whether any contracts have been let to date in relation to the Holyrood project with less detailed construction information than is desirable, as outlined in paragraph 1.39 of the Auditor General's report The new Scottish Parliament building.

Question reference: S1W-12282

Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 January 2001
Current Status: Answered by David Steel on 24 January 2001

To ask the Presiding Officer, further to the statement by the Parliament's Clerk/Chief Executive on 3 October 2000 regarding the provision of information on the costs of major works packages (Audit Committee, Official Report, col. 407), what information will be made available to the Audit Committee about the value of contracts let for the major works packages in relation to the Holyrood Project, and whether such information will be given to all MSPs at the same time and on the same basis.

As the Clerk indicated, the Audit Committee will be provided with information in respect of a number of imminent major works contracts as they are let, subject to the agreement of the relevant contractors. This information will indicate any variance in the final tender prices from the estimated allowances in the works package cost plan and will comment on the relevance of these outturns to the overall financial target of £195 million. The Holyrood Progress Group intends to make this information available to all MSPs.

Question reference: S1W-12281

Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 January 2001
Current Status: Answered by David Steel on 24 January 2001

To ask the Presiding Officer whether the cost plan allowances for the substructure east and superstructure east are #5.8 million and #17 million respectively, as stated by the Holyrood Project Manager on 3 October 2000 (Audit Committee, Official Report, col. 408); whether potential contractors are routinely made aware of the cost plan allowances for each works package, and whether the cost plan allowances for each of the 91 works packages will be revealed to MSPs.

Chamber and committees