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-02974

Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 December 1999
Current Status: Answered by Sarah Boyack on 14 April 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive what its estimate is of the costs of the consultancy work outlined in the Strategic Roads Review in relation to the proposed A876 Kincardine Bridge Scheme.

Question reference: S1W-05295

Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 March 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sarah Boyack on 13 April 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the statement by the Minister for Transport and the Environment to the Transport and the Environment Committee on 19 January 2000, whether it will define the 11 areas for which area waste plans were to be considered; whether any local authorities have been made representations about the designation of areas; whether any changes have been made to the designated areas in the light of any such representations, and if so, whether it will define the amended areas.

The waste strategy areas referred to were defined in the National Waste Strategy: Scotland which the Executive adopted in December 1999. A copy is in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre. The areas are set out on page 37 and are outlined in the following table:

1	Orkney and Shetland
2	Western Isles
3	Highland
4	Moray, City of Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire
5	City of Dundee, Angus and Perth and Kinross
6	Stirling, Clackmannanshire and Falkirk
7	Fife
8	City of Edinburgh, West Lothian, Midlothian, East Lothian and The Scottish Borders
9	North Ayrshire, East Ayrshire, South Ayrshire and Dumfries and Galloway
10	Inverclyde, Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire, City of Glasgow, South Lanarkshire, North Lanarkshire, East Dunbartonshire and West Dunbartonshire
11	Argyll and Bute

These groupings were suggested by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) which concluded that in many cases individual authority areas may not be large enough to generate the economies of scale necessary to provide the infrastructure needed to deal with the more complex waste streams. Authorities were consulted on the groupings for Waste Strategy Areas during the consultation process which preceded the publication of the National Waste Strategy: Scotland and responses to the consultation were carefully considered. It was concluded that Western Isles area should be treated as a separate group.

SEPA has invited local authorities and other bodies to take part in the first meetings of the groups during April and May. To date the Executive is aware of only one change to the proposed groupings. Moray will be taking part in the Highland Waste Strategy Area as well as the area proposed in the strategy.

Question reference: S1W-05296

Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 March 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sarah Boyack on 13 April 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it expects applications for assistance from the Freight Facilities Grant Scheme to exceed the #18.3 million available over the current three year period; whether it intends to increase the money allocated to this scheme, and how it intends to prioritise grant allocations to ensure best value.

Question reference: S1W-04929

Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 March 2000
Current Status: Answered by Jack McConnell on 12 April 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive (a) when general permission for local authorities to generate additional section 94 borrowing consent through the capitalisation of long leases ended, (b) whether it still has any discretionary powers to permit the capitalisation of long leases for such purposes, (c) whether it has exercised any such powers since the general permission was withdrawn and (d) what criteria are used to determine whether such discretionary consent is granted.

Question reference: S1W-05577

Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 March 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sarah Boyack on 6 April 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will amend its draft National Parks (Scotland) Bill to include a provision giving the Parliament specific power to amend all subordinate legislation which designates specific areas as National Parks, rather than providing for such subordinate legislation to take the form of an affirmative statutory instrument.

Parliamentary procedures for subordinate legislation are a matter for the Parliament. The designation orders for National Parks will be based on proposals which will have gone through a wide publicity and consultation exercise, as provided for in the National Parks (Scotland) Bill. All comments received must be considered prior to Scottish Ministers preparing a designation order. Thereafter, the Parliament will have the opportunity to either accept or reject the designation order brought before it by Scottish Ministers.

Question reference: S1W-02876

Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 December 1999
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 5 April 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive how many letters it has received from MSPs to date; how long on average it has taken to answer each letter; how many letters are still to receive substantive answers, and how much it costs to answer each letter, using the same means of analysis as is used to assess the average cost of each Parliamentary Question.

I apologise for the delay in providing the answer to this question which arose because of an administrative error. We are reviewing procedures to minimise the risk of such errors in future.

Between 1 July and 31 December, Ministers replied to 3,719 letters from MSPs and MPs.

The volume of correspondence from MSPs and MPs has risen by about a third since the establishment of the Parliament. The proportion receiving replies within the target of 17 working days has fallen from around 60% before May 1999 to 41% for the period between July and December 1999.

To help improve response times, the Executive is improving and standardising the recording, monitoring and workflow systems used to handle Ministerial Correspondence. The introduction of a new corporate system will enable central scanning, logging and allocation of all Ministerial Correspondence and will produce management information not readily available at present. This will include information on cases in progress and average response times. The introduction of the new system is due to be completed in the spring of 2000.Correspondence is handled by staff in relevant policy areas as part of their general responsibilities. Specific work on the handling of correspondence is not budgeted for or recorded separately. A study of the cost of answering ministerial correspondence is planned after the new system has been introduced across the Executive: this will provide cost estimates on a comparable basis to those used for Parliamentary Questions. The results of this study will be made available to Members.

Question reference: S1W-05463

Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 March 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sarah Boyack on 4 April 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will identify all planning applications, notices of intention to develop, listed buildings applications and other such forms of application which have (a) been called in and are awaiting Public Inquiry and (b) been to Public Inquiry but which still await decision by Ministers, both as at 21 March 2000.

The information sought is as follows:

PLANNING APPLICATIONS
a) Awaiting public local inquiry
Argyll and Bute	Housing and country park at Kilmahew Estate, Cardross
East Ayrshire	Conversion of castle to hotel and leisure facilities at Rowallan Castle, Kilmaurs
East Ayrshire	Motorway Service Area at Kingswell, Fenwick (inquiry sisted at request of developer)
East Ayrshire	Motorway Service Area at Harelaw, Fenwick (inquiry sisted at request of developer)
Highland	House at Achnaluin, Morar
Inverclyde	Retail, leisure, residential etc at former East Glen and Scott Lithgow Yards, Port Glasgow
Midlothian	Biotechnology Park at Gowkley Moss Farm, Milton Bridge, Penicuik
Midlothian	House at Woodcot, Gowkley Moss, Milton Bridge, Penicuik
North Lanarkshire	Residential development at Mount Ellen Golf Club, Gartcosh
North Lanarkshire	Residential development at Torrance Park, Motherwell
Perth and Kinross	Camping and caravanning development at Balado, Kinross
South Ayrshire	Supermarket, filling station, restaurant etc at Bridgefield, Girvan
South Ayrshire	Football stadium (Ayr United) and retail development at Ayr
South Lanarkshire	Tennis and fitness centre and associated sports facilities at Jackton (Inquiry sisted - possible withdrawal)
West Lothian	Extension to Freeport factory outlet centre at Westwood, West Calder
b) Public local inquiry complete and awaiting decision
Aberdeen	Industrial development at Peterseat and Altens Farms, Aberdeen (report not yet completed)
Argyll and Bute	Information centre at Clachan, Cairndow
Edinburgh	Extension of shopping centre (2 applications) at Gyle, Edinburgh
Edinburgh	Underground shopping mall at Princes Street, Edinburgh (report not yet completed)
Glasgow	Housing development at former St Augustines Secondary School, Glasgow
Western Isles	Proposed superquarry at Lingerbay, Isle of Harris

NOTICES OF INTENTION TO DEVELOP
a) Awaiting public local inquiry
None
b) Public local inquiry complete and awaiting decision
East Dunbartonshire	Travelling people site at Milngavie
North Ayrshire	Landfill site at Bogside, Irvine

LISTED BUILDING CONSENT APPLICATIONS
a) Awaiting public local inquiry
Glasgow	105-107 West Regent Street, Glasgow (Category A Building)
b) Public local inquiry complete and awaiting decision
Moray	The Park, The Wyndies, Garmouth (Category C(S) Building) (report not yet completed)

SCHEDULED MONUMENT CONSENT APPLICATIONS
a) Awaiting public local inquiry
Falkirk	Industrial units at Lochlands, Nr Falkirk (impact on Roman camps)
Highland	Reconstruction of Castle Tioram, Moidart
b) Public local inquiry complete and awaiting decision
None

Question reference: S1W-05032

Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 March 2000
Current Status: Answered by Jack McConnell on 31 March 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to give local authorities three-year figures for grant-aided expenditure and aggregate external finance within the context of the next stage of the Comprehensive Spending Review.

Question reference: S1W-04933

Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 March 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sarah Boyack on 31 March 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Ministry of Defence, or any other Government Ministry, agency or other public body, owns land in the areas being considered for inclusion in the Loch Lomond and Trossachs and Cairngorm National Parks, and whether the Concordats between it and Her Majesty's Government will allow the National Park Authorities the same degree of control of land use and management on all such property as on privately owned land.

Many public bodies, including the Ministry of Defence, own land within the proposed Loch Lomond and the Trossachs and Cairngorms National Park areas.The Concordats agreed between the Scottish Executive and UK Government Departments are not intended to be legally binding. However, in response to consultation on National Parks, the Ministry of Defence gives support to the principle of working closely in partnership with the proposed new National Park authorities, as it already does under the terms of its Declaration of Intent with Scottish Natural Heritage and its Declaration of Commitment to National Parks in England and Wales.

Question reference: S1W-05437

Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 March 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sarah Boyack on 31 March 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will detail the legal advice, or other advice which led the Minister for Transport and the Environment to instruct a public inquiry in relation to the application by Associated British Ports for the Troon Harbour Revision Order.