- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 December 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 2 February 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many times Scottish police forces have provided advice to the Metropolitan Police on how to respond to requests for information in England and Wales under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Answer
This information is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 1 February 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, if it is successful in its bid to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games, whether it will ensure that sporting competitions are located around Scotland, such as equestrian events in the Scottish Borders.
Answer
The Scottish Executive and Glasgow City Council have received advice from the Commonwealth Games Council for Scotland indicating that the prospects for Scotland’s bid to be successful are maximised if the events venues are as close together as possible and if the use of these facilities is maximised where possible.
Therefore it is likely that, should Scotland be successful in its bid to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games, the majority of sporting events would be based within or close to Glasgow. All of the bid partners are, however, committed to ensuring the bid is one that involves and benefits the whole of Scotland.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 January 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 1 February 2006
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether it will investigate a means whereby contracts for the provision of catering in the Parliament are drafted to ensure that the menus in the members¿ dining room use Scottish-sourced produce, while remaining compatible with European procurement legislation.
Answer
Our contractor is currently reviewing its menus to introduce traditional and contemporary Scottish dishes in the members’ dining room.
The SPCB cannot adopt a policy which specifies that all produce must be Scottish as this is not permissible under European procurement law. We pursue sustainable development objectives in the catering service contract in line with our Responsible Purchasing Policy. This covers, for example, food production, packaging, wastage, nutrition, healthy food, freshness, fair trade products and local sourcing. We encourage local supply. The contract already specifies the use of fresh and seasonal produce and our contractor is working with us in the sourcing of local produce taking account of quality, price and health and safety standards of suppliers. Examples of locally sourced products are, salmon, pork, most root vegetables, cheese and milk.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 January 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 31 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what research it has carried out since 1999 to examine the economic impact of independence and, in particular, whether it would have a positive impact on the Scottish economy.
Answer
No such research has been carried out.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 January 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Margaret Curran on 31 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many freedom of information requests it dealt with from 1 January 2005 to 23 December 2005; how many of these requests it responded to within 20 working days, and how many are still outstanding.
Answer
Information on numbers of requests received and timeliness of responses to requests in the first six months of 2005 is available in a report on information request handling in the Scottish Executive. This report is available in the Scottish Parliament’s Information Centre (Bib. number 37868) and on the freedom of information pages of the Scottish Executive Website. The Executive will be publishing the report for requests received during the period 2 July 2005 – 31 December 2005 in March once the figures for this period have been analysed.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 January 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Margaret Curran on 31 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many requests for information under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 that it has handled resulted in a fee notification being issued and how many of those applicants proceeded with their request after the notice was issued.
Answer
Of the records held centrally one fees notice has been issued and the applicant did not proceed with the request.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 January 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Margaret Curran on 31 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to means-test fees in respect of freedom of information requests made to public bodies.
Answer
Charging for providing information is discretionary, but any charges must be made in accordance with the current fees regulations issued under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 in SSIs 2004/376 and 2004/467. The Code of Practice issued by Scottish ministers under s60 of the act requires authorities to bear in mind, when applying the fees regime, that many applicants may be on low incomes. The operation of the fees regulations is one of the subjects of the current public consultation on the operation of the act.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 January 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Margaret Curran on 31 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive which Scottish Executive department has received the most freedom of information requests.
Answer
Of the records held centrally the Education Department has received the most freedom of information requests to date.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 31 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S20-8690 by Robert Brown on 19 January 2006 (Official Report c. 22548) regarding the children of failed asylum seekers and in light of the statement by the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration that children can be deported while under investigation by it, whether this issue will be specifically addressed in the agreement with the UK Government.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-22160 on 23 January 2006. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at
http://scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 31 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S20-8690 by Robert Brown on 19 January 2006 (Official Report c. 22548) regarding the children of failed asylum seekers, whether the Parliament will be given the opportunity to consider and scrutinise the agreement with the UK Government.
Answer
We have made clear on many occasions that we are seeking to agree improvements in a range of issues and that we will report to Parliament once our discussions with the Home Office are concluded. It will be for Parliament to determine whether any parliamentary consideration is appropriate in due course.
