- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 11 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive,further to the answer to question S1W-7855 by Henry McLeish on 26 June 2000, how many meetings of the Scottish Utilities Forum have taken place and at how many of those it has been represented.
Answer
The Scottish Utilities Forum has met twice this year, on 21 March and 27 June. The Scottish Executive has been represented at both of these meetings.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 26 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 10 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to review the current procedure for the suspension of a liquor licence.
Answer
The Scottish Executive has no plans to review the current procedure for the suspension of a liquor licence. The matter of liquor licensing is kept under general review.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 26 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Iain Gray on 10 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has responded to the Scottish Advisory Committee on Alcohol Misuse Action Plan and, if so, whether it will place a copy of that response in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre.
Answer
No formal response is available. However, the Scottish Executive has endorsed the Action Plan, and work is already in progress to implement its various strands.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 26 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 10 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is committing additional funding to combat alcohol abuse, given the percentage of violent crimes which involve alcohol abuse.
Answer
The Scottish Executive is committed to tackling alcohol misuse and has made an additional £2.5 million available over three years to support national strategic developments.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 26 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by David Steel on 7 July 2000
To ask the Presiding Officer when a fully searchable database of Scottish parliamentary questions, with the same functionality as is currently available for Westminster parliamentary questions, will be available to MSPs and their staff.
Answer
MSPs and their staff can already access a fully searchable database of Scottish parliamentary questions via staff in SPICe. This is currently the House of Commons Library's POLIS database, on to which SPICe staff are indexing Scottish Parliament proceedings. Unfortunately staffing and technical difficulties have caused a backlog in this work, which is being addressed.
The connection service from Westminster is insufficiently robust to make direct access to POLIS more widely available. However, this month we are launching an improved search facility on the Scottish Parliament website, which will enable information such as Scottish parliamentary questions to be retrieved more readily by users outside SPICe.
Work is also in progress on a strategy for data resources for the Scottish Parliament as a whole, and Phase 1 of this development will include Scottish parliamentary questions. We anticipate that a pilot system will be available for testing by the end of this year.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 6 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive when it last met the shadow Strategic Rail Authority.
Answer
I last met the Chief Executive of the Shadow Strategic Rail Authority on 26 June.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 4 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what the timetable now is for finalising the boundaries for Regional Selective Assistance and what impact the delay will have on local businesses in Scotland.
Answer
The Assisted Areas map is a reserved matter for the UK Government.
This matter is still under consideration by the European Commission and all concerned are seeking an early resolution.
Applications for Regional Selective Assistance are continuing to be made by businesses, though any resultant offers of assistance are being made conditional on confirmation by the Commission, of the new map. Thus the impact of delay has been significantly reduced.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 08 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 30 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what consultations have taken place with the Strategic Rail Authority with regard to funding the Borders Railway following the parliamentary debate on 1 June 2000 and what meetings have been arranged for the future.
Answer
Scottish Executive officials met officials from the Shadow Strategic Rail Authority on 12 June. A wide range of subjects was discussed, including the Scottish Borders railway line. I met the Chief Executive of the SSRA on June 2000.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 08 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 30 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what funding sources it is considering in relation to reinstatement of the Borders Railway.
Answer
A working group headed by the Scottish Borders Council has been established to explore practical options (including funding) for re-opening the Borders railway. Individual railway infrastructure projects are eligible for support from public resources, for instance the Public Transport Fund or the Railway Passenger Partnership fund. No application has as yet been received for support from either fund for the Borders railway.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, 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 Henry McLeish on 26 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has been consulted on the costs of implementation of the proposed Climate Change Levy to Scotland and whether it will publish these costs.
Answer
As a UK taxation measure, the Climate Change Levy is a reserved matter. The UK Government is not able to say with precision what the effects of the levy will be in specific areas, sectors or firms since this will depend upon many factors including take up of various incentives to improve energy efficiency.
