- Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 21 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Mather on 28 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what funding it will make available to each local authority in each of the next three financial years to support their responsibilities for the delivery of Business Gateway.
Answer
The transfer of Business Gatewayfunctions to local authorities will involve a reallocation of funds. The detailof this has still to be determined.
- Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 21 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Mather on 17 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the strategic forum for enterprise has met and, if so, what issues have been discussed.
Answer
The first meeting of theStrategic Forum took place on 20 November 2007. The main issuesdiscussed were the terms of reference of the Strategic Forum and an update onprogress relating to the reform of the enterprise networks and VisitScotland.
- Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 21 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Mather on 17 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding will be provided for the Scottish Co-investment Fund in each year of the 2007-10 spending review.
Answer
The original resources forthe Scottish Co-investment Fund were £20 million with additional ERDF of £25 million.To date the Fund has spent in excess of £30 million leveraging £72.5 millionfrom the private sector.
Future funding for thisinitiative is under consideration.
- Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 21 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Mather on 17 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what funding it will make available to each local authority in each of the next three financial years to support the responsibilities transferred to them under the recent review of the structures and functions of the enterprise networks.
Answer
The transfer ofresponsibilities from the enterprise networks to local authorities will meansome reallocation of funds. The detail of this will be decided when the exactnature of the activity to be transferred is determined.
- Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Fergus Ewing on 13 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how tackling antisocial behaviour is being addressed in the 2007 spending review.
Answer
Antisocial behaviouris a very real issue for local communities. We believe local authorities and otherpartners are best placed to decide how to allocate resources to tackle the issue.That is why antisocial behaviour and community safety funding is no longer ring-fencedand now forms part of the overall local government settlement. This gives localpartners the increased freedom they have been looking for.
- Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 03 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 10 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what evidence was used to designate the Nith Valley as a nitrate vulnerable zone (NVZ); when such evidence was collated, and when the designation of the Nith Valley as a NVZ will be reviewed.
Answer
Lower Nithsdale NVZ was designated following a risk assessment undertaken by the BritishGeological Survey (BGS) and the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute in 2001-02.Groundwater sites in the Nith Valley were reported by BGS in 2002 and again in 2004.Designation of the NVZs must be reviewed at least every four years. The ScottishNVZs were last reviewed in 2005-06.
- Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 02 November 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 3 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is normal practice to use the Public Expenditure Statistical Analysis outturn figures as the baseline budget for the following financial year.
Answer
In calculatingthe Scottish Government baseline HM Treasury used new expenditure plans, adjustedin certain cases to take account of the latest estimates of outturn spending,as published in the Public Expenditure Statistical Analysis document. It isconsidered that this is an approach for which there is no precedent.
- Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 15 November 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 29 November 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-5991 by Richard Lochhead on 15 November 2007, on what date Young’s Seafood withdrew its application for a grant of £426,000 under the Fish Processing and Marketing Scheme.
Answer
Young’s Seafoodconfirmed on the 2 May 2007 that the project would not be completed and a claim would notbe submitted.
- Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 02 November 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 29 November 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what the reasons were for the decision not to award Young’s Seafood a grant of £426,000, intended for the development of deshelling machines for its site in Annan and applied for under the Fish Processing and Marketing Scheme.
Answer
The decision tocancel the award, taken prior to the current Scottish Government taking office,was on the basis that subsequent to the fire at the Young’s Annan facility inMarch 2007 the company confirmed that the project would not be completed and a claimwould not be submitted.
- Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 02 November 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 20 November 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how it will evaluate the competitiveness of the economy over the next four years.
Answer
As set out in theGovernment Economic Strategy, competitiveness will be evaluated by comparing Scotland’s productivity performance to that of other Organisationfor Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) economies.
