- Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Monday, 02 October 2006
-
Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 25 October 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive by which mechanism local authorities accessed the £27 million, made available from 2003-04 over a three-year period, to introduce 20 mph speed limits outside schools.
Answer
Grant is made available undersection 40 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 as amended by section 76 of the Transport(Scotland) Act 2001. The funds are provided to local authorities on receipt of aclaim in respect of expenditure incurred, submitted under the terms of a scheduleof grant conditions.
- Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Monday, 02 October 2006
-
Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 25 October 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how it monitors the implementation of its policy, stated in ETLLD Circular No.1/2004, “that a 20 mph speed limit should be the norm outside schools”.
Answer
Local authorities are asked toprovide details twice yearly of the number of schools in their area which have hada 20mph speed limit implemented. By the end of June 2006, 20mph schemes were inplace at two-thirds of schools.
- Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Monday, 25 September 2006
-
Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 20 October 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether all compensation for stock slaughtered during the 2001 foot-and-mouth disease outbreak has now been paid.
Answer
Arrangements are in hand forpayment of a small number of outstanding cases. These claims were submitted shortlyafter the original valuations but were held up by a review of policy by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, who fund such compensation, and a subsequent decisionto cease such payments. It is intended that these claims be settled now by mydepartment.
- Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Monday, 25 September 2006
-
Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 20 October 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether appeals against the valuation of stock slaughtered during the 2001 foot-and-mouth disease outbreak can still be considered.
Answer
No, the time for such appealshas lapsed.
- Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Friday, 29 September 2006
-
Current Status:
Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 20 October 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether there are any potential sources of funding to provide drystane dyking and car parking facilities at sites of historic interest.
Answer
Historic Scotland doesnot have specific funds to cover provision for car parking for privately owned monuments.Drystane walling repair might be assisted through the agency’s Ancient MonumentsGrants programme but only where the walls are themselves of historic importance.Funding for the repair and reinstatement of drystane walls on agricultural landis available through the Land Management Contracts Menu Scheme which is administeredby the Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department. Support to farmersfor building and restoration of traditional drystane walls has been available throughagri-environment schemes such as the Environmentally Sensitive Area Schemes andthe Rural Stewardship Scheme.
- Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Monday, 02 October 2006
-
Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 12 October 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether a council tenant whose tenancy pre-dates the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 and who moved after 30 September 2002 to a property in the ownership of either the same authority or a housing association that has received housing stock through a council housing stock transfer should be considered to have taken on a new tenancy and, consequently, to qualify for the right to buy under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 rather than the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987.
Answer
A tenant whose tenancypre-dates the
Housing (Scotland) Act 2001and who has the Right to Buy retains that right for as long as they remain in thesame property
. Any tenant transferring to anew tenancy on or after 30 September 2002, assuming the new tenancy providesthe Right to Buy, would move to the ‘modernised’ Right to Buy, which was introducedby the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001.The ‘modernised’ Right to Buy permits a maximum discount of 35% or £15,000,whichever is lower. The ‘modernised’ Right to Buy rules apply to such newtenancies irrespective of whether the property has been the subject of ahousing stock transfer.
There are a small number ofexemptions to this general position which would enable a tenant to retain the Rightto Buy on pre-2001 Act terms and conditions when moving to another property. Theseare detailed in the Scottish Statutory Instrument 318 The Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 (Scottish Secure Tenancy Order etc.) Order 2002. For example, these exemptions include moves from propertieswhich are liable to demolition. In general, however, when a tenant moves toanother property, the original tenancy is considered to have been terminated.
- Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Friday, 29 September 2006
-
Current Status:
Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 11 October 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birth in Westerkirk, Langholm, of the Scottish civil engineer, Thomas Telford, on 9 August 1757.
Answer
The anniversary of the birthof the renowned engineer Thomas Telford will be marked next year as part of Scotland’sYear of Highland Culture, which the Executive is part funding. Telford’scontribution to building roads and bridges across the Highlands andmore generally throughout Scotland will be celebrated using a schools project being setup by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Scotlandwith funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and Highland 2007.
The project will take as itsfocus and inspiration the work of Thomas Telford. It will aim to engage youngpeople in four areas of the Highlands in exploring and celebrating their local builtheritage, and in sharing their knowledge with each other and their local communities.2007 is a good time to undertake this project given that it is both Scotland’sYear of Highland Culture and the 250th anniversary of Thomas Telford’sbirth. The project will form one component of The Highland Promise – thecultural pledge to young people in the Highlands.
- Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 September 2006
-
Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 6 October 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what revenue and capital funding has been made available, or committed, to Dumfries and Galloway College since 1999.
Answer
The information for Dumfries and Galloway College requestedis as follows:
| Academic Year | Capital (£) | Revenue* (£) |
| 1999–2000 | 80,400 | 6,303,577 |
| 2000–01 | 427,058 | 6,522,267 |
| 2001–02 | 359,799 | 7,324,784 |
| 2002–03 | 289,750 | 7,477,029 |
| 2003–04 | 113,417 | 7,718,154 |
| 2004–05 | 474,359 | 7,970,667 |
| 2005–06 | 1,698,427 | 8,243,962 |
| 2006-07 (current allocations) | 4,054,566 | 9,127,308 |
Note: *Revenue figures includefunding for recurrent grant in aid, bursaries and special projects.
- Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 September 2006
-
Current Status:
Answered by Hugh Henry on 5 October 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S2W-28278 and S2W-28279 by Hugh Henry on 21 September 2006, how it reconciles the Minister’s statement in the answer to the former question that because pension credit is not included in Schedule 2 of the Civil Legal Aid (Scotland) Regulations 2002 income as a result of this benefit “will be included in the assessment of an applicant’s disposable income” with the statement in the answer to the latter question that “any pension credit income received is disregarded in the assessment of disposable income”.
Answer
There is no inconsistency betweenthe answers to the two questions S2W-28278 and S2W-28279. The rules for assessmentof disposable income for advice and assistance and civil legal aid are different.
Question S2W-28278 related tolegal aid. Schedule 2 of the CivilLegal Aid (Scotland) Regulations 2002 governs theassessment of disposable income for civil legal aid. Pension credit is not included asa disregarded benefit in this Schedule and is therefore counted in the assessmentof disposable income for civil legal aid.
Question S2W-28279 related toadvice and assistance. Schedule 2 of the Advice and Assistance (Scotland) Regulations1996 governs the assessment of disposable income for advice and assistance. Pension credit is included as a disregardedbenefit by virtue of this Schedule and so is disregarded in the assessment of disposableincome for advice and assistance.
- Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 September 2006
-
Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 5 October 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what improvement schemes for the A701 (a) have been completed since 1999, (b) are under way or (c) are planned to commence by 2008-09 and what the actual or estimated (i) cost and (ii) commencement date is, or was, for each scheme.
Answer
No significant improvement schemeson the A701 trunk road have been completed since 1999, are currently underway orare planned to commence by 2008-09.
However, between 2001 and 2005the Scottish Executive carried out works on the route to the value of £3.153 million,of which £2.898 million was spent on surfacing projects.
Transport Scotland hasoperational responsibility for this area, and can be contacted for more informationif required.
