- Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 14 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 8 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what standards it specifies for the maintenance of A class principal routes.
Answer
Each local authority is responsible for the maintenance and operation of the non-trunk road network within its area. The Executive does not specify maintenance standards, but has commended to authorities the use of the Code of Practice for Highway Maintenance Delivering Best Value in Highway Maintenance, published by The Institution of Highways and Transportation.
- Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 3 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether section 5 of the Scotland Act 1998 (Border Rivers) Order 1999 contains provision for the Environment Agency's function in relation to the introduction of rod licences on the Border Esk.
Answer
Article 5 of the Border Rivers Order does not make any provision concerning the Environment Agency’s rod licensing functions. It specifically refers to functions of ministers of the Crown, and rod licensing is a duty placed directly on the Environment Agency by the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act 1975.
- Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 21 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 2 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive when Scottish Water's annual report on the network capacity, which will form the basis for Scottish Water's work with local authorities, stakeholders and regulators, will be published.
Answer
From April 2006, Scottish Waterwill be required to publish annually a document outlining their strategic networkcapacity and development plans.
- Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 21 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 2 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what progress is being made on the proposed memorandum of understanding between Scottish Water and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency to help address issues of development constraint.
Answer
My officials will meet with ScottishWater and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency to progress this issue in thenext few weeks. It is intended that the memorandum of understanding will be in placeby 1 April 2006.
- Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 21 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 1 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive how stakeholders will be consulted on Scottish Water's essential objective, announced on 9 February 2005, to tackle constraints on new developments from 2006 to 2014 by allowing the building of 120,000 new homes and over 4,000 hectares of land to be commercially developed.
Answer
A wide range of stakeholderswere consulted last year during the consultation exercises on Investing in and Payingfor Water Services. Key stakeholders including Homes for Scotland, the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations and Communities Scotland participatedthroughout the Quality and Standards 3 process which culminated in my announcementto Parliament on 9 February.
This dialogue will continue withmajor stakeholders during the next investment programme. I have already indicatedthat Scottish Water should engage proactively in the planning process with localauthorities, and the Executive will in future be assisting in that process.
- Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 21 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 1 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive when it will be announced which areas will benefit from Scottish Water's essential objective to tackle constraints on new developments from 2006 to 2014 by allowing the building of 120,000 new homes and over 4,000 hectares of land to be commercially developed.
Answer
Scottish Water and its environmentaland economic regulators will be dealing with an eight year programme of investmentwith a substantive review before the mid-point to take account of the next strategicreview of charges for the period 2010-14.
Additionally, and as I indicatedin Parliament on 9 February, there may also be a requirement to revise some of thestrategic development estimates during that period if for example the populationof Scotland or its economy grows faster than anticipated. We also await the viewsof the Water Industry Commissioner on his current strategic review of charges, whichwill be received at the end of June 2005.
As I have already indicated,Scottish Water will work with local authorities in drawing up plans.
- Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 28 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-13882 by Cathy Jamieson on 2 February 2005 on efficiency savings within the Scottish Prison Service, whether the 5% efficiency target has been requested by ministers as part of the Efficient Government programme or whether the target has been determined by the Scottish Prison Service.
Answer
I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:
No; ministers set the funding levels for the Scottish Prison Service as part of their spending reviews, and the Scottish Prison Service is required to operate within this funding. We have also agreed with our Trade Union partners that a key element of our vision is that "in the necessary pursuit of demonstrating value for money to the taxpayer, public sector costs will be competitive". We decided that these efficiency targets were necessary to achieve these objectives. The targets were not part of the Efficient Government Programme to which SPS will alsocontribute.
- Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 18 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what action local authorities can take to require drivers to switch off vehicle engines when parked.
Answer
The Road Traffic (Vehicle Emissions) (Fixed Penalty) (Scotland) Regulations 2003 enable local authorities to issue fixed penalty notices to drivers who allow their vehicle engines to run unnecessarily while parked.
- Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 18 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether local authorities have a duty under the Environment Act 1995 to prevent the emission of air pollutants from parked vehicles.
Answer
Section 87 of the Environment Act 1995 allows the Scottish Ministers to make regulations conferring powers on local authorities for, or in connection with, implementing the Air Quality Strategy.
The regulations referred to in the answer to S2W-14036, answered on 18 February 2005, are made under this section, but implementation is optional. It is for individual authorities to decide, based on their particular circumstances, whether the powers would help to improve air quality in their areas.
- Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 28 January 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 11 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what consideration it has given to revising its signage strategy on motorways and trunk roads; whether a revised strategy will be issued and, if so, what the likely timescale is for its introduction.
Answer
The Scottish Executive has no plans to revise its general signposting strategy for motorways and trunk roads. However, the Executive is currently reviewing the Trunk Road and Motorway Tourist Signposting Policy document (TRMTSP) which was published in 1998. The review is considering minor amendments to the TRMTSP in the light of experience and practice to ensure that a consistent approach to tourist signposting continues to be provided across the trunk road network. This review should be completed by summer 2005.
The Scottish Executive has an ongoing programme of providing further electronic variable message signs at key locations across the network.
