- Asked by: Bruce Crawford, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 July 2001
-
Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 28 August 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive when it will publish detailed responses and action points in relation to any studies that it or any of its agencies or non-departmental public bodies have commissioned on energy use and carbon emission.
Answer
I refer the member to the answers given to questions S1W-17304, S1W-17305 and S1W-17306.
- Asked by: Bruce Crawford, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 July 2001
-
Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 28 August 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will detail any research which it or any of its agencies or non-departmental public bodies have commissioned or undertaken into future energy use or carbon emission; when any such research will be completed, and whether it will publish any extracts, including statistics, from any completed research to assist in the identification of overall energy requirements in Scotland and past, current and future carbon emission levels.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-17305. The Executive has not commissioned any other research on future energy use or carbon emission.With regard to the commissioning of research by other agencies or non-departmental public bodies, I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-17304.
- Asked by: Bruce Crawford, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 August 2001
-
Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 22 August 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what monitoring it undertakes of different public works contract procedures used by the water authorities; what plans it has to review these procedures to ensure best practice, and whether it will issue guidance to introduce common practices across the authorities.
Answer
As I mentioned in my answers to questions S1W-17483 and S1W-17484, water authorities are expected to take their decisions on expenditure with due regard to the principles of government accounting concerning the regularity, propriety and economy, efficiency and effectiveness of their proposals. It is for the water authorities to establish the best means of securing this.
- Asked by: Bruce Crawford, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 August 2001
-
Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 22 August 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to issue guidance to the proposed new single water authority on public works contracting procedures.
Answer
Guidance is currently being prepared for Scottish Water. It will include, amongst other subjects that establish how the new authority will be run, guidance to ensure that decisions on expenditure are taken with due regard to the principles of government accounting concerning the regularity, propriety and economy, efficiency and effectiveness of the proposals.
- Asked by: Bruce Crawford, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 August 2001
-
Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 22 August 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what monitoring it undertakes to ensure that the water authorities secure best value in their public works contracts.
Answer
The authorities are expected to take their decisions on expenditure with due regard to the principles of government accounting concerning the regularity, propriety and economy, efficiency and effectiveness of their proposals. Given the number of projects undertaken at any one time by the authorities, it would not be appropriate for the Executive to monitor each of these on an individual basis. Projects exceeding the delegated authority are required to be submitted to the Executive for approval.
- Asked by: Bruce Crawford, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 August 2001
-
Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 22 August 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance it has issued to the water authorities to ensure that best value is obtained in their public works contracts.
Answer
Guidance to ensure that best value is obtained in contracts has been issued to the three water authorities. It is issued in the context of the Financial and Management Memorandum and Scottish Executive Finance Guidance notes. This guidance is reviewed periodically.
- Asked by: Bruce Crawford, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 July 2001
-
Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 21 August 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether hydro-electric power will be classified as renewable energy under the new Renewables Obligation (Scotland) and when the Renewables Obligation (Scotland) will be announced.
Answer
Responses to our initial consultation on the Renewables Obligation (Scotland), or ROS, raised concerns about the future of Scotland's existing large hydro stations.We have accepted that additional support was required and have successfully argued that case with colleagues in the UK Government. I was therefore able to announce recently that we will extend support under ROS to refurbished hydro stations up to 20 megawatts in size, and also to support the building of new hydro stations of any size, subject to their obtaining the necessary consents. This additional support will secure continuation of the refurbishment of Scotland's existing large hydro stations, and represents good news for the engineering jobs dependent on that refurbishment work.Our final statutory consultation on the ROS was published on 3 August, and is available in the Parliament's Reference Centre.
- Asked by: Bruce Crawford, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 July 2001
-
Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 21 August 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive how many local authorities currently dispose of all or part of their waste streams through incineration.
Answer
Four local authorities currently dispose of part of their waste streams through incineration - Dundee City, Angus, Shetland Islands and Orkney Islands.
- Asked by: Bruce Crawford, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 July 2001
-
Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 21 August 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive how many waste incinerators it currently licenses; who the operators of these incinerators are; where each is located, and what amount of waste, in tonnes, has been incinerated at each plant in each of the last five years.
Answer
This is an operational matter for the Scottish Environment Protection Agency which licenses waste incinerators; information on waste incinerator licences is available on public registers held by the agency.
- Asked by: Bruce Crawford, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 July 2001
-
Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 21 August 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it plans to take in the light of recent safety and environmental issues at the Baldovie incinerator in Dundee.
Answer
Environmental and safety regulation of specific sites are matters for the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the Health and Safety Executive. The Scottish Executive recognises the continuing public concerns over the possible health effects of emissions from incinerators, particularly dioxins and heavy metals. To address these concerns, a number of recent epidemiological studies have investigated the incidence of various diseases in populations likely to be affected by these emissions. However, no convincing evidence of any such link has been established. The University of Dundee is currently carrying out a further epidemiological study and I await the findings of this.
