- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 May 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Mike Watson on 20 May 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will make representations to VisitScotland that it should display on the visitscotland.com website online booking system full contact details of those accommodation providers that subscribe to the website, ensuring equal prominence with the contact details of the VisitScotland call centre.
Answer
This is an operational matter for visitscotland.com.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 17 March 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 28 March 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has received representations from Dumfries and Galloway Council in relation to the rejection of the recommendation made to the Executive by the reporter to the planning inquiry that the proposed weight restriction order U111w to the Polbae Road near Newton Stewart be not made; whether the imposition of such an order would damage forestry interests; whether the roads maintenance budget of the council is sufficient, and what action it will take to protect the interests of those that would be affected by the granting of such a weight restriction order.
Answer
To date, no representations have been received.Should representations be received, it would not be appropriate to make any specific comment at this time which could prejudice any future involvement the Scottish ministers may have.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 March 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 28 March 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive when it last met with COSLA to discuss the implementation and funding of the McCrone settlement; what action the Executive will take following that meeting; whether The Highland Council has a shortfall in funding of around #6.6 million over the period 2001-02 to 2003-04; whether the formula used for distributing funds to local authorities was correct, and what account the formula took of the needs of local authorities with sparsely populated areas and with very small schools and of the costs of providing Gaelic-medium education.
Answer
The Scottish Executive meet regularly with COSLA on all aspects of implementation of the agreement A Teaching Profession for the 21st Century. The Scottish Executive and COSLA agreed funding arrangements for the three years from 2001-02 to 2003-04 when the agreement was signed early in 2001. Additional resources were announced in the Scottish Budget in September 2002 to cover costs up to 2005-06.The Scottish Executive have recently agreed with COSLA the provision of additional resources of £80 million over the three years 2003 to 2006, a considerable element of which is designed to help those authorities, including Highland Council, who have carried higher teachers' salary costs than assumed in funding calculations.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 March 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 28 March 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what the total estimated cost is of implementing the McCrone settlement and whether this estimate is lower than COSLA's estimate.
Answer
The Scottish Executive remain committed to delivery in full of all recommendations of the agreement A Teaching Profession for the 21st Century.Following Spending Review 2000, the funding agreed for implementation of the agreement was £174 million in 2001-02, £285 million in 2002-03 and £405 million in 2003-04. The Scottish Budget in September 2002 identified an additional £282 million for implementation in 2003-06 (£11 million /£108 million /£163 million over the three financial years). The Scottish Executive and COSLA have now agreed funding in addition to that already identified of £80 million over the three years 2003-06 (£25 million /£20 million /£35 million). This will ensure that all the elements within the agreement are delivered on time and reinforces the commitment of all parties to full implementation.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 14 March 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 28 March 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive when it will reply to my letter of 27 February 2003 to the Minister for Environment and Rural Development about the future of the Ardtoe Marine Farming Unit; whether the minister will meet me to discuss the issue, and whether he will visit the unit to meet staff and hear their views about the future of the unit and the value of the work carried out there.
Answer
A reply was issued today.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 17 March 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 28 March 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Transport Planning Group will meet representatives of the Fort William and District Chamber of Commerce to discuss the Chamber of Commerce's campaign to upgrade the A82.
Answer
On 20 March I announced that we will be commissioning a full Route Action Plan study for the A82 trunk road between Tarbet and Fort William. This study will identify particular problems on the route and identify priorities and targets for future investment in the road. I will ensure the Chamber of Commerce is invited to submit its views to my officials.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 17 March 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 28 March 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive how much of the EU structural funds allocated to the Highlands and Islands has been used on road improvements in each year since 1999 and how much it estimates will be used on the basis of its present policy intentions in the current year and the next two years.
Answer
No structural funds monies have been allocated to trunk roads projects during this period, or in the current year. The Executive is currently considering making application for Highlands and Islands Special Transitional Programme support for the proposed upgrade of the A9 between Helmsdale and Ord of Caithness. Details of the amount and timing have not yet been finalised.For local roads, some £2.820 million in 1999 and £2.692 million in 2002, of EU structural funds, were allocated across the Highlands and Islands for road improvements. We estimate that almost £10 million could be allocated for roads works in the next two years.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 14 March 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 27 March 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive how many applications for injury benefit have been received under the National Health Service (Scotland) (Injury Benefits) Regulations 1998 as amended in each year since the regulations came into force and what percentage of these were successful on (a) first application, (b) review and (c) appeal.
Answer
Statistics for the three complete years 1999-2000, 2000-01 and 2001-02 as well as for the year 2002-03 to date are given in the table. It should be noted that the National Health Service (Scotland) (Injury Benefits) Regulations 1998 provide for successful applicants to receive a supplement to their income to bring their post injury income up to a proportion of their pre-injury income, that proportion depending on the degree of disability. "Successful" does not, therefore, mean that an additional payment is made. Reviews and appeals take into account the way the disability has developed since the original application and can be in respect of the degree of disability as well as the existence of disability. Hence, there are reviews of successful original applications.
| | Applications | % Succesful |
| New | Review | Appeal | New | Review | Appeal |
| 1999-2000 | 118 | 32 | | 81.40% | 81.30% | |
| 2000-01 | 76 | 30 | 1 | 75.00% | 80.00% | 100.00% |
| 2001-02 | 80 | 34 | 1 | 85.00% | 64.70%* | 100.0% |
| 2002-03 | 68 | 11 | | 91.20% | 54.50%* | |
Note:*Excluding cases on-going.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 24 February 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 27 March 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will urge Her Majesty's Government to arrange to meet members of the Parliament in order to discuss the situation of members of the Scottish Bus Group pension schemes and, in particular, the issue of whether Scottish Bus Group Pensioners should have to pay tax on their ex-gratia payments, given that members of the National Bus Company pension scheme did not.
Answer
The decision on whether to agree to such a meeting is entirely a matter for UK ministers. Tax and equity issues formed part of the case made by Scottish ministers to the Treasury which secured additional funds of £26 million for distribution to beneficiaries.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 14 March 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 26 March 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has confidence in the Water Industry Commissioner for Scotland and whether the costs of having such a commissioner are justified.
Answer
The Scottish Executive has every confidence that the Water Industry Commissioner for Scotland is promoting the interests of customers of Scottish Water in keeping with his responsibilities as set out in the Water Industry (Scotland) Act 2002. We expect the relatively small investment in maintaining the Water Industry Commissioner's office to contribute significantly to ensuring that customers will pay the minimum necessary for sustainable, effective water and waste water services.
