- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 08 September 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sam Galbraith on 9 October 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish (a) the minute or other document of 10 May from the Scottish Qualifications Authority and (b) the subsequent Scottish Qualifications Authority paper to a committee meeting referred to in the Ministerial Statement by the Minister for Children and Education on 6 September 2000.
Answer
Copies of these documents have been submitted to the Education, Culture and Sport Committee.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 08 September 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sam Galbraith on 9 October 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Education, Culture and Sport and Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Committees, in conducting their inquiries into the exam results issue and the Scottish Qualifications Authority, will be given access to Scottish Executive Cabinet minutes, memoranda and all other relevant cabinet documents.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-9735.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 08 September 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sam Galbraith on 9 October 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will seek to invoke the exceptions under the Freedom of Information Code of Conduct to withhold from the Education, Culture and Sport and Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Committees access to any of the documents relevant to their inquiries into the exam results and in particular whether it will withhold access to any documents relating to advice or other communication from officials to Ministers, or to communications between the Scottish Qualifications Authority and officials.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-9735.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 14 September 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 9 October 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether end-producer testing will be introduced as the sole precondition for allowing scallops to enter the market.
Answer
There are no plans to introduce end-product testing as the sole precondition for allowing scallops to enter the market.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 14 September 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 9 October 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Food Standards Agency has provided any examples of processing companies who were ordered to recall scallops which were tested following processing.
Answer
There have been no recalls of scallops by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) due to samples failing end product testing. In the event that a commercially processed product fails end-product testing, it is the responsibility of the producer to ensure that products which could pose a danger to public health are not placed on the market. The FSA are not informed of the results.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 September 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 9 October 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-6203 by Sarah Boyack on 22 August 2000, what the cost is of the consultancy work on a trial set of indicators of sustainable development which it has commissioned; why it considers that such expenditure is justified; whether any further expenditure in this area is planned, and whether it intends to take any action to inform the public about issues surrounding the application of strategic environmental assessment.
Answer
The Scottish Executive is committed to integrating the principles of environmentally and socially sustainable development into all its policies. In pursuit of this commitment, we have let a consultancy to develop proposals for a set of sustainable development indicators covering waste, energy and travel, relevant to Scotland's distinctive environment. The indicators will help focus on specific actions and on measuring their effectiveness. They may also be important in applying strategic environmental assessment, stemming form a proposed EC Directive, now in final form. The cost of the consultancy is about £27,000. No further spend on consultancies on sustainable development indicators is planned. If the Executive decides to proceed with the development of indicators, there will be costs associated with data collection and dissemination. It is too early to say now what those costs would be.
The Scottish Executive also let this month a contract for about £20,000 for a scoping study to review the experience of strategic environmental assessment in other countries and consider how to apply it to Executive programmes. A key objective is to increase public participation in the process. We will consider carefully how to inform the public about the issues surrounding the application of strategic environmental assessment.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 25 September 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 9 October 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive on how many occasions the powers of direction granted by (a) section 11 of the Natural Heritage (Scotland) Act 1991 and (b) section 9 of the Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Act 1996 have been exercised.
Answer
The powers of direction granted by section 11 of the Natural Heritage (Scotland) Act 1991 and section 9 of the Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Act 1992 have never been used.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 21 September 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 5 October 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-8302 by Sarah Boyack on 22 August 2000, in respect of which lifeline air routes a public service obligation has been imposed; whether it considers that there are any other routes in respect of which a public service obligation should be imposed, in particular whether the Inverness to London Heathrow should be so designated, and, if so, what representations it has made or intends to make, in particular directly to the European Commission, in respect of each such route.
Answer
The lifeline air routes on which public service obligations have been imposed are as follows:
Glasgow-Campbeltown-Tiree |
Glasgow-Barra |
Stornoway-Benbecula-Barra |
Kirkwall-North Ronaldsay |
Kirkwall-Papa Westray |
Tingwall-Foula |
Tingwall-Papa Stour |
Tingwall-Out Skerries |
Tingwall/Sumburgh-Fair Isle |
It is for local authorities to consider whether public service obligations (PSOs) should be imposed on any air routes and to approach the Scottish Executive with economically and socially necessary cases for new PSOs in accordance with the criteria contained within EC Regulation 2408/92. The Scottish Executive has not made, and has no plans to make, representations to the European Commission in respect of new PSOs on any air routes.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 21 September 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 5 October 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive how much Scottish public bodies spent on consultancy services in each of the last five years and how much they expect to spend in the current year and the following two years.
Answer
There are a variety of categories of public bodies including Executive, Advisory and Tribunal Non-Departmental Public Bodies, NHS Bodies, state-owned companies and public corporations. They operate at various levels of delegated responsibility, including the way in which they use consultancy services. Information on the use of these services is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 15 September 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 5 October 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans and resources it has put in place to allow (a) local authorities, (b) health boards, (c) police forces, (d) fire brigades, (e) the Scottish Ambulance Service and (f) other government agencies to convert their vehicles to use liquid petroleum gas, in particular those organisations which are ineligible to receive Powershift Scheme funding.
Answer
Spending decisions are for the agencies concerned.