Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S1W-04100

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 February 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sarah Boyack on 21 June 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether, in respect of the pension scheme surplus of the Transport Operation Pension Scheme (TOPS), it will provide all information and assistance requested to the trade union representatives representing the workforce and support the efforts of the workforce in campaigning for distribution to them of the surplus from the pension scheme.

Information about the administration of the Transport Operatives Pensions Scheme is a matter for the Trustees of the Scheme until such time as the scheme is wound up. The distribution of any surplus is governed by the Trust Deeds, the Scottish Transport Group (Pension Schemes) Order 1996 approved by the UK Parliament in 1996 and the provisions of the Bus Group disposal programme prepared under section 1 of the Transport (Scotland) Act 1989 and published in 1990.

Question reference: S1W-07504

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 June 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sarah Boyack on 21 June 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will specify what the new guaranteed minimum service standards for water customers across Scotland are; what are the circumstances whereby water authorities must compensate customers who receive poor service; whether the standards apply to the drinking quality of water; whether standard compensation will be listed for planned interruptions, delays in restoration of supply, response to complaints and reply to enquiries, failure to maintain appointments and flooding sewers; whether there is compensation payable for the contamination of a water supply, and, if compensation is not available in any of these circumstances, whether it will explain the reasons.

The Water Industry Commissioner is currently consulting on his proposals for new guaranteed minimum service standards for water customers, which cover the various circumstances listed in your question. The details of the proposals are available directly on the Commissioner's website (www.watercommissioner.co.uk). I welcome the Commissioner's commitment to work with the water authorities to increase their standards of service to customers.

Question reference: S1W-04920

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 March 2000
Current Status: Answered by Henry McLeish on 21 June 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will increase its targets of 1,000 modern apprenticeships by 2003 in the tourism industry given that the number of persons employed within the industry is between 170,000 and 180,000 and, if not, why not.

Question reference: S1W-07719

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 June 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sarah Boyack on 21 June 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive how it will ensure that persons who live in the Highlands and Islands, or who have local knowledge of the issues and problems relating to ferry transport in the Highlands and Islands, are considered for the vacant positions on the Board of Caledonian MacBrayne.

The current vacancies for the posts of Non-Executive Director on the Board of Caledonian MacBrayne were openly advertised in accordance with the Guidance on Appointments to Public Bodies. The criteria for the posts include one, categorised as highly desirable, relating to an interest in, or local knowledge of, Highlands and Islands issues. Candidates for the current vacancies were assessed against this and the other criteria for the post(s), and an announcement on the outcome of the recruitment process was made today.

Question reference: S1W-07718

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 June 2000
Current Status: Answered by Henry McLeish on 21 June 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive what will be done with the proceeds from the sale of the tourist information centres in the Highlands and Islands; whether such proceeds will be reinvested in the tourist industry, and whether it will place in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre a breakdown of the proceeds from the sale of each tourist information centre and details of to which budget the proceeds will be or have been credited.

This is a commercial matter for HIE. Proceeds from the sale of the TICs, along with receipts from other property sales and rentals, form part of HIE's overall budget management process and is reinvested in new economic development throughout the area. The TICs were sold as a package and prices are therefore not available for individual units. The properties referred to, however, are still being leased to the Highlands of Scotland Tourist Board for use as Tourist Information Centres.

Question reference: S1W-03847

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 January 2000
Current Status: Answered by Jack McConnell on 21 June 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has received representations from local authorities to be allowed to reduce or eliminate discounts on second or holiday homes and retain the income generated as a result and, if so, from which local authorities and what measures does it intend to take as a result.

Question reference: S1W-07043

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 May 2000
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 19 June 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will make available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre a detailed record of the visit to Finland by the Minister in charge of the Digital Scotland Task Force, including any outcomes resulting from the trip.

I visited Finland on 13, 14 and 15 October 1999, to see at first hand examples of the application of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to education and learning there. I combined this, in the context of the Digital Scotland initiative, with discussions about Finland's approach to wider information society issues. The programme included meetings with educational researchers, teachers and schools students, with elected representatives and officials of the Finnish Education Ministry and of the Ministry for Communications, and with representatives of Finland-based companies.

I was impressed with the degree of consensus within Finland that active participation and collaboration in and leadership of the information society were critically important to economic and social wellbeing.

The visit informed and deepened our understanding of a wide range of ICT issues which are relevant to the Digital Scotland initiative. A particular result of the visit is that a team of Finnish education researchers visited Scotland from 31 May to 2 June to share with us their knowledge about applying ICTs to education and learning.

Question reference: S1W-03846

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 January 2000
Current Status: Answered by Jack McConnell on 16 June 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will reform the provisions of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 to provide local authorities with the same provisions as exist under section 12 of that Act for billing authorities in Wales so that local authorities will have the same discretion as those in Wales to take a different approach to discounts in respect of second or holiday homes by either reducing the discount from 50% to 25% or giving no discount at all; whether it will further reform the Act to allow local authorities who do exercise such powers to retain any additional revenue yielded as a result of the reduction or elimination of discounts on second or holiday homes and, if not, why not.

Question reference: S1W-07512

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 June 2000
Current Status: Answered by Henry McLeish on 15 June 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive how many complaints have been made to the External Complaints Adjudicator in respect of (a) Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE); (b) each local enterprise company contracted to HIE; (c) Scottish Enterprise; and (d) each local enterprise company contracted to Scottish Enterprise, specifying in each case the number of complaints which were upheld, the number rejected, and the number rejected because they were submitted late; whether the External Complaints Adjudicator has the power to order payment of compensation; if not, whether it plans to provide such powers either to the External Complaints Adjudicator or a new Ombudsman, and, if it has such plans how compensation should be assessed.

In 1999-2000 the External Adjudicators for Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, investigated the following complaints against the Enterprise Networks:

(a) One against Highlands and Islands Enterprise which was rejected.

(b) One against Western Isles Enterprise which was rejected.

(d) One against Scottish Enterprise Grampian which was rejected and one against Scottish Enterprise Glasgow which is ongoing.

None of those rejected were done so as a result of late submission.

The External Adjudicators' terms of reference empower them to make recommendations for appropriate action where the complaint is upheld and this could include financial compensation. They do not have powers to order it. There are no current plans to change these powers or to establish a new Ombudsman.

The Scottish Executive proposes to consult on the role of public sector Ombudsmen in the autumn.

Question reference: S1W-07281

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 May 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sarah Boyack on 13 June 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will make representations to ScotRail asking it to reconsider its withdrawal of the service stop for Kingussie on the 10.10 Glasgow to Inverness service and its plans to withdraw a similar service stop for Kingussie on the 17.40 Edinburgh to Inverness service.

All proposed timetable changes have to be presented for consideration to the Passenger Transport Executives, User Representatives, local authorities and the shadow Strategic Rail Authority before they can be adopted. This process has been applied to changes on summer services between Inverness and Edinburgh/Glasgow, including stops at Kingussie, and agreed to by the relevant bodies. Changes to the winter timetable, including the 17:40 from Edinburgh to Inverness, are currently under consideration.