Questions and answers

Question reference: S1W-06243

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 April 2000
Current Status: Answered by Henry McLeish on 4 May 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will make representations to the Chancellor of the Exchequer in relation to the proposed Climate Change Levy to (a) provide adequate financial support to small and medium si'ed Scottish enterprises to allow them to adapt to the requirements of the Levy and (b) add pipe insulation, refrigeration equipment and thermal screens to the proposed list of technologies qualifying for the enhanced capital allowances for businesses making energy saving investments.

As a tax measure, the Climate Change Levy is a matter reserved to the UK Government. We understand that the Government plans to extend the list of eligible technologies to include those listed in (b) and the list of technologies will be subject to further review. The Scottish Executive, through the Scottish Energy Efficiency Office (SEEO), already assists SMEs improve energy efficiency. We continually review these arrangements to take account of the impact of the levy and other measures which are introduced from time to time.

Question reference: S1W-06176

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 April 2000
Current Status: Answered by Jack McConnell on 4 May 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-4773 by Mr Jack McConnell on 6 April 2000, what the five task forces are which have been established since July 1999, and what is the membership or composition of each.

The information requested is set out in the table below:

Task Force	Membership
Homelessness Task Force	Ms Jackie Baillie (Chair) Deputy Minister for Communities
	Councillor Rita Miller, Convener of Community Services, South Ayrshire Council
	Mr Mark Turley, Director of Housing, Edinburgh City Council
	Mr Robert Aldridge, Director, Scottish Council for Single Homeless
	Ms Liz Nicholson, Director, Shelter, Scotland
	Ms Margaret Taylor, Director, Glasgow Council for Single Homeless
	Mr Mel Young, Director, The Big Issue in Scotland
	Mr David Orr, Director, Scottish Federation of Housing Associations
	Ms Pat Bagot, Policy and Practice Manager, Scottish Homes
	Ms Suzanne Fitzpatrick, Department of Urban Studies, Glasgow University
	Ms Hilary Reynolds, Department of Social Security
	Ms Catriona Renfrew, Greater Glasgow Health Board
	Mr Bill Robertson, Association of Directors of Social Work
	Mr David Belfall, Head of Group, Development Department, Scottish Executive
Tayside Task Force	Professor Frank Clark CBE, former General Manager of Lanarkshire Health Board (Chair)
	Mr David Bolton, Director of Primary and Community Service Development at Lothian Primary Care NHS Trust
	Mr Cameron Revie, PricewaterhouseCoopers
	Mr Mike Fuller, Scottish Partnership Forum
	Professor David Rowley, Chairman of Tayside Acute Services Review
Gaelic Organisations Task Force	Mr John Alick Macpherson, Depute Director of the Gaelic Broadcasting Committee (Chair)
	Ms Maggie Cunningham, BBC Scotland
	Mrs Annie MacSween, Senior Lecturer in Gaelic Development at Lews Castle College
	Mr Donald John MacInnes, Chief Executive of Scotland Europa
	Mr Donald Mackay, Financial Consultant
Digital Scotland Task Force	Mr Peter Peacock, Deputy Minister for Children and Education
	Mr Robert Crawford, Chief Executive, Scottish Enterprise
	Mr Gordon McKenzie, Scotland Country Manager, Microsoft Limited
	Mr Graham Moore, Director, BT Scotland
	Mr Frank Cullen, Managing Director, NTL Scotland
	Ms Margaret Morrison, Country Manager Scotland and Ireland, Cisco Systems
	Mr Gordon H Brown, Finance Director, IBM UK Limited
	Professor Tom Wilson, Chair of Glasgow, Technology Network, GCBP
	Mr Robert Craig, Director, Scottish Centre for Information and Library Services
	Mr Keith Monserrat, Director, Legal and Regulation, THUS
	Mr Richard Pietrasik, Chief Executive, SCET
	Ms Rachel Willmer, Chief Executive Officer, Intertrader
	Mr Gavin Nicholson, Managing Director, The Realise Group
	Mr Bill Harvey, Deputy Director, The Scottish Funding Councils for Further and Higher Education
	Ms Lesley Beddie, Director of Communications, The Scottish Parliament
	Ms Oonagh Aitken, Chief Executive, CoSLA
	Mr Frank Binnie, Chief Executive, Internet Society of Scotland
	Ms Ann Macintosh, Director, International Teledemocracy Centre
	Mr Chris van der Kuyl, Chief Executive Officer, VIS Interactive plc
	Mr Hugh Aitken, Vice-President Operations, SUN Microsystems Scotland B.V.
	Mr Scott McGlinchey, Director ICL Scotland
	Mr John Elvidge, Secretary, Scottish Executive Education Department
	Mr Alistair Brown, Scottish Executive
	Mr Chris Winslow, Special Adviser
Knowledge Economy Task Force	Mr Henry McLeish, MP, MSP, Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning (Chair)
	Mr Nicol Stephen, MSP, Deputy Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning
	Mr Hugh Aitken, Vice President, Operations, (Europe, Japan and Asia Pacific), Sun Microsystems; Chairman, Electronics Scotland
	Mr Rae Angus, Principal, Aberdeen College
	Professor John Archer, Principal, Heriot-Watt University
	Dr Janet Brown, Head of Innovation, Scottish Enterprise
	Mr Robert Crawford, Chief Executive, Scottish Enterprise
	Mr Bob Downes, Director, Economic Development, BT
	Dr Cathy Garner, Director, Research and Enterprise, University of Glasgow
	Mr Gordon Guthrie, Technical Architect/IT Strategist at the new Halifax internet bank (greenfield.co.uk)
	Mr Charles Leadbeater, respected author on the knowledge economy
	Ms Shonaig Macpherson, Managing Partner, Edinburgh, McGrigor Donald
	Professor Stephen Molyneux, Microsoft Professor of Advanced Learning Technology, University of Wolverhampton; Director, DELTA (Development and Evaluation of Learning Technology Applications) Institute
	Mr Neil Roden, Director of Human Resources, Royal Bank of Scotland
	Mr Spiro Rombotis, Chief Executive, Cyclacel Ltd
	Professor John Sizer, Chief Executive, SHEFC/SFEFC
	Mr Willie Watt, Director, Scotland, 3I plc
	Mr Eddie Frizzell, Secretary, Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Department
	Mr Godfrey Robson, Head of Enterprise and Industrial Affairs Group
	Mr Ed Weeple, Head of Lifelong Learning Group

Question reference: S1W-06318

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 April 2000
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 4 May 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive what its estimate is of the number of persons whose employment may be jeopardised by the passage into law of the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Bill and whether it will meet representatives of those persons whose livelihoods may be lost in this way.

Question reference: S1W-05555

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 March 2000
Current Status: Answered by Henry McLeish on 2 May 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has power to regulate companies which buy and sell Internet addresses and, if not, whether it will make representations to Her Majesty's Government requesting that stricter regulation of such companies be introduced in order to ensure that potential Scottish business users of the Internet are not deterred by the price of obtaining their preferred address.

Where the courts in this country have jurisdiction, Scottish owners of trade marks and other names can pursue legal remedies against deliberate, bad faith and abusive registrations in the same way as if the dispute were "offline". Registrations in global domains such as ".com" are subject to the Uniform Dispute Resolution Procedure agreed by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).

Question reference: S1W-05519

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 March 2000
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 2 May 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive how much money was (a) sought by and (b) awarded to each hospital under the capital modernisation fund, broken down by individual projects and, in particular, whether Raigmore Hospital sought funding of approximately #1.5 million for modernisation of its accident and emergency department but received no funding for this project.

Bids for the modernisation of accident and emergency services from the Capital Modernisation Fund were submitted by NHS Trusts or health boards rather than individual hospitals. This was a very specific exercise and there were more bids than could be accommodated within the resources available. The outcome should not be interpreted as a lack of support for the general work of the hospitals which were unsuccessful. The information is set out in the table below.

NHS TRUST/HEALTH BOARD	PROJECT	AMOUNT SOUGHT	AMOUNT AWARDED
Argyll and Clyde Acute Hospitals NHS Trust	Refurbishment of A&E department at the Royal Alexandra Hospital	£5 million	Nil
Ayrshire and Arran Acute Hospitals NHS Trust	(i) redesign of reception and early care management of patients in Crosshouse Hospital (ii) establishment of telemedicine links between the 2 main A&E departments and the Primary Care Trust's Community Hospitals	£1.7 million £80,000	£1.7 million £80,000
Dumfries and Galloway Acute and Maternity Hospitals NHS Trust	(i) new build adjacent to A&E department at Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary (ii) provision of helicopter landing site at Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary (iii) telemedicine link with Garrick Hospital, Stranraer (iv) electronic requesting of x-ray investigations (v) teleradiology link with Garrick Hospital, Stranraer	£800,000 £55,000 £30,000 £12,000 £65,000	£800,000 £55,000 £30,000 £12,000 £65,000
Fife Acute Hospitals NHS Trust	Refurbishment of existing facilities at Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy	£1.33 million	£1.33 million
Forth Valley Primary Care NHS Trust	Provision of Out of Hours emergency dental service at Falkirk and District Hospital	£25,780	£25,780
Greater Glasgow Health Board	(i) development of A&E department at Yorkhill Hospital (ii) to link the Glasgow Emergency Medical Service call centre to A&E departments electronically	£600,000 £555,000	Nil £555,000
Grampian Primary Care NHS Trust	(i) provision of a communication network (ii) provision of telemedicine equipment for 5 community hospitals (iii) structural adaptations to remote A&E facilities	£223,000 £100,000 £10,000	£223,000 £100,000 £10,000
Grampian University Hospitals NHS Trust	(i) provision of A&E IT system (ii) provision of 4 bay adult resuscitation suite (iii) redesign of existing A&E facilities, Aberdeen Royal Infirmary	£167,000 £618,000 £110,000	Nil £618,000 £110,000
Highland Acute Hospitals NHS Trust	(i) refurbishment of existing A&E facilities and investment in technology at Raigmore Hospital, Inverness, including a telemedicine link with the Western Isles Hospital (ii) redesign and enhance existing A&E facilities and investment in technology at Caithness General Hospital, Wick (iii) upgrade A&E equipment and investment in technology at Belford Hospital, Fort William	£2.4 million £263,000 £62,424	Nil £263,000 £62,424
Highland Primary Care NHS Trust	Upgrade Dr MacKinnon Hospital, Isle of Skye	£13,600	£13,600
Lanarkshire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust	Redesign the A&E department at Monklands Hospital	£2.7 million	£2.7 million
Orkney Health Board	Upgrade current treatment and waiting areas in Balfour Hospital	£121,000	£121,000
West Lothian Healthcare NHS Trust	Refurbishment of A&E department at St. John's Hospital, Livingston	£1.55 million	£1.55 million

Question reference: S1W-02355

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 November 1999
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 28 April 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will consider launching a public health campaign to help men better understand the treatments available for prostate cancer.

The Scottish Executive is aware of the threat to male health which prostate cancer can pose, but there is no clear consensus internationally on the best way to treat prostate cancer. The issues involved in improving the care of those with prostate cancer are being actively considered by the Lead Clinician for Cancer Services and the Scottish Cancer Group. Meanwhile, anyone worried about symptoms, which might be suggestive of this type of cancer, should seek medical advice.

Question reference: S1W-06105

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 April 2000
Current Status: Answered by Jack McConnell on 28 April 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether its statement at the Highlands and Islands Convention represents a change in its policy on the dispersal of civil service jobs; if not, whether it will make announcements about the dispersal of civil service jobs within a specified time period, and whether it will set a target for the number of civil service jobs which should be dispersed.

Question reference: S1W-05904

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 April 2000
Current Status: Answered by Frank McAveety on 28 April 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has sought to persuade or influence the Electoral Reform Society or Electoral Reform Services Balloting against the Society's instruction to hold a postal referendum on the issue of section 2A of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1986 and, if so, whether it will place in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre copies of any correspondence, or fully describe and detail the contact or communication which has taken place.

Question reference: S1W-05898

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 April 2000
Current Status: Answered by Frank McAveety on 28 April 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive on the basis of what mandate it proposes to repeal section 2A of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1986.

Question reference: S1W-05776

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 March 2000
Current Status: Answered by Jack McConnell on 28 April 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has received any representations from the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, CoSLA or the Association of Scottish Colleges expressing concern that no interim funding arrangements have been put in place between the end of existing European Social Fund programmes and the start of a new programme for 2000 to 2006.

Chamber and committees