- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 August 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 6 September 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether potential volunteers are being deterred from coming forward to work with children due to bureaucracy involved in the security checks which have to be carried out and which, in some cases, are carried out more than once.
Answer
Research carried out by TNS System Three last year on behalf of Volunteer Development Scotland indicated that for 83% of people, the requirement to undergo a disclosure check did not affect their willingness to volunteer. It is important, however, that we keep the levels of bureaucracy in relation to disclosure checks low, whilst doing all we can to protect children. Turnaround times within Disclosure Scotland have reduced significantly. We are now working with the Central Registered Body for Scotland to reduce delays in that part of the process.
In the longer term, it is intended that the new vetting and barring system being developed in response to recommendations in the Bichard Report will remove the need for multiple disclosure checks.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 August 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 6 September 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will introduce a central register of individuals who work with children in order to avoid any repeat security checks which some individuals are currently required to undertake.
Answer
We are working towards the implementation of a new vetting and barring scheme for those who work with children and vulnerable adults in response to the recommendations in the Bichard Report. The proposed scheme will include continuous updating of an individual’s barred status as new information comes to light. That coupled with the intention to provide the facility for organisations with a genuine interest to check an individual’s current status, will remove the need for multiple disclosure checks.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 August 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 6 September 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive which individuals and organisations it consulted on its review of NHS 24 and, of these, which have responded.
Answer
The review of NHS 24 is an independent review and any consultation is a matter for Owen Clarke and his team. However, I understand that the review team has consulted with a number of individuals and representative bodies including patients, staff, voluntary organisations, accident and emergency consultants, NHS boards, GPs and members of the public.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 August 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 5 September 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that the removal of deer fencing and the lack of deer fencing for new forest development encourages the infection of animals from ticks; if so, what effect this may have on increasing the risk of humans catching diseases, such as Lymes Disease, from ticks, and whether the Executive will now ask the Forestry Commission to review its policy on deer fencing.
Answer
The Executive has no evidence to suggest that removal or the lack of deer fencing encourages the infection of animals from ticks or increases the risk of humans catching diseases.
The Executive has no plans to ask the Forestry Commission to review the Joint Agency Statement and Guidance on Deer fencing which has been adopted by Forestry Commission Scotland, Deer Commission for Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage and the Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 August 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 5 September 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether, in light of the proposed increase in population and development between Inverness and Nairn envisaged by the Highland Council, it will now now agree to (a) upgrade the A96 to dual carriageway and (b) create a Nairn bypass.
Answer
In considering the need for improvements on this route and in addition to a multi-modal study of the A96 between Inverness and the airport, we are discussing the possibility of undertaking a multi-modal corridor study of the A96 with HITRANS and NESTRANS to feed into the strategic projects review which will commence before 2007.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 August 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 5 September 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will state in any guidelines, guidance or other form of advice or direction to be issued to Regional Transport Partnerships (RTP) that the RTPs should provide, in order of priority, a list of the transport projects to be taken forward in their area.
Answer
Yes. This is a requirement of the Transport (Scotland) Act 2005 and will be reinforced by the Executives forthcoming guidance on regional transport strategies.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 August 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 5 September 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on the establishment of a long-term transport plan, including proposed major improvements to road, rail, air and sea transport, over the period of 20 to 25 years.
Answer
Work is already under way on the development of a National Transport Strategy (NTS) for Scotland which will give a long-term strategic framework for developments in all modes of transport. The NTS will be based on widespread consultation throughout the remainder of 2005 and early 2006 and will be finalised by the middle of 2006.
The NTS will provide the context for our Strategic Projects Review, which will commence before 2007, and will consider and then plan and prioritise Scotland’s major infrastructure investment requirements across all transport modes to 2020 and beyond.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 22 August 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 1 September 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has received in respect of the condition of nephrops stocks in the west coast of Scotland; whether Fisheries Research Services has made any recommendation to the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas or the European Union that nephrops quotas should be increased this year and, if so, what that recommendation was; whether it will support such an increase, and whether it will place in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre all the background information and advice it (a) has received and (b) expects to receive on this matter in the run-up to the annual negotiations.
Answer
The most recent assessment ofNephrops stocks to the West of Scotland is presented in the October 2003 AdvisoryCommittee on Fishery Management (ACFM) report from the International Councilfor the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), which is publicly available at
www.ices.dk. The next assessment will not be completeduntil the meeting of ICES’ Advisory Committee on Fisheries Management, meeting inCopenhagen in October. The final stock assessment is normally made publicly available,with the corresponding management advice, within seven days. Fisheries Research Services hasnot recommended an increase in west of Scotland nephrops quotas to either ICES orto the European Union, and does not routinely recommend any quota level: quotasare normally set by managers on the basis of stock assessments and correspondingcatch forecasts, in accordance with the fisheries management objectives for thestocks concerned.
The Scottish Executive does notnormally receive details of the technical and complex components of the preliminarystages of fish stock assessments; these are presented in the final stock assessments,in the relevant ICES working group reports and in the fisheries management advicereceived – all of which are made publicly available on www.ices.dk. The Scottish Executive does not expect to receive information on the condition of nephrops stocksto the west of Scotland in addition to that which will be made publicly available.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 22 August 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 1 September 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on the state of monkfish stocks and whether monkfish quotas can be further increased.
Answer
With the agreement of the EUFisheries Council, monkfish quotas can be further increased on the basis of a proposalfrom the European Commission to do so.
The most recent scientific assessmentof monkfish stocks is presented in section 4.5.6 of the autumn 2004 Advisory Committee on Fishery Management (ACFM) report from the InternationalCouncil for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), which is publicly available at www.ices.dk.Neither the size of the spawning stock biomass nor the current level of fishingmortality is known.
In response to a special request,ICES’ advice for long-term management of the monkfish stock is presented in Section1.3.3.1 of the spring 2005 ACFM report, also publicly available at
www.ices.dk. The long-term advice is to substantiallyimprove the quality and quantity of data collected in the fishery, whilst maintainingexploitation of the stock at its current level, in so far as that can be determined.A further stock assessment withmanagement advice is expected in October 2005.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 June 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 25 July 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the recent appointments to the board of the Water Industry Commission, including the post of Chief Executive, were subject to an open and competitive selection process and if so, how many applicants were interviewed for the posts.
Answer
The chair and other ordinarymembersof the Water Industry Commission were appointed after an open competition conductedunder guidelines issued by the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments in Scotland(OCPAS) and in accordance with Schedule A1,paragraphs 3(1) and 5(1) of Water Industry (Scotland) Act 2002 as amended by theWater Services etc (Scotland) Act 2005. The Chief Executive was appointed by Scottish ministersafter consultation with the chair in accordance with schedule A1, paragraphs 7(2)& (3). Four applicants were interviewed for the chair post and ten for member posts fromtotal applicant numbers of 24 and 93 respectively.
