- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 September 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 13 October 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive, following reports in The Herald on 17 September 2004, what its policy is in respect of the costs of landslide prevention and maintenance of land prone to landslide that is adjacent to adopted roads including trunk roads and, in particular, whether it will meet any costs incurred by landowners in this regard and, if so, which costs and on what basis.
Answer
Following the major landslips which occurred during August 2004, the Executive has commissioned a study to consider the whole impact of landslips on trunk roads in Scotland. Part of the study will review what mitigation measures might be possible and will also consider the implications of such mitigation measures including the responsibilities and potential liabilities of landowners.
Until the findings of the study have been reported, it is too early to indicate what the financial implications of any mitigation measures might be and where the responsibility for implementing such measures might lie.
Local authorities have a general duty to deal with emergencies such as flooding, and there is no automatic entitlement to special assistance. In exceptional circumstances, authorities can apply under the Bellwin Scheme for emergency assistance to meet any undue financial burden. The Bellwin Scheme was activated following the recent landslips and any claims for eligible expenditure will be considered by the Scottish Executive when they are received.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 17 September 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Margaret Curran on 12 October 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the quality of civil service advice in respect of the Holyrood project given to the Minister for Finance and the First Minister in the Scottish Executive would have been impaired had it been made public at the time.
Answer
It is a long-standing convention of government that internal opinion, advice, recommendation and deliberation should not be disclosed, as to do so could harm the frankness and candour of internal discussion. The advice to ministers referred to was provided on the basis of that convention.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 06 August 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 11 October 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether its proposals regarding a beef national envelope were supported by the Scottish Association of Meat Wholesalers (SAMW), and/or Quality Meat Scotland (QMS); if so, whether the Executive asked SAMW and/or QMS whether their support followed any form of consultation of their members and, if it did not so ask, whether it was aware that there had not been such consultation; if so, whether it will recommend that there should be such consultation and, if so, or in the event that SAMW and/or QMS carry out such a consultation, whether the Executive will take account of its outcome by amending its proposals prior to their introduction on 1 January 2005.
Answer
Copies of responses from the SAMW and QMS to the main CAP Reform consultation, which included a question on use of the national envelope, are available from the Scottish Executive library. A summary of all the responses to that consultation is also on the Scottish Executive website at
www.scotland.gov.uk. SAMW and QMS were among a number of stakeholders represented on the group that was set up to discuss the envelope. Membership consultation is purely a matter for eachindividual organisation to decide. The Executive has no intention of amending thedecision to have a national envelope in the beef sector.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 September 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 5 October 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it will take to provide bilingual signage on roads in Gaelic and English, in particular on the A9.The member has provided the following Gaelic translation: A dh’ fhaighneachd de Riaghaltas na h-Alba dh tha e a’ dol a dhhanamh gus soidhnichean-rathaid d`-ch`nanach a chur suas anns a’ Gh`idhlig agus anns a’ Bheurla, gu h-`raid air an A9.
Answer
Bilingual signing has beenprovided on the A830, A887 and A87 (Skye and the mainland) as part of a commitmentgiven in June 2003 to sign a number of highland routes. A contract has justbeen awarded for the A835. Bilingualroad signs will be provided on the remaining agreed routes by 2008, namely:
A828 Ballachulish to Connel Bridge
A85 Tyndrum to Oban
A83 Tarbet to Kennacraig/Campbeltown
A82 Tarbet to Inverness
Our bilingual signagestrategy has been agreed jointly with Highland Council and at present onlyinvolves routes which travel through Gaelic speaking communities. There arecurrently no plans to erect bilingual signs on the A9.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 23 August 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 1 October 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether its policy in regard to the provision of substantive answers to written parliamentary questions is to provide complete and direct answers to the questions asked.
Answer
Questions are considered very carefully with the aim of providing substantive and indeed helpful answers to the points raised. To a large extent the relevance of the answer depends on the clarity of the question.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 17 September 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 1 October 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to introduce more openness into the advice given by civil servants to ministers and whether it will seek to amend the 30-year rule and, if so, whether advice should be published in a shorter period and what that period should be.
Answer
Once the Freedom of Information Act (Scotland) 2002 is fully implemented in January 2005, the 30-year rule will no longer apply. Each request for information will thereafter be considered on an individual basis and within the framework provided by the act.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 September 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 29 September 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it supports the use of single crewed ambulances deployed on the instructions of the Scottish Ambulance Service.
Answer
Where the Scottish Ambulance Service assesses that an area should be served by an accident and emergency unit, then a double crewed unit is what should be provided. There may be circumstances where, for example, a member of staff reports sick at short notice and the service is unable to secure a relief member. In these circumstances, a single-crewed unit may be used. Such cases should only arise in the most exceptional of circumstances. Where a single-crewed unit isdeployed, a double-crewed vehicle will also be dispatched where required. Themember is aware that I have recently written to the Chairman of the ScottishAmbulance Service to make it clear that I expect to see service improvementdelivered to urban and rural areas of Scotland in equal measure and that there should be a reduction in the number of occasions when a single crewed ambulance is dispatched.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 23 August 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 17 September 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Minister for Transport has received a written invitation dated 10 August 2004 inviting him to visit the A96 to view traffic conditions on that road; if so, whether the minister will accept that invitation, on what date and time the visit will take place and whether the minister will agree to speak at public meetings in Inverness and Nairn in order to communicate the Executive’s policy on the A96, in particular regarding the rejection of the case for upgrading of the road.
Answer
I have received and accepted an invitation from the Inverness and Nairn Local Economic Forum to visit the A96. The details have still to be arranged.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 August 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 17 September 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to the statement issued by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) on 28 July 2004 regarding the financial package for SNH staff approved by the Executive, what the phrase “with some added options to leave early” means and what the estimated cost is of such options.
Answer
Management of the relocation project including all staff issues is an operational matter for SNH. On the question of costs, I refer the member to question S2W-9850 answered on 13 September 2004. All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 September 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 16 September 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what methodology is used by the “cod association” when calculating figures in respect of catches of west of Scotland cod and nephrops and whether such figures fairly reflect the by-catch of cod in the west of Scotland nephrops fishery.
Answer
Figures demonstrating the level of association between West of Scotland cod and Nephrops are calculated by comparing landings data for the two species, by ICES statistical rectangle and by the proportion of cod and Nephrops landed per individual trip. This enables the identification of those fisheries occurring in areas inhabited by Nephrops which could be described as mixed fisheries, where both Nephrops and a significant amount of cod is caught, and those where the catch landed is almost entirely comprised of Nephrops.
The most recent complete data (for 2003) provide an accurate picture of the level of cod by-catch in the Nephrops fishery, which shows that some 75% of Nephrops trips accounting for about 80% of Nephrops landings, individually, have very low by-catch rates (1% cod) and, overall, account for a fractional amount of total west coast cod landings (about 1.5%). The remaining 25% of trips taking 20% of the Nephrops landings could be described as mixed fisheries and, while the rate of cod by-catch in these fisheries is still relatively low, these collectively account for some 13% of total landings of the depleted West of Scotland cod stock.
