- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 January 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by George Reid on 26 March 2004
To ask the Presiding Officer whether the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body will now require the construction managers for the Holyrood project to provide a parent company guarantee.
Answer
I am informed by the convenerof the Holyrood progress group that a letter has now been issued to Bovis LendLease requesting that they provide a parent company guarantee in accordancewith Clause 20.1 of the construction management agreement.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 January 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by George Reid on 26 March 2004
To ask the Presiding Officer what information the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB) has in respect of who took the original decision not to require a parent company guarantee from the construction managers for the Holyrood project; what information the SPCB has in respect of whether advice was given in relation to this and, if so, whether any such advice will be published; what information it has in respect of whether, and when, the Chief Architect offered any such advice; what information it has in respect of when the decision was taken and who was consulted about it; what information it has in respect of whether any Scottish Office minister was consulted on, or advised of, the decision and, if so when; whether all documentation relating to the decision will be published, and whether the decision not to seek the parent company guarantee was reported to the SPCB.
Answer
The SPCB has no informationon any of these issues. The file record is unclear as to why the parent companyguarantee was not taken up before now.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 23 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether, in light of the announcement of funding for autism initiatives by the Deputy Minister for Health and Community Care on 3 March 2004, it will consider funding an initiative to carry out research into diet and autism by Autism Unravelled, Action Against Autism, Food and Behaviour Research, academics from the universities of Oxford and Stirling and the Rowett Research Institute.
Answer
The announced fundingrelated to the implementation of the Public Health Institute of Scotland’sAutistic Spectrum Disorders Needs Assessment Report. The reference group hashad no approach from the group of organisations considering research into dietand autism.
The Medical Research Councilwelcomes high quality applications for support into any aspect of human healthand these are judged in open competition.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 February 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Frank McAveety on 17 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it has taken to transfer authority and funds to the Scottish Football Partnership from the Football Trust; whether there have been any difficulties with regard to (a) transfer obligations, (b) indemnity insurance, (c) tax issues and (d) potential liability of individuals; if so, what such difficulties are, what action it is taking to resolve them and what representations it has made, or correspondence it has received, in respect of any such problems, and whether the Executive will ensure that funding can be made available to the Scottish Football Partnership to enable it to consider applications for funding.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-6496 on 10 March 2004.All answers to written parliamentary questions 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: Wednesday, 18 February 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 16 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it expects the Highlands and Islands to be eligible for the proposed Objective 1b European regional development fund or whether they will be only eligible for Objective 2 and 3 funding.
Answer
The European Commission’sThird Report on Economic and Social Cohesion, published on 18 February,outlines their proposals for the Structural and Cohesion Funds in the nextprogramming period from 2007-13.
The Commission proposes thatregions which would have qualified for Objective 1 had it not been for thestatistical effect of enlargement would be eligible for compensation funding.Eligible regions would have an average GDP for 2001-03 of less than 75% of theEU15 average. The most recent data available (for 2001) shows the Highlands andIslands GDP as 72.4% of the EU15 average.
The debate is at an earlystage. The Commission is expected to publish formal regulation proposals inJuly for negotiation among member states. It is hoped that agreement on theproposals can be reached in the Council of Ministers by the end of 2005. As anyfuture regime must be agreed by all member states, it is not yet possible topredict what structural funds support the Highlands and Islands or other Scottish regions may receive post 2006.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 02 February 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 15 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what the significance is of the figure of 2950 for the design and construction of dual carriageway roads in the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges and whether that figure is a maximum number of vehicles which a dual carriageway is expected to bear or a minimum level of traffic flow which a trunk road comprising two lanes, one in each direction, must attain before it is eligible for consideration for upgrading to a dual carriageway.
Answer
The figure of 2,950 vehiclesper hour in the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges is the maximum one-wayhourly flow capacity of a 6.75 metre wide urban dual carriageway road.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 27 February 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by George Reid on 12 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether all payments made to the architects engaged on the Holyrood project have been properly paid and whether any sum has been paid in advance of legal entitlement to payment.
Answer
The Convener of the HolyroodProgress Group is confident that all payments to the architects have beenproperly made and successive audits of the project would support this. Iunderstand that a part payment was made to the architects in November 1998 inadvance of all Stage C work being fully completed. The reasons for this aregiven in evidence to the Fraser Inquiry from the architectural advisor to theSPCB on 3 February 2004.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 27 February 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 10 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether, in relation to any legislative measure that would seek to ban the use of lead in shot, it will, together with appropriate representative bodies such as the British Association for Shooting and Conservation, undertake a scientific study into any effect of ingested lead by using nets to catch birds from a variety of sites, both inland and coastal, and taking blood samples from them before releasing them back into the wild.
Answer
No.
Long-term research into thetoxic effects of lead has established that it is a poison that can affect thedevelopment, reproduction and survival of a wide range of species, includinghumans. I see no benefit from undertaking further research along the linesproposed.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 27 February 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 10 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether, in light of the decision taken by it on the request of Scottish National Heritage (SNH) that the mobility clause within the contracts of some SNH staff will not be implemented, this decision will be replicated for any other relocations of public sector departments or functions where staff of such departments or functions have a mobility clause requiring them to transfer anywhere within Scotland.
Answer
As I explained in myresponse to question S2W-5568, the way in which relocations are handled willvary. Decisions that suit the circumstance of SNH may not be appropriate in thecase of other organisations included in Scottish Ministers’ relocation reviewprogramme. Much depends on the circumstances of each organisation relocatingand the contractual terms of its employees.
All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility forwhich 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: Friday, 27 February 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 10 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will rule out any ban on the use of lead shot that applied to particular species, in particular those not currently protected by law.
Answer
As outlined in the Scottishconsultation paper, Restriction on Use of Lead Shot in Scotland of July2001 the Scottish Executive aims to ban the use of leadshot over wetland areasand intends to introduce legislation on this issue in 2004. It is not expectedthat the legislation will specify any particular species.
