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: S2W-05909

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 13 February 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Scottish Fire Service has purchased private cars from public funds for the use of senior management and, if so, (a) how many it has purchased, broken down by brigade area and (b) whether this expenditure is justified and what action it will take in respect of the matter.

Question reference: S2W-05765

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 10 February 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, in respect of the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak, whether all outstanding claims from farms and/or businesses have been settled and, if not, whether it will provide a breakdown of payments due by (a) it, (b) local authorities, (c) enterprise companies and (d) other public bodies.

Question reference: S2W-05769

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 10 February 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of the entitlement to the west of Scotland nephrops quota is held by non-active interests.

Question reference: S2W-05767

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 10 February 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Minister for Transport has any plans to visit the west Highlands in response to any concerns expressed by motorists in relation to the A82, with particular reference to the upgrade of the road between Tarbert and Inverarnan, and whether the upgrade will be included in the next round of trunk road improvements.

I have no current plans tovisit the west Highlands in relation to driving conditions on the A82. A routeaction plan has been commissioned which will identify measures to improve roadsafety and reduce journey times between Tarbet and Fort William. Anyproposals to emerge from the study would be candidates to be consideredalongside emerging and new improvement proposals across the trunk road networkwhen looking at priorities for future expenditure programmes.

Question reference: S2W-05755

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 26 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 9 February 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-5091 by Mr Andy Kerr on 21 January 2004, whether it will provide a breakdown of the #6.7 million capital expenditure on the Holyrood project in 1998-99 into payments (a) to architects (b) to the construction manager (c) to construction engineers (d) to quantity surveyors (e) to other consultants and (f) on the building itself.

	Breakdown	Cost
(a)	Architects	£1.2 million
(b)	Construction Management	Nil
(c)	Construction Engineers	£0.9 million
(d)	Quantity Surveyors	£0.3 million
(e)	Other Consultants	£0.4 million
(f)	On Building (Site acquisition and preparation)	£3.9 million
Total		£6.7 million

Question reference: S2W-05699

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by George Reid on 6 February 2004

To ask the Presiding Officer whether the architects for the Holyrood project did not comply with the instructions in the Scottish Parliament Building User Brief that the shape of the debating chamber should be of a “horseshoe or semi-circular arrangement” when they brought forward designs that based the shape on a leaf or ellipsis; on what date such drawing or drawings were first provided to the client, and what action was taken to secure compliance with the user brief.

The Scottish ParliamentBuilding User Brief suggests that “a horseshoe or semi-circular arrangementwould appear to be the most appropriate” This wording allows the architect somelicence to explore variations to that layout. I understand from the convener of the Holyrood Progress Group that the intention of the steer in the brief was toproduce a move away from the more confrontational arrangement at Westminster,and allow better access for wheelchairs. Drawings of the original Miralleslayout which was within the spirit of the brief, and allowed 100% wheelchairaccess were first presented formally to the client as part of RIBA Stage C(Outline Proposals) in September 1998.

Question reference: S2W-05700

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by George Reid on 6 February 2004

To ask the Presiding Officer whether unpriced copies of the two letters of intent entered into between the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body and Flour City (UK) Ltd will be placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre.

Question reference: S2W-05701

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by George Reid on 6 February 2004

To ask the Presiding Officer whether any errors, as referred to in 8.5 of the pro forma trade contractors agreement in the Construction Management Agreement for the Holyrood project, have been detected in the drawings and designs provided by Flour City (UK) Ltd.

Question reference: S2W-05702

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by George Reid on 6 February 2004

To ask the Presiding Officer whether there is not, within the full trade contract entered into between the Scottish Parliament Corporate Body (SPCB) and Flour City (UK) Ltd, any legal duty of confidentiality owed to the trade contractors whether by the SPCB, the construction managers or anyone else and, if there this, what such duty is and where it is set out.

Within the full tradecontract entered into by the SPCB and Flour City Architectural Metals (UK) Ltd,there is no general obligation of confidentiality owed by the SPCB. Theconstruction manager, in that capacity, does not contract with tradecontractors, and consequently there should not be any contract to which anobligation of confidence would apply. The reference to “anyone else” is tooimprecise to be meaningfully answered.

Question reference: S2O-01263

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 5 February 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many acute hospitals with consultant-led services it estimates there will be in (a) 5, (b) 10 and (c) 20 years' time.