- Asked by: Keith Brown, MSP for Ochil, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 29 May 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 10 June 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what scope there is and will be for the Parliament and local authorities to make direct contributions to Transport Scotland’s Strategic Transport Projects Review.
Answer
As part of the Strategic Transport Projects Review, Transport Scotland has been engaging with a range of key stakeholders through focused Reference Groups with senior representatives of organisations with considerable knowledge, experience and understanding of the transport issues involved. These include representatives from regional transport partnerships within the local authority sector as well as the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA).
The initial findings of the review will be delivered to ministers in the summer of 2008. An announcement will be made in Parliament later in the year.
- Asked by: Keith Brown, MSP for Ochil, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 29 May 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 10 June 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether Transport Scotland’s Strategic Transport Projects Review will specifically consider the potential benefits of extending passenger rail links from Kinross-shire southwards.
Answer
Transport Scotland’s Strategic Transport Projects Review is examining the longer term needs of Scotland’s national strategic transport network. This includes consideration of the rail network on the strategic transport corridor between Edinburgh and Perth.
- Asked by: Keith Brown, MSP for Ochil, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 22 May 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 3 June 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that the provision in the English legal system for the state to repay costs to defendants who had privately funded their defence because they did not qualify for legal aid and were subsequently found not guilty would have any merit if introduced in Scotland and whether there are any plans to do so.
Answer
The Strategic Review of the Delivery of Legal Aid, Advice and Information (published by Scottish ministers in 2004) considered the question of financial eligibility for criminal legal assistance. The review was not persuaded that there should be universal eligibility for criminal legal aid, and did not propose a general principle that the state should meet privately funded costs on acquittal. The Review considered that the general principle of ability to pay should be applied and that a contributory system would be consistent with that principle. It proposed that under such a system, where costs were met in part through a contribution by the accused person, that contribution should be refunded in the event of an acquittal.
We have no current plans to introduce such a system but will consider it further as part of a broader consideration of financial eligibility rules for publicly funded legal assistance.
- Asked by: Keith Brown, MSP for Ochil, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 15 May 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 27 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive, following the successful formal opening of the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine railway line on 15 May 2008, whether it and Transport Scotland will consider extending both freight and passenger services on this line to Rosyth and Dunfermline.
Answer
Transport Scotland is currently undertaking the multi-modal Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR) which will provide an indicative program of transport investments between 2012 and 2022 to deliver against the government''s central purpose of increasing sustainable economic growth. The STPR will consider the importance of effective transport links in the Rosyth and Dunfermline area.
- Asked by: Keith Brown, MSP for Ochil, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 18 April 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Mather on 1 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether, given the restrictions placed on it by Schedule 5 to the Scotland Act 1998, it can provide funding to the post office network in Scotland.
Answer
Post offices are reserved under Schedule 5 (Section C11) of the Scotland Act 1998. The Scottish Government''s position on this issue was set out in my letter dated 29 January 2008 to the Public Petitions Committee of the Parliament:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/committees/petitions/petitionsubmissions/sub-08/08-PE1102D.pdf.
- Asked by: Keith Brown, MSP for Ochil, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 18 April 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Mather on 1 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what powers it has in respect of the post office network in Scotland.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-12084 on 1 May 2008. 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/wa.search.
- Asked by: Keith Brown, MSP for Ochil, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 18 April 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 1 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what the total annual value is of any commercial business it currently has with Post Office Ltd and whether it will provide a breakdown of such business.
Answer
The commercial business that we have with the Post Office Ltd, as distinct from the Royal Mail, is minimal.
- Asked by: Keith Brown, MSP for Ochil, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 May 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Maureen Watt on 1 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what advice was offered by officials on the Clackmannanshire schools’ PPP project, in light of recent freedom of information disclosures on the equivalent Stirling project.
Answer
The recent freedom of information disclosures on the Stirling project related to ministerial consideration of notified planning applications. I understand that ministers were not personally involved in the planning applications for the Clackmannanshire Schools PPP project.
- Asked by: Keith Brown, MSP for Ochil, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 April 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 23 April 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it believes that an application for local authority planning permission on a building or site of potential historical interest constitutes a valid reason to defer the process of its historical listing.
Answer
Current policy for statutory listing states that it will not normally be advanced in the face of a live planning application or appeal. This provides a reasonable application of the legislation within the current planning framework, particularly as unlike England the listed building legislation in Scotland has no provision for certificates of immunity, which can provide developers and owners with certainty that their building will not be listed for a five year period.
- Asked by: Keith Brown, MSP for Ochil, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 14 April 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 15 April 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-6444 by John Swinney on 22 November 2007, when it will publish the delivery plans for the new Efficient Government Programme for 2008 to 2011.
Answer
We have today published the first iteration of the Efficiency Delivery Plans. The Delivery Plans provide more information on the projects and how the efficiencies will be measured, monitored and delivered. Copies of the notes have been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 45314) and they are also available on the Scottish Government website:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/03/EDPMarch2008 .
