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-07955

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 April 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 4 June 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will make representations to Her Majesty's Government with regard to recent post office closures announced in Aberdeen and the north east.

Detailed arrangements for therestructuring of the post office network are operational matters for the Royal Mailwhich is answerable to its regulator, Postcomm and the UK Government on all aspectsof these reserved matters. A decision to close a Post Office branch is made onlyafter taking full account of feedback received from customers, MPs, MSPs or assemblymembers, councillors, local authorities, groups such as Age Concern and Citizen’sAdvice Bureau, and the independent consumer watchdog, Postwatch. To date in Scotland the Royal Mail have proposed for closureonly branches where the sub-postmaster has expressed a desire to leave the businessand the business is designated as not viable.

Question reference: S2W-07956

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 April 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 4 June 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to commission any studies regarding the economic and social impact of post office closures.

The Royal Mail, Post Officesand postal issues are reserved matters and the UK Government remains committed toa viable network of post offices across the country. The Scottish Executive recognises the importance of the availability across Scotland of servicesprovided by the Post Office Network. The Executive has already put in place a £2million fund to assist urban deprived areas to retain service provision and willmonitor post office developments to identify any other role it can play within itsdevolved powers.

Question reference: S2W-08387

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 May 2004
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 4 June 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will use the underspends in respect of the 2003 decommissioning, transitional aid and hardship relief schemes for providing assistance to the fishing industry.

Any funds allocated in 2003for decommissioning and transitional support but not used for that purpose willbe available for reallocation. An announcement on the use of all 2003-04underspend will be made in due course by the Minister for Finance and Public Services.

In relation to the hardshiprelief scheme there was no underspend as the £1.8 million figure was anestimation of the maximum amount of relief that could be granted. It was nevera commitment to put this amount aside in order to aid the onshore sector asthat could be classed as a state aid.

Question reference: S2W-08388

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 May 2004
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 4 June 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what initiatives it has instigated in order to celebrate, and respond to, the enlargement of the European Union.

We have instigated a rangeof initiatives to celebrate EU enlargement, in Scotland, in Brussels andin the new member states.

In Scotland Ihosted a business event in Glasgow on 5 May to celebrate enlargement and the success ofScottish business in the new member states. The Deputy Education Minister participatedin an enlargement webchat with young people on the Scottish Executive website on 29 April. The Deputy Minister for Finance and Public Services hostedan enlargement/Europe day lecture given in Edinburgh Castle on 10May by the Estonian Minister for Economic Affairs and Communications, Mr MeelisAtonen.

The First Ministersent a letter to major newspapers in the new member states, welcoming theircitizens to the EU.

In Brussels, wehave organised a season of films from the new member states throughout 2004.This was opened in January by the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport.

Officials from the Scottish Executive are undertaking a programme of fact-finding visits to the new member statesto mark enlargement; three of these visits were timed to coincide with accessionday.

We have also developed an EUenlargement section of our website.

Additionally, we continue towork closely with external partners, including the Foreign and CommonwealthOffice, the British Council, the European Commission, Scottish businessorganisations and the Edinburgh Consortium on a further range of initiatives tocelebrate EU Enlargement. This included my opening speech at the outdoor familypublic event in Princes Street Gardens, organised by the Edinburgh Consortium to mark accessionday on 1 May.

Question reference: S2W-08286

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 May 2004
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 4 June 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on whether there should be further changes to the Common Fisheries Policy that have not already been agreed and, if so, what such changes would be.

Question reference: S2W-08253

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 May 2004
Current Status: Answered by Mary Mulligan on 3 June 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding has been paid out under the fund to develop post offices in deprived urban areas in each local authority area.

I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to reply. Her response is as follows:

Payments to the value of £219,451.66 have been made. The table below shows the relationship between number of grants awarded, value of grants awarded and monies actually paid out by local authority area.

Local Authority	Total Number of Grants Awarded	Total Value of Grants Offered	Payments Made as at 21 May 2004
Dundee City Council	3	£124,166.00	£ 66,796.00
Glasgow City Council	4	£187,491.84	£102,655.66
Highland Council	1	£ 15,680.00
Scottish Borders Council	1	£ 37,155.94
Stirling Council	1	£ 50,000.00	£ 50,000.00
West Dunbartonshire Council	1	£ 44,918.40
Totals	11	£459,412.18	£219,451.66

Question reference: S2O-02550

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 May 2004
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 3 June 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive why it is seeking a new logo for Scotland and whether it will instigate a public debate to seek suggestions on the issue.

As Mr Lochhead knows from my previous answers, the Executiveis considering ways to help achieve Partnership Agreement objectives bypromoting Scotland overseas in a more effective way.

This workinvolves many different elements, one of which will be a campaign to promote Scotland internationally, which the FirstMinister announced on 25 February. Visual imagery will be a part of thiseffort, but no decisions have yet been taken about the role a logo might play.

Question reference: S2W-08178

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 May 2004
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 2 June 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S1W-21028 and S2W-3175 by Mr Jim Wallace and Mr Andy Kerr on 3 January 2002 and 30 October 2003 respectively, whether Scottish ministers have officially led any further UK Delegations to the Council of Ministers and, if so, whether it will provide similar details to those provided in the answer to question S1W-21028.

Question reference: S2W-08251

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 May 2004
Current Status: Answered by Mary Mulligan on 2 June 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many successful applications have been made under the fund to develop post offices in deprived urban areas, broken down by local authority area.

I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland, to respond. Her reply is as follows:

Offers have been issued and accepted for 11 grants to sub postmasters under the Fund to Develop Post Offices in Deprived Urban Areas. The breakdown by local authority is as follows:

Dundee City Council	3
Glasgow City Council	4
Highland Council	1
Scottish Borders Council	1
Stirling Council	1
West Dunbartonshire Council	1

Question reference: S2W-07616

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 April 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 2 June 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many drug detection dogs were used by the Scottish Prison Service in each of the last three years and how many days such dogs spent at HM Prison Aberdeen.

I have asked Tony Cameron,Chief Executive of The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:

It is not the policy of theSPS, as a law enforcement agency, to release precise details of the scope ordeployment of drug dog interdiction procedures, but to help combat drugtrafficking within prisons, SPS has increased operational drug dog deploymentat most establishments, including HM Prison Aberdeen.