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: S1W-01937

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 October 1999
Current Status: Answered by Sam Galbraith on 28 October 1999

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide details of the plans to increase provision of new computers and other information technology for primary and secondary schools including details of any plans for the North East of Scotland; whether it intends to provide full-time computer technicians at each school and whether it intends to provide information technology training for all teachers.

The Scottish Executive is supporting local authorities' plans for information and communications technology through the Excellence Fund. The resources available to local authorities in the North East of Scotland are as follows:

	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	Total
Aberdeen City	£ 803,554	£ 830,963	£ 482,953	£ 2,116,470
Aberdeenshire	£ 1,104,464	£ 1,143,560	£ 664,633	£ 2,912,657
Angus	£ 509,571	£ 527,609	£ 306,645	£ 1,343,825
Dundee City	£ 633,400	£ 655,821	£ 381,161	£ 1,670,382
TOTAL	£ 3,049,989	£ 3,157,953	£ 1,835,392	£ 8,043,334

The detailed implementation, including decisions on technical support, is a matter for the local authorities concerned.

Training in the use of information and communications technology will be available to all serving Scottish teachers and school librarians from the New Opportunities Fund. £23 million is available for Scotland until March 2002, of which £ 3,002,756 is allocated to teachers and school librarians in the North East of Scotland.Student's currently undergoing initial teacher education will receive training in the use of information and communications technology as a component of their course.

Question reference: S1W-02250

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 October 1999
Current Status: Answered by John Home Robertson on 28 October 1999

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to commission an independent legal opinion to determine the validity of the Scottish Adjacent Waters Boundary Order 1999.

Question reference: S1O-00475

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 October 1999
Current Status: Answered by John Home Robertson on 28 October 1999

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to commission an independent legal opinion to determine the validity of the Scottish Adjacent Waters Boundary Order 1999.

Question reference: S1W-01888

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 October 1999
Current Status: Answered by John Home Robertson on 26 October 1999

To ask the Scottish Executive what impact its expenditure plans, as announced by the Minister for Finance on 6 October 1999, will have on fisheries expenditure.

Question reference: S1W-01889

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 October 1999
Current Status: Answered by Henry McLeish on 26 October 1999

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it has taken to make the case for the retention of RAF Buchan, to whom the case was put and when it was made.

Question reference: S1W-01988

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 October 1999
Current Status: Answered by Jack McConnell on 26 October 1999

To ask the Scottish Executive what impact its expenditure plans, as announced by the Minister for Finance on 6 October 1999, will have on the rural affairs expenditure as set out in the previous budget forecasts in Serving Scotland's Needs.

Question reference: S1W-01936

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 October 1999
Current Status: Answered by Sarah Boyack on 25 October 1999

To ask the Scottish Executive whether local farmers were consulted before the decision was taken to designate the Ythan catchment and estuary in Aberdeenshire as a Nitrate Vulnerable Zone (NVZ) as required by the EC Nitrates Directive.

Question reference: S1W-01509

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 September 1999
Current Status: Answered by Sarah Boyack on 20 October 1999

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list, by water authority area, average water and sewerage charges for (a) domestic customers and (b) non-domestic customers for each of the last ten years and projections for the next five years.

The following table shows the average combined water and sewerage charge for domestic customers since the water authorities became responsible for provision of water services in 1996. The figures are shown before domestic sewage relief grant:

	(£)	(£)	(£)	(£)
	1996/97	1997/98	1998/99	1999/00
North of Scotland Water Authority	144.07	154.07	173.85	194.38
East of Scotland Water Authority	130.51	140.26	159.45	174.18
West of Scotland Water Authority	130.77	138.61	154.36	170.54

Prior to 1996, sewerage charges were collected as part of the Council Tax or Community Charge and were not identified separately.Non-domestic customers are charged on a number of different bases, including rateable value and volumetric charges, with various standing charges for connection. Non-domestic customers vary greatly in the size of their water consumption and sewage emissions. It is therefore not possible to estimate a valid average charge for non-domestic customers.Future charges will be determined on the basis of advice from the new Water Industry Commissioner who will take account of the customer interest and the investment needs of the industry.

Question reference: S1W-00116

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 June 1999
Current Status: Answered by Sarah Boyack on 15 October 1999

To ask the Scottish Executive what measures it intends to take to improve the standards of water quality in Scotland and within what timescale it intends to implement these measures.

Our Partnership for Scotland statement aims for steady improvements in water quality, targeting all Scotland's beaches to meet clean water standards by 2005.

On environmental water, we are considering, with Scottish Environment Protection Agency, measures to tackle agricultural and industrial pollution. Over the next 3 years the Scottish water authorities will oversee investment in water and sewerage infrastructure of around £1.7bn. A substantial part of this will be aimed at waste water treatment, in particular to comply with the EU Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive.The new EU Drinking Water Directive sets tight standards for drinking water the majority of which are required to be met by December 2003. Under certain circumstances the Directive allows for the derogation of standards for up to 3 years. The Scottish Executive will obtain legally binding undertakings from the Scottish water authorities to ensure that they meet the new standards by the required dates.

Question reference: S1W-01360

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 September 1999
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 14 October 1999

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list the criteria used for selecting the members of the focus group created as part of Creating Scotland, the consultation document on a national cultural strategy, and why the focus group has no members who represent the North East of Scotland or any organisation based in that region.