- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 December 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 23 December 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive when the First Minister was informed of the UK Government's decision to announce a 20% supplementary corporation tax rate on oil and gas producers; how he responded, and whether he has issued any direct response to the UK Government since the announcement.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-21461 on 19 December 2005. All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facilityfor which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 09 December 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 21 December 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether waste is, or has been in any of the last three years, exported for recycling purposes and, if so, whether it will provide a breakdown of (a) volumes and (b) locations.
Answer
This information is not held centrally by the Scottish Executive. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency holds some information on exports of materials from Scottish ports when the legislation requires such exports to be notified.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 09 December 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 21 December 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive to what extent it would have a role in any decision to extend the life of existing nuclear power stations and whether any further consents would be required should any such decision involve refurbishment or new construction.
Answer
Any decision to allow an extension to the life of an existing power station would be for the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate, the independent body which sets the duration and conditions of the relevant operating licences..
The consent of Scottish ministers, under Section 36(1) of the Electricity Act 1989, would be required for new construction or to increase the output capacity of an existing generating plant to exceed 50 Mega Watts. Investment in the refurbishment of an existing nuclear plant in order to comply with the terms of an operating licence extension would not require Scottish ministers’ approval.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 08 December 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Hugh Henry on 21 December 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients have been sent outwith Scotland for residential drug treatment in each of the last five years (a) in total and (b) broken down by NHS board.
Answer
The following table shows the number of clients sent to residential drug and alcohol treatment facilities outwith Scotland from 2001 to 2005, broken down by NHS board, as reported by alcohol and drug action teams in their annual corporate action plans. We cannot disaggregate the figures into drug-only treatment services as the majority of residential facilities are for both drug and alcohol misuse.
| NHS Board | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 |
| Argyll and Clyde | - | 1 | - | - |
| Ayrshire and Arran | - | - | - | - |
| Borders | - | 1 | 10 | 1 |
| Dumfries and Galloway | - | - | - | - |
| Fife | - | - | - | - |
| Forth Valley | - | - | - | - |
| Grampian | 7 | 48 | 22 | 16 |
| Greater Glasgow | - | - | - | - |
| Highland | - | 1 | - | - |
| Lanarkshire | - | - | 2 | - |
| Lothian | - | 7 | 37 | 12 |
| Orkney | - | - | - | - |
| Shetland | - | 3 | | 2 |
| Tayside | - | 30 | 19 | 7 |
| Western Isles | - | - | - | - |
| Totals | 7 | 91 | 90 | 38 |
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 09 December 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 19 December 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether waste is, or has been in any of the last three years, exported for landfill purposes and, if so, whether it will provide a breakdown of (a) volumes and (b) locations.
Answer
This information is not held centrally. Under the provisions of the Transfrontier Shipment of Waste Regulations 1994 waste may generally be exported only for recovery. Enforcement of these Regulations in Scotland is an operational matter for the Scottish Environment Protection Agency.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 December 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 15 December 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what the outcome was of the Minister for Environment and Rural Development’s participation in the recent climate change talks in Montreal.
Answer
he Climate Leaders’ Summit hosted by Québec and Manitoba brought together representatives of federal states, regions, devolved governments and major corporations from around the world. The main outcome of this summit was the signing of a declaration: this recognises that climate change is an urgent, global problem and defines a number of actions, including the setting of achievable targets for emissions reductions. This supports the commitment already made by the Executive to set climate change targets, details of which will be announced in the revised Scottish Climate Change Programme to be published early next year. A copy of the declaration is available on the Scottish Executive’s climate change website at
www.scotland.gov.uk/climatechange.
The summit was also an opportunity to meet with ministers from regional governments and I look forward to exploring future collaboration on climate change covering a wide range of areas, including best practice in developing emerging green industries, sharing communications and educational strategies and implementing policies to enhance adaptive capacity to assist communities response to the changing climate.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 December 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 15 December 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive to what extent it expects the imposition of a 20% supplementary corporation tax rate on oil and gas producers to affect the (a) north-east’s and (b) Scottish economy.
Answer
This issue is reserved to the UK Government. Due to the nature of the North Sea fiscal regime and the levels of long-term investment, it is unlikely that there will be any significant effect on investment or employment in either the north east or in Scotland overall. The pre-budget report announced additional measures to ensure that any impacts on investment are mitigated, including the commitment that there will be no further increases in North Sea taxation during the lifetime of the UK Parliament.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 December 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 15 December 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive how many wind farm applications it has (a) approved and (b) rejected in the last five years and how many applications are awaiting a decision.
Answer
In the last five years the Scottish ministers in exercise of their powers under section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989 have granted consent for 11 wind farms. In the same period no wind farm applications were refused. Currently 31 further such applications are under consideration.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 November 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 12 December 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list the meetings that have taken place between Scottish ministers and representatives of the nuclear industry in the last 12 months, giving details and dates of each meeting and broken down by minister.
Answer
I visited Hunterston B Power Station on 18 August 2005 in order to tour the station and meet the Chief Executive of British Energy, Bill Coley.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 November 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 12 December 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether its plans to allow NHS boards to contract locally for services such as out-of-hours, oral surgery and special needs which are not part of the national arrangements for NHS dentistry, as referred to in An Action Plan for Improving Oral Health and Modernising NHS Dental Services in Scotland, will allow contracts between NHS boards and non-NHS providers of dental services.
Answer
No. Contracts will require to be with those dentists or bodies corporate on the relevant NHS boards dental list.
