- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 28 January 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 28 January 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to have discussions with the Welsh Assembly Government over the potential for direct rail services between Edinburgh and Cardiff.
Answer
We have no plans to discuss this issue with the Welsh Assembly Government.
The Department for Transport is responsible for awarding franchises for cross border services in the UK.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 January 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Alex Fergusson on 21 January 2010
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether it plans to develop a sustainable travel policy and, if so, what the process will be for developing it.
Answer
The SPCB will undertake a travel to work survey before the end of April 2010. The results of this survey and information being collected on parliamentary travel will be used to determine if the SPCB''s Travel Plan (2006) needs to be updated. It will also be used to determine if it would be beneficial to supplement the sustainable travel objectives of the SPCB''s environmental policy with a dedicated policy on sustainable travel.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 December 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 11 January 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive how many flights it has wholly or partly paid for but not used since May 2007.
Answer
The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate costs. Internal control arrangements are in place to ensure that all travel bookings require prior authorisation. In addition, the Scottish Government travel management provider has systems in place to allow for late cancellations if business requirements change.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 December 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 11 January 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive how many flights it has booked but not used since May 2007.
Answer
The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate costs. Internal control arrangements are in place to ensure that all travel bookings require prior authorisation. In addition, the Scottish Government travel management provider has systems in place to allow for late cancellations if business requirements change.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 December 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 11 January 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive how many nights in hotel rooms it has wholly or partly paid for but not used since May 2007.
Answer
The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate costs. The Scottish Government Hotel Booking Agent has systems in place to allow for late cancellations.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 December 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 11 January 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive how many nights in hotel rooms it has booked but not used since May 2007.
Answer
The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate costs. The Scottish Government Hotel Booking Agent has systems in place to allow for late cancellations.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 December 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Alex Johnstone on 16 December 2009
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether it plans to install charging points for electric vehicles in the Parliament garage.
Answer
There is currently one electric charging point within the Parliament garage. The point was installed for an electric motorcycle used by Lothian and Borders Police.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 December 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Alex Johnstone on 16 December 2009
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether it will assess the level of demand in the Parliament that could be served by a small pool of electric cars or scooters as an alternative to taxis and the costs and potential savings of such a pool.
Answer
The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB) is due to undertake a travel to work survey before the end of April 2010 and as part of this survey we will ask a question about the demand for pool vehicles.
The SPCB has previously provided a pool car for which there was insufficient demand to make it viable. In addition, the SPCB has assessed the demand for joining the city car club and found that there was insufficient demand to justify a corporate membership.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 November 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Alex Neil on 26 November 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-23504 by Alex Neil on 11 May 2009, what proportion of the £15 million identified for the Home Insulation Scheme will be allocated to its publicity and promotion.
Answer
The Scottish Government''s Grant Offer Letter to the Energy Saving Trust is available in the Parliament''s Information Centre (Bib. number 49351).
It shows an agreed range of costs, of between £5.26 million and £5.80 million (average £5.5 million), for the delivery of services to almost 100,000 homes by the scheme''s managing agent.
Direct local marketing started in October, after the grant offer letter issued. We can therefore update you that up to around £700,000 has been earmarked within the local services costs for publicity material, local press advertising and website links and community events in each of the 10 separate areas.
It will be possible to quantify a total amount spent on marketing, publicity and promotion of the Home Insulation Scheme when the 2009-10 programme has been completed.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 16 November 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Fergus Ewing on 25 November 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-13639 by Kenny MacAskill on 9 June 2008, when it intends to review the Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006.
Answer
As the act is still relatively new, we are not planning a full review of the Act at this time, although we continue to monitor its impact.
Work has been carried out by other bodies in relation to aspects of the 2006 act. The Scottish Law Commission''s recent report (number 215) on succession recommended the repeal of section 29 of the 2006 act and its replacement by a new statutory regime providing succession rights for cohabitants. The commission''s report, and the government''s initial response, can be found at:
http://www.scotlawcom.gov.uk/html/reports.php.
In addition, the Nuffield Foundation have provided funding to Edinburgh University to carry out a study on legal practitioners'' perspectives on the cohabitation provisions of the 2006 act. More information on this study can be found at:
http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/fileLibrary/pdf/Wasoff_CPF_2008.pdf.
