- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 October 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 14 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list those journalists who receive copies of answers to parliamentary questions directly from the Scottish Executive’s Media and Communications Press Office at the same time that MSPs are notified of the answer, giving the news organisation which they represent and the dates when they were added to this distribution list.
Answer
By longstanding arrangement the Scottish Executive issues batches of parliamentary answers to journalists once theanswers have been sent to the MSPs who lodged the questions. It is open to all journalistscovering parliamentary business to request this service. We do not hold recordsof when individual journalists asked to be included. Those currently receiving copiesof answers are as follows:
| Journalist | Organisation |
| Alastair Dalton | Scotsman |
| Alison Macdonald | BBC |
| Andrew Beaven | Daily Mail |
| Andrew Denholm | Herald |
| Andy Nicol | Sun |
| Angela Millar | BBC |
| Campbell Gunn | Sunday Post |
| Colin Mackay | Scottish Radio Holdings |
| David King | Daily Record |
| Eddie Barnes | Scotland on Sunday |
| Hamish Macdonell | Scotsman |
| Ian Swanson | Evening News |
| Jamie Livingstone | STV |
| Jason Allardyce | Sunday Times |
| Kate Foster | Scotsman |
| Kirsten Campbell | BBC |
| Louise Gray | Scotsman |
| Michael Howie | Scotsman |
| Mark Aitken | Mail on Sunday |
| Murdo MacLeod | Scotland on Sunday |
| Peter McMahon | Scotsman |
| Robbie Dinwoodie | Herald |
| Steve Bargeton | Courier |
| Shona Ross | Scotsman |
| Simon Johnson | Daily Mail |
| Stuart Nicolson | Daily Mail |
| Vic Roderick | Freelance |
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 October 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 14 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many ministerial visits to each local authority area have been made in each year since 1999 by (a) Robert Brown MSP, (b) Ross Finnie MSP, (c) George Lyon MSP, (d) Euan Robson MSP, (e) Tavish Scott MSP, (f) Iain Smith MSP, (g) Nicol Stephen MSP and (h) Jim Wallace MSP.
Answer
The information requestedcould only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 October 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 14 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-28424 by Nicol Stephen on 6 October 2006, what total amount of public funds was specifically provided by Scottish Development International and its predecessors to inward investment projects in each year since 1996, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
Scottish Development Internationalmakes potential inward investors aware of any financial assistance that may be availableto them but does not administer any grant schemes. The grants are administered bythe Scottish Executive and the Enterprise Networks and are as follows.
RSA Scotland:
http://www.rsascotland.gov.uk/.Scottish Executive innovationgrants including SMART:SCOTLAND, SPUR, SPURPLUS, SCORE and SEEKIT:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Business-Industry/support/16879/6780.Other funding is an operationalmatter for Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 23 October 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 6 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what the average waiting time has been for an appointment with a psychologist in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board.
Answer
The information requested isnot available centrally. Data on waiting times is collected centrally only for firstout-patient appointments at consultant-led out-patient clinics, following referralby a General Medical or Dental Practitioner, and for hospital in-patient and daycase treatment. Psychology services are provided by a range of health care professionals,and are carried out in a variety of settings.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 28 September 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 6 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what arrangements have been put in place to facilitate contact with, and supply of information between, the public in rural areas and the contractors which carry out trunk road maintenance and winter services.
Answer
The trunk road operating companieshave regular contact with members of the public and engage with local communitycouncils on specific issues relating to trunk roads. The operating companies havealso produced and widely distributed information leaflets which provide detailsabout their role and contact information. Road signs are located at key locationson the trunk road network with details of the operating company name and a customercontact and defect reporting telephone number.
Transport Scotland is currentlydeveloping a trial scheme in the south of Scotland for the operating companies to provide community councilswith a quarterly newsletter updating them on trunk road issues and works. If thisproves to be successful this will be rolled out across the whole country.
The operating companies meetwith councils at least four times a year to discuss future works programmes andalso provide them with a detailed weekly programme. Councils also have access toan internet site where the trunk road works programme is updated on a daily basis.At a more strategic level. Transport Scotland officials and the representativesfrom each operating company meet with councils and the police once a year to providethem with a forward programme of works and to discuss any operational issues.
Information about the trunk roadnetwork and larger trunk road projects can also be found on the Transport Scotlandwebsite www.transportscotland.gov.ukand on the websites of the operating companies.
Transport Scotland hasoperational responsibility for this area and can be contacted for more informationif required.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 October 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 26 October 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many additional community and residential care places it plans to create in the next four years to help people with alcohol and other addictions.
Answer
Such planning is done at localrather than national level. Alcohol and drug action teams and their partneragencies are responsible for assessing needs and commissioning services intheir local areas, including any arrangements for the provision of community orresidential care places.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 28 September 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 25 October 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive when it will announce the distribution of money from the Rural Transport Fund for 2006-07 and what the indicative allocation figures are for (a) 2007-08 and (b) 2008-09.
Answer
No ministerial announcement wasmade specifically about the Rural Transport Fund allocations for 2006-07.
The Rural Transport Fund comprisesthree elements: - the Rural Public Passenger Transport Grant Scheme, the Rural CommunityTransport Initiative and the Rural Petrol Stations Grant Scheme. £8.7 million and£8.9 million were allocated to the Fund for 2006-07 and 2007-08 respectively andhave been distributed as follows:
| Grant Scheme | 2006-07 (£ Million) | 2007-08 (£ Million) |
| Rural Public Passenger Transport Grant | 6.3 | 6.4* |
| Rural Community Transport Initiative | 1.8 | 1.9 |
| Rural Petrol Stations Grant Scheme | 0.6 | 0.6 |
| Total | 8.7 | 8.9 |
Note: *I announced earlier thisweek that the Rural Public Passenger Transport Grant allocation has been boostedby an additional £1 million for 2007-08 bringing the total allocation to £7.4 million.
The 2008-09 budget for the RuralTransport Fund has still to be decided.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 28 September 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 25 October 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding was made available to Scottish Borders Council from the Rural Transport Fund in each financial year since 1999-2000 and how much will be made available for 2007-08 and any future years for which figures are known.
Answer
The Rural Transport Fund comprisesthree elements:- the Rural Community Transport Initiative (RCTI), the Rural PetrolStations Grant Scheme (RPSGS) and the Rural Public Passenger Transport Grant Scheme(RPPTGS). Scottish Borders Council received no funding under RCTI or RPSGS as thesegrants are paid to voluntary organisations and petrol stations respectively. However,the Council has received RPPTG as follows:
1999-2000 - £0.158 million
2000-01 - £0.167 million
2001-02 - £0.193 million
2002-03 - £0.212 million
2003-04 - £0.230 million
2004-05 - £0.262 million
2005-06 - £0.276 million
2006-07 - £0.285 million.
The allocation for 2007-08 willbe £0.356 million. The amount of funding for 2008-09 and future years has stillto be considered.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 24 August 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 18 October 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many ministerial visits to the Scottish Borders are (a) scheduled and (b) under consideration to take place prior to the 2007 dissolution of the Parliament by the (i) Deputy First Minister and Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning, (ii) Deputy Minister for Education and Young People, (iii) Minister for Environment and Rural Development, (iv) Deputy Minister for Finance and Public Service Reform and Deputy Minister for Parliamentary Business and (v) Minister for Transport.
Answer
The information requested isnot held in this format. Ministerial diaries retain a record of engagements carriedout. We cannot provide an accurate picture for forthcoming events, as planned orscheduled ministerial visits are subject to constant change, often at short notice,because of changing parliamentary commitments.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 24 August 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 18 October 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many ministerial visits to the Scottish Borders have been made in each year since 1999 by (a) Robert Brown MSP, (b) Ross Finnie MSP, (c) George Lyon MSP, (d) Euan Robson MSP, (e) Tavish Scott MSP, (f) Iain Smith MSP, (g) Nicol Stephen MSP and Jim Wallace MSP.
Answer
The information requested isshown in the following table. The information identified in the table has been gatheredfrom the various Ministerial Private Offices and is as complete as our records allow.Different Private Offices record and retain information in different ways, whichis perfectly acceptable for our business purposes, but does not allow us to easilyextract the information requested.
| Minister | Title | Visits |
| Ross Finnie | Minister for Environment and Rural Development | 20 |
| George Lyon | Deputy Minister for Finance, Public Service Reform and Parliamentary Business | 1 |
| Euan Robson | Deputy Minister for Education and Young People | 18 |
| Tavish Scott | Deputy Minister for Finance and Public Service Reform | 2 |
| Tavish Scott | Minister for Transport | 2 |
| Nicol Stephen | Deputy First Minister | 1 |
| Nicol Stephen | Minister for Transport | 2 |
| Jim Wallace | Deputy First Minister | 9 |
| Total | 55 |
The Executive have supplied the following corrected answer:
Mr Tom McCabe: The information requestedis shown in the following table. The information identified in the table hasbeen gathered from the various Ministerial Private Offices and is as completeas our records allow. Different Private Offices record and retain informationin different ways, which is perfectly acceptable for our business purposes, butdoes not allow us to easily extract the information requested.
| Minister | Title | Visits |
| Robert Brown | Deputy Minister for Education and Young People | 2 |
| Ross Finnie | Minister for Environment and Rural Development | 20 |
| George Lyon | Deputy Minister for Finance, Public Service Reform and Parliamentary Business | 1 |
| Euan Robson | Deputy Minister for Education and Young People | 18 |
| Tavish Scott | Deputy Minister for Finance and Public Service Reform | 2 |
| Tavish Scott | Minister for Transport | 2 |
| Nicol Stephen | Deputy First Minister | 1 |
| Nicol Stephen | Minister for Transport | 2 |
| Jim Wallace | Deputy First Minister | 10 |
| Total | 58 |
The Executive have supplied the following corrected answer:
Mr Tom McCabe: The information requestedis shown in the following table. The information identified in the table hasbeen gathered from the various Ministerial Private Offices and is as completeas our records allow. Different Private Offices record and retain informationin different ways, which is perfectly acceptable for our business purposes, butdoes not allow us to easily extract the information requested.
| Minister | Title | Visits |
| Robert Brown | Deputy Minister for Education and Young People | 2 |
| Ross Finnie | Minister for Environment and Rural Development | 20 |
| George Lyon | Deputy Minister for Finance, Public Service Reform and Parliamentary Business | 1 |
| Euan Robson | Deputy Minister for Education and Young People | 16 |
| Tavish Scott | Deputy Minister for Finance and Public Service Reform | 2 |
| Tavish Scott | Minister for Transport | 2 |
| Nicol Stephen | Deputy First Minister | 1 |
| Nicol Stephen | Minister for Transport | 2 |
| Jim Wallace | Deputy First Minister | 10 |
| Total | 56 |
