- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 10 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 20 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to the meeting between the First Minister and representatives of the Trump Organisation on 3 December 2007, whether the First Minister’s office contacted the (a) Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth and (b) Chief Planner following the meeting.
Answer
Mr Salmond didnot contact me. On 3 December 2007, the Chief Planner took a call from Mr Salmondin his capacity as constituency MSP. Mr Salmond sought advice from the ChiefPlanner whether it would still be permissible for officials from the ScottishGovernment Planning Directorate to meet representatives from the TrumpOrganization. The Chief Planner confirmed that officials can meet with partiesinvolved in a planning application but only to discuss options and theprocedural implications, not to consider the merits of the case.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 10 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 20 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth will publish the advice that he received on the legal basis for calling in planning applications after they have been rejected by the relevant local planning authorities and where no appeal has been lodged.
Answer
It is Scottish Government practiceneither to confirm or deny whether legal advice has been received.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 10 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 20 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive who was present at the meeting between the First Minister and representatives of the Trump Organisation on 3 December 2007.
Answer
Mr Salmond took part in thismeeting in his capacity as the MSP for Gordon. It is therefore not appropriatefor the Government to answer. I refer the member to the
Official Report,column number 4433, on 13 December 2007. The official report is available on the Parliament’s website at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/index.htm.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 10 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 20 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list the occasions on which the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth has discussed the Trump Organisation’s planning application for a golf development at the Menie Estate with the First Minister.
Answer
Some weeks prior to the meetingof the Infrastructure Services Committee of Aberdeenshire Council I advised theFirst Minister that I intended to determine the Menie Estate planning applicationif it required ministerial input as Mr Stevenson represented an Aberdeenshire constituency.On 4 December 2007, I advised the First Minister that the application hadbeen called in.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 10 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 20 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive who was present at the meeting between the Chief Planner and representatives of the Trump Organisation on 4 December 2007.
Answer
The meeting was attended byJim Mackinnon, Chief Planner and David Ferguson, Head of Planning Decisions, ScottishGovernment along with George Sorial and Neil Hobday, from the TrumpOrganization.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 10 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 20 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list the occasions on which the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth (a) met and (b) spoke to Mr Jim Mackinnon, Chief Planner, between 20 November and 10 December 2007, also showing the matters discussed on each occasion.
Answer
The Chief Plannerand I discuss planning issues on a regular basis. We met on 20 November 2007 to discuss the National Planning Framework. On 26November, we met at a meeting of local authority planning directors. On 5 December,we met to discuss the Forth Replacement Crossing and we both attended a dinnerwith SNH that evening. We met on 6 December todiscuss the Asset Management Review.
On 3 December, Icontacted the Chief Planner to receive a general update on the eventssurrounding the proposed golf resort at Menie Estate. And during a telephoneconversation on 4 December the call in of the Menie Estate planning applicationwas discussed and approved.
We discussplanning matters regularly by telephone but a formal record of every telephonecall is not kept.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 10 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 20 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list all those who have made representations that the Trump Organisation’s planning application for a golf development at the Menie Estate should be called in, subsequent to it being determined by the local planning authority.
Answer
We will in due course publisha list of all representations that have been received by the Scottish Government’sPlanning Directorate.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 10 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 20 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the First Minister has had contact with any representative of the Trump Organisation subsequent to his meeting with representatives of the organisation at the Marcliffe Hotel on 3 December 2007.
Answer
Mr Salmond has had nocontact with the Trump Organization in his capacity as First Minister. Themeeting referred to was undertaken by Mr Salmond in his capacity asconstituency MSP for Gordon.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Bruce Crawford on 20 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-6786 by Bruce Crawford on 3 December 2007, whether the review of the Scottish Ministerial Code will include consideration of having an independent adviser to investigate breaches of the code, similar to the approach taken by Prime Minister, Gordon Brown MP.
Answer
In line with the practice aftereach Scottish parliamentary election, the Scottish Ministerial Code is currentlybeing reviewed. The review will consider a number of issues and will be publishedin the near future.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Bruce Crawford on 20 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-6783 by Bruce Crawford on 3 December 2007, when the review of the Scottish Ministerial Code will be concluded.
Answer
The review is expected to beconcluded in the near future and a revised version of the code will be publishedby the First Minister soon after.
