- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Friday, 09 August 2002
-
Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 6 September 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether payments from the Scottish Transport Group pension fund surplus will be made in full to the widows of fund contributors and whether it will act upon the recommendations of the Petitions Committee made at its meeting on 25 June 2002.
Answer
I refer the member to my letter to the Convener of the Scottish Public Petitions Committee dated 9 August 2002, a copy of which I understand has been sent to the member.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 August 2002
-
Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 5 September 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what arrangements have been put in place by each NHS board to assist in the provision of GP out-of-hours services; what amount of each board's budget has been used for the provision of such services in each of the last three years, and how much it estimates such services will cost in the (a) current year and (b) next two years.
Answer
All GPs are eligible for an annual payment (currently £2,510) for providing out of hours services and for a night visit fee (currently £25.10) for each face to face consultation carried out between the hours of 10pm and 8am. These fees and allowances are prescribed in the Statement of Fees and Allowances payable to GPs and are paid from the NHS Board's General Medical Services demand-led budget. In addition, NHS Island Boards and Primary Care Trusts assist in the provision of out of hours services in their area by providing funding from the Out of Hours Development Fund. The fund forms part of the overall cash limited budget given to boards each year. The following table provides a breakdown of each area's expenditure on out-of-hours services from the development fund over the last three years. The table also shows the estimated expenditure for the current year. Information on the estimated costs for the next two years is not available.Breakdown of NHS Board Expenditure On Out Of Hours Provision
| Primary Care Trust/ Island NHS Board | 1999-2000 | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03Forecast Expenditure |
| Argyll and Clyde | 510,890 | 584,508 | 543,384 | 522,000 |
| Ayrshire and Arran | 750,490 | 747,075 | 819,289 | 792,058 |
| Borders | 192,342 | 215,650 | 226,841 | 243,009 |
| Dumfries and Galloway | 320,784 | 377,615 | 426,766 | 374,932 |
| Fife | 353,767 | 410,455 | 421,900 | 437,000 |
| Forth Valley | 297,592 | 303,419 | 370,084 | 334,000 |
| Grampian | 555,530 | 611,709 | 708,455 | 732,000 |
| Greater Glasgow | 1,803,000 | 1,496,188 | 1,531,000 | 1,567,000 |
| Highland | 343,508 | 406,386 | 429,841 | 305,000 |
| Lanarkshire | 496,384 | 507,019 | 511,740 | 567,000 |
| Lothian | 1,506,791 | 1,549,537 | 1,669,086 | 1,645,645 |
| Orkney NHS Board | 35,411 | 43,567 | 33,395 | 41,000 |
| Shetland NHS Board | 23,944 | 22,782 | 23,272 | 29,000 |
| Tayside | 404,794 | 459,181 | 520,727 | 549,600 |
| Western Isles NHS Board | 54,265 | 45,500 | 47,000 | 47,000 |
| Scotland Total | 7,649,492 | 7,780,591 | 8,282,780 | 8,186,244 |
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 July 2002
-
Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 26 August 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has given any recent approval for expenditure to be paid to four landed estates for a programme of deer culling; if so, how much this totalled; what rate was paid per carcass, and whether this represented value for money.
Answer
No such approval has been given.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 July 2002
-
Current Status:
Answered by Elaine Murray on 26 August 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what recognition sportscotland will give to international shinty fixtures between Scotland and Ireland and, if none, whether it will invite sportscotland to give recognition to these fixtures.
Answer
Sportscotland does not recognise the annual match between the shinty players of Scotland and the hurlers of Ireland as there is no international federation for shinty under whose auspices international competitions can take place. This is a matter for sportscotland and the Executive has no plans to intervene.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Friday, 19 July 2002
-
Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 16 August 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it submitted evidence to the European Commission regarding the lack of impact that the nephrops fishery had on cod and whether it will place in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre copies of any evidence which it submitted to the Commission in relation to this issue.
Answer
The UK submitted evidence to the Commission on several occasions in 2001 to illustrate that higher landings of nephrops did not result in higher landings of cod. The specific nature of this correspondence is confidential.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Friday, 19 July 2002
-
Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 16 August 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will request the European Commission to readdress the issue of the setting of the west of Scotland nephrops total allowable catch (TAC) with a view to reinstating the reduction of 10% of the TAC introduced in 2001.
Answer
We hope to address this in the autumn negotiations on TACs.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Monday, 15 July 2002
-
Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 15 August 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether parent seagulls that make swooping attacks on people in order to protect their young constitute a danger to human safety; whether it will give advice to local authorities that action should be taken under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 in order to reduce and seek to eliminate any such danger, and, in the light of the death of Mr Wilfred Roby reported in The Times on 6 July 2002, whether it will now take action in relation to any potential risk to human life.
Answer
The Scottish Executive, Scottish Natural Heritage and other agencies already offer advice to local authorities on a variety of control measures which can be taken against seagulls, including measures under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.In a situation where it is considered that attacks from seagulls pose a threat to human life, it is the responsibility of individual local authorities to decide upon the most appropriate course of action. Adequate powers to take the necessary steps are already available to local authorities as part of their environmental health responsibilities and this may include lethal control of seagulls.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Monday, 15 July 2002
-
Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 15 August 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what the annual budget will be for the first three years of operation of (a) the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park and (b) the Cairngorms National Park.
Answer
The funding allocation for the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park for the period 2002-03 is £4.8 million. The level of funding to be allocated in future years for National Parks in Scotland will be determined by the Executive as part of its future budgets review. The period covered in the forthcoming review runs from 2003-04 until 2005-06.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 July 2002
-
Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 14 August 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on (a) the policy of modulation under the common agricultural policy and (b) the proposal by Fran' Fischler of the EU Commission that there should be a further modulation of 20% and (c) what it considers should be the maximum percentage modulated each year.
Answer
The Executive agreed to introduce modulation up to a maximum of 4.5% on the basis of matched funding from HM Treasury which aids rural development measures and, in turn, helps secure a sustainable future for Scottish agriculture. However, it is too soon to comment on the recent commission proposals to introduce compulsory modulation at a set rate across the EU. It is only one of a wide range of common agricultural policy changes being proposed, and much of the detail is still unclear but the industry steering group that I recently announced will have the opportunity to discuss issues arising from the proposals.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 July 2002
-
Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 14 August 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what its policy is in relation to the maximum payment of subsidies under the common agricultural policy; whether such payment should be restricted to 300,000 euros and, if not, what that sum should be.
Answer
We welcome the general direction of the Commission's proposals for reform of the CAP, which is consistent with the Forward Strategy for Scottish Agriculture.However, any proposal to limit the maximum amount payable to individual farm businesses may act as a constraint on the future development of those businesses which have grown through being efficient and competitive. It is our policy to encourage farmers to be more efficient, not to penalise them for it.
