- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 July 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 31 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive how many motorists from other countries are prosecuted each year for carrying large amounts of spare fuel in unsafe containers; who is responsible for carrying out checks to detect and deter this practice; and, if police forces or local authorities are responsible, how many such checks are carried out each year.
Answer
The information requested is not held centrally. While the police may become involved, it is primarily the duty of Customs & Excise, the Health & Safety Executive and local authority trading standards officers to enforce, within their respective jurisdictions, the law relating to petroleum and the importation and carriage of dangerous substances.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 10 July 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 31 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking, alone or in conjunction with British Telecommunications plc or other telecommunications companies, to ensure that businesses have the resources and Internet access needed to compete and succeed in the world economy, given that internet productivity is increasing faster year-on-year in the USA than in the UK.
Answer
The Scottish Executive is in contact with telecommunications companies on their plans for the provision of broadband technology. We will assess what steps need to be taken when these discussions are complete.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 10 July 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 31 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to ensure that increased and high quality access to the Internet in rural areas is not hindered by the demand for such services remaining low because of high costs and the costs of such services remaining high because of low demand.
Answer
The Scottish Executive has no functions in relation to the regulation of service charges by telecommunications companies. We are in discussions with telecoms companies which are designed to encourage operators to enter rural areas.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 10 July 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 31 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking in conjunction with British Telecommunications plc or other telecommunications companies to ensure that business Internet users in the Highlands are not at a competitive disadvantage to other users because of any lack of telecommunications infrastructure or poor quality internet access.
Answer
The Scottish Executive is in discussion with telecommunications companies over their roll out plans for broadband services. We are considering with Highlands and Islands Enterprise what steps need to be taken to ensure business Internet users in the Highlands have access to broadband services.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 10 July 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 31 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether a digital divide exists between urban and rural areas; if so, what initiatives it has launched to close this gap, and whether any such plans include efforts to reduce charges for connection to national networks in rural areas.
Answer
The Scottish Executive has already announced in the Rural Scotland Strategy paper that we are working to ensure that a digital divide should not exist in Scotland. The Scottish Executive has no functions in relation to the regulation of service charges imposed by telecommunications companies.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 July 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 28 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will review the issue of privilege in relation to remarks made in the conduct of criminal trials, in particular following the delivery of a verdict by a Sheriff or Judge in the High Court Judiciary, where such remarks were made in respect of the credibility of a person who had not given evidence.
Answer
There are no plans to take any action in relation to this area of judicial independence.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 29 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 28 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will ensure that all companies trading in Scotland do not impose in any terms of contract the law of England as the law governing that contract; whether it is aware that BT Yellow Pages uses the law of England for its directories covering Scotland and what representations it will make to British Telecommunications Plc on this matter.
Answer
The question of which law applies to a contract is regulated by the Contracts (Applicable Law) Act 1990 applying the Rome Convention on the same subject and the Scottish Executive has no locus to impose any particular system of law on British Telecommunications PLC or on any other company trading in Scotland.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 December 1999
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 27 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it estimates that the number of unemployed persons in the three Local Enterprise Council areas of Inverness and Nairn, Ross and Cromarty and Moray, Badenoch and Strathspey which totalled 4,738 as at September 1999 will increase and, if so, what its estimates are of the number in these areas in January, February, March, April, May, June and July of 2000.
Answer
The Scottish Executive does not produce forecasts of unemployment either for local areas or for Scotland as a whole.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 22 May 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 27 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive how much it has spent on computers, or related equipment, for its own use since July 1999, and whether any of these purchases subsequently turned out to be unsuitable for the purposes for which they were intended, or have not yet been fully utilised.
Answer
The Scottish Executive has spent £3.13 million including VAT on computers and related equipment for use on the core Scottish Executive network since July 1999. None of these purchases has subsequently turned out to be unsuitable for the purpose for which it was intended. The figure above includes equipment held available for planned deployments during the next few months, valued at £263,000 including VAT. The Scottish Executive holds such a stock because purchasing single items of standard computer equipment can offer poor value for money.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 27 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what legal advice it has sought or obtained on whether it is possible to obtain derogations to allow a fuel subsidy to be paid in (a) any part of Scotland and (b) some or all of the islands of Scotland.
Answer
Policy on fuel duty derogations is reserved.
