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Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S1W-08331

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 June 2000
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 18 July 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the planned veterinary supervision levels, in conjunction with the existing Meat Hygiene Service charging arrangements, will cause any closures of small and medium-si'ed local abattoirs and cutting plants; if so, what assessment it has made of the number of any job losses, and what implications will there be for animal welfare, given that, if such abattoirs and cutting plants close, animals will have to be transported over much greater distances.

Question reference: S1W-08330

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 June 2000
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 18 July 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has received the Food Standards Agency task force report into meat hygiene inspection charges and, if so, whether it contains recommendations to (a) underwrite the costs of veterinary inspection at low throughput plants and (b) place a cap on charges; what response it will make to such recommendations and others within the report, and whether it will make a ministerial statement on this issue.

I have been advised by the Food Standards Agency that the Meat Hygiene Inspection Charges Task Force Report was published on 26 June. The report is available on the FSA website and a copy has been placed in SPICe.

The report recommends that inspection charges for all plants should be no greater than the EU standard charge, irrespective of the actual costs of veterinary inspection in any particular plant. The Scottish Executive in conjunction with other UK Agricultural Departments and the Food Standards Agency are considering the Report of the Meat Hygiene Inspection Charges Task Force. An announcement will be made in due course.

Question reference: S1W-05586

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 March 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sarah Boyack on 17 July 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive what share of the #280 million additional funding on roads recently announced by the Secretary of State for Transport, Environment and the Regions will accrue to Scotland.

Question reference: S1W-07829

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 June 2000
Current Status: Answered by Jack McConnell on 17 July 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive what impact the decision to fix a rate poundage for Scotland of 45.8 pence as opposed to 41.6 pence in England will have on (a) the manufacturing sector, (b) the tourism sector, (c) the retail sector and (d) the commercial property sector and whether this decision will be reviewed so that the disparity can be eliminated for the year 2001-02 and subsequent years.

As was set out in detail in the paper that I made available on 17 January 2000 and is available in SPICe, the overall effect of the higher rate poundage in Scotland was balanced by the effect of the greater revaluation factor in England. The competitive position of typical Scottish firms relative to equivalent English firms was maintained. The total revenue raised by non-domestic rates in Scotland is the same in real terms as before the revaluation.

Question reference: S1W-08466

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 July 2000
Current Status: Answered by Henry McLeish on 14 July 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-8006 by Henry McLeish on 29 June 2000, to provide a detailed breakdown of the #2.06 million spent on the University of the Highlands and Islands Project's Executive Office.

The breakdown is given in the table below:

	£000's
Staff costs	840
Travel and subsistence	43
Staff recruitment, development and training	43
Grants to academic partners for Deputy Directors, Deans of Faculty and Heads of research schools	97
Meetings costs	54
Consultancy and Professional fees	39
Office costs	76
Property costs	132
ICT equipment and services	375
Promotion and marketing, including publications, exhibitions, events and advertising	361
	2,060

Question reference: S1W-08059

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 June 2000
Current Status: Answered by Jack McConnell on 13 July 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive how many formal consultations it launched between May 1999 and June 2000 and whether it will list for each of these consultations (a) the cost of launching and promoting the consultation; (b) the cost of analysing the consultation responses; (c) the length of the consultation period; (d) the number of responses received and (e) the date, or expected date, of publication of a summary of responses.

Question reference: S1W-06101

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 April 2000
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 13 July 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will obtain copies of all the title deeds of the Black Cuillins on Skye recorded in the Register of Sasines, including evidence of the title of the current owner, a full prescriptive progress, all burden writs, and any undischarged security writs.

Question reference: S1W-08401

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 June 2000
Current Status: Answered by Henry McLeish on 13 July 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive what the anticipated cost is of the marketing campaign for Learndirect Scotland.

Question reference: S1W-08072

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 June 2000
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 13 July 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive what government funding Northern Constabulary has received this year and in each of the previous five years.

Direct funding of Northern Constabulary by the Scottish Executive in the current financial year and by the Scottish Office in the previous five years is shown in the table below. Forces also meet a proportion of their costs from local authority funding.

Year	1995-96 £'000	1996-97 £'000	1997-98 £'000	1998-99 £'000	1999-2000 £'000	2000-01 (estimate) £'000
Police Grant	14,089	14,920	15,901	16,884	18,116	18,806
Loan Charges	1,379	1,357	1,310	1,365	1,690	1,636
Civil Defence Grant	52	54	55	55	55	55
Millennium Funding						409
Additional 100% Funding						523
SDEA Funding						100
DNA						91
TOTAL	15,520	16,331	17,266	18,304	19,861	21,520

Police Grant was cash limited from 1996-97 onwards. Loan charges depend on the capital projects within the force area at any given time.

Question reference: S1W-08402

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 June 2000
Current Status: Answered by Henry McLeish on 13 July 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the database being compiled by Learndirect Scotland will be completed prior to the introduction of individual learning accounts.