- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 15 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 12 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether those "relevant authorities" as defined in schedule 1 in the Transport (Scotland) Bill, which serve parts of Scotland which are rural or predominantly rural and which choose not to use the proposed powers to make road user charges or workplace parking levies, will receive no extra resources for investment in transport.
Answer
"Relevant authorities" as defined in schedule 1 in the Transport (Scotland) Bill are authorities which are party to a road user or workplace parking scheme made jointly with other authorities. As defined, "relevant authorities" would receive a share of the proceeds of such scheme. As any income received from a charging scheme will be additional to present levels, "relevant authorities" will receive extra resources for investment in transport from the scheme.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sam Galbraith on 12 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking in response to the findings in The Quality of Services in Rural Scotland that 20% of respondents were dissatisfied with primary schools, 29% dissatisfied with secondary schools and 33% with pre-school opportunities.
Answer
All our policies for schools are directed to ensuring that children benefit from education of the highest quality, and this objective is as important in rural areas as in other parts of Scotland. It is encouraging to note the report's findings that 91% of parents were satisfied with the primary school attended by their child and 88% were satisfied in the case of secondary schools. Since the data were collected, we have achieved universal provision of pre-school education for four year olds; and provision for three year olds in rural areas is growing rapidly.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 12 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to establish a broad consensus of what services should be available to communities in order to provide a benchmark against which local provision can be measured, as recommended in The Quality of Services in Rural Scotland, and when it expects to publish details of this benchmark level of service provision.
Answer
The Executive is considering the recommendations of the report The Quality of Services in Rural Scotland published on 26 June which included the provision of benchmarking. The Executive is committed to ensuring that rural communities are able to access a wide range of services. That is why I recently tasked the Scottish National Rural Partnership to bring together service providers to look at how services might be provided in innovative and imaginative ways in rural areas, as well as identifying ways of helping local communities to identify their realistic service needs and to work with providers to achieve these. I look forward to receiving the Group's recommendations at the end of November.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 12 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what further action it intends to take in relation to high fuel prices and the falling number of petrol stations and post offices in rural areas in response to the finding in The Quality of Services in Rural Scotland that "for those without reliable transport, the trend towards distant services represents a significant problem".
Answer
Service provision is of key importance for rural communities. The Executive has recently asked the Scottish National Rural Partnership to bring together service providers to look at how services might be provided in innovative and imaginative ways in rural areas, as well as identifying ways of helping local Communities to assess their realistic service needs and to work with providers to achieve these.
The Executive has also commissioned an evaluation of the effectiveness of the rural transport fund which is due to report in October 2000. This will inform decisions on future support for rural transport in this autumn's Scottish Spending Review. The Executive is working in close partnership with the UK Government to maintain the rural Post Office network. It welcomes the announcement made by the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry on 28 June that the current size of that network will be maintained until 2006, except where it is impossible to find replacements for departing sub-postmasters.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sam Galbraith on 12 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to in response to the findings in The Quality of Services in Rural Scotland that 62% of respondents to survey expressed dissatisfaction with activities for young children and 83% with activities for teenagers and in particular how it plans to increase the provision of activities for teenagers, given the role such activities can play in preventing teenagers becoming involved in drug taking and underage drinking.
Answer
Local provision is primarily a matter for local authorities to decide in the light of local priorities, needs and resources. The Executive operates a number of grant schemes to assist youth organisations and to support services in rural areas.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sam Galbraith on 12 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive which persons were considered for appointment to membership of sportscotland and which have been appointed; of these, which came from or are associated with the Highlands and Islands and what were the reasons if none did come from or are associated with the Highlands and Islands.
Answer
All applications for public appointments are made in confidence. The names of the individuals who applied therefore cannot be made public. Vacancies are publicised widely. All applications received are considered equally on merit under a fair, open and transparent assessment process.
I announced the new members on 26 June. They are Mrs Wai-Yin Hatton, Dr Nanette Mutrie and Dr Linda Leighton-Beck. None of these appointees live in the Highlands and Islands and we have no information on whether they have any association with the area.
- 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 Henry McLeish on 11 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether, under the Education (Student Loans) (Scotland) Regulations 2000 (SSI 2000/200), student loans are treated as income in the hands of the borrower for the purposes of sequestration of the borrower, and whether it will make representations to Her Majesty's Government on whether such loans are taken into account in the calculation of benefit payments.
Answer
Student loans are not treated as income for the purposes of sequestration. The Scottish Executive is in regular contact with her Majesty's Government on a range of issues including the interface between the student support and benefits systems.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 26 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 10 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it has taken to encourage supermarket retailers in Scotland to sell tomatoes grown in Scotland; whether it will seek a commitment from them that they will stock Scottish tomatoes, and whether it has made an assessment of any job losses if supermarkets do not stock Scottish tomatoes, both in the tomato growing sector and in grading and packaging operations.
Answer
I have met with a number of the major retailers to discuss a range of issues including the sourcing of quality Scottish products. I have obtained a commitment from several major multiples to stock Scottish goods, where they can be produced in sufficient volume. It is not possible to make any estimate of job losses in the industry should supermarkets not stock Scottish tomatoes as this would depend on market conditions elsewhere at the particular time.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 23 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 7 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will place in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre, a copy of the Assisted Area map which has been or is being re-submitted to the European Commission.
Answer
The Assisted Areas map is a reserved matter for the UK Government.
The UK Government has submitted to the European Commission, the Assisted Areas map proposals published on 10 April 2000 in Amendments to the Government's Proposals for New Assisted Areas (URN 00/776). This document is available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre. The European Commission is now considering these map proposals, together with possible changes thereto.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 22 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by John Home Robertson on 6 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has made to the European Commission in relation to the enforced discard of quantities of prime saithe or coley.
Answer
The Executive has made clear in its dealings with the European Commission that it is committed to reducing discards of all species. The new EC technical conservation Regulation which came into force on 1 January this year introduced new measures to reduce discarding. Furthermore I am introducing new measures shortly which will reduce discards of juvenile haddock and whiting.
The lack of UK quota for saithe means that the issue is more apparent for this stock. However, the stock is not in good condition and there is good reason to avoid management measures, such as permitting landing of over-quota fish, which would encourage the targeting of this species. Any reallocation of the stock between member states would, of course, jeopardise the principle of Relative Stability, the basis used to allocate catches between countries. The Scottish Industry have made very clear the extreme importance they attach to the maintenance of this principle.
