- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 21 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will specify what the new guaranteed minimum service standards for water customers across Scotland are; what are the circumstances whereby water authorities must compensate customers who receive poor service; whether the standards apply to the drinking quality of water; whether standard compensation will be listed for planned interruptions, delays in restoration of supply, response to complaints and reply to enquiries, failure to maintain appointments and flooding sewers; whether there is compensation payable for the contamination of a water supply, and, if compensation is not available in any of these circumstances, whether it will explain the reasons.
Answer
The Water Industry Commissioner is currently consulting on his proposals for new guaranteed minimum service standards for water customers, which cover the various circumstances listed in your question. The details of the proposals are available directly on the Commissioner's website (
www.watercommissioner.co.uk). I welcome the Commissioner's commitment to work with the water authorities to increase their standards of service to customers.
- 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 Sarah Boyack on 21 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive how it will ensure that persons who live in the Highlands and Islands, or who have local knowledge of the issues and problems relating to ferry transport in the Highlands and Islands, are considered for the vacant positions on the Board of Caledonian MacBrayne.
Answer
The current vacancies for the posts of Non-Executive Director on the Board of Caledonian MacBrayne were openly advertised in accordance with the Guidance on Appointments to Public Bodies. The criteria for the posts include one, categorised as highly desirable, relating to an interest in, or local knowledge of, Highlands and Islands issues. Candidates for the current vacancies were assessed against this and the other criteria for the post(s), and an announcement on the outcome of the recruitment process was made today.
- 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 Henry McLeish on 21 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what will be done with the proceeds from the sale of the tourist information centres in the Highlands and Islands; whether such proceeds will be reinvested in the tourist industry, and whether it will place in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre a breakdown of the proceeds from the sale of each tourist information centre and details of to which budget the proceeds will be or have been credited.
Answer
This is a commercial matter for HIE. Proceeds from the sale of the TICs, along with receipts from other property sales and rentals, form part of HIE's overall budget management process and is reinvested in new economic development throughout the area. The TICs were sold as a package and prices are therefore not available for individual units. The properties referred to, however, are still being leased to the Highlands of Scotland Tourist Board for use as Tourist Information Centres.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 21 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has received representations from local authorities to be allowed to reduce or eliminate discounts on second or holiday homes and retain the income generated as a result and, if so, from which local authorities and what measures does it intend to take as a result.
Answer
Yes, representations have been received from the Highland Council. We have no plans to make changes to the local taxation system at present.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 02 March 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 21 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will increase its targets of 1,000 modern apprenticeships by 2003 in the tourism industry given that the number of persons employed within the industry is between 170,000 and 180,000 and, if not, why not.
Answer
I believe that the target is realistic taking into account the age range for Modern Apprenticeships, which is 16-24, the range of occupations in the tourist industry and the current level of uptake of Modern Apprenticeships in the industry.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 February 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 21 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether, in respect of the pension scheme surplus of the Transport Operation Pension Scheme (TOPS), it will provide all information and assistance requested to the trade union representatives representing the workforce and support the efforts of the workforce in campaigning for distribution to them of the surplus from the pension scheme.
Answer
Information about the administration of the Transport Operatives Pensions Scheme is a matter for the Trustees of the Scheme until such time as the scheme is wound up. The distribution of any surplus is governed by the Trust Deeds, the Scottish Transport Group (Pension Schemes) Order 1996 approved by the UK Parliament in 1996 and the provisions of the Bus Group disposal programme prepared under section 1 of the Transport (Scotland) Act 1989 and published in 1990.
- 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 Peter Peacock on 19 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will make available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre a detailed record of the visit to Finland by the Minister in charge of the Digital Scotland Task Force, including any outcomes resulting from the trip.
Answer
I visited Finland on 13, 14 and 15 October 1999, to see at first hand examples of the application of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to education and learning there. I combined this, in the context of the Digital Scotland initiative, with discussions about Finland's approach to wider information society issues. The programme included meetings with educational researchers, teachers and schools students, with elected representatives and officials of the Finnish Education Ministry and of the Ministry for Communications, and with representatives of Finland-based companies.
I was impressed with the degree of consensus within Finland that active participation and collaboration in and leadership of the information society were critically important to economic and social wellbeing.
The visit informed and deepened our understanding of a wide range of ICT issues which are relevant to the Digital Scotland initiative. A particular result of the visit is that a team of Finnish education researchers visited Scotland from 31 May to 2 June to share with us their knowledge about applying ICTs to education and learning.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 16 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will reform the provisions of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 to provide local authorities with the same provisions as exist under section 12 of that Act for billing authorities in Wales so that local authorities will have the same discretion as those in Wales to take a different approach to discounts in respect of second or holiday homes by either reducing the discount from 50% to 25% or giving no discount at all; whether it will further reform the Act to allow local authorities who do exercise such powers to retain any additional revenue yielded as a result of the reduction or elimination of discounts on second or holiday homes and, if not, why not.
Answer
We have no plans to make changes to the local taxation system at present. The Welsh system does not allow local authorities to retain any additional revenue gained by exercising this power.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 15 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive how many complaints have been made to the External Complaints Adjudicator in respect of (a) Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE); (b) each local enterprise company contracted to HIE; (c) Scottish Enterprise; and (d) each local enterprise company contracted to Scottish Enterprise, specifying in each case the number of complaints which were upheld, the number rejected, and the number rejected because they were submitted late; whether the External Complaints Adjudicator has the power to order payment of compensation; if not, whether it plans to provide such powers either to the External Complaints Adjudicator or a new Ombudsman, and, if it has such plans how compensation should be assessed.
Answer
In 1999-2000 the External Adjudicators for Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, investigated the following complaints against the Enterprise Networks:
(a) One against Highlands and Islands Enterprise which was rejected.
(b) One against Western Isles Enterprise which was rejected.
(c) None against Scottish Enterprise.
(d) One against Scottish Enterprise Grampian which was rejected and one against Scottish Enterprise Glasgow which is ongoing.
None of those rejected were done so as a result of late submission.
The External Adjudicators' terms of reference empower them to make recommendations for appropriate action where the complaint is upheld and this could include financial compensation. They do not have powers to order it. There are no current plans to change these powers or to establish a new Ombudsman.
The Scottish Executive proposes to consult on the role of public sector Ombudsmen in the autumn.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 07 April 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 13 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-5188 by Mr Jim Wallace on 23 March 2000, whether the decrease in the number of prosecutions for littering offences between 1990 and 1998 has been accompanied by an actual decrease in littering and whether it will introduce a policy of 'ero tolerance of littering.
Answer
Information on the incidence of littering is not held centrally. Responsibility for enforcing litter law in public places generally lies with local authorities and it is for them to decide what priority to accord to keeping their areas free of litter. We expect them to follow the
Code of Practice on Litter and Refuse, statutory guidance published jointly by The Scottish and Welsh Offices, Department of the Environment Transport and the Regions and Department for Education and Employment in 1999.
We consider that existing legislation is adequate to deal with offenders. We acknowledge that littering is a social problem which we believe is best tackled by educating the public as a whole. We pay core grant to Keep Scotland Beautiful (amounting to £234,000 for 2000-01) in recognition of the anti-litter and other community environment campaigns which it runs and to assist it in providing practical training to local authority personnel on combating litter and fly-tipping.
