- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 March 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 29 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether, in light of the forthcoming devolution of railway powers to Scotland, (a) the Office of Rail Regulation and (b) Network Rail will be accountable to the Parliament and, if so, in what ways; in particular, whether these bodies can be required to provide an annual report to be laid before the Parliament; if not, whether the Executive considers that these bodies should do so, or be invited to do so, and whether it will invite either or both these bodies to report to the Parliament and, if so, on what basis, how often and with what remit.
Answer
Network Rail is a private sector company accountable to its members and regulated by the independent Office of Rail Regulation. The Office of Rail Regulation is the independent body responsible for the economic, and in future, safety regulation of the GB rail network.
Both the Office of Rail Regulation and Network Rail publish their annual reports and provide copies to the Scottish Parliament.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 March 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 29 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether, in light of the forthcoming devolution of railway powers to Scotland, it will have powers to vary the requirements for strictly modern equivalent renewals where this could inhibit rail development projects.
Answer
No, there is no requirement for strictly modern equivalent renewals. The Scottish Executive will be responsible for specifying the outputs from the rail network in Scotland, which Network Rail, through the Office of Rail Regulation, will be tasked with delivering and for funding enhancements to the rail network in Scotland.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 March 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 29 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether, in light of the forthcoming devolution of railway powers to Scotland, it will have powers to seek variations in Network Rail's licence conditions where these result in negative incentives, for example with respect to certain modern equivalent renewals.
Answer
Responsibility for Network Rail licence will remain a matter for the Office of Rail Regulation.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 March 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 29 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether, in light of the forthcoming devolution of railway powers to Scotland, it will have powers to seek derogations from Railway Group Standards for certain routes, such as the West Highland line and the Far North line and, if so, whether it will exercise these powers.
Answer
No, only operators such as Network Rail or Train Operating Companies who are subject to Railway Group Standards can apply for derogations from them. The Scottish Executive will be responsible for specifying the outputs from the rail network in Scotland which Network Rail, through the Office of Rail Regulation, will be tasked with delivering.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 March 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 29 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will set out its relationship with the Office of Rail Regulation, in particular in what way the office will be accountable to the Parliament.
Answer
The Office of Rail Regulation is the independent body responsible for the economic, and in future safety, regulation of the GB rail network.
The Office of Rail Regulation will have the same responsibilities in Scotland as in England and Wales and will be under a duty to comply with the reasonable requirements of the Scottish ministers as regards information and assistance. Like the Secretary of State for Transport, Scottish ministers will be required to provide guidance to the Office of Rail Regulation on desired outputs from the rail network and the public funding available for this. The Office of Rail Regulation will determine the income Network Rail will require to deliver these outputs.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 March 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 22 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that increases in the premiums for insurance cover for businesses which provide outdoor education are a barrier to the provision of outdoor education experiences for young people; whether it will commission research into this field, and, in particular, whether it will issue a questionnaire to businesses providing outdoor education to obtain information on the costs of such cover and further details of their outdoor education activities in order to assess the extent to which this is an issue.
Answer
We share the general concern over increases in the cost of liability insurance premiums. The level of premium costs is of course an issue for the insurance market as a whole. We keep in touch with the work of the Insurance Cover Working Group, established by the UK Government, to act as a forum for on-going dialogue with the insurance industry and other interests. We are aware that some commercial providers of outdoor activities have concerns about the impact of increased insurance premiums. However, we have no plans to commission research or conduct a survey of outdoor education businesses. Our contacts with outdoor education interests do not suggest that the cost of insurance cover impacts on the ability of local authorities to locate and access enough suitable providers of outdoor education activities.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 28 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 22 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has the competence to establish a rail passengers' committee to represent the interests of passengers; if so, whether it will establish such a committee, and whether it will confer on it legal powers identical in substance to those of the current rail passengers' committee which is scheduled to be discontinued by the Railways Bill.
Answer
The Scottish ministers have the competence to establish a rail passengers’ committee in Scotland.
Passenger representation will continue to have an important role in Scotland. We are considering the best arrangements for achieving that.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 March 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 22 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether raptor study groups, funded by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) to monitor nests, are obliged to disclose nest sites to SNH.
Answer
This is an operational matter for Scottish Natural Heritage.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 March 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 22 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will set out the methodology to be applied for Freight Facilities Grants where the operation is cross-boundary.
Answer
The standard procedure for handling cross-border Freight Facilities Grant (FFG) applications is for the assessment process to be undertaken by the administering authority in the country in which the capital expenditure will take place and for any award of grant to be funded by that authority. The environmental benefits generated by saving lorry miles in England and Wales can be taken into account by the Executive.
If a cross-border rail FFG project involves capital expenditure in Scotland, as well as England or Wales, the expenditure in Scotland would be funded by the Scottish Executive, any expenditure in England by, at present, the Strategic Rail Authority (depending on resource availability) and any expenditure in Wales by the Welsh Assembly Government.
If a cross-border water FFG project involves capital expenditure in Scotland, as well as England or Wales, the expenditure in Scotland would normally be funded by the Scottish Executive, any expenditure in England would be funded by the Department for Transport (DfT) and any expenditure in Wales would be funded by the Welsh Assembly Government. However, the DfT can contribute to the funding of water FFG projects in Scotland and have done so in the past.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 January 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 22 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will not make a ministerial statement or lodge a motion for debate on the future of the Clyde and Hebrides ferry services and, in particular, the issue of tendering and whether tendering is necessary, until such time as there has been a reasonable opportunity for those MSPs who wish to hold a meeting with the European Commission officials to do so and whether the Minister for Transport will discuss the timing of any such statement or debate with MSPs from opposition parties.
Answer
During the parliamentary debate on ferry services on 8 December 2004, the Parliament expressed concerns regarding the tendering process. I agreed to discuss these concerns with the European Commission and raised this issue with the European Transport Commissioner, M Barrot, when I met him in Brussels on 9 December. Following that meeting I wrote to M Barrot asking whether there was any way, within the terms of European law to allow the Clyde and Hebrides services to continue to be delivered on a subsidised basis without the need to tender. Further discussions are taking place between the Executive and the European Commission and I will report back to Parliament on this issue as soon as possible.
I appreciate members’ concerns on this issue and propose to hold appropriate consultations with all MSPs with an interest.
