- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 November 2004
-
Current Status:
Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 11 November 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is satisfied with the progress made by the visitscotland.com website and in what financial year it is expected to break even.
Answer
Visitscotland.comacts as a highly-effective shop window for Scottish tourism, and promotes Scotland to a global audience. It is performing well against its businessplan targets, and is generating significant business for the tourism industry inScotland. Since its inception it has generated £22million worth of business. It was always anticipated that it would take some yearsbefore visitscotland.com made profits. Its management is confident that it is ontrack to achieve profitability in the next three to four years.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 October 2004
-
Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 10 November 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that someone who donates an organ to another human being should, if they take time off from their employment, have annual leave deducted as a consequence.
Answer
Responsibility for matters relating to employment is reserved to the UK Government. I understand that leave entitlement is a matter of contractual agreement between the employer and employee, taking account of any relevant legislation. The granting of additional leave under exceptional circumstances is a discretionary matter for employers.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Monday, 11 October 2004
-
Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 10 November 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive when Forestry Commission Scotland will bring forward a community purchase scheme; how many houses such a scheme will aim to provide, and when such houses are expected to be available for occupation.
Answer
In December last year, ministers asked Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS) to work with Communities Scotland, registered social landlords, some local authorities and local housing trusts to identify sites within the national forest estate that may be suitable for affordable housing. This exercise has identified forty potential sites but it is too early to estimate the number of houses that may be built or when they may be available for occupation.
Ministers also asked FCS to prepare a draft community purchase scheme in respect of the national forest estate. Once this has been completed, FCS will undertake a public consultation exercise about the details of the scheme.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Friday, 15 October 2004
-
Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 10 November 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-8282 by Malcolm Chisholm on 26 May 2004, when it will publish the conclusions of Towards Better Oral Health in Children; what the reasons are for the delay in publication, and whether there have been any longer delays in the publication of other reports on consultations and, if so, which consultations.
Answer
The outcome of our consultation on measures to improve the oral health of children in Scotland will be announced as soon as we have completed our consideration of the many responses we have received.
Information about the interval between consultations and the announcement of their outcome is not routinely collected and collated.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 September 2004
-
Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 10 November 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how many houses are scheduled to be built on land owned by the Forestry Commission in each of the next five years.
Answer
Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS) currently proposes to build one FCS house on the national forest estate, at Glencroe, near Ardgartan.
In addition, in December last year, ministers asked FCS to work with Communities Scotland and local housing trusts to identify sites within the national forest estate that may be suitable for affordable housing. This initiative has identified forty potential sites.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 October 2004
-
Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 9 November 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what interest has been expressed from overseas about the purchase of Scottish pedigree livestock; whether any assessment has been made of financial benefits that could be derived from the lifting of the ban on live exports, and, if no such assessment has been made, whether there will now be one.
Answer
There have been no direct approaches made to the Executive regarding the purchase of Scottish pedigree livestock for subsequent export. However, I understand there have been periodic approaches to the industry on this matter. An assessment to determine the financial benefits of lifting the ban in relation to live exports has not been conducted by the Executive and there are no plans to initiate one.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 October 2004
-
Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 9 November 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what it estimates the cost of the Over Thirty Months scheme is per animal; whether that cost is approximately £1,200; what the total cost of the scheme to it was in each of the last two years, and what estimate it has made of the total cost of the scheme in the current year and each of the next two years.
Answer
In 2003, the average cost per animal under the Over Thirty Months Scheme, as estimated by the Rural Payments Agency, was approximately £510. The Executive makes no contribution to OTMS costs, which are part funded by Defra and the EU.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Friday, 01 October 2004
-
Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 8 November 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide the information on the performance of consultants suggested by the member for Argyll and Bute in the debate on health services on 30 September 2004 (Official Report c 10792).
Answer
There are no plans at present to provide information on the performance of consultants. However, the Health Department is about to embark on a stream of work on workforce productivity and this is one of the many issues that will be considered under that agenda.
Under the new consultant contract which came into effect on 1 April 2004NHS managers will be able to explicitly and more effectively manage consultantactivity in order to secure the capacity they require to improve services topatients. Managers will agree with consultants exactly how they fill theirworking week with programming of all activities, thus maximising directclinical care and more transparent flexible working patterns. This will allowthe working week and on-call responsibilities to be systematically managed andthere will be extended opportunity for patient access (elective services) atevenings and weekends. The new contract should also lead to improved consultantperformance measures and benchmarks and clearer rules for managing links toprivate work.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Monday, 11 October 2004
-
Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 8 November 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether any assessment has been made, other than by Forestry Commission Scotland or those working for it or instructed on its behalf, of the areas of land owned by Forestry Commission Scotland which are suitable for development for housing and, if not, whether such an assessment will now be carried out.
Answer
As the Executive’s Forestry Department, Forestry Commission Scotland has been working with Communities Scotland, Registered Social Landlords, some local authorities and local housing trusts to identify sites within the national forest estate that may be suitable for affordable housing.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Monday, 11 October 2004
-
Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 8 November 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive, with regard to Forestry Commission Scotland’s development of a community purchase scheme, whether forest land will be valued on the basis of its use as forest and, if not, whether valuing the land on some other basis can be justified given its current use as forest.
Answer
I have asked Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS) to prepare a draft community purchase scheme in respect of the national forest estate. Once this has been completed, FCS will undertake a public consultation exercise about the details of the scheme and the methodology for valuing national forest estate land will be part of this consultation.
