- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 09 February 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Sam Galbraith on 19 March 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what financial assistance it has given this financial year to (a) Scottish Opera and (b) Balnain House, Inverness.
Answer
None. The main channel for public funding of the arts in Scotland is the Scottish Arts Council. I have therefore asked the Director of the Arts Council to write to the member with the requested information and to make it available in the Parliaments Reference Centre.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 January 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 19 March 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what measures it will take in order to ensure the continued use of Balnain House, Inverness as a centre for traditional arts and culture; whether it has allocated any funding for this purpose and, if not, whether it will urge the Scottish Arts Council, the Highlands and Islands Enterprise network, or any other body to do so.
Answer
None. The closure of Balnain House was a decision for the company. The Scottish Arts Council continues to support traditional arts in the area and is working with others in the Highland Arts Partnership to develop long-term plans to ensure their sustainable future.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 February 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Wendy Alexander on 8 March 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will reconsider its decision not to replace the external adjudicators of Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise with ombudsmen and whether the use of an external adjudicator is contrary to Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights in terms of whether such use constitutes hearings before an independent and impartial tribunal.
Answer
The Executive has not yet made a decision on whether to replace the external adjudicators of Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise with an ombudsman. The question was discussed in the Executive's consultation paper Modernising the Complaints System. The closing date for comments was 10 January 2001 and we are currently analysing the responses. The Executive aims to publish a second consultation paper in the spring, setting out detailed proposals based on these responses.In terms of Article 6 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), whatever complaints system is put in place after the consultation, whether a continuation of the current system or otherwise, will be compliant with ECHR.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 November 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 6 March 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the statement by Henry McLeish on 1 November 2000 that it intends to go further than the Code of Practice on Access to Scottish Executive Information position that "information should be released except where disclosure would not be in the public interest" (Official Report, col. 1198), which information which can currently be withheld under the exemptions in Part II of the code it is proposing to allow access to under its Freedom of Information Bill.
Answer
In the Executive's consultation document An Open Scotland it was stated (paragraph 1.4) that "The statutory FOI regime will build upon, and extend, the principles of openness contained in the Code of Practice." A draft Freedom of Information Bill was published on 1 March 2001.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 January 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 6 March 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-11701 by Rhona Brankin on 8 January 2001, whether it will detail the enquiries that have been made as to whether dogs are used underground for pest control purposes on land under its ownership or control and whether it will list (a) all estates under its ownership or control and (b) the estates in respect of which enquiries have been made.
Answer
In order to answer the previous question, enquiries were made of the Headquarters of The Forestry Commission, Historic Scotland and the Scottish Agricultural Science Agency along with the Estate Management section of the Scottish Executive itself. The Agricultural Staff of the Scottish Executive Rural Affairs Department who are responsible for managing Ministers land settlement estates (99% of which is tenanted croft land) were also consulted. These bodies account for some 800,000 hectares of land owned or controlled by the Scottish Executive. No individual enquiries were made of any specific estate or croft.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 09 November 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 5 March 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what the precise objections of the Health Department's Reference Laboratory Group were to the evidence it received regarding the proposed method of tiered testing of scallops and the public health implications of such a method, what further work is necessary on this evidence, by what date this work must be completed and whether this work will be made publicly available.
Answer
The Food Standards Agency has advised me that the EU ASP Working Group requested further information on the variation of toxin levels in individual parts of the scallop. A second, more detailed scientific report addressing this issue has been prepared and will be scrutinised by the working group in early April. The reports were prepared for the EU Working Group and they will decide on the circulation.Additionally work is being progressed by the Agency to ensure a rigorous enforcement regime, and an adequate monitoring programme can be developed which will guarantee consumer safety should a tiered approach be acceptable in scientific terms.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 18 January 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 5 March 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will order an inquiry into the circumstances of how parts of a calf whose mother was infected by BSE may have found their way into the human food chain and, if so, who will be involved in this inquiry.
Answer
Where possible animals identified as offspring of BSE cases are traced and removed from the human food chain. Officials of the Food Standards Agency, the Scottish Executive and the Ministry of Agriculture are jointly considering whether, in this particular case, the offspring could have been removed at an earlier stage.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 15 February 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 1 March 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive why it stated that the Minister for Rural Development attended a meeting of the Council of Ministers on 20 October 1999 when that meeting did not take place and what the explanation is for this discrepancy.
Answer
An Agriculture Council was scheduled for that week and it was thought that Mr Finnie would attend. The meeting was cancelled but because of an administrative oversight the information which had been entered on the department's database was not amended. Steps have now been taken to prevent similar errors occuring in the future. Information on ministerial attendance at EU meetings provided to the Parliament's Reference Centre has been amended.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 15 February 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 1 March 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-12954 by Sarah Boyack on 14 February 2001, whether it will arrange for immediate interim payments to be made to members of the Scottish Transport Group pension schemes.
Answer
No payments can be made to members of the Scottish Transport Group pension schemes before the Scottish Transport Group is wound up.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 February 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 1 March 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with Her Majesty's Government regarding the impact of section 57(2) of the Scotland Act on devolved matters.
Answer
We are in regular contact with the UK Government on a range of issues.
