- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 21 October 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 14 November 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive, with regard to decisions in respect of applications under section 70 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill, whether Scottish ministers are an independent and impartial tribunal for the purposes of article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Answer
No. However, decisions by ministers to consent to or to reject a crofting community right to buy application can be appealed in terms of section 88 of the bill to the sheriff court which is an independent and impartial tribunal for the purposes of article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights. An aggrieved party would also have a right to resort to the courts using the remedy of judicial review.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 21 October 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 14 November 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends section 71(2) of the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill to qualify the meaning of "the public interest" contained in article 1 of Protocol 1 to the European Convention on Human Rights.
Answer
The purpose of section 71(2) of the bill is not to qualify the meaning of "the public interest" as used in article 1 of Protocol 1 to the European Convention on Human Rights, but to elucidate its meaning as used in the bill.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 21 October 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 14 November 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive under what circumstances a crofting community body will be able to dispose of land that it has acquired under Part 3 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill.
Answer
The Land Reform (Scotland) Bill contains no provisions that specify circumstances in which a crofting community body may or may not dispose of land acquired through the exercise of the right to buy. Any restrictions on disposal of land will be governed, where required, by the terms and conditions of the grant or loan documentation of the crofting community body's funders, and by the crofting community body's own Memorandum and Articles of Association.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 21 October 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 14 November 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-28090 by Ross Finnie on 26 August 2002, whether, in the light of that answer, the Minister for Environment and Rural Development will withdraw his statement that the essential requirement of compatibility with the European Convention on Human Rights is compensation (Official Report, Justice 2 Committee, 30 January 2002; c 995-6).
Answer
No. What I said to the committee has to be considered in the context in which it was said. The discussion was about compensation and adequacy of compensation is the essential requirement in that context. I did not say that provision of adequate compensation is the only requirement that has to be met in order to achieve compliance with the Convention. It is clear from the committee report that the committee understood that the exercise of the crofting community right to buy must also be in the public interest in order to be compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 21 October 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 14 November 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive why there will be no public hearings on the exercise of the crofting community right to buy contained in the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill, given practices under standard compulsory purchase legislation.
Answer
This legislation does not seek to emulate compulsory purchase legislation in every respect. Section 70 provides that ministers must publicise applications and seek views from those identified as interested parties in order to consider all relevant factors before coming to a decision. However, where there are matters relating to an application that are disputed, section 78 provides that these issues will be resolved by the land court. The proceedings of the land court are normally conducted in public.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 21 October 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 14 November 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive when, in the consultation process for the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill prior to the bill's publication, the acquisition of adjacent salmon fishings was proposed to be subject to the crofting community right to buy.
Answer
The first occasion when responses to a consultation proposed that crofters should have a right to buy salmon fishings was in responses to the paper on the crofting community right to buy circulated to members of the Crofting Consultative Panel. Four of those responses suggested this. The bill does not provide for the purchase of adjacent salmon fishings but only for the purchase of salmon fishings that are exercisable from and on croft land.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 07 October 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 22 October 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-28916 by Ross Finnie on 25 September 2002, why the reasons contained in that answer do not also apply to the absolute right to buy salmon fishings contained in Part 3 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill.
Answer
The reasons given in answer to question S1W-28916 relate to an absolute right to buy and because of that are not relevant to the crofting community right to buy salmon fishings. The crofting community right to buy is not an absolute right to buy. It is conditional on a range of criteria being met and can be exercised by a crofting community body only when ministers consider that the acquisition of the property would be in the public interest. There are also very tight constraints on when the right to buy salmon fishings can be exercised. So the existence of the right should have no impact on the value of salmon fishings. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at .
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 07 October 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 10 October 2002
To ask the First Minister what support the Scottish Executive will give to the development of Gaelic-medium schools.
Answer
We are providing specific grants towards the costs of Gaelic-medium education, supporting 1,860 pupils in 59 primary schools across the length and breadth of Scotland.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 October 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Mary Mulligan on 10 October 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what progress it is making in developing services for women suffering from alcohol dependency.
Answer
The Executive's Plan for Action on alcohol problems, which was published in January, sets out that alcohol problems services should be sensitive to the needs of particular groups including women. The Executive published an Alcohol Problems Support and Treatment Services Framework on 5 September, which identifies women as one of the groups who might need support to access services.The Health Education Board for Scotland, Alcohol Focus Scotland and the Scottish Association of Alcohol Action Teams are currently establishing a women and alcohol network. The network will provide a vehicle for the development and dissemination of good practice in working with women.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 September 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 9 October 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what its policy is on the construction of new junctions on the A9 between Perth and Inverness.
Answer
The A9 between Perth and Inverness is a high speed long distance road with limited access. There is a strong presumption against providing new junctions.