- Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 24 February 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 9 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what recommendations it has made to public authorities to ensure that, where such an authority makes a change in its policy requiring an adaptation to infrastructure owned or leased by a PFI/PPP contractor, such an adaptation does not cause the authority to incur costs above those that it would incur if it were to make such an adaptation to non-PFI/PPP infrastructure.
Answer
I refer the member to the answerto question S2W-23496 on 9 March. All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for whichcan be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 24 February 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 9 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on measures taken by other Scottish public authorities to enforce their PFI/PPP contracts.
Answer
The enforcement of a PPP contractis a matter for the relevant public sector procuring body concerned.
- Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 24 February 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 9 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on the involvement to date of small and medium-sized enterprises in PPP/PFI projects and private prison projects.
Answer
This is a matter for each publicsector body procuring a PPP project. The information requested is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 24 February 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 9 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what measures it takes to enforce each of its PFI/PPP contracts; what the cost of these measures was in each of the last three financial years, and what it estimates the costs will be in each of the next 15 financial years at current prices.
Answer
In each of the Executive’s PPPcontracts management and monitoring has been conducted by and within Departmentalunits and separate costs for specific contract management are not readily available.
- Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 24 February 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 8 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what recommendations have been made by the Judicial Appointments Board in relation to each judicial appointment made since its inception.
Answer
To date, the Scottish Executive has accepted all the recommendations of the board for appointments to judicial office. The names of people who have been appointed are in the public domain. A list is available on the board’s website. The web address is:
http://www.judicialappointmentsscotland.gov.uk/judicial/JUD_Main.jsp?pContentID=494&p_applic=CCC&pMenu0=45&p_service=Content.show&.
- Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 8 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-21904 by Cathy Jamieson on 25 January 2006, which organisations or institutions carry out bespoke rail safety training for British Transport Police based in Scotland and at which locations this training is carried out.
Answer
First Engineering carry out bespoke rail safety training for British Transport Police based in Scotland. Training takes place at First Engineering’s training centre in Rutherglen, Glasgow.
- Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 24 February 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 7 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what rules it has in respect of ownership by judges, sheriffs and stipendiary magistrates of a financial interest in private prisons and what action it takes to monitor the observance of any such rules.
Answer
The Scottish Executive does notmake rules about the conduct of the independent judiciary. Members of the judiciaryare expected to conduct personal business in a way which avoids the risk of anycompromise to their independence when handling cases which come before them.
- Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 7 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-21902 by Cathy Jamieson on 25 January 2006, whether it has examined the impact on funding the operation of railway policing in Scotland if the British Transport Police was to be partially absorbed by the Metropolitan Police Service and, if so, what the impact would be.
Answer
The impact on funding arrangementsfor railway policing in Scotland would depend on the nature of any decision about thefuture structure of British Transport Police. Officials remain in touch with theDepartment of Transport on progress with their review of British Transport Police.
- Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 24 February 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 6 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will write off the capital housing debt of local authorities.
Answer
No. Local authorities’ housingdebt in Scotland totals around £2 billion. Redeeming this level of debtis not affordable without impacting on other key public services such as healthand education.
- Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 24 February 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 6 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it will take to reduce the regulatory burden on small housing associations.
Answer
I have asked Angiolina Foster,Chief Executive of Communities Scotland, to respond. Her response is as follows:
Communities Scotland regulatesand inspects Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) on behalf of Scottish ministers.We are aware of the disproportionate impact that regulation can have on small RSLs.By small RSLs we mean those with fewer than 250 houses. We have already set in placea number of measures to minimise this impact.
In 2005 we introduced a tailoredapproach to inspection with reduced submission requirements, a lighter touch approachwith no grades and short reports.
Our requirements in relationto financial viability assessments are also tailored. Small RSLs, which are notdeveloping new-build houses, do not have to submit the five year financial projectionsor loan portfolio information required from all other RSLs.
Providing information on charitableRSLs direct to the Office of the Scottish Charity regulator (OSCR) for its annualreturn. This benefits all charitable RSLs.
We will continue to review ourapproach to regulation and inspection to ensure that it is proportionate and risk-basedand does not have a disproportionate impact on small RSLs. We are keen to consultwith the sector on changes which will allow us to respond positively to the concernsfrom the sector about over-regulation in general.
