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Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S1W-09747

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 September 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sam Galbraith on 10 October 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the Ministerial Statement by the Minister for Children and Education on 6 September 2000 and in particular his reference to reports from schools and colleges about problems with electronic transfer of information to the Scottish Qualifications Authority in March, (a) whether it will place in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) all documentary evidence of and relating to such reports; (b) when it first became aware of such reports; (c) when action was first considered and taken by the Minister in relation to such reports and whether it will place documentary evidence in SPICe, and (d) what recommendations were made by its officials on what steps should be taken regarding such reports and whether it will place documentary evidence in SPICe.

Question reference: S1W-09739

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 September 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sam Galbraith on 10 October 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive, regarding the meeting between the Minister for Children and Education and the Chairman and Chief Executive of the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) on 25 July 2000, whether it will provide full details of the personal assurances given to the Minister that missing data was being addressed and, in particular, whether (a) the SQA explained which data was missing and, if so, what explanation was given and (b) the Minister sought a detailed explanation of how the problem was being addressed.

Question reference: S1W-09755

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 September 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sam Galbraith on 10 October 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive on what date or dates it was informed of (a) potential and (b) actual difficulties in recruiting sufficient exam markers.

Question reference: S1W-09743

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 September 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sam Galbraith on 10 October 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether HM Inspectorate of Schools was alerted to any potential difficulties with the administration of the marking of this year's exam results, and, if so, when.

Question reference: S1W-10070

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 25 September 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sarah Boyack on 9 October 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive on how many occasions the powers of direction granted by (a) section 11 of the Natural Heritage (Scotland) Act 1991 and (b) section 9 of the Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Act 1996 have been exercised.

Question reference: S1W-09972

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 September 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sarah Boyack on 9 October 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-6203 by Sarah Boyack on 22 August 2000, what the cost is of the consultancy work on a trial set of indicators of sustainable development which it has commissioned; why it considers that such expenditure is justified; whether any further expenditure in this area is planned, and whether it intends to take any action to inform the public about issues surrounding the application of strategic environmental assessment.

The Scottish Executive is committed to integrating the principles of environmentally and socially sustainable development into all its policies. In pursuit of this commitment, we have let a consultancy to develop proposals for a set of sustainable development indicators covering waste, energy and travel, relevant to Scotland's distinctive environment. The indicators will help focus on specific actions and on measuring their effectiveness. They may also be important in applying strategic environmental assessment, stemming form a proposed EC Directive, now in final form. The cost of the consultancy is about £27,000. No further spend on consultancies on sustainable development indicators is planned. If the Executive decides to proceed with the development of indicators, there will be costs associated with data collection and dissemination. It is too early to say now what those costs would be.

The Scottish Executive also let this month a contract for about £20,000 for a scoping study to review the experience of strategic environmental assessment in other countries and consider how to apply it to Executive programmes. A key objective is to increase public participation in the process. We will consider carefully how to inform the public about the issues surrounding the application of strategic environmental assessment.

Question reference: S1W-09841

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 September 2000
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 9 October 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Food Standards Agency has provided any examples of processing companies who were ordered to recall scallops which were tested following processing.

Question reference: S1W-09842

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 September 2000
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 9 October 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether end-producer testing will be introduced as the sole precondition for allowing scallops to enter the market.

Question reference: S1W-09742

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 September 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sam Galbraith on 9 October 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish (a) the minute or other document of 10 May from the Scottish Qualifications Authority and (b) the subsequent Scottish Qualifications Authority paper to a committee meeting referred to in the Ministerial Statement by the Minister for Children and Education on 6 September 2000.

Question reference: S1W-09748

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 September 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sam Galbraith on 9 October 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive what recommendations were made by officials to Ministers regarding this year's exam results, whether any of these were (a) rejected outright, (b) not acted upon within one month of the date of the recommendation and (c) subject to deferred action, and whether it will place a copy of all relevant documents in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre.