- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 29 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 28 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will ensure that all companies trading in Scotland do not impose in any terms of contract the law of England as the law governing that contract; whether it is aware that BT Yellow Pages uses the law of England for its directories covering Scotland and what representations it will make to British Telecommunications Plc on this matter.
Answer
The question of which law applies to a contract is regulated by the Contracts (Applicable Law) Act 1990 applying the Rome Convention on the same subject and the Scottish Executive has no locus to impose any particular system of law on British Telecommunications PLC or on any other company trading in Scotland.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 December 1999
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 27 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it estimates that the number of unemployed persons in the three Local Enterprise Council areas of Inverness and Nairn, Ross and Cromarty and Moray, Badenoch and Strathspey which totalled 4,738 as at September 1999 will increase and, if so, what its estimates are of the number in these areas in January, February, March, April, May, June and July of 2000.
Answer
The Scottish Executive does not produce forecasts of unemployment either for local areas or for Scotland as a whole.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 27 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will instigate studies into the schemes operated in (a) Greece to assist areas outwith Athens and Thessaloniki by the imposition of price ceilings on gasoline, (b) Italy for the areas of Val D'Aosta and Gon'ia where there is a derogation in respect of fuel duty and (c) France in terms of the policies aimed at assisting areas there suffering from low population.
Answer
No. Policy on fuel duty derogations is reserved.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 27 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what legal advice it has sought or obtained on whether it is possible to obtain derogations to allow a fuel subsidy to be paid in (a) any part of Scotland and (b) some or all of the islands of Scotland.
Answer
Policy on fuel duty derogations is reserved.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 22 May 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 27 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive how much it has spent on computers, or related equipment, for its own use since July 1999, and whether any of these purchases subsequently turned out to be unsuitable for the purposes for which they were intended, or have not yet been fully utilised.
Answer
The Scottish Executive has spent £3.13 million including VAT on computers and related equipment for use on the core Scottish Executive network since July 1999. None of these purchases has subsequently turned out to be unsuitable for the purpose for which it was intended. The figure above includes equipment held available for planned deployments during the next few months, valued at £263,000 including VAT. The Scottish Executive holds such a stock because purchasing single items of standard computer equipment can offer poor value for money.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 28 February 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 25 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-3743 by Mr Jack McConnell on 24 January 2000, whether it will detail and publish the statistical information referred to as "few exceptions" which would have been included in a 1999 edition of The Scottish Abstract of Statistics.
Answer
The content of The Scottish Abstract of Statistics varied from year to year and no proposals for what would be included in a 1999 edition were developed. The editorial policy for the Abstract is to publish only information which is already in the public domain. The exceptions to which I referred in my previous answer concerned material in the 1998 edition from sources outwith the Executive. We could not readily establish whether the providers of that information had previously formally published it. This would include, for example, some tables in the leisure and tourism section provided by sporting bodies.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 20 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to make financial assistance available to independent rural petrol stations in respect of any additional costs in replacing their existing price display boards which may result in the event that petrol prices exceed #1 per litre.
Answer
The Rural Petrol Stations Grant Scheme helps rural petrol stations with the cost of replacing tanks and pumps, meeting groundwater protection needs and installing tanks and dispensers for the sale of Liquid Petroleum Gas. There are no proposals to extend the criteria for the scheme.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 07 July 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 20 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether there is any correlation between the number of tourists visiting rural Scotland and fuel prices; if so, how many fewer tourists visit rural Scotland as a result of each one pence rise in the price of petrol and, if it does not hold this information, whether it will commission a research study on this topic.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-8565.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 26 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 18 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what measures it will take to reduce or eliminate any burden of extra fuel costs in rural areas upon (a) motorists, (b) hauliers, (c) businesses, (d) local authorities and other public bodies and (e) petrol retailers.
Answer
The Scottish Executive's rural transport and public transport funds are providing significant additional resources to improve transport in rural Scotland. The Executive is currently undertaking an evaluation of the effectiveness of the rural transport fund, which is due to report in October 2000. This will inform decisions on future support for rural transport in this autumn's Scottish Spending Review.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 26 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 18 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what studies it has made or plans to make into the methods by which other EU states provide assistance to rural areas, including motorists and businesses in these areas, to tackle extra costs as a result of (a) higher fuel prices, (b) remoteness of location and (c) distance from market.
Answer
The Executive seeks to keep abreast of developments on rural transport across the EU and elsewhere, whether directly or through the work of others, for example the review by Comhairle nan Eilean Siar on support for remote rural areas in Norway, Sweden and Finland.
