- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 April 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 26 April 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-15164 by Nicol Stephen on 24 March 2005, whether it is in a position to indicate whether a Director for Scotland will be appointed as a single point of contact for the Executive.
Answer
Network Rail will remain a private sector company and its internal management arrangements are a matter for the company.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 11 April 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 26 April 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what the legal basis was for the voluntary purchase of plots referred to in Annex B of the letter of 24 March 2005 containing Scottish ministers' decision on the M74.
Answer
Powers to purchase property in advance are available to the Scottish ministers under Sections 103 and 104 of the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 11 April 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 26 April 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what the cost was of the public local inquiry on the M74 Special Road (Fullarton Road to West of Kingston Bridge) Orders, detailing each component and element of the total costs and broken down into costs incurred by (a) the Inquiry Reporters Unit, (b) the civil service and (c) others.
Answer
The latest recorded costs incurred by the Inquiry Reporters Unit and the Executive are given in the table. Costs incurred by others represented at the Inquiry are not known.
| | Estimated Cost |
| (a) Estimated cost to the Inquiry Reporters Unit: | £41,855.00 |
| (b) Estimated cost to the Executive1 | |
| Legal Fees and Administration | £152,673.11 |
| Consultants Fees | £327,735.29 |
| Total cost | £522,263.40 |
Note: 1. The costs in the table represent the Executive’s contribution of 87.35% to the total cost of the scheme. Civil Service staff costs are not recorded.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 11 April 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 26 April 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to Annex B of the letter of 24 March 2005 containing Scottish ministers' decision on the M74, how much it cost to purchase each plot where the plot was acquired voluntarily by Scottish ministers and whether it will provide details in respect of (a) where each plot is located, (b) the type of land each plot represented and (c) who the (i) owners, (ii) lessees and (iii) occupants of each plot were.
Answer
The information requested is given in the table. This includes details of all land acquired to date for the M74 Completion Scheme.
| Previous Owner (own)/Occupier (occ) or Lessee (les) | Compensation Paid | Location and Type of Plot |
| South Lanarkshire Council (own) (ex GKN) | £5,615,000 | Vacant land lying to the east of Farmeloan Road and adjacent to the West Coast Mainline Railway. Former GKN Works Site. |
| James Frew Ltd (own) | £600,000 | Factory site lying to the south of Lawmoor Road, leased to Allscot Plastics. |
| City Refrigeration Holdings (own) | £13,470,000 | Works site and call centre lying to the south and east of Southcroft Road and adjacent to the West Coast Mainline Railway. |
| Martec Engineering Group (les) | £775,000 | Location as per description for City Refrigeration Holdings above. Works site leased by Martec from City Refrigeration Holdings. Lease acquired by Scottish Ministers after main acquisition. |
| William Johnstone (own) | £300,000 | Factory site lying adjacent to Mauchline Street and Falfield Street. |
| South Lanarkshire Council (own) | £435,000 | Vacant land lying to the south of Cambuslang Road including George Gray Street. |
| Kirkwood & Co (own) | £1,001,000 | Factory site lying adjacent to Quay Road, Quay Road South and Ashton Road. |
| Glasgow City Council (own) | £1,494,215 | Buildings lying adjacent to Carnoustie Street, Falfield Street, Salkeld Street and west of Lawmoor Road. |
| Kingston Car Wash (les) | £390,000 | Car wash building lying adjacent to Carnoustie Street. Property owned by Glasgow City Council. |
| Albion Chemicals (own) | £7,420,000 | Depot site lying between Paterson Street and West Street. |
| Wiredash (own) /Motorworld (occ) | £510,000 | Car showroom lying adjacent to Farmeloan Road. |
| Somerville and Morrison (own) | £310,000 | Factory site lying south of Cambuslang Road and to the north of the Rutherglen Rail Depot. Property acquired from owner. |
| BRG Limited (les) | £925,000 | Warehouse lying adjacent to Kinning Street. Property owned by Glasgow City Council. |
| Scottish Mutual Assurance (own) | £7,100,000 | Office buildings lying to the east of Pollokshaws Road. Property is leased to Department for Work and Pensions. |
| | | |
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 11 April 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 26 April 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what meetings took place between Scottish ministers and directors of companies which own, lease or occupy properties which have been, or will be, purchased under the M74 Special Road (Fullarton Road to West of Kingston Bridge) Orders between 1 May 2003 and 24 March 2005.
Answer
The Deputy First Minister visited the Morris Furniture Group site at Polmadie Road on 12 August 2003 to meet Mr Robert Morris, the Managing Director. There is no record of any other meetings between Scottish ministers and directors of affected companies.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 11 April 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 22 April 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive how much it paid in respect of purchase of land under the M74 Special Road (Fullarton Road to West of Kingston Bridge) Orders up to 23 March 2005.
Answer
Total compensation paid for thepurchase of land for the M74 completion scheme to 23 March 2005 was £40,345,215.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 11 April 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 22 April 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what total price it has paid, or is liable to pay, to Network Rail in respect of the M74 project for property and property interests which it (a) has acquired where the transactions have been completed (b) will acquire where transactions have not been completed.
Answer
No property or interests haveyet been acquired from Network Rail. The amount of compensation that will becomedue when title to the land is taken is not yet known.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 21 March 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 20 April 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking in relation to local loop unbundling; whether it is consulting on problems affecting the provision of broadband access, and whether it considers that Scotland is at a disadvantage in comparison with England on this issue.
Answer
Telecoms regulation is reserved and the matters raised, such as on local loop unbundling, are within the responsibilities of the UK-wide regulator, OFCOM. The Executive has expressed its views on these issues through responses to relevant OFCOM consultations, such as the Strategic Telecoms Review.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 April 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 20 April 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it received representations from NFU Scotland on the consequences of the method of calculating the single farm payment (SFP) for sheep farmers; whether it considers that an anomaly has arisen through the effect experienced by some sheep farmers as a result of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in 2001, whereby farmers who were only partially restocked before the 2002 sheep annual premium (SAP) claim period have received a lower annual premium and may be losing out financially due to the operation of the method of calculation of the SFP, and whether the Executive will exclude 2002 when selecting the reference period for calculation of the SAP.
Answer
NFU Scotland hasbrought to my officials’ attention a number of aspects of sheep farming and theSingle Farm Payment Scheme (SFPS), including the impact of FMD and the ability torestock fully.
Before dealing with sheep producers,I need to set out the position of all producers under the SFPS. The European regulationsallow any producer whose production was adversely affected by force majeureor exceptional circumstances during the reference period of 2000-02 to request thatthe Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department review its initialestimate of their entitlements. If successful, the entitlements will be calculatedon the unaffected schemes during 2000-02 (if a scheme is adversely affected forall three years in 2000-02, an alternative reference period of 1997-99 can be used).As at 18 April, 2,900 businesses have submitted requests for such a reviewof their entitlements and over 52% of these challenges have been upheld.
Sheep producers have the samerights as others within SFPS. If they meet the criteria, they can have their entitlementsrecalculated as described above, including dropping 2002 schemes from their entitlementcalculation. The Executive does not have the discretion to change the rules whichgovern the calculation of entitlements. The operation of the rules will impact differentlyin different circumstances but this is not necessarily anomalous.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 March 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 14 April 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive when the Minister for Transport will respond to my letter of 5 January 2005, acknowledged on 11 January, regarding the future of the Clyde and Hebridean ferry services.
Answer
I replied to the members letter on 12 April 2005.
