- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 19 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 1 April 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has made available to the Holyrood Inquiry documents comprising any memoranda, notes or reports from the current Chief Executive of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and Head of Legal and Parliamentary Services and/or the Architectural Adviser to the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body, acting in their capacity as members of the Holyrood Progress Group, to the Executive regarding discussions at meetings of the group, with particular reference to any confidential matters raised and, if so, to whom such memoranda, notes or reports were addressed, whether they received any written or other response and whether it will make any, or all, of any such material public and place copies in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre.
Answer
The Scottish Executive continues to co-operate fully with the Fraser Inquiry, as it has fromthe outset. Oral evidence has been given to the Inquiry by the Chief Executiveof the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and Head of Legal andParliamentary Services about his involvement in the work of the HolyroodProgress Group and the Executive has made available to the Inquiry relevantdocumentation.
The Executive believes thatit is important that the Inquiry is allowed to complete its task before thereis any comment on any evidence submitted to it. The Executive has no plans tomake any further documentation public, other than through the Inquiry. TheChief Architect has made no direct reports to ministers about the work of theHolyrood Progress Group.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 02 February 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 30 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what powers it has in respect of the regulations relating to the construction of roads and bridges and the upgrading of roads to dual carriageway status; what the criteria are which govern the decision as to whether an existing trunk road, comprising two carriageways, one carrying traffic in each direction, or part of such a road, should be upgraded to dual carriageway, and whether such a decision would be made by it or Her Majesty's Government.
Answer
The Scottish Executive has full powers under the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 in relation to the construction of trunkroads and bridges, including the upgrading of single carriageway trunk roads todual carriageway.
Any proposal to upgrade aroad has to be appraised using the Executive’s Scottish Transport AppraisalGuidance (STAG). This involves an assessment of the proposal against theExecutive’s five appraisal objectives of environment, safety, economy,integration and accessibility. The STAG appraisal enables the Executiveto gauge the proposal against the potential value of competing proposals toimprove transport. For example, STAG involves an examination of corridortransport growth projections; planned land use changes; economic growth;availability of public transport; and accident history. It also takes accountof social aspects, such as accessibility; economic return; the environment; andthe scope for interim improvement such as carriageway widening and othermeasures. These all have a part to play in making the case for prioritisingimprovement of any particular route.
If a positive case can bedemonstrated following a STAG appraisal, this does not automatically lead to animprovement scheme being placed on the Executive’s investment programme. Itmust then compete for funding against other worthwhile schemes and demonstratethat it represents good value for money and good use of available public funds.
The decision on whether ornot to proceed with any upgrade of a trunk road would be made by the Scottish Executive. Non-trunk roads and bridges are a matter for the relevant local roadsauthority.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 January 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by George Reid on 26 March 2004
To ask the Presiding Officer whether the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body will now require the construction managers for the Holyrood project to provide a parent company guarantee.
Answer
I am informed by the convenerof the Holyrood progress group that a letter has now been issued to Bovis LendLease requesting that they provide a parent company guarantee in accordancewith Clause 20.1 of the construction management agreement.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 January 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by George Reid on 26 March 2004
To ask the Presiding Officer what information the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB) has in respect of who took the original decision not to require a parent company guarantee from the construction managers for the Holyrood project; what information the SPCB has in respect of whether advice was given in relation to this and, if so, whether any such advice will be published; what information it has in respect of whether, and when, the Chief Architect offered any such advice; what information it has in respect of when the decision was taken and who was consulted about it; what information it has in respect of whether any Scottish Office minister was consulted on, or advised of, the decision and, if so when; whether all documentation relating to the decision will be published, and whether the decision not to seek the parent company guarantee was reported to the SPCB.
Answer
The SPCB has no informationon any of these issues. The file record is unclear as to why the parent companyguarantee was not taken up before now.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 January 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by George Reid on 26 March 2004
To ask the Presiding Officer what information the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB) has in respect of whether the parent company guarantee from the construction managers for the Holyrood project was to be obtained without charge; whether it can now be obtained without charge, and whether the SPCB can require it to be provided without charge.
Answer
I am informed by the convenerof the Holyrood progress group that a parent company guarantee is beingprovided without charge.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 January 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by George Reid on 26 March 2004
To ask the Presiding Officer whether the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB) can provide an unqualified assurance in writing to members of the Scottish Parliament that, if the SPCB does not take up the offer of the parent company guarantee, free of charge, from the construction managers of the Holyrood Project there will be no possibility of any risk to the taxpayer.
Answer
The convener of the HolyroodProgress Group has informed me that a parent company guarantee is being soughtand will be provided by Bovis Lend Lease without charge.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 23 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether, in light of the announcement of funding for autism initiatives by the Deputy Minister for Health and Community Care on 3 March 2004, it will consider funding an initiative to carry out research into diet and autism by Autism Unravelled, Action Against Autism, Food and Behaviour Research, academics from the universities of Oxford and Stirling and the Rowett Research Institute.
Answer
The announced fundingrelated to the implementation of the Public Health Institute of Scotland’sAutistic Spectrum Disorders Needs Assessment Report. The reference group hashad no approach from the group of organisations considering research into dietand autism.
The Medical Research Councilwelcomes high quality applications for support into any aspect of human healthand these are judged in open competition.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 February 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Frank McAveety on 17 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it has taken to transfer authority and funds to the Scottish Football Partnership from the Football Trust; whether there have been any difficulties with regard to (a) transfer obligations, (b) indemnity insurance, (c) tax issues and (d) potential liability of individuals; if so, what such difficulties are, what action it is taking to resolve them and what representations it has made, or correspondence it has received, in respect of any such problems, and whether the Executive will ensure that funding can be made available to the Scottish Football Partnership to enable it to consider applications for funding.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-6496 on 10 March 2004.All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 February 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 16 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it expects the Highlands and Islands to be eligible for the proposed Objective 1b European regional development fund or whether they will be only eligible for Objective 2 and 3 funding.
Answer
The European Commission’sThird Report on Economic and Social Cohesion, published on 18 February,outlines their proposals for the Structural and Cohesion Funds in the nextprogramming period from 2007-13.
The Commission proposes thatregions which would have qualified for Objective 1 had it not been for thestatistical effect of enlargement would be eligible for compensation funding.Eligible regions would have an average GDP for 2001-03 of less than 75% of theEU15 average. The most recent data available (for 2001) shows the Highlands andIslands GDP as 72.4% of the EU15 average.
The debate is at an earlystage. The Commission is expected to publish formal regulation proposals inJuly for negotiation among member states. It is hoped that agreement on theproposals can be reached in the Council of Ministers by the end of 2005. As anyfuture regime must be agreed by all member states, it is not yet possible topredict what structural funds support the Highlands and Islands or other Scottish regions may receive post 2006.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 02 February 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 15 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what the significance is of the figure of 2950 for the design and construction of dual carriageway roads in the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges and whether that figure is a maximum number of vehicles which a dual carriageway is expected to bear or a minimum level of traffic flow which a trunk road comprising two lanes, one in each direction, must attain before it is eligible for consideration for upgrading to a dual carriageway.
Answer
The figure of 2,950 vehiclesper hour in the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges is the maximum one-wayhourly flow capacity of a 6.75 metre wide urban dual carriageway road.
