- 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 Andy Kerr on 28 January 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking, or plans to take, to improve the rate of collection of council tax.
Answer
Responsibility for billing andcollecting council tax rests with local authorities. Council tax in-yearcollection rates have improved year on year since 1998-99. In recent years, the Scottish Executive has introduced legislation to allow the advancementof the instalment scheme to April rather than May and have allowed councils tocombine reminder and final notices to allow recovery procedures to beginearlier. These were recommendations which came out of the joint COSLA/Scottish Executive working group report “It Pays to Pay” published in December 1999.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 19 January 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 28 January 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether public sector staff who have a mobility clause in their contract are entitled to a redundancy payment if they decline to relocate along with their organisation.
Answer
This is dependent upon thecircumstances of each relocation. The entitlement of any individual employee toa redundancy payment will depend on the terms and conditions of service thatapply contractually to that individual. In some circumstances, the custom andpractice in the particular organisation may also be relevant.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 22 December 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 27 January 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what costs it has incurred in connection with the provision of any advice and/or assistance to any witness or witnesses who have appeared, or are to appear, before the Holyrood Inquiry; what meetings have taken place during which such advice or assistance has been provided at which one or more of said witnesses have been present, and whether there has been an appointment, formal or informal, of any persons to co-ordinate the provision of such advice or assistance and, if so, who such persons are.
Answer
The Scottish Executive has incurred costs in relation to the provision of legal support andwelfare services which are available to staff under their terms and conditionsof employment.
In terms of meetings thathave taken place to provide advice or assistance to witnesses about theirappearance, two “familiarisation” visits to the Scottish Land Court werearranged before the start of the public evidence sessions. A number of Scottish Executive witnesses attended those visits, whose purpose was to familiarise staffwith the format of the inquiry and the venue. Scottish Executive solicitorshave also assisted in the taking of statements from Scottish Executive witnesses for onward transmission to the inquiry. Any meetings whichhave taken place between witnesses and their own legal or welfare advisers areof course a matter for them and information on such meetings is not heldcentrally.
A small team has been set upwithin the Executive to co-ordinate the submission of documents to the Inquiryand to liaise with witnesses and the inquiry team. Details of that team areavailable on the Scottish Executive’s Business Directory.
- 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 Allan Wilson on 27 January 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide a breakdown of each component of the cost of relocating the headquarters of Scottish Natural Heritage to Inverness, detailing the assumptions upon which each is based, with particular reference to its estimate regarding (a) obtaining new premises in Inverness, (b) human resource costs, detailing separately any (i) redundancy, (ii) relocation and (iii) transport costs, (c) when the new premises will be occupied and (d) the estimated gross and net sale proceeds for existing premises that will no longer be required.
Answer
The Chief Executive ofScottish Natural Heritage (SNH) wrote to the Parliament’s Finance Committee on 10 November 2003 withdetails of the cost estimates for various aspects of the relocation included inSNH’s project plan. As Tavish Scott made clear to the Finance Committee on 13January, the SNH project plan is currently under discussion between SNH and theExecutive. That remains the position. It is therefore premature to comment onspecific costs or timings at this stage.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 December 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 26 January 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how many staff specialise in paediatric intensive care, broken down by (a) grade, (b) hospital and (c) NHS board area.
Answer
The most recent available information is provided in the answer given to question S2W‑4899 on 26 January 2004. Amore detailed breakdown of clinical roles is not available centrally.All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the searchfacility 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, 10 December 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 26 January 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how many staff there are involved in paediatric medicine in each NHS board area broken down by (a) grade and (b) hospital, detailing any specialisms in paediatric medicine that such staff undertake.
Answer
A table detailing theheadcount of paediatric medical staff by grade and NHS Board at September 2002 hasbeen placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 30695).
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 19 January 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 26 January 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether there is a mobility clause in the contracts of employees of Scottish Natural Heritage and, if so, whether it will place a copy in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre.
Answer
Employee contracts are anoperational matter for Scottish Natural Heritage.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 January 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 26 January 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will issue an apology for the fact that it has not ensured that suppliers of goods and services to the Executive are paid on time and, in particular, in respect of the 12-month period where nearly one-third of its bills were not paid on time.
Answer
I have written to the mainbusiness organisations in Scotland about this, informing them of the improvement in the Scottish Executive’s performance in achieving prompt payment ofinvoices this year. In December 2003, over 87% of invoices were paid within the30 day target period. I am keen to improve performance even further.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 08 January 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 22 January 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has made in respect of the renovation or restoration of Kinloch Castle on Rum; whether it has any plans to restore and preserve the castle and, if so, how the restoration will be funded; what information it has on the current estimated cost of restoration, and whether there has been any change in this cost, in light of the recommendations of the report by Page and Park architects, Conservation, Management and Business Plan Proposals relating to Proposals for Future of Kinloch Castle.
Answer
The Executive has made nosuch representations and has no such plans. Kinloch Castle isowned and managed by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) so this is an operationalmatter for SNH to take forward.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 January 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 22 January 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether further building development in Newtonmore, Kingussie, Boat of Garten and Nethybridge will be postponed for three years due to lack of capacity of the existing sewage works and, if so, what its position is on the matter.
Answer
Dealingwith development constraints in specific locations is an operational matter forScottish Water. Theseand other investment requirements, will be considered either in the currentQuality and Standards II programme, or in the Quality and Standards III processnow under way. Quality and Standards III will set out the future investmentprogramme for the water industry and will be the subject of a full publicconsultation planned for July 2004.
