- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 14 May 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Mary Mulligan on 2 June 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how many successful applications have been made under the fund to develop post offices in deprived urban areas, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland, to respond. Her reply is as follows:
Offers have been issued and accepted for 11 grants to sub postmasters under the Fund to Develop Post Offices in Deprived Urban Areas. The breakdown by local authority is as follows:
| Dundee City Council | 3 |
| Glasgow City Council | 4 |
| Highland Council | 1 |
| Scottish Borders Council | 1 |
| Stirling Council | 1 |
| West Dunbartonshire Council | 1 |
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 April 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 2 June 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how many drug detection dogs were used by the Scottish Prison Service in each of the last three years and how many days such dogs spent at HM Prison Aberdeen.
Answer
I have asked Tony Cameron,Chief Executive of The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:
It is not the policy of theSPS, as a law enforcement agency, to release precise details of the scope ordeployment of drug dog interdiction procedures, but to help combat drugtrafficking within prisons, SPS has increased operational drug dog deploymentat most establishments, including HM Prison Aberdeen.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 14 May 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Mary Mulligan on 1 June 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how long the fund to develop post offices in deprived urban areas will be in operation.
Answer
I have asked Angiolina Foster,Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to reply. Her response is as follows:
The Fund to Develop Post Offices in Deprived Urban Areas will end on 31 March 2005.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 14 May 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Mary Mulligan on 26 May 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether there are any plans to change the criteria for eligibility under the fund to develop post offices in deprived urban areas.
Answer
There are no plans to changethe eligibility criteria under the Fund to Develop Post Offices in DeprivedUrban Areas.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 14 May 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Mary Mulligan on 26 May 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether there are any plans to extend the fund to develop post offices in deprived urban areas.
Answer
There are currently no plansto extend the Fund to Develop Post Offices in Deprived Urban Areas.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 May 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 26 May 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how many staff there are in its External Relations Division, broken down by section.
Answer
There are 14 staff in External Relations Division including one vacancy which is currently being filled. In addition to the Head of Division and a personal assistant, the remaining staff are currently arranged in three branches as follows:
| EU Policy and Institutions | 3 staff |
| Strategy and Implementation | 7 staff |
| Links Policy | 2 staff |
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 17 May 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 26 May 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps are being taken to increase the number of fishing days allocated to the white fish fleet.
Answer
The number of days at sea availableto fishing vessels is determined in Annex V to Council Regulation (EC) No. 2287/2003).We have recently written to the European Commission about the case for those fishingfor North Sea haddock under special permit arrangements to be permitted additionaldays at sea to do so. We await a response and will be following up in meetings plannedshortly with the Commission.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 May 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 25 May 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-22478 by Patricia Ferguson on 12 February 2002, how many joint ministerial committees (JMC) and sub-committees have been convened since 8 November 2001, where each meeting took place, which minister attended, and what was discussed.
Answer
The table below provides a complete list of Scottish Executive Ministerial attendance at all JMC meetings that have taken place since 7 October 1999:
Paragraph A1.11 of the Memorandum of Understanding and Supplementary Agreements between the UK Government and the Devolved Administrations describes the remit and structure of the joint ministerial committee. It provides that "the proceedings of each meeting of the JMC will be regarded as confidential by the participants, in order to permit free and candid discussion,” and therefore the issues discussed at each meeting are not disclosed.
Joint Ministerial Committee - Meetings Since 1999
| Subject | Date | Venue | Scottish Minister |
| Plenary | 01-Sep-00 | Edinburgh | First Minister and Deputy First Minister |
| Plenary | 30-Oct-01 | Cardiff | First Minister and Deputy First Minister |
| Plenary | 22-Oct-02 | London | First Minister and Deputy First Minister |
| Europe | 01-Mar-01 | London | Minister for Education, Europe and External Affairs and Deputy Minister for Education, Europe and External Affairs |
| Europe | 08-Nov-01 | London | No Scottish Minister was able to participate |
| Europe | 07-Mar-02 | London | Deputy First Minister |
| Europe | 11-Jun-02 | London | Deputy First Minister |
| Europe | 27-Sep-02 | London | First Minister |
| Europe | 22-Oct-02 | London | First Minister & Deputy First Minister |
| Europe | 30-Jan-03 | London | Deputy Minister for Education and Young People |
| Europe | 06-Oct-03 | London | Minister for Finance and Public Services |
| Europe | 01-Dec-03 | London | First Minister |
| Europe | 15-Jan-04 | London | Minister for Health and Community Care |
| Europe | 03-Feb-04 | London | Minister for Health and Community Care |
| Europe | 24-Feb-04 | London | No Scottish Minister was able to participate. |
| Anne McGuire MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Scotland represented Scotland’s interests |
| Europe | 18-Mar-04 | London | Minister for Justice |
| Europe | 27-Apr-04 | London | Deputy Minister for Health and Community Care |
| Health | 07-Apr-00 | Cardiff | First Minister and Minister for Health and Community Care |
| Health | 05-Jun-00 | London | Deputy First Minister and Minister for Health and Community Care |
| Health | 16-Jun-00 | Glasgow | Deputy First Minister and Minister for Health and Community Care |
| Health | 26-Oct-00 | Belfast | Minister for Health and Community Care |
| Knowledge Economy | 11-Feb-00 | Edinburgh | First Minister and Deputy Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning |
| Knowledge Economy | 26-May-00 | Edinburgh | Deputy First Minister and Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning |
| Poverty | 09-Dec-99 | London | Minister for Children and Education and Deputy Minister for Communities |
| Poverty | 26-May-00 | Edinburgh | Deputy First Minister and Minister for Communities |
| Poverty | 18-Sep-02 | London | Minister for Finance and Public Services and Minister for Social Justice |
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 May 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 19 May 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how it plans to consult the Parliament on the role of legislatures in any operation of the subsidiarity early warning mechanism within the United Kingdom, as currently defined in the Protocol on the Application of the Principles of Subsidiarity and Proportionality of the European Union's draft treaty establishing a constitution for Europe (the Subsidiarity Protocol) and what its position is on the statement attributed to Dr Denis MacShane MP, Minister of State (Europe), in The Financial Times of 12 April 2004, that Her Majesty's Government was considering raising in the current Inter-Governmental Conference the possibility of strengthening the subsidiarity early warning mechanism available to member states' national parliaments by deleting the word “maintain” from paragraph 6 of the Subsidiarity Protocol, therefore meaning that the European Commission would no longer be able to proceed with a legislative proposal, but would have to amend or withdraw it, if reasoned opinions were made that represented one-third of all the votes allocated to the member states' national parliaments.
Answer
The Scottish Executive supports Her Majesty’s Government in seeking the establishment of an effectivesubsidiarity early warning mechanism. Following the agreement of a ConstitutionalTreaty, the Scottish Executive will work closely with the Parliament to develop a frameworkwithin which the subsidiarity mechanism can operate effectively in the UK.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 April 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Peter Peacock on 19 May 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what public support is made available to encourage pupils and students to travel overseas for the purpose of learning foreign languages, particularly European languages.
Answer
The Scottish Executive Languages Fund can be used to fund overseas travel for the purpose of learninga language. In addition, the Scottish Executive provides the British Council Scotland with £310,000 annually,to manage a variety of international exchange and linking opportunities for pupilsand students, such as the Comenius Language Projects and the Lingua Programme, whichdeal specifically with language learning and provide various opportunities for Scottishpupils to travel in Europe.
