- Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Friday, 23 August 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 19 September 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive in what form the Crofters Commission keeps plans and other legal documentation regarding croft registration on the Register of Crofts and whether there are any proposals that would change this.
Answer
The Crofters Commission does not keep and is not required to keep plans and other legal documentation regarding croft registration. Section 41 of the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1993 specifies the information to be entered in the Register of Crofts. This consists of:The name, location rent and extent of every croft;The name of the tenant and the landlord of each croft, andAny consent given by a landlord of a croft under section 50(1)(b) of the 1993 Act. There are no current plans to change these requirements but chapter 9 of the white paper entitled Crofting Reform Proposals For Legislation seeks views on the possibility of requiring that a plan of a croft should be supplied, to be held on the register, when a croft changes hands.
- Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Friday, 23 August 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 19 September 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what access crofters have to plans and other documentation regarding croft registration kept by the Crofters Commission on the Register of Crofts and whether there are any proposals that would change this.
Answer
Section 41(3) of the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1993 requires that the Crofters Commission must provide, on request, an extract of any entry on the Register of Crofts to any person who, in the opinion of the Crofters Commission, has good reason for desiring an extract of that entry. The register does not contain plans.Chapter 9 of the white paper entitled Crofting Reform Proposals For Legislation seeks views on proposals to allow full public access to the Register of Crofts and to allow the Crofters Commission to charge for the provision of data from the register.
- Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Friday, 23 August 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 19 September 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Crofters Commission maintains and makes available for public inspection a series of definitive maps detailing the boundaries of all crofts recorded on the Register of Crofts and areas of these crofts which have been decrofted and, if not, whether it has any plans to initiate their production.
Answer
The Crofters Commission does not currently have any maps detailing the boundaries of all crofts recorded in the Register of Crofts and there are no current plans to create such maps. However, chapter 9 of the white paper entitled Crofting Reform Proposals For Legislation seeks views on the possibility of requiring that a plan of a croft should be supplied, to be held on the register, when a croft changes hands.
- Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 August 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 18 September 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S1W-27320 and S1W-27321 by Lewis Macdonald on 8 August 2002, why air travel between the islands and the Scottish mainland should be included in an island council's local concessionary travel scheme for blind people rather than in the national free concessionary travel scheme to allow blind people to travel throughout Scotland.
Answer
The National Free Concessionary Blind Scheme is an amalgam of the 16 local concessionary travel schemes currently operating in Scotland. It is therefore for the island local authorities to consider whether their particular local schemes should be extended to provide free air travel to the mainland.
- Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 August 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 18 September 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-27319 by Lewis Macdonald on 8 August 2002, why it has not made any assessment of the cost of an extension of the national free concessionary travel scheme for blind people to travel between the islands and the Scottish mainland and whether it has any plans to do so.
Answer
This is a matter for local authorities who are responsible for making concessionary travel schemes under the Transport Act 1985.
- Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 August 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 18 September 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-27318 by Lewis Macdonald on 8 August 2002, why it has not made any assessment of the number of registered blind persons living in the islands who would benefit from the extension of the national free concessionary travel scheme for blind people to cover air travel between the islands and the Scottish mainland and whether it has any plans to do so.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-28378. All answers to written PQs 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: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 September 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 18 September 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the use of baton guns by police forces will be limited to circumstances where conventional firearms are currently used.
Answer
The Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland has made clear that baton guns will be used to deal with firearms incidents and that they will only be deployed where a Chief Constable is satisfied that an incident involves risk to life or serious injury.
- Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 September 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 18 September 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment it has made, or is planning to make, into the optimum number of NHS boards.
Answer
There are no plans to vary the number of unified NHS boards, which were established as recently as September 2001. However, a longer-term review of management and decision-making in NHSScotland is now under way. We have made it clear that the review is not intended to result in structural upheaval, although NHS organisations might evolve and change where this will produce tangible benefits for patients, staff and local communities. Whatever the outcomes of the review, we do not expect to spend the coming months discussing structures: we will concentrate on helping the NHS deliver better front-line care for patients.
- Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 September 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 18 September 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment has been made of the total annual cost of internal air transport from the islands to the mainland to (a) the Northern Constabulary, (b) relevant local authorities, (c) relevant NHS boards, (d) the Crofters Commission, (e) Scottish Natural Heritage and (f) Scottish Water.
Answer
This is a matter for the organisations concerned.
- Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 July 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 18 September 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what consultation was undertaken by Scottish Water with business customers in (a) the west, (b) the east and (c) the north of Scotland before water supply and waste water services charges for businesses in each of these former water authority areas were finalised.
Answer
This is a matter for Scottish Water. The Chief Executive's response is:None. Scottish Water was not established until 1 April 2002. Charges schemes for 2002-03 had been developed by the three former water authorities in anticipation of the creation of Scottish Water. These schemes were developed in consultation with the Water Industry Commissioner on the basis of the revenues cap agreed in the light of the Quality and Standards process which was subject to full public consultation by Scottish ministers.