- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 21 October 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 14 November 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive, with regard to decisions in respect of applications under section 70 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill, whether Scottish ministers are an independent and impartial tribunal for the purposes of article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Answer
No. However, decisions by ministers to consent to or to reject a crofting community right to buy application can be appealed in terms of section 88 of the bill to the sheriff court which is an independent and impartial tribunal for the purposes of article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights. An aggrieved party would also have a right to resort to the courts using the remedy of judicial review.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 21 October 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 14 November 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will lodge an amendment to the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill that would enable crofting communities to buy salmon fishings on croft land and not on adjacent land and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.
Answer
Since the provisions of the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill would not enable crofting communities to buy salmon fishings that cannot be exploited from croft land there is no need to amend the bill in the manner suggested.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 21 October 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 14 November 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive when, in the consultation process for the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill prior to the bill's publication, the acquisition of adjacent salmon fishings was proposed to be subject to the crofting community right to buy.
Answer
The first occasion when responses to a consultation proposed that crofters should have a right to buy salmon fishings was in responses to the paper on the crofting community right to buy circulated to members of the Crofting Consultative Panel. Four of those responses suggested this. The bill does not provide for the purchase of adjacent salmon fishings but only for the purchase of salmon fishings that are exercisable from and on croft land.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 21 October 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 14 November 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive why salmon fishings were defined as "eligible croft land" in the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill as introduced after being defined as "eligible additional land" in the draft bill.
Answer
The handling of the crofting community right to buy salmon fishings in the draft bill text would not have delivered the intended policy outcome. The policy intention is that crofting community bodies should be able to apply for the right to buy salmon fishings located on or directly exercisable from the croft land which they were acquiring or had acquired through the exercise of the crofting community right to buy. It was not intended that crofting communities should be able to acquire, through the right to buy, salmon fishings on or exercisable from additional land that they might acquire or that their acquisition of salmon fishings should be subject to the additional tests found in section 74 of the bill.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 07 October 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 22 October 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-28916 by Ross Finnie on 25 September 2002, why the reasons contained in that answer do not also apply to the absolute right to buy salmon fishings contained in Part 3 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill.
Answer
The reasons given in answer to question S1W-28916 relate to an absolute right to buy and because of that are not relevant to the crofting community right to buy salmon fishings. The crofting community right to buy is not an absolute right to buy. It is conditional on a range of criteria being met and can be exercised by a crofting community body only when ministers consider that the acquisition of the property would be in the public interest. There are also very tight constraints on when the right to buy salmon fishings can be exercised. So the existence of the right should have no impact on the value of salmon fishings. 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: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 07 October 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 10 October 2002
To ask the First Minister what support the Scottish Executive will give to the development of Gaelic-medium schools.
Answer
We are providing specific grants towards the costs of Gaelic-medium education, supporting 1,860 pupils in 59 primary schools across the length and breadth of Scotland.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 October 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Mary Mulligan on 10 October 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what progress it is making in developing services for women suffering from alcohol dependency.
Answer
The Executive's Plan for Action on alcohol problems, which was published in January, sets out that alcohol problems services should be sensitive to the needs of particular groups including women. The Executive published an Alcohol Problems Support and Treatment Services Framework on 5 September, which identifies women as one of the groups who might need support to access services.The Health Education Board for Scotland, Alcohol Focus Scotland and the Scottish Association of Alcohol Action Teams are currently establishing a women and alcohol network. The network will provide a vehicle for the development and dissemination of good practice in working with women.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 September 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 9 October 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what its policy is on the construction of new junctions on the A9 between Perth and Inverness.
Answer
The A9 between Perth and Inverness is a high speed long distance road with limited access. There is a strong presumption against providing new junctions.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 23 September 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 7 October 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has made any assessment of the cost across all its departments of preparing for the possible adoption of the euro as the national currency of the UK.
Answer
The Scottish Executive (and UK Government) has made no estimate of the cost of a possible changeover to the euro, either to the public sector or business.The cost of a possible changeover would depend on timing, overall approach taken and individual management decisions.Details of preparations in the public sector for a possible UK entry into EMU may be found in HM Treasury's Sixth Report on Euro Preparations published in July.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 23 September 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 7 October 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what sums (a) have been spent in the current year and in each of the last five years and (b) are planned to be spent over the next three years by each NHS board and trust in respect of preparing for the possible adoption of the euro as the national currency of the UK.
Answer
As part of on-going strategic planning, NHSScotland bodies have been requested to produce individual outline changeover plans for any possible changeover, similar to that produced by the Scottish Executive during 1999. This was a limited management pre-planning exercise carried out from within agreed running costs. Resources have not been diverted from patient care.As part of the pre-planning exercise, NHSScotland bodies were required to produce resource profiles that might be required for different activities during various phases in the event of a possible changeover to the euro.This exercise did not constitute an estimate of the costs of a possible future changeover. It is not possible at this stage to produce estimates of the cost of a changeover to the NHSScotland. The cost of a changeover would be dependent on the timing, the approach taken and individual management decisions. Details of preparations in the public sector for a possible UK entry into EMU may be found in the Treasury's Sixth Report on Euro Preparations published in July.