- Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 31 July 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 3 September 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive which civil servants accompanied the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing to the Weaving the Tartan conference at Eastwood Park Theatre on 6 August 2007.
Answer
No civil servant accompanied the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing, to the Weaving the Tartan conference.
- Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 July 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 3 September 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what reports have been produced by the Council of Economic Advisers and to whom they are available.
Answer
The first annual report of the Council of Economic Advisers will be published by the end of the year.
- Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 July 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 3 September 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is satisfied that all local authorities take account of sections 15, 16 and 17 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 and what the reasons are for its position on the matter.
Answer
Sections 15 to 17 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 would place a duty on local authorities to ensure that the political balance on council committees reflects the political balance on the council itself. These sections have not been fully brought into force in Scotland, primarily because successive administrations have wished the issue to be addressed on a voluntary basis rather than by the imposition of a statutory duty on councils.
- Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 28 August 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 3 September 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-13362 by John Swinney on 9 June 2008, what the particular responsibilities are of its most recently appointed Special Adviser and how these relate to those of Kevin Pringle and Stephen Noon.
Answer
I refer the member to the question S3W-15385 answered on 3 September 2008. 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/wa.search.
- Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 July 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Linda Fabiani on 2 September 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to ensure that goods used in the celebration of St Andrew’s Day 2008 are manufactured in an appropriate location.
Answer
The Scottish Government are sourcing Saltire flags and other promotional goods for use in the celebrations of St Andrew''s Day 2008 from Scottish Government approved suppliers according to procurement guidance. The buying decision is made on quality, price and required delivery time. I can confirm that Scottish-based suppliers will be amongst those invited to submit bids for goods to be used in the celebration of St Andrew''s Day 2008.
- Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 July 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 28 August 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how many railway stations have disabled access; who is responsible for ensuring compliance with legislation on disabled access at stations, and what action it is taking to improve the situation.
Answer
There are 346 railway stations in Scotland. At present, 204 stations are considered to be fully accessible for people with reduced mobility.
Disabled access to the UK rail network is a matter reserved to Westminster under the auspices of equalities legislation, such as the Disability Discrimination Act. The Office of Rail Regulation is responsible for ensuring train operating companies comply with legislation relating to disabled access at train stations.
It is anticipated five stations will be made fully accessible this year, and a further three next year, through the first phase of the Department for Transport''s Access for All programme. A further five stations will be made step free in the second phase from April 2009. The Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change recommends which stations in Scotland should be given priority for Access for All funding, following consultation with Transport Scotland.
- Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 08 August 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 28 August 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-15148 by John Swinney on 7 August 2008, whether the car parking fines listed in the answer were incurred during the course of ministerial business and, if so, which ministers were involved.
Answer
The government car service does not routinely keep a record of which of their customers has been the passenger when a car parking fine has been incurred. It is not therefore possible to provide the breakdown of information requested.
- Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 July 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 28 August 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will guarantee that free travel for elderly and disabled people will be maintained 24 hours per day, seven days per week, for the next three years for all people aged 60 and over, for the whole of Scotland.
Answer
Night services are not currently included and they were not included by the previous administration.
- Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 July 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 28 August 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of Scottish ministers have their principal residence in the area covered by the former Strathclyde Regional Council.
Answer
28% of Scottish Government ministers have their principal residence in the area covered by the former Strathclyde Regional Council.
- Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 July 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Bruce Crawford on 26 August 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how many freedom of information requests it has received in the last year and, of these, in how many cases the information was provided and how many cases were referred to the Scottish Information Commissioner.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-12302 on 9 May 2008, in relation to the time period 31 May 2007 to 23 April 2008. 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/wa.search.
In relation to the number of requests the Scottish Government has received under the terms of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 for the period 24 April 2008 to 29 July 2008, 282 requests were received and of those, 244 responses have been issued. Of the requests that have been responded to, the information was fully released in 131 cases whilst it was partially released in 51 cases. The information was not held by the Scottish Government in 24 instances.
As advised in the answer to S3W-12302, the number of cases that were referred to the Scottish Information Commissioner can be found on the Commissioner''s website at:
http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/home/ScottishInformationCommissioner.asp.
