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Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S3W-31724

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 February 2010
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 4 March 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what action has been taken by the Scottish Futures Trust in relation to delivering the new Zero Waste Plan.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-31725 on 4 March 2010, for details of the actions Scottish Futures Trust is taking to support local authorities in developing and delivering solutions to meet the EU Landfill Directive targets and the emerging requirements of Scottish Government''s Zero Waste Plan.

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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

Question reference: S3W-31725

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 February 2010
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 4 March 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what support the Scottish Futures Trust has given to support councils to develop waste management facilities.

The Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) has been invited by Glasgow City Council, North, South and East Ayrshire Councils, West Lothian Council, Edinburgh and Midlothian Council and North Lanarkshire Council to support the development and delivery of their residual waste treatment projects.

For Glasgow, the North, East and South Ayrshire collaborative project and the Edinburgh and Midlothian collaborative project, SFT has been invited to sit on the project board and to work alongside the Council''s project teams. Together these projects deal with more than a quarter of Scotland''s residual waste.

For West Lothian Council, SFT has been invited to undertake independent peer reviews at key milestones during procurement as well as being a centre of expertise resource for the project team.

For North Lanarkshire Council, discussions are at an early stage to determine how best the SFT can support the Council''s project team.

In addition to the above, SFT is also undertaking a number of actions in partnership with COSLA, SOLACE and the Scottish Government. With COSLA, SFT is working on a data collection exercise to enable the public and private sector to have a clearer picture as to the individual waste infrastructure plans of each of the 32 local authorities to meet both landfill diversion and recycling targets. With SOLACE, SFT has been asked to facilitate future discussions as to how best those local authorities, not currently in procurement, could deliver their future waste infrastructure requirements.

SFT has also initiated, as part of the development of its centre of expertise role, a waste procurement forum to share and disseminate best practice and lessons learnt and set up a training session for local authority waste officers on commercial issues relating to residual waste projects.

Question reference: S3W-31108

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 January 2010
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 3 March 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what the senior management structure of Transport Scotland is; how it compares with that before the retirement of Dr Malcolm Reed as chief executive, and what the comparative costs are.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-23964 on 26 May 2009. 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx. The post of Finance Director was subsequently filled in August 2009.

The salary of the Corporate Board Members of Transport Scotland can be found in the remuneration section of the Transport Scotland Annual Report and Accounts 08/09. Copies are available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 49931).

Question reference: S3W-31667

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 February 2010
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 3 March 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what estimates it has made of the potential decrease in the values of properties within 500 metres of the proposed Forth Replacement Crossing and allied works.

Question reference: S3W-31669

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 February 2010
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 3 March 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will consider a scheme to purchase houses within 500 metres of the proposed Forth Replacement Crossing and allied works that have been negatively affected.

Question reference: S3W-31727

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 February 2010
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 3 March 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what the respective responsibilities are of (a) the Scottish Government Equalities, Social Inclusion and Sports Directorate, (b) Glasgow City Council, (c) Glasgow 2014 Ltd and (d) Commonwealth Games Scotland in relation to the 2014 Commonwealth Games and which is the lead organisation.

Although the Scottish Government is the ultimate guarantor of the games and is contributing 80% of the public sector funding, it is a partnership arrangement with individual partners take the lead in their areas of responsibility but work with and report progress to the other partners through the governance forums that have been established.

The strategic group provides overall direction on planning and delivery of the games. The group, chaired by the First Minister, is the ultimate decision-making body and dispute resolution mechanism for the games.

The main responsibilities of the partners are set out in the following table:

Organisation	Key Responsibilities
Scottish Government Social Inclusion, Equalities and Sport Directorate	· Oversees and co-ordinates Scottish Government interest in all aspects of games delivery e.g. overall governance structure, sound financial management of the games budget and its position as ultimate guarantor of the games. · Overall responsibility for the security of the games · Ensuring delivery of planned infrastructure projects in areas such as transport · Introducing legislation to the Scottish Parliament to ensure compliance with all aspects of the requirements set out by the Commonwealth Games Federation. · Planning and co-ordinating Scotland-wide legacy benefits and implementing the published Legacy Plan. · Administrative support to the Glasgow 2014 Strategic Group and the Glasgow 2014 Working Group.
Glasgow City Council	· Ensuring the delivery of major council-owned infrastructure projects including some of the games venues and transport projects. · Designing and constructing an Athletes Village · Developing and implementing the City Councils legacy plan · Developing and implementing a city transport plan · Providing a programme of related cultural events taking place during the lead up to but mainly during the period of the games · Responsibility for the public facilities (public buildings, public spaces and public services) within the City of Glasgow
Glasgow 2014 Ltd	· Holds the primary responsibility for the staging of the games. · Co-ordinating and facilitating all aspects of operational planning for the games e.g. the sporting programme, venue planning, delivery planning and village operations · Raising funds through sponsorship, licensing, broadcasting rights and ticketing to partially offset the costs of staging the Games.
Commonwealth Games Scotland	· Selecting and preparing a Scottish team for the Commonwealth Games and the Commonwealth Youth Games · Contributing to sound governance of the games · Commonwealth Games Scotland is the host Commonwealth Games Association.

Question reference: S3W-31668

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 February 2010
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 3 March 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of residents living within 500 metres of the proposed Forth Replacement Crossing and allied works it estimates will be entitled to compensation.

Question reference: S3W-31729

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 February 2010
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 3 March 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to encourage its staff to change from private to public transport for travel connected with their work.

The Scottish Government Travel Plan encourages all staff to avoid or minimise the need for travel through the use of alternatives such as video conference, email and telephone. Where travel is unavoidable staff are encouraged to use low carbon options and to opt for public transport wherever possible.

In the period 2005-06 to 2008-09 the use of private car mileage undertaken in the delivery of Scottish Government business reduced by almost 10% while over the same period rail passenger miles more than doubled.

Question reference: S3W-31726

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 February 2010
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 2 March 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions have taken place between Scottish ministers and the Registrar General regarding additional questions for the 2011 census.

Question reference: S3O-09588

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 February 2010
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 25 February 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how much EU funding was paid to Scottish farmers for agricultural support in 2008-09.