Written Answers

Friday 27 October 2000

Scottish Executive

Birds

Robin Harper (Lothians) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is aware of any problems caused by any increase in the seagull population and gull nesting sites in urban residential areas.

(S1W-10361)

Sarah Boyack: Urban nesting by most species of gull has increased over the last two decades and a number of enquiries relating to nuisance caused by gulls are received by the Executive each year.

Lethal control of three species of gull (Herring gull, Greater and Lesser Black-backed gull) is permitted under general licence for the purposes of preserving public health and public safety. Local authorities and the owner or occupier of a property are able to take appropriate, lawful, action under the terms of this licence. Licences covering other species of gull can also be issued in certain circumstances. There are, however, significant practical difficulties associated with the lethal control of gull populations in an urban setting.

The most effective long-term solution is to restrict the availability of food, which gulls obtain from household and commercial rubbish and from foodstuffs discarded in the street. This is in part a matter for local authorities to address and in part something which everyone can help to prevent by responsible management of litter and household waste.

Careers Service

Mr David Davidson (North-East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how it intends to raise schoolchildren’s awareness of vocational opportunities in business and of business issues in general.

(S1W-10348)

Henry McLeish: Careers Service Companies throughout Scotland work with school pupils offering careers guidance, local labour market information and helping to arrange work placements and job fairs with local businesses.

The Executive supports a range of education for work and enterprise programmes through the enterprise network, Education Business Partnerships and other organisations. These programmes are intended to introduce young people to patterns of employment, offer them direct experience of the world of work and highlight opportunities, including those for self-employment and within business and commerce.

Central Heating

Brian Adam (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to its announcement on central heating grants on 19 September 2000, what advice it will offer local authorities and other housing providers concerning any current programmes they may have for the installation of central heating systems in their properties.

(S1W-10367)

Mr Frank McAveety: These programmes are supported by resources made available to local authorities by the Scottish Executive. Authorities should continue with them. Later this year they will be receiving advice from the Scottish Executive on additional resources for the central heating initiative for council tenants which is to begin in April 2001.

Brian Adam (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to its announcement on central heating grants on 19 September 2000, whether the grants will cover complete central heating systems.

(S1W-10368)

Mr Frank McAveety: The central heating initiative will provide up to £2,500 per dwelling to install an insulation package and a heating system. If this amount can deliver whole-house heating it will be provided. Where partial heating is installed it will be put into all main living and sleeping areas but not into additional bedrooms.

Brian Adam (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to its announcement on central heating grants on 19 September 2000, whether such grants will be available to complete partial systems.

(S1W-10369)

Brian Adam (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to its announcement on central heating grants on 19 September 2000, whether such grants will be available to replace unsuitable existing systems on health or other grounds.

(S1W-10370)

Mr Frank McAveety: The scheme is intended to help those households most at risk from cold and damp homes. They comprise an estimated 70,000 pensioner households across all sectors of the stock and another 70,000 households in local authority and housing association dwellings who lack any form of central heating.

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1O-2328 by Mr Frank McAveety on 28 September 2000, who is being invited to join the group being convened to determine how the central heating initiative will be implemented; what issues the group will consider, and what the timetable is for the group’s work.

(S1W-10386)

Mr Frank McAveety: The members of the implementation group are drawn from the power companies and Transco, CoSLA, Eaga, Scottish Homes, the SFHA, Age Concern, Help the Aged, Energy Action Scotland, the Energy Saving Trust and the Solid Fuel Association. The group’s remit is to advise the Scottish Executive on how best to implement the central heating initiative and it will consider a range of issues under that heading. The first meeting was held on 24 October and a second is planned. I cannot yet say when the work will be completed.

Culture

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton (Lothians) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive when funds will be provided for redevelopment and utilisation of the East Side of the National Portrait Gallery.

(S1W-10387)

Rhona Brankin: I refer the member to the answer I gave to question S1W-10332 on 20 October.

Dental Care

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether there are any plans to increase the funding of dental schools.

(S1W-10354)

Susan Deacon: The Executive recently allocated increased funds to the two Scottish dental schools in line with increases for health boards and Trusts, and there have been regular increases in expenditure over the last three years. We have also enlisted the help of the National Purchasing Unit in benchmarking expenditure for the Scottish schools against all UK dental schools.

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether additional funding will be provided to enable all dentists to fulfil their continuing professional education obligations.

(S1W-10355)

Susan Deacon: As part of the Dental Action Plan announced on 14 August 2000, the Executive agreed to increase funding available to dentists to ensure that they are able to fulfil their continuing professional education obligations. We are also currently considering development of the present postgraduate education allowance for dentists undertaking NHS general dental services, to take account of the General Dental Council’s recertification scheme.

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans are in place to fund training courses for dental nurses, dental hygienists, dental therapists and dental technicians to enable them to undertake continuing professional development.

(S1W-10356)

Susan Deacon: Provision and funding of continuing professional development is the responsibility of the employer, who for these staff groups are mainly either general dental practitioners or NHS Trusts.

Long-term career development for dentists and related professionals will form a key part of the Dental Action Plan, which I announced on 14 August 2000.

Housing

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-9804 by Ms Wendy Alexander on 8 September 2000, whether the new data collection will enable it to identify the number of households in temporary accommodation which include people of pensionable age.

(S1W-10384)

Ms Wendy Alexander: No, the new data collection system will not separately identify the number of households in temporary accommodation which include people of pensionable age.

However, information is available from the homelessness applications data collection which separately identifies single person households of pensionable age. This provides information on the number of households placed in temporary accommodation rather than the number in temporary accommodation at any one time.

New Deal

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what input it has to the management and operation of the New Deal scheme.

(S1W-10322)

Nicol Stephen: In response to a request from the Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Committee, the Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning provided the committee with a paper on the Scottish Executive’s responsibilities and progress of New Deal in Scotland.

The paper was provided in March 2000, and a copy can be obtained from the Clerk to the Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Committee.

Nurses

Ms Sandra White (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many infection control nurses are currently employed in the NHSiS.

(S1W-10340)

Susan Deacon: This information is not held centrally.

Population

Mr Andy Kerr (East Kilbride) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans the Registrar General has to review the civil registration system.

(S1W-10672)

Mr Jim Wallace: The Registrar General for Scotland has today published a consultation paper on Civil Registration in the 21^st Century. Copies have been placed in the Parliament’s Reference Centre. Views on the issues identified in the paper are being sought by 28 February 2001.

Public Transport

Nick Johnston (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive when the next round of successful bids for support from the Public Transport Fund will be announced.

(S1W-10366)

Sarah Boyack: I expect to announce awards from the Public Transport Fund shortly.

Road Accidents

Mr Brian Monteith (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many road accidents have occurred in the last five years on the Strathblane to Aberfoyle stretch of the A81.

(S1W-10349)

Sarah Boyack: Data about injury road accidents are collected by the police and reported to the Scottish Executive using the STATS 19 statistical report form. These returns cover only road accidents in which one or more people were injured: they do not cover damage only accidents.

The table below gives the numbers of road accidents which were identified in the STATS 19 returns as occurring on the A81 between its junction with the A891 at Strathblane and its junction with the A821 at Aberfoyle over the period 1995 to 1999 inclusive.

It should be noted that the statistics given below are based upon the data which are held in the central statistical database and which were collected by the police at the time of the accident and subsequently reported to the Executive. They may differ from any figures which the local authority would provide now, because they do not take account of any subsequent changes or corrections that the local authority may have made to the statistical information, for use at local level, about the location of each accident, based upon its knowledge of the road and area concerned.

Roads

Ms Sandra White (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive which of the current proposals is its preferred option for the M74 northern extension.

(S1W-10341)

Ms Sandra White (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what timescale it envisages for the completion of the M74 northern extension.

(S1W-10342)

Ms Sandra White (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how much it will cost to complete the M74 northern extension.

(S1W-10343)

Ms Sandra White (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what financial assistance it intends to provide for the completion of the M74 northern extension.

(S1W-10344)

Ms Sandra White (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it is currently involved in, or is proposing to have, concerning the completion of the M74 northern extension.

(S1W-10345)

Ms Sandra White (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what date it is proposing for the commencement of work on the M74 northern extension.

(S1W-10346)

Sarah Boyack: I announced on 28 September that the Executive is committed to a strategic link between Fullarton Road and west of the Kingston Bridge. On 10 October I met the leaders of Glasgow, South Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire Councils and agreed that officials should urgently establish the costs of that link and explore funding proposals, including the option of Public/Private Partnerships, to take forward the project. Those discussions are ongoing and it would be premature to speculate on the outcome.

Bruce Crawford (Mid Scotland and Fife) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the Minister for Transport and the Environment’s statement on transport expenditure on 28 September 2000, whether it will list the 13 motorway and trunk road schemes referred to (Official Report, col. 804).

(S1W-10372)

Sarah Boyack: The 13 motorway and trunk road schemes are listed below:

Rural Affairs

Mr Jamie McGrigor (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how much milk was produced for (a) wholesale and (b) direct sales (adjusted for butterfat) in the Southern Isles ring-fenced area between 1 April 1999 and 31 March 2000.

(S1W-10362)

Ross Finnie: Wholesale milk production (butterfat adjusted) for the Southern Isles ring-fenced area between 1 April 1999 and 31 March 2000 was 54,244,000 litres. Direct sales totalled 698,201 litres during the same period.

Tourism

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to support hoteliers and owners of guest houses who have substantial borrowing commitments and declining numbers of visitors.

(S1W-10323)

Henry McLeish: The actions contained in the New Strategy for Scottish Tourism, published earlier this year, are designed to benefit all sectors of tourism throughout Scotland.

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many backpackers visit Scotland annually; whether it has any information regarding (a) their countries of origin; (b) their modes of travel to Scotland; (c) their reasons for visiting; (d) the average length of their stays; (e) what accommodation is used and preferred by them; (f) the locations they visit, and (g) their modes of travel within Scotland, and what contribution it estimates is made by backpackers to the Scottish economy.

(S1W-10335)

Henry McLeish: This information is not available.

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the cost is of the ongoing study into the Scottish Tourist Board by PricewaterhouseCoopers, what remit was given and what the proposed date is for publication.

(S1W-10336)

Henry McLeish: The STB estimate that the cost of the consultancy will be around £100,000. I announced on 6 July, that as part of the Review of the Enterprise Networks, I was asking the Chairman of the Scottish Tourist Board to undertake a review of the structure and linkages of that organisation. The Chairman has undertaken to conclude the review by the end of October.

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many people visited Scotland from Austria over the last five years, broken down by mode of travel to Scotland, and what contribution it estimates these visitors made to the Scottish economy.

(S1W-10337)

Henry McLeish:

Visitors from Austria to Scotland

Transport

Mr Murray Tosh (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-9784 by Sarah Boyack on 22 September 2000, whether it will clarify (a) how many funds are administered under the Powershift programme for Scotland, (b) whether a separate fund is available for applicants only from the Highlands and Islands, (c) whether a separate fund is maintained for applicants from other rural areas of Scotland, (d) how a priority for rural motorists is otherwise defined and administered and (e) how rural motorists are defined.

(S1W-10164)

Sarah Boyack: There is a single fund for Powershift in Scotland. In respect of the additional £310,000 which I recently made available for Powershift, priority will be given to applications from rural areas of Scotland. I am presently considering with Powershift criteria for defining which areas should be targeted for these extra resources.