- Asked by: Alex Salmond, MSP for Aberdeenshire East, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 September 2015
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 24 September 2015
To ask the Scottish Government how many active cases of recovery of maintenance from someone living abroad are being processed by its Central Authority and International Law Team.
Answer
125 requests for recovery of maintenance abroad were sent from 2011 to 2014 and of these 79 are still being processed by foreign authorities.
- Asked by: Alex Salmond, MSP for Aberdeenshire East, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 September 2015
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Current Status:
Answered by Alasdair Allan on 16 September 2015
To ask the Scottish Government what support it is giving to (a) schools and (b) local authorities in North East Scotland to (i) promote the heritage and (ii) help secure the future of the Scots language.
Answer
Education Scotland currently provide Scots language CPD to teachers across Scotland, including in the North East. They have paired nine Scots ambassadors with schools in the North East area and have developed a suite of new Scots language resources for schools, some of which are specifically tailored to the North East variety of Scots.
Following the publication of the Scottish Government’s Scots language policy, we will look to provide practical advice to local authorities, by means of a Scots language plan, on how they can actively encourage and include Scots within their daily activity.
- Asked by: Alex Salmond, MSP for Aberdeenshire East, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 August 2015
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 20 August 2015
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the plans to construct a new integrated health and social care hub for Inverurie, and what action it and NHS Grampian are taking to keep the community informed of progress.
Answer
NHS Grampian has recently provided an update to its board, at its 6 August meeting, on the £14 million inverurie health and care hub project. This paper is available on its website at this address:
http://www.nhsgrampian.org/grampianfoi/files/item9infrastructureboardpaper27715
The board's planned project programme will see construction begin in summer 2016, completion of the build and commissioning in December 2017, and service commencement in January 2018.The board of NHS Grampian has approved the outline business case for the project and the next stage is for it to be submitted to Scottish Government for review. A newsletter, published by NHS Grampian in June this year, provided the public with a report on progress with the project and outlined the programme. In addition, a public drop in session, the second such event, was held at the Acorn Centre in Inverurie on 30 June, giving the public the opportunity to view the latest concept design plans. Further public engagement is planned to be advertised in the local press towards the end of the year and public representatives continue to attend the monthly project meetings.
- Asked by: Alex Salmond, MSP for Aberdeenshire East, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 July 2015
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 19 August 2015
To ask the Scottish Government what assistance it is giving to communities in the north east to ensure that they have access to improved mobile network coverage and fibre broadband.
Answer
The Scottish Government’s Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) programme is investing over £410 million of public and private sector funds to extend the coverage of fibre broadband to 95% of Scottish premises by the end of 2017, with an interim milestone of 85% coverage by March 2016. This programme is progressing through two regional projects: one led by Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) covering the HIE region, and another, led by the Scottish Government, covering the rest of Scotland (RoS).
Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen City and Angus council areas fall within the RoS area, while Moray is within the scope of the HIE programme. Combined with commercial and DSSB rollout, Aberdeenshire is projected to achieve 89.4% coverage, Aberdeen City 96.7% and Angus 93.5% while Moray will realise 93%. As announced on 11 August 2015, this programme will now also benefit from early payment of gainshare funds. Our broadband objectives will further benefit from an additional £42 million pledged by the UK and Scottish governments.
We have also set up Community Broadband Scotland to work with those communities unlikely to have superfast coverage delivered through the DSSB programme and support them design and implement sustainable broadband solutions.
Improving mobile coverage in Scotland is an integral part of the Scottish Government’s world class digital connectivity vision. Achieving widespread 4G coverage throughout Scotland, whilst ensuring that the gap between those who don’t receive 3G or even 2G services doesn’t widen, is important. We are currently assessing potential models to address mobile coverage gaps in the future, in collaboration with industry. An example is our pilot project on the Isle of Coll which went live in March 2015. Working in partnership with Vodafone, the project has extended 3G and 4G services utilising a community-owned mast. We will trial a number of alternative models alongside this project with a view to determining which could be scalable in future. I recently met all mobile network operators in Scotland to encourage collaborative working to boost access to mobile services.
- Asked by: Alex Salmond, MSP for Aberdeenshire East, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 July 2015
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 7 August 2015
To ask the Scottish Government what assistance it is providing to the NHS to mitigate any adverse impact on staffing and patient care in Scotland of the UK Government's changes to immigration rules.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not support the UK Government’s planned changes to immigration rules which could harm our NHS and have an adverse effect on staffing and patient care. We have already made representations to the UK Government about the changes planned for next year, and we will also be providing evidence to the Review of the Tier 2 route which is taking place in autumn 2015.
The Scottish Government is working closely with boards to seek solutions to ensure that NHSScotland has the staffing it needs to continue to deliver high quality and sustainable health services.
- Asked by: Alex Salmond, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 April 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 30 April 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-12536 by Mr Jim Wallace on 30 January 2001, what the total staff complement is for each establishment in the Scottish Prison Service broken down into uniformed staff and ancillary staff and what actual numbers are in post in each category.
Answer
I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:The table shows the position on 31 December 2000.
| Establishment | Uniformed Staff | Non-operational Staff |
Complement | Staff in Post | Complement | Staff in Post |
| HMP Aberdeen | 126 | 128 | 38 | 36 |
| HMP Barlinnie | 475 | 487 | 131 | 104 |
| HMP Castle Huntly | 52 | 53 | 20 | 23 |
| HMPI Cornton Vale | 190 | 189 | 57 | 54 |
| HM YOI Dumfries | 127 | 126 | 33 | 32 |
| HMP Edinburgh | 382 | 384 | 96 | 75 |
| HMP Glenochil | 392 | 388 | 82 | 85 |
| HMP Greenock | 144 | 147 | 42 | 39 |
| HMP Inverness | 84 | 81 | 26 | 27 |
| HMP Low Moss | 131 | 130 | 37 | 40 |
| HMP Noranside | 51 | 51 | 21 | 19 |
| HMP Perth | 348 | 344 | 104 | 95 |
| HMP Peterhead | 196 | 195 | 54 | 43 |
| HMP Polmont | 275 | 273 | 76 | 76 |
| HMP Shotts | 382 | 366 | 67 | 86 |
| HMP Ziest | 41 | 40 | 5 | 5 |
| TOTAL | 3,396 | 3,382 | 889 | 839 |
- Asked by: Alex Salmond, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 16 March 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 30 March 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether, under the Financial Instruments for Fisheries Guidance, funding assistance is available to equip new-built fishing vessels in terms of Article 9, Section 1, Subsection C of the Official Journal of the European Communities dated 30 December 1999.
Answer
Council Regulation (EC) 2792/1999 sets out detailed rules and arrangements regarding Community structural assistance in the fisheries sector, within which member states' FIFG programmes are considered and generally required to operate.Article 9.1(c) of the Regulation includes general provisions relating to public aid for the equipping or modernising of vessels. These are subject to a number of caveats, including that measures will not jeopardise the long-term equilibrium of fishery resources. The measures included in the Scottish programmes, which have been discussed and agreed with industry, include support for the modernisation of vessels with priority to be given to projects to improve catch handling and hygiene, quality and sustainability. Funding bids will be assessed individually, on their merits.It is not the Executive's policy, and therefore the programmes approved by the Commission for FIFG aid schemes in Scotland make no financial provision, to support new vessel builds.
- Asked by: Alex Salmond, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 March 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 27 March 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive when the Minister for Rural Development will reply to my letter dated 7 February 2001 regarding Mr A Will.
Answer
I replied to the Member on 21 March.
- Asked by: Alex Salmond, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 March 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 27 March 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-12300 by Mr Jim Wallace on 26 January 2001, when the Minister for Justice will reply to my letter dated 10 November 2000 regarding Mrs S Murdoch.
Answer
A reply was issued on 15 March 2001.
- Asked by: Alex Salmond, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 March 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 15 March 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made in meeting the concerns of the Scottish fish catching and processing industry.
Answer
I announced on 8 March a £27 million package of planned investment in the industry, including £25 million for a decommissioning scheme and £1 million to implement recommendations in the Scottish Fish Processors' Working Group report.
