Adam Ingram: To ask the Scottish Executive which formula is used to allocate capital allowances to local authorities on an authority by authority basis and who has responsibility for determining the total capital allowances for all local authorities in Scotland.
Adam Ingram: To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of the Highlands and Islands Enterprise budget is spent on consultancy contracts and whether it will provide details of the value and the nature of these contracts.
Adam Ingram: To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of the Scottish Enterprise budget is spent on consultancy contracts and whether it will provide details of the value and nature of these contracts.
Adam Ingram: To ask the Scottish Executive whether housing transferred and subsequently refurbished under the New Housing Partnership will be required to meet higher energy efficiency standards following their refurbishment than those which applied when the houses were first constructed.
Adam Ingram: To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment has been undertaken of any effects of rising sea level on the coastline and whether any action to mitigate the effects of rising sea levels on Scotland’s coasts is planned and, if so, what financial allocation has been made to cover such actions.
Adam Ingram: To ask the Scottish Executive how much it is currently spending to combat the effects of coastal erosion and how much it has spent in each of the past three years. (S1O-1469)
Adam Ingram: I thank the minister for that reply. Will she respond to the challenge that such spending levels are totally inadequate? Will she comment on the fact that Troon Community Council has written to me asking for help to secure funding to repair the esplanade wall of Troon south beach and stabilise the sand dunes, because the financial constraints on South Ayrshire Council will not allow both...
Adam Ingram: To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to review legislation with regard to the offence of dog fouling and, in particular, whether any consideration is being given to bringing the provisions of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 into line with the Dogs (Fouling of Land) Act 1996, as introduced in England and Wales.
Adam Ingram: To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have been prosecuted in respect of dog fouling offences in each of the past three years, broken down by region.
Adam Ingram: To ask the Scottish Executive what level of revenue support grant was allocated through the 2000-01 local government finance settlement to allow councils to tackle the problem of dog fouling.
Adam Ingram: To ask the Scottish Executive how many members of staff are employed within each local authority with the specific remit of tackling dog fouling.
Adam Ingram: Scotland is a nation of 5 million people, and covers nearly half the UK landmass. It has some of the best agricultural land in Europe and, without doubt, some of the best and most efficient farmers in Europe. With those assets, one would expect that Scotland should, at the very least, be able to supply milk for its own needs, and should certainly be aiming for quality Scottish dairy products...
Adam Ingram: No. I am saying that there ought to be a drive to support co-operatives, and to link that to the creation of joint ventures between co-operatives and dairy companies or others in the private sector to establish—
Adam Ingram: We will talk about that later.
Adam Ingram: Wherever possible, we should be encouraging new product development and innovative marketing, which has seen considerable growth in some segments of the dairy product market, most notably in yoghurt and specialised cheeses—markets almost exclusively supplied by imports. Further intervention by the Competition Commission will be unhelpful if its only consideration is the lowering of milk...
Adam Ingram: Like Mike Rumbles, I am a member of the Standards Committee. I welcome the bill and I congratulate the Local Government Committee on its thorough scrutiny of it at stage 1. The committee's report raises a number of interesting questions, one or two of which I will address today. The bill provides for the establishment of a national code of conduct by the Executive in consultation with the...
Adam Ingram: I thank Irene Oldfather for raising this subject for debate today. However, I believe that Ayrshire and Arran Health Board is to be congratulated on the comprehensive option appraisal exercise that it has undertaken and its review of maternity services. I support its conclusions, which are a logical and rational outcome of the process. They are to relocate the in-patient maternity services...
Adam Ingram: No, I would not. When elected a year ago, I raised the issue of maternity services in Ayrshire and was given a comprehensive briefing on the matter. I believe that the health board has consulted very comprehensively, although perhaps not as widely as it could. I do not agree with Allan Wilson's assertion that the health board has not consulted properly. The health board's proposals for...
Adam Ingram: I agree that the service in Ayrshire has been very fine. However, we need to move on, to modernise and to progress.
Adam Ingram: The fact that there will be a move to a district general hospital site means that there will be a 24-hour laboratory facility. There will also be an intensive care facility and all the rest of it. I will stop to let someone else have a say.
