Chamber and committees

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: S5W-00425

Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 16 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government on how many and which sites of special scientific interest burning is listed as an operation requiring consent; on how many and which sites consent has been granted and on how many occasions, and on how many consent has been refused.

Question reference: S5W-00424

Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 16 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government on how many occasions landowners have (a) turned down and (b) failed to comply with management agreements offered since 2004; on what sites, and for what features.

Operational responsibility for land management agreements lies with Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH).

In relation to instances where landowners have turned down management agreements, SNH have advised that instances would be small as early discussion would normally identify any difficulties.

SNH’s compliance monitoring programme has detected 46 instances since 2004 of land managers not fully complying with the terms of their management agreements.

I have asked the Chief Executive of SNH to write to the member in order to provide further details on the information requested.

Question reference: S5W-00467

Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 15 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-29255 by Aileen McLeod on 26 January 2016, what steps it (a) has taken, (b) is taking and (c) plans to take to ensure improved implementation of the EU birds and habitats directives in Scotland.

Question reference: S4W-30355

Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2016
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 15 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many return journeys have been made (a) to and (b) from each of the new stations on the Borders Railway.

Question reference: S4O-05658

Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 March 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the national pay negotiations in the college sector.

Question reference: S4O-05586

Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 February 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing from its International Development Fund to assist with medical and humanitarian aid in Syria.

Question reference: S4O-05559

Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 February 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it has reduced the climate change budget.

Question reference: S4W-29366

Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 18 January 2016
Current Status: Answered by Aileen McLeod on 3 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the UK Government's position that the EU birds and habitats directives should be implemented better and not reopened for review; what input it had into the decision and, if so, what, and what it considers the implications would be for Scotland.

The Scottish Government continues to engage with the UK Government (plus the Welsh Government and the Northern Ireland Assembly) on the European Commission's ‘Fitness Check’ of the birds and habitats directives. This includes contact in advance of the Council of the European Union's Environment Council meeting in December 2015 at which the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Environment and Rural Affairs spoke on this subject. Further to this, recent correspondence with the UK Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs reiterated our agreement that it would not be appropriate to seek to renegotiate the directives and that we should continue to give our total support to their objectives. If, however, within those parameters, improvements to the implementation and operation of the directives can be made for the benefit of both nature and sustainable economic interests then they should be actively considered where cost-effective. It is also important that any proposals which might emerge from the European Commission, following the conclusion of the Fitness Check evidence-gathering phase, are carefully considered.

The Scottish Government’s approach to continuing to support the commission’s Fitness Check exercise of the birds and habitats directives is consistent with our broader view that the European Union offers the best international framework to deliver prosperity for the people of Scotland, recognising that being part of the European Union has delivered significant social, cultural, economic and environmental benefits to Scotland.

Question reference: S4O-05515

Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 January 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on women employed in part-time and temporary work.

Question reference: S4O-05497

Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 January 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on Scotland's progress as a fair trade nation.