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: S4O-04288

Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 April 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what support it will give to local festivals and community celebrations across South Scotland, such as Beltane in Peebles, Lanimers in Lanark and The Wickerman Festival in Dumfries and Galloway.

Question reference: S4W-25330

Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by Aileen McLeod on 29 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether all scientific reports produced to underpin the Scottish Beaver Trial have been subject to Scottish Natural Heritage quality assurance to confirm scientific accuracy.

The Scottish Beaver Trial monitoring projects have been subject to the standard Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) quality assurance process, involving senior staff and independent assessors, where the project reports are being published as SNH Commissioned Reports. Four projects at the Scottish Beaver Trial are not being handled this way because they fall outwith SNH’s natural heritage remit. These are the monitoring of a scheduled monument (Historic Scotland), public health (Argyll and Bute Council), animal health (Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies) and water chemistry (Scottish Environment Protection Agency). These reports have been led and published by the relevant organisations, although SNH was given the opportunity to contribute to their quality assurance.

Question reference: S4W-25331

Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by Aileen McLeod on 29 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Beaver-Salmonid Working Group report, produced as part of the Scottish Beaver Trial, has been quality assured by Scottish Natural Heritage for scientific accuracy or will be subject to future scientific peer review.

The Beaver-Salmonid Working Group (BSWG) report was not a Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) publication, and consequently it did not go through the standard SNH quality assurance process. The BSWG was made up of a number of organisations and independently chaired, and its report was published by the BSWG. All the organisations concerned contributed to the quality assurance process, and SNH was one of the organisations which was given the opportunity to contribute comments on the draft report.

Question reference: S4W-25267

Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by Aileen McLeod on 29 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it would need to take if the Scottish Beaver Trial led it to propose full-scale beaver reintroduction across Scotland.

Scottish Natural Heritage will, by the end of May 2015, provide a report to Scottish Ministers, drawing on the knowledge gained from the Scottish Beaver Trial, the Tayside Beaver Study Group and other relevant sources. Scottish Ministers will then consider a number of options relating to the future of beavers in Scotland. If Scottish Ministers decide to pursue any option that involves beavers remaining in Scotland, this will need to be accompanied by plans to ensure continuing compatibility with Council Directive 92/43/EEC (the Habitats Directive) as well as a framework to provide effective management of wild beavers.

Question reference: S4W-25161

Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 30 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Aileen McLeod on 23 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-24769 by Aileen McLeod on 17 March 2015, what guidance public bodies were given as to the completion and publication of biodiversity compliance reports; when the guidance was issued, and which public bodies were sent the guidance.

The Public Bodies Unit of the Scottish Government included guidance regarding the completion and publication of biodiversity compliance reports in their Public Bodies Information Update 118 which was issued in September 2014. Local authorities were reminded of the duty in a letter to chief executives sent in November 2014. Guidance regarding the reporting requirements is also available on the Biodiversity Scotland webpage.

Question reference: S4W-25160

Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 30 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Aileen McLeod on 23 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-24766 by Aileen McLeod on 17 March 2015, what action it will take to advise public bodies that have not published a report that they are in breach of a statutory obligation, and how it will encourage them to comply with the obligation.

The Scottish Government will write to all public bodies who have not advised us of the publication of a report to ask them to forward the relevant website link to us, following which the Biodiversity Scotland website will be updated. In addition, the Scottish Government is commissioning a research project which will review the reporting mechanism and the submitted reports and also prepare updated guidance for the next reporting period. This project will be launched later in 2015.

Question reference: S4W-25158

Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 30 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Aileen McLeod on 23 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-24766 by Aileen McLeod on 17 March 2015, whether it will provide an overall analysis of data contained in the reports by public bodies.

Question reference: S4W-25159

Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 30 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Aileen McLeod on 23 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-24768 by Aileen McLeod on 17 March 2015, whether it will add the names of the public bodies that have not notified it of the publication of a report alongside details of the published reports on its website.

Question reference: S4O-04203

Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 1 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how the National Performance Framework will address energy efficiency in light of the recommendations of the Committee on Climate Change’s fourth report on reducing emissions.

Question reference: S4W-24874

Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 30 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government when it will produce its annual update to the 2020 Routemap for Renewable Energy in Scotland.

We plan to publish an update to the 2020 Routemap for Renewable Energy in Scotland in the near future.

The Scottish Government’s annual compendium of energy statistics was published on 29 January 2015. It confirmed that in 2013, the equivalent of 44.4% of gross electricity consumption in Scotland was from renewable sources, up from 38.8% in 2012. The compendium, Energy in Scotland 2015, is available on the Scottish Government website at:

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Business/Energy