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: S3W-09037

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 January 2008
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 25 February 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive which (a) MSPs and (b) MPs made representations on the planning application in Aviemore in which Mr Donald Macdonald had an interest; in what form such representations were made; on what dates each written representation was made; on what dates and at what times they arrived in the First Minister’s Office, and when the contents of the representations were notified or given to ministers.

Representations concerning the Aviemore planning applications were received in the First Minister''s Office from:

- Mary Scanlon MSP in a letter dated 6 December 2007, delivered by hand and received electronically on 6 December, and notified to the First Minister immediately, and

- Rhoda Grant MSP in a letter dated 6 December 2007, received electronically on 6 December, and notified to the First Minister immediately.

The First Minister discussed these letters on 6 December with the constituency member, Fergus Ewing MSP, who also made representations.

In addition Danny Alexander MP wrote to the First Minister in a letter dated 11 December, received by fax on 12 December, and notified to the First Minister on the same day.

Each of the above also made representations direct to other ministers and to others.

On 6 December 2007 Mary Scanlon MSP made written and verbal representations to the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment and to the Minister for Environment, as did Rhoda Grant MSP. On 6 December John Farquhar Munro MSP made verbal representations to these ministers.

Mary Scanlon, Rhoda Grant and Danny Alexander wrote to other individuals and agencies including SEPA whose then chairman, Sir Ken Collins, was contacted by mail in letters dated 6 December 2007. Rhoda Grant drew attention in her letter to Sir Ken Collins to the fact that she had also written to the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment, and to the Chief Executive of SEPA, Campbell Gemmell.

Mary Scanlon MSP and Danny Alexander MP were also in direct contact with Tom Inglis, SEPA''s Head of Environmental Protection and Improvement (North) concerning the Aviemore development and SEPA''s processing of the flood risk assessments.

As the constituency MSP Fergus Ewing MSP wrote to Richard Lochhead, Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment on 29 November and 6 December and was in touch with the various agencies involved.

Question reference: S3W-09041

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 January 2008
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 25 February 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether, during any discussions the First Minister has had with Mr Donald Macdonald, the issue of the planning application in Aviemore in which Mr Macdonald had an interest was ever raised and formed any part of such discussions.

Question reference: S3W-09054

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 January 2008
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 25 February 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Scottish Environment Protection Agency is intended to operate independently of ministers in its day-to-day operational role and in relation to individuals and casework, albeit within a framework of policies and priorities agreed by ministers.

Question reference: S3W-09046

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 January 2008
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 25 February 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions the First Minister has had with other ministers following and concerning any issues raised by Mr Donald Macdonald or his representatives or others on his behalf in respect of a planning application in Aviemore in which Mr Macdonald had an interest.

On 6 December 2007, the First Minister discussed with the Minister for Community Safety the letters received from cross-party parliamentarians about the Aviemore planning applications and sought information on the background to the issue from Mr Ewing as constituency MSP.

On 7 December 2007, the First Minister discussed with me the representations submitted by cross-party parliamentarians about the Aviemore applications which suggested that Scottish Government agencies might be responsible for delaying matters.

Question reference: S3W-09049

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 January 2008
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 25 February 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether any minister raised issues with any public agency which had a locus in the planning application in Aviemore in which Mr Donald Macdonald had an interest, following representations received from Mr Macdonald, his representatives or others to the First Minister and, if so, which agencies these were.

I met the Convenor and the Chief Executive of the Cairngorms National Park Authority on 5 December 2007 to discuss their plans for taking forward the business of the authority over the coming year. In the course of this meeting the convenor referred to the significant media and local interest, including local MSP interest, in the Aviemore planning applications and informed me how the matter was being handled by the authority.

On 7 December I discussed with the Chief Executive of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency the process and timescales for SEPA''s work assessment with the Aviemore planning applications.

The Minister for Community Safety, acting in his capacity as constituency MSP, has raised issues with different public agencies concerning the Aviemore planning applications on a number of occasions.

The Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment raised issues with his officials in the light of correspondence from the constituency MSP on 29 November 2007. Officials were subsequently in touch with SEPA.

Question reference: S3W-09061

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 January 2008
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 25 February 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what procedures ministers would normally be expected to follow before considering any direction to an independent non-departmental public body or other agency.

Question reference: S3W-09067

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 January 2008
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 25 February 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the conversation between the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the Minister for Environment regarding the planning application in Aviemore in which Mr Donald Macdonald had an interest was arranged by the minister’s private secretary.

Question reference: S3W-09052

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 January 2008
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 25 February 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Chief Planner had any contact with Cairngorm National Park Authority planning officials concerning the planning application in Aviemore in which Mr Donald Macdonald had an interest; if so, when such discussions took place and what issues were discussed.

The Chief Planner was copied into, and acknowledged, an e-mail from the Head of Planning at Cairngorms National Park Authority to the Head of the Landscapes and Habitats Division (in his role as sponsor for the national park authority) on 7 December 2007. This e-mail re-iterated the verbal information provided to me by the convenor of the park authority on 5 December regarding the process which the park authority was following in handling the planning applications for the proposed development.

Question reference: S3W-09053

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 January 2008
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 25 February 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what protects the Scottish Environment Protection Agency’s operational independence in the conduct of its statutory duties.

Question reference: S3W-09059

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 January 2008
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 25 February 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive on how many occasions since May 2007 the Minister for Environment has raised with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency operational matters in relation to its independent statutory role in individual planning applications and in relation to which applications.