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: S4W-11512

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 23 November 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 5 December 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how much it pays the Scottish Council for Development and Industry to administer the cities strategy and whether it will provide a breakdown of the administrative costs.

The Scottish Council for Development of Industry (SCDI) was instrumental in bringing together the cities initially and the cities considered that it would be helpful if the SCDI had an ongoing role in facilitating the Scottish Cities Alliance. SCDI provides the Alliance with independent strategic facilitation. In addition, cities considered that it would be helpful if SCDI had some dedicated capacity to support the delivery of the Alliance’s aims and each city has contributed to this. The Scottish Government has matched the funding provided by the cities with a contribution of £90k (inclusive of VAT) during 2011-12.

The funding supports two dedicated posts and the costs of operational delivery.

The SCDI role includes:

Support to and facilitation of the work of the delivery group and action teams to deliver their objectives as agreed by the leadership group;
Engagement of wider stakeholders across the private sector;
Delivery of a programme of strategic events/forums to further the cities agenda; and
Alignment and collaboration with other relevant stakeholders such as the core cities (in England) and the C40 group of cities (which are a Global group).

Question reference: S4O-01576

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 November 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 December 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how many Scottish food and drink products have protected geographical indication status.

Question reference: S4W-10835

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 November 2012
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 12 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has considered the recommendation by the Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change Committee in 2010 that "should funds from the UK policies for reducing emissions from the homes and communities sector prove inadequate, the Scottish Government should provide additional alternative funding to ensure that energy efficiency targets in this sector are achievable"’ in its consideration of the 2013-14 draft budget, and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.

In considering the 2013-14 draft budget, the Scottish Government has sought to maximise the funds available to meet its fuel poverty, energy efficiency and emission reduction targets, within the limited powers it currently holds. The Scottish Government is investing £250 million over the Spending Review to tackle fuel poverty, reduce carbon emissions and support jobs. This includes £65m per annum to support a National Retrofit Programme which will lever in significant additional funding from energy companies’ regulatory obligations, yielding around £200m per annum to improve the energy efficiency of Scotland’s homes and tackle fuel poverty. This is also in line with the recommendations of the Energy, Enterprise and Tourism Committee report into fuel poverty in February 2012 and can be contrasted with the UK Government which will cease direct funding to tackle fuel poverty in England altogether from 2013-14.

Question reference: S4W-10177

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 October 2012
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 30 October 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what the criteria are for awards from the Renewable Energy Investment Fund.

Question reference: S4W-09825

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 September 2012
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 25 October 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding there will be for the National Retrofit Programme in 2013-14; when this will be announced, and what account will be taken of fuel poverty in the Highlands and Islands in determining this.

Question reference: S4W-09835

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 September 2012
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 18 October 2012

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-08299 by Stewart Stevenson on 24 July 2012, whether it will provide an update as to when it will announce the appointment of the convener of the Crofting Commission.

Question reference: S4O-01377

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 October 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 October 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how it works with further and higher education institutions to develop skills relevant to the renewable energy sector.

Question reference: S4W-09837

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 September 2012
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 12 October 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how many people are employed on zero-hours contracts, broken down by gender and expressed as a percentage.

It is not possible to give an estimate for the number of people in Scotland who had a zero hours agreed work arrangement during April to June 2012, as the data is unreliable. This is due to the small sample size of this cohort in Scotland.

Note:

1. The question in the LFS on special working-hours arrangements is only asked during the April to June and October to December quarters on the Labour Force Survey. The information is, therefore, not available on the Annual Population Survey (as the question is not asked in every quarter).

2. A zero hours contract is where a person is not contracted to work a set number of hours, and is only paid for the number of hours that they actually work.

Question reference: S4W-09407

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 September 2012
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 20 September 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what the maximum length and width is for tracks for agriculture or forestry purposes that can be laid without the need for planning consent.

Question reference: S4W-09410

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 September 2012
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 20 September 2012

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will remove permitted development rights for tracks laid for agriculture and forestry purposes.

The Scottish Government recently consulted publicly on a number of proposed amendments to the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (Scotland) Order 1992. The consultation included proposals to remove permitted development rights for new tracks and for widening or lengthening existing tracks. Permitted development rights for repairing existing tracks would be retained.

Responses to the consultation have been analysed by an independent consultant. The analysis of responses has been published. The Scottish Government is considering the arguments put forward by respondents to the consultation.

The analysis is published on the Scottish Government website and can be viewed at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2012/09/3943. A summary of the key findings is also available at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2012/09/2886/0.