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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 2251 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S4W-09469

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 September 2012
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 24 September 2012

To ask the Scottish Government (a) how many and (b) which applications since September 2001 for the modification or discharge of planning obligations have required further environmental impact or habitats regulations assessment.

Question reference: S4O-01242

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 August 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 September 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion and number of students studying for a Diploma in Legal Practice in 2012-13 will receive the maximum Postgraduate Tuition Fee Loan.

Question reference: S4W-08496

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 29 June 2012
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 8 August 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to update its 12% energy efficiency target by 2020 to match the EU target of 17%.

The Scottish Government has no plans to update the 12% energy efficiency target at present.

The indicative European Union target is to reduce energy consumption by 20% by 2020, calculated using primary energy consumption against a projected 2020 business as usual baseline. This business as usual baseline assumes that primary energy consumption increases out to 2020.

Scotland has an energy efficiency target to reduce total final energy consumption by 12% by 2020, set against a three year average baseline over the period 2005 to 2007, and not against an increasing business as usual baseline as is the case with the EU. Applying the EU methodology to Scottish figures suggests that by meeting the Scottish target we will meet the indicative EU target of 20%.

The 17% figure quoted does not appear in the final agreed text in the Directive. However, member states had previously committed to a voluntary energy saving target of 20% by 2020. The compromise agreement set out in the Directive is expected to deliver energy savings of around 15% on a business as usual basis and there is potential for a further 2% saving through tougher emission standards for cars and vans, and the remaining 3% through new eco-design measures such as upgraded boilers.

The most recent energy trends data in December 2011 indicated that Scotland's final energy consumption reduced by 7.4% in 2008 against the 2005 to 2007 averaged baseline and by 9.6% in 2009 against the baseline (the latest year for which full data is available.) This reduction in consumption indicates that Scotland is on track to achieve the 12% reduction target in 2020.

Question reference: S4W-07376

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 3 August 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients have been transferred from the NHS to private healthcare providers by each NHS board in each year since 2007-08 and what the cost has been.

Information on the number of hospital episodes carried out at independent hospitals on behalf of NHS boards in the financial year ending 31 March 2011 is provided in the following table. It is not possible to provide information for earlier years as data is not of sufficient quality.

Number of Hospital patients Treated as Inpatient and Day Cases By NHS Boards And the Independent Healthcare Sector On Behalf of NHS Boards in 2010-11

NHS Board	Patients treated by NHS Board	Patients treated by the private sector	% of patients treated by the private sector.
NHS Ayrshire and Arran^P	35,848	304	0.8%
NHS Borders	7,738	127	1.6%
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	15,536	2	0.0%
NHS Fife	21,741	89	0.4%
NHS Forth Valley	17,349	258	1.5%
NHS Grampian^P	51,410	3	0.0%
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	147,305	0	-
NHS Highland	23,270	0	-
NHS Lanarkshire^P	43,993	324	0.7%
NHS Lothian	66,544	804	1.2%
NHS Orkney	1,847	0	-
NHS Shetland	2,167	0	-
NHS Tayside	35,588	0	-
NHS Western Isles	2,604	0	-
Golden Jubilee National Hospital	9,147	0	-
NHSScotland	482,087	1,911	0.4%

Source: ISD SMR01.

^PProvisional.

Information obtained from boards shows that the spend on the use of the independent healthcare sector has drop from £23.8 million in 2008-09 to £8 million in 2010-11 – the latest available information. The following table provides information by NHS board.

It should be borne in mind in looking at the funding that this does not directly relate to patients treated by the independent healthcare sector. This is because some of the funding will relate to equipment such as a mobile MRI scanner or a mobile theatre. However in some case patients will continue to be treated by NHS staff as part of their normal working arrangements and not by private sector staff.

NHS Board	2008-09 £000	2009-10 £000	20010-11 £000
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	1,819	1,917	1,958
NHS Borders	156	292	436
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	810	99	30
NHS Fife	2,090	1,712	462
NHS Forth Valley	1,569	1,126	495
NHS Grampian	2,315	1,453	1,628
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	800	3,452	0
NHS Highland	30	49	173
NHS Lanarkshire	1,992	740	725
NHS Lothian	5,100	4,157	2,056
NHS Orkney	0	0	0
NHS Shetland	0	0	0
NHS Tayside	6,174	4,172	84
Western Isles	0	0	0
Golden Jubilee National Hospital	995	-	-
NHSScotland	23,850	19,169	8,047

The Scottish Government’s policy is that NHS boards should use NHS funding to build sustainable capacity. The use of the independent healthcare sector should only be used in the margins to deal with short-term capacity issues. This is reflected by the significant reduction in NHS spend to the independent healthcare sector from £23.9 million in 2008-09 to £8 million in 2010-11. A clear example of building more sustainable NHS capacity was the transfer from the independent healthcare sector of services undertaken at Stracathro Regional Treatment Centre being brought into NHS Tayside ownership in January 2010.

Question reference: S4W-08209

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 22 June 2012
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 9 July 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how it ensures that wind energy projects in designated wildlife sites are monitored regularly.

The Scottish Executive ensures that wind energy projects in designated wildlife sites are given appropriate consideration by ensuring the involvement of the relevant conservation bodies in the evaluation process. When considering applications for large-scale wind generating stations, this involves consulting with developers, the statutory consultees (Scottish Natural Heritage and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency) and other interested parties to evaluate and consider the potential impacts, and to inform planning conditions. Planning conditions are attached to every consent which protect the environment during pre-construction and construction, the operational period of the site, and decommissioning and restoration period.

Developments which have the potential to impact upon any European Designated Site are also subject to Appropriate Assessment as per Conservation (Natural Habitats, &c.) Regulations 1994 as amended. This assessment is conducted by the competent authority, which for large-scale wind developments (greater than 50MW) is Scottish Ministers.

It is the responsibility of the determining authority (the relevant Planning Authority for developments <50MW and Scottish Ministers >50MW) to ensure that any monitoring condition that is applied is well designed, meets established planning tests and makes appropriate provision in consultation with agencies such as SEPA or SNH. It is the responsibility of the Planning Authority to ensure that conditions requiring monitoring are appropriately complied with.

Question reference: S4W-07929

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 15 June 2012
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 28 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how much has been paid to local authorities for running the 2012 Scottish local government elections and what amount remains outstanding.

The Scottish Government is providing £5 million to local authorities towards the cost of running these elections in light of the additional costs they incurred as a result of decoupling local elections from elections to the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish Government is also reimbursing local authorities for the core costs of the electronic counting system which are approximately £3.5 million.

These costs will be reimbursed in summer/autumn 2012.

Other election costs were met by local authorities from their existing allocations.

Question reference: S4W-07930

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 15 June 2012
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 28 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on the recommended (a) rates of pay for staff and (b) reimbursement for volunteers that assist with local government elections.

Question reference: S4W-07928

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 15 June 2012
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 27 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how many properties are valued (a) at under £180,000, (b) between £180,000 and £350,000 and (c) above £350,000, also broken down by local authority.

Question reference: S4W-07131

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 27 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S4W-06877 by Fergus Ewing on 8 May 2012, whether it will publish details of the mechanisms which are in place following the recommendations of the Audit Scotland and Public Audit Committee reports on The Gathering 2009 to provide the necessary accountability and transparency for all public resources invested by the Scottish Government in the Homecoming Scotland 2014 celebrations and to ensure that the related governance arrangements are fit for purpose.

Question reference: S4W-07884

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 June 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 26 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on what funding is available under the Professional and Career Development Loans scheme and whether applications for this are weighted in favour of low-income students.

The Professional and Career Development Loan (PCDL) is a deferred payment bank loan to help pay for vocational training, leading to employment in the UK or the EU. The course must be vocational and can be full time, part time or distance learning. The loan can cover up to two years of learning (or up to three years if the course includes work experience) and can be between £300 and £10,000.

The Skills Funding Agency pays interest on the loan during the period of study and the interest rate is 9.9% (equivalent to 5-6% APR over the typical life time of a loan).

As this is a commercial bank loan the banks set the lending criteria and Government Ministers have no powers to intervene.