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-35139

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 July 2010
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 30 July 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many applications to the Energy Saving Scotland home renewables grant scheme were made between 17 March and 1 July 2010.

Question reference: S3W-35136

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 July 2010
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 30 July 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many grants were awarded under the Energy Saving Scotland home renewables grant scheme in each of the last three years, broken down by (a) parliamentary constituency and (b) local authority area.

The following table shows the number of grants awarded under the Energy Saving Scotland home renewables grant scheme in each of the last three years, broken down by local authority area. The information is not routinely held broken down by parliamentary constituency.

Local Authority	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10
Aberdeen City	3	3	4
Aberdeenshire	96	116	135
Angus	34	27	30
Argyll and Bute	39	39	63
Clackmannanshire	4	4	7
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	7	30	36
Dumfries and Galloway	59	45	57
Dundee City	6	1	5
East Ayrshire	17	14	14
East Dunbartonshire	11	6	5
East Lothian	15	17	22
East Renfrewshire	4	4	4
Edinburgh City	25	22	29
Falkirk	4	1	5
Fife	66	51	27
Glasgow City	9	2	3
Highland	118	141	149
Inverclyde	2	2	5
Midlothian	10	9	7
Moray	27	33	32
North Ayrshire	26	17	15
North Lanarkshire	4	5	5
Orkney Islands	38	37	27
Perth and Kinross	73	69	62
Renfrewshire	2	6	10
Scottish Borders	46	40	60
Shetland Islands	52	34	26
South Ayrshire	31	23	14
South Lanarkshire	30	16	21
Stirling	19	23	25
West Dunbartonshire	3	2	3
West Lothian	19	13	12
Total	899	852	919

Question reference: S3W-35135

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 July 2010
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 30 July 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many applications were made to the Energy Saving Scotland home renewables grant scheme in each of the last three years, broken down by (a) parliamentary constituency and (b) local authority area.

The following table shows the number of applications made to the Energy Saving Scotland home renewables grant scheme in each of the last three years, broken down by local authority area. The information is not routinely held broken down by parliamentary constituency.

Local Authority	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10
Aberdeen City	2	4	16
Aberdeenshire	109	184	207
Angus	26	38	44
Argyll and Bute	46	69	71
Clackmannanshire	4	7	10
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	17	55	43
Dumfries and Galloway	68	73	86
Dundee City	7	4	6
East Ayrshire	20	18	19
East Dunbartonshire	12	13	9
East Lothian	18	26	38
East Renfrewshire	7	5	10
Edinburgh City	29	44	51
Falkirk	5	4	12
Fife	75	52	98
Glasgow City	8	1	29
Highland	157	198	249
Inverclyde	4	5	6
Midlothian	10	8	14
Moray	23	54	48
North Ayrshire	27	23	36
North Lanarkshire	8	9	3
Orkney Islands	57	36	83
Perth and Kinross	74	101	126
Renfrewshire	3	11	16
Scottish Borders	63	75	90
Shetland Islands	56	39	45
South Ayrshire	43	22	41
South Lanarkshire	28	36	50
Stirling	21	35	69
West Dunbartonshire	2	6	2
West Lothian	25	26	29
Total	1,054	1,281	1,656

Question reference: S3W-35140

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 July 2010
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 30 July 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how much from the Energy Saving Scotland home renewables grant budget lines in (a) 2007-08, (b) 2008-09 and (c) 2009-10 was spent on grants for (i) electricity and (ii) heat generating technologies.

The following table shows how much from the Energy Saving Scotland home renewables grants budget was spent on grants for electricity and heat generating technologies in each of the last three years.

Technology Type	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10
Heat	£1,888,623	£2,030,486	£2,256,158
Electricity	£195,285	£210,354	£296,633

Question reference: S3W-35138

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 July 2010
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 30 July 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what average percentage of the cost of installing a home renewables device has been covered by grants awarded under the Energy Saving Scotland home renewables grant scheme since 2007.

The following tables show the average percentage of the cost of installing a home renewables device that was covered by grants awarded under the Energy Saving Scotland home renewables grant scheme since 2007. As the cost of the devices varies quite considerably, it is more representative of the scheme to break this down by technology type.

2007-08

Technology	Average Final Installation Cost	Average Grant Amount	Average % of Cost
Air Source Heat Pump	£9,298.97	£2,765.34	29.74%
Biomass	£9,717.45	£2,640.54	27.17%
GSHP	£14,150.25	£3,642.11	25.74%
Hydro	£21,902.70	£3,620.40	16.53%
Lerwick DH	£3,362.30	£956.23	28.44%
Solar Hot Water	£4,420.95	£1,322.00	29.90%
Wind Turbine	£13,819.53	£2,739.44	19.82%
Total	£8,849.53	£2,318.03	26.19%
2008-09
Technology	Average Final Installation Cost	Average Grant Amount	Average % of Cost
Air Source Heat Pump	£10,587.65	£3,126.32	29.53%
Biomass	£12,281.30	£3,176.68	25.87%
GSHP	£15,407.94	£3,794.46	24.63%
Hydro	£11,137.25	£3,226.93	28.97%
Lerwick DH	£3,122.53	£899.58	28.81%
Solar Hot Water	£4,926.66	£1,472.13	29.88%
Solar PV	£11,997.40	£3,331.59	27.77%
Solar space heating	£4,449.59	£1,295.90	29.12%
Wind Turbine	£20,302.88	£3,532.88	17.40%
Total	£10,328.94	£2,630.54	25.47%
2009-10
Technology	Average Final Installation Cost	Average Grant Amount	Average % of Cost
Air Source Heat Pump	£10,441.30	£3,009.47	28.82%
Biomass	£13,704.66	£3,446.16	25.15%
GSHP	£15,647.70	£3,776.66	24.14%
Hydro Turbine	£18,500.00	£4,000.00	21.62%
Lerwick District Heating	£2,966.31	£952.78	32.12%
Solar Hot Water	£5,647.86	£1,667.44	29.52%
Solar PV	£13,742.13	£3,748.24	27.28%
Water Source Heat Pump	£12,916.33	£3,874.90	30.00%
Wind Turbine	£22,695.36	£3,726.74	16.42%
Total	£10,768.00	£2,771.55	25.74%

Question reference: S3W-35137

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 July 2010
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 30 July 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what average amount was awarded under the Energy Saving Scotland home renewables grant scheme in each of the last three years.

The following table show the average amount awarded under the Energy Saving Scotland home renewables grant scheme in each of the last three years.

Year	No. of Grants	Average Amount
2007-08	899	£2,318.03
2008-09	852	£2,630.09
2009-10	919	£2,777.79

Question reference: S3W-34971

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 June 2010
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 23 July 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive when it plans to publish guidance on measuring outcomes for disabled people.

Question reference: S3W-34434

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 11 June 2010
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 24 June 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what the Total Income From Farming (TIFF) in Scotland was between 2005 and the latest year for which figures are available.

Question reference: S3W-34436

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 11 June 2010
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 24 June 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what it is doing to address the decrease in average Farm Business Income from £40,900 in 2007-08 to £38,700 in 2008-09.

Question reference: S3W-34435

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 11 June 2010
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 24 June 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what it is doing to address the £20 million fall in Total Income From Farming in Scotland between 2008 and 2009.

In respect of 2009, the Government paid out £687 million in support for farming, funded from both the EU and Scottish Government budgets. The Government has streamlined application procedures under the Scotland Rural Development Programme, and also brought forward into 2009 and 2010 around £25 million of support for farm business development, from the later years of the programme. Around £330 million supporting 4,500 projects has now been committed under the Rural Priorities scheme, for farms and other rural businesses and organisations. 325 farms have taken advantage of a government-subsidised strategic review of their business under the Whole Farm Review Scheme. For hill farms, the government has introduced successive changes for 2009, 2010 and 2011 which will increase payment rates to active farmers in the most vulnerable areas by 38%. For the longer term, the government has appointed a committee of inquiry chaired by Brian Pack OBE to make recommendations on the future shape of farm support in Scotland. The government has also introduced a range of complementary measures under our food and drink policy, seeking to enhance consumer demand for, and the premium status of, Scottish produce.