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-06368

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 22 November 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether its budget allocation for local authorities for flood management and protection is based on analysis of the different needs across Scotland.

The funding for floodingwill be provided by means of a block grant to each local authority. It will thenbe the responsibility of each local authority to allocate the total financial resourcesavailable to it on the basis of local needs and priorities having first fulfilledits statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local prioritiesincluding the Scottish Government’s key strategic objectives and manifesto commitments.

Question reference: S3W-06229

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 12 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 22 November 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S3W-5742 and S3W-5744 by Maureen Watt on 7 and 6 November 2007 respectively and the answer to the second supplementary to question S3F-125 by Alex Salmond on 6 September 2007 (Official Report, c. 1501), given that the second supplementary question referred specifically to the 22 school closures proposed in the Children & Families Estates Review: Rationalisation and Development Programme, published after May 2007 and approved by the City of Edinburgh Council’s ruling SNP/Liberal Democrat coalition on 23 August 2007, whether it will now retract the statement that “the so-called hit list was devised under a Labour administration”.

Question reference: S3W-06113

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 21 November 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what benefits were identified as being delivered by the allocation of £40 million in Less Favoured Area Support Scheme payments in 2006-07 and how these were measured.

The RuralDevelopment Regulation 1698/2005 states that payments to farmers in areas withhandicaps should contribute, through continued use of agricultural land, tomaintaining the countryside as well as maintaining and promoting sustainablefarming systems. Research by the Macaulay Institute and others, for the ScottishExecutive Environment andRural Affairs Department in2006, found that Less Favoured Area Support Scheme (LFASS) made an importantcontribution to the viability of Less Favoured Area agriculture.

Question reference: S3W-06112

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 21 November 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive from where in the Environment and Rural Development budget the £40 million in Less Favoured Area Support Scheme payments made by it in 2006-07 came.

Question reference: S3W-06111

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 21 November 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the extra £40 million in Less Favoured Area Support Scheme payments made by it in 2006-07 was additional money.

Question reference: S3W-06114

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 21 November 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to avoid the gap in the 2007-08 agri-environment programme in this year’s budget.

There issufficient funding to cover the cost of all existing agri-environmentagreements and for new agreements. We are currently unable to enter into newagri-environment agreements due to delays in the approval of the Scottish Rural DevelopmentPlan and the consequentabsence of a legal basis for new agreements. My officials have asked the Commission to advise whetherthey can envisage any exceptional mechanism for approval of a one yearextension of agri-environment agreements expiring in 2007 and I await theCommission’s response.

Question reference: S3W-06115

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 19 November 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide any funding to cities in addition to the standard local government settlement in recognition of their complex role in supporting the economy.

Scotland’s cities will benefit from the newarrangements announced as part of the Strategic Spending Review on 14 November2007. The package of measures jointly agreed with COSLA marks a fundamentalshift in the relationship between the Scottish Government and local government.

One element of the package is a fair cash settlementfor local government. Other elements include the introduction of a Single OutcomeAgreement, a significant reduction in ring-fencing of separate capital andrevenue grants, streamlining bureaucracy and reporting requirements, and the retentionof efficiency savings.

These newarrangements, and the freedoms and flexibilities that they afford, will givecity-based local authorities greater scope to maintain their investment in cityinfrastructure as part of their vital role in supporting the economy.

Question reference: S3W-06027

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 02 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 14 November 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it accepts the City of Edinburgh Council’s estimate that 1,200 new affordable houses require to be built every year for the next decade in order to address Edinburgh’s housing shortage.

The City of Edinburgh Council, as strategic housing authority for Edinburgh, is responsible for determining housing needs withinthe City of Edinburgh area.

The figure of12,000 new affordable houses required to be built over the next ten years wasderived from evidence contained in the Lothian Housing Needs and Market Studyundertaken in 2005.

In our discussiondocument Firm Foundations: the Future of Housing in Scotland, the Scottish Government has set out our proposals for improving the supply andchoice of affordable housing nationally. These include challenging Scotland’slocal authorities, developers and builders to increase the rate of new housingsupply to at least 35,000 houses a year by the middle of the next decade;increasing the role of local authorities as landlords by offering themfinancial incentives to build new council houses; ending the right to buy onnew social housing, and reforming the regime for subsidising social housing, sothat it support the largest possible programme of new social housing.

Question reference: S3W-06031

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 02 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 14 November 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what energy efficiency criteria will be included in the single seller survey.

The Single Survey will contain information in the form of an Energy Performance Certificate and energy report. The objective is to give owners and prospective buyers information about the energy efficiency of the properties concerned and to encourage investment in energy efficiency measures by enabling potential purchasers to compare buildings in terms of their likely fuel costs. Specifically, the following information will be included:

an assessment of the CO₂-impact rating of the property, with a specific indication of current and potential energy efficiency;

current and potential estimated annual energy use (Kwh/m² per year);

current and potential annual carbon dioxide emissions (Kg/m² per year);

current and potential estimated running costs for lighting, heating and hot water;

an explanation of the standard assumptions made about occupancy, heating patterns and geographical location, and the energy use and fuel costs taken into account;

a description of recommended measures to improve the rating of the dwelling, including measures that may become cost-effective in the future and measures which may be cost-effective when other building work is being carried out;

the typical costs of the recommended measures;

typical cost savings for each individual recommended improvement;

further information on the purpose and benefit of the rating and improvements;

advice on the need for legal permissions (for example planning, listed building and building warrants);

sources of further information on energy efficiency, and

contact details for the surveyor.

Question reference: S3W-06028

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 02 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 14 November 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether its targets for 35,000 new affordable houses will meet the requirements of Scottish Planning Policy 6: Renewable Energy for reducing carbon emissions and the use of onsite microgeneration and combined heat and power systems.

Our housingdiscussion document, Firm Foundations: The Future of Housing in Scotland, setsout our proposals to challenge local authorities, developers and builders toincrease the rate of new housing supply to at least 35,000 per year by themiddle of the next decade. This increase in supply would apply to all tenures,both market and affordable housing and would require all new homes to be builtby the high environmental standards set by the relevant planning requirementsand building standards applicable at that time.

Revised energystandards were introduced on 1 May 2007, for all new buildingsand those which are converted, extended or altered. These measures are the bestin the UK and are expected to save around 6,000 tonnes of carbon per year, onthe basis of 35,000 new houses per year, which is an 18-25% saving comparedwith 2005. The energystandards required to be met by new houses are the functional standards for Section6: Energy in the Building (Scotland)Regulations 2004 asamended in 2006 and 2007.

Scottish ministers appointed an Expert Panel whichmet in September 2007 to advise on a Low Carbon Buildings Standards Strategyfor Scotland. The report of the panel is likely to set out anumber of workstreams on a wide range of energy efficiency and performancemeasures specific to buildings, including the use of low carbon equipment. Thepanel’s report is due before the end of the year.

The requirementsof Scottish Planning Policy 6: Renewable Energy for the use of onsitezero and low carbon equipment to contribute to a reduction in carbon emissionswill operate alongside, and in addition to, the requirements set out inbuilding standards.