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 2175 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S4W-24392

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 09 February 2015
Current Status: Answered by Aileen McLeod on 17 February 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to the Forestry Commission Scotland with the preparation of its new corporate plan.

Question reference: S4W-24391

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 09 February 2015
Current Status: Answered by Aileen McLeod on 17 February 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many applications to decroft by owner-occupier crofters have been made in each year since 2007, and how many were approved.

Question reference: S4W-24319

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 February 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 17 February 2015

To ask the Scottish Government which key stakeholders it plans to meet in advance of the launch of its public consultation on unconventional gas production.

Question reference: S4W-24318

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 February 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 17 February 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the statement by the Minister for Business, Energy and Tourism on 28 January 2015 (Official Report, c.17), how it will examine the climate consequences of unconventional gas production during the current moratorium.

Question reference: S4W-24315

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 February 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 17 February 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-23976 by Fiona Hyslop on 22 January 2015, whether capital funding provided to the National Performing Companies is ringfenced to assets owned by those organisations, or whether it can be used for assets owned by third parties and, if so, to what extent.

Question reference: S4W-24317

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 February 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 17 February 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-23976 by Fiona Hyslop on 22 January 2015, whether it will provide a breakdown of the capital allocations to the National Performing Companies by the (a) asset benefiting from the funding, (b) value of the funding and (c) year of expenditure.

From the figures set out in the answer to S4W-23976, Scottish Ballet’s expenditure was all on the Tramway building, Scottish Opera’s expenditure was all in relation to the Theatre Royal project and the Royal Scottish National Opera expenditure was all on the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.

The National Theatre’s expenditure up to 2011-12 was all on their existing building at Civic House. In 2012-13 and thereafter, capital funding was spent on the planned new headquarters at Speirs Lock.

Question reference: S4W-24072

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 19 January 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 5 February 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what work it has done to assess the impact on (a) investment in flood prevention, (b) investment in national parks, (c) support for farming and food production and promotion, (d) natural heritage and biodiversity, (e) rural communities and (f) its ambition to meet its climate change targets of a £4 billion reduction in its budget if the Barnett formula is abandoned.

Question reference: S4W-23977

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 12 January 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 2 February 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what capital funding it will allocate to each of the National Performing Companies in 2015-16.

In 2015-16, £1.2 million in capital funding has been allocated to the National Theatre of Scotland towards the cost of its new headquarters. In addition the Draft Budget 2015-16 provides for £2 million in financial transactions (loans) for this project.

No capital grant is currently planned for the other four National Performing Companies in 2015-16. In 2014-15 we completed our capital funding commitment for major projects undertaken by Scottish Opera (Theatre Royal Glasgow) and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (Glasgow Royal Concert Hall).

Question reference: S4W-23976

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 12 January 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 22 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what funding it has provided to each of the National Performing Companies for the purpose of maintenance and refurbishment of property in each year since 1999-00.

Grant funding for the National Performing Companies is based on their delivering an agreed programme of artistic and educational activity and on meeting criteria for designation as National Performing Companies. The companies budget for routine maintenance and refurbishment from within the totality of Scottish Government and other income.

Capital grant funding allocated to the companies for investment in property is shown in the following table. The Scottish Chamber Orchestra does not own any buildings. It should be noted that prior to 2007-08, the companies received their core grant funding from the Scottish Arts Council.

Year	Scottish Ballet	Scottish Opera	Scottish Chamber Orchestra	National Theatre of Scotland	Royal Scottish National Orchestra
2006-07	£600,000	-	-	-	-
2007-08	£1,400,000	-	-	-	-
2008-09	-	-	-	£42,000	-
2009-10	-	£33,000	-	£4,000	-
2010-11	-	£320,000	-	£17,000	-
2011-12	-	£285,000	-	£26,000	£440,000
2012-13	-	£3,517,000	-	£12,000	£880,000
2013-14	£15,000	£935,000	-	£400,000	£7,320,000
2014-15	-	-	-	£132,000	£560,000

Question reference: S4W-23847

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 January 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 20 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that Scotland benefits from the £500 million announced by Ofgem in November 2014 for the undergrounding of old transmission lines in protected areas such as national parks and national scenic areas.

The Scottish Government is taking necessary steps to ensure that Scotland benefits by engaging with the Scottish transmission owners, to encourage them to develop proposals for submission to the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem), to ensure that any opportunities to benefit Scotland are realised.

As part of its price control review for the period 2013 to 2021, Ofgem has allowed up to £500 million for the three UK transmission owners (National Grid in England and Wales and Scottish Power Energy Networks and Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission in Scotland). This is to allow these companies to reduce the visual impact of existing transmission lines in National Parks, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty in England and Wales and National Scenic Areas in Scotland. This does not need to be limited to undergrounding and there is strong argument that undergrounding would be an expensive option which severely limits the amount of lines whose visual impact could be mitigated.

Opportunities in Scotland are restricted to the 4% of the network within the eligible designated area. Scottish Government officials have engaged with the two Scottish transmission owners to encourage participation and to promote Scotland’s interests in this regard. The companies are in the process of developing a methodology for providing an assessment of the areas concerned. It is envisaged that this methodology will include stakeholder engagement, a technical impact assessment of all relevant infrastructure and a schedule of potential mitigation options. Consultation with communities and other stakeholders will also feature in any proposals going forward.

Ofgem has published factsheet 109 which provides background and explanation of the available funding. This factsheet is available from its website at:

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/ofgem-publications/82593/visualamenityfactsheetfinalenglish.pdf