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 2224 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S4W-00391

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 May 2011
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 16 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding the impact of changes to housing benefit on residents of communities with high-cost housing.

We wrote to the Lord Freud, Minister for Welfare Reform at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), on 20 December 2010 to express our significant concerns about the adverse consequences of the UK Government’s housing benefit reforms, and followed that by providing DWP officials with a full Scottish Impact Assessment paper.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Built-Environment/Housing/Supply-Demand/Chma/Benefitchanges

We anticipate that the raft of reforms will put considerable pressure on the availability of lower cost accommodation in many areas, not only in communities where housing costs are higher, and on services to support people suffering from financial or housing difficulties. It will adversely affect Scottish Government policies on the prevention of homelessness, the promotion of mixed communities, and the promotion of fair opportunities for disabled people.

We have raised our concerns with DWP ministers and officials at various discussions since then, and will continue to take every opportunity available to us to do so.

Question reference: S4W-00556

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 15 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will extend the Home Insulation Scheme to other areas during the current parliamentary session.

The Home Insulation Scheme is being wound down and will not continue in 2011-12. In March 2011 I announced that the Universal Home Insulation Scheme (UHIS), offering free energy efficiency measures, would operate in 20011-12. UHIS allows local authorities to deliver schemes in line with local priorities under the Home Energy Scotland banner. An announcement on the detail of the scheme will be made shortly.

Question reference: S4W-00557

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 15 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will reopen the boiler scrappage scheme and, if so, from what date.

Question reference: S4W-00555

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 15 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many homes have received assistance under the Home Insulation Scheme in each local authority area in each year since 2007.

The Home Insulation Scheme began in November 2009. Since then, the Scottish Government has supported the development of the programme which has enabled around 390,000 homes across Scotland to be offered energy efficiency advice, and where appropriate discounted or free insulation measures and interest free loans together with referrals to other schemes such as the Energy Assistance Package. 29 local authorities have chosen to participate in the scheme and the number of properties which received an offer of assistance in each participating area is as follows.

Local Authority	Properties 2009-10	Properties 2010-11	Total Properties
Aberdeenshire		15,927	15,927
Angus	12,541	11,901	24,442
Argyll and Bute		6,943	6,943
City of Edinburgh	12,842	12,580	25,422
Clackmannanshire		11,705	11,705
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	9,459	2,674	12,133
Dumfries and Galloway		35,492	35,492
Dundee	8,930	7,432	16,362
East Ayrshire		9,391	9,391
East Dunbartonshire		12,330	12,330
East Lothian		5,498	5,498
East Renfrewshire		10,507	10,507
Falkirk		13,632	13,632
Fife	8,622	6,414	15,036
Glasgow	13,510	7,108	20,618
Highland	8,682	4,987	13,669
Midlothian		10,884	10,884
Moray		6,840	6,840
North Lanarkshire		8,384	8,384
Orkney	858	8,672	9,530
Perth and Kinross		14,584	14,584
Renfrewshire		11,982	11,982
Scottish Borders		9,287	9,287
Shetland		8,071	8,071
South Ayrshire		3,795	3,795
South Lanarkshire	1,374		1,374
Stirling	18,550	19,815	38,365
West Dunbartonshire		12,770	12,770
West Lothian		8,969	8,969
Total	95,368	298,574	393,942

Question reference: S4W-00554

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 15 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many homes have received grants under the Energy Assistance Package in each local authority area in each year since 2007.

The Energy Assistance Package was introduced in April 2009. The Energy Assistance Package offers a much broader range of support to a wider group of people than the previous Central Heating Programme and Warm Deal, including: energy advice, help to maximise income, help to reduce energy costs and installation of insulation and heating systems. This help is available to eligible older people and families. The following table shows the number of homes that received Scottish Government funded heating systems or insulation under the 2009-10 budget. A report on installations under the 2010-11 budget will be issued this summer.

Aberdeen City	325
Aberdeenshire	519
Angus	362
Argyll and Bute	305
Clackmannanshire	112
Dumfries and Galloway	558
Dundee City	421
East Ayrshire	248
East Dunbartonshire	285
East Lothian	192
East Renfrewshire	237
Edinburgh, City of	838
Eilean Siar	255
Falkirk	337
Fife	863
Glasgow City	1,219
Highland	820
Inverclyde	236
Midlothian	184
Moray	330
North Ayrshire	426
North Lanarkshire	741
Orkney Islands	76
Perth and Kinross	402
Renfrewshire	437
Scottish Borders	270
Shetland Islands	26
South Ayrshire	413
South Lanarkshire	780
Stirling	319
West Dunbartonshire	225
West Lothian	239
Scotland	13,000

Question reference: S4W-00156

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 May 2011
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 14 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what awards have been made from the National Renewables Infrastructure Fund and to what organisations or businesses.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) has awarded £5 million to Scrabster Harbour Trust and both HIE and Scottish Enterprise are involved in detailed ongoing negotiations with a number of site owners. In parallel with activities associated with the National Renewables Infrastructure Fund (NRIF), SE and SDI have been actively involved in the work undertaken to secure the recent offshore wind testing related investments announced by Gamesa, SSE and Doosan. Although no funding awards have been made from the NRIF to date, announcements are anticipated in the near future.

Question reference: S4W-00438

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 14 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made on those projects proposed in the 2008 Infrastructure Investment Plan that are being taken forward.

Question reference: S4W-00437

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 14 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many of the projects proposed the in 2008 Infrastructure Investment Plan (a) have been completed, (b) are being taken forward or (c) have yet to begin.

Question reference: S4W-00436

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 14 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will publish an updated infrastructure investment plan.

Question reference: S4W-00369

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 May 2011
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 14 June 2011

The National Housing Trust initiative differs from the traditional grant funding approach in that the purchase of homes will be jointly funded by participating councils and developers, with the Scottish Government providing guarantees to councils to ensure they are able to repay any money they borrow to fund the scheme. As such there is no "funding available" or required in the same sense as for grant-based schemes.