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: S2W-12871

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 December 2004
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 21 December 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to change the regime for Renewable Obligation Certificates to bring exempt suppliers of renewable energy from hydro power within the ambit of the scheme.

Question reference: S2W-12870

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 December 2004
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 21 December 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive why exempt suppliers of renewable energy from hydro power are not eligible for Renewable Obligation Certificates.

Output from large hydro schemes (those over 20 MegaWatts) commissioned before 2 April 2002 is not eligible for support under the Renewables Obligation (Scotland) Order 2004 (the ROS), as the schemes are long established – support under the ROS would constitute a windfall. Output from these schemes is of course classified as renewable, and will continue to make an important contribution towards meeting the Executive’s targets.

Question reference: S2W-12680

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 26 November 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 13 December 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many police officers from each police force are scheduled to be on secondment to police the G8 Summit at the Gleneagles Hotel and for how long.

Question reference: S2W-12575

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 November 2004
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 10 December 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to attract more dentists to the NHS.

The Executive has introduced a range of measures over the last few years aimed at the recruitment of dentists within NHS general dental services. These include allowances for vocational trainees taking up their vocational training year in Scotland and for dentists entering substantive NHS general dental practice in Scotland on completion of vocational training.

Our forthcoming response to the consultation Modernising NHS Dental Services in Scotland will include further measures to support NHS dental services in Scotland.

Question reference: S2W-12574

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 November 2004
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 10 December 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how it will address the issue of whether there are sufficient affordable dentists in Fife.

Responsibility for the overall provision of NHS dental services in the area rests with NHS Fife. NHS boards are encouraged to apply to Scottish ministers for approval for salaried dentist posts where they consider that there is a gap in NHS general dental service provision, which cannot be filled by other means. We continue to support NHS Fife by approving salaried dentist posts where required.

Our consultation Modernising NHS Dental Services in Scotland took a fundamental look at the way NHS dental services are provided, including remuneration. Our forthcoming response to the consultation will include further measures to support NHS dental services in Scotland.

Question reference: S2W-11393

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 October 2004
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 26 November 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive why it decided not to carry out improvements to the Ballinluig junction on the A9 until 2005-06, when the then Deputy Minister for Transport and Planning announced in April 2002 that funding for the junction upgrade would come from budgets in 2003-04 and 2004-05.

Question reference: S2W-11981

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 November 2004
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 18 November 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive why its Comparative Study of Business Tax Revenue shows that business property taxation in Scotland is 17% higher than in the rest of the United Kingdom.

Table 4.2 of the Comparative Study of Business Tax Revenue shows that totaltax revenue raised from business in Scotland relative to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is lower or comparable to most of our competitors with the exception of the United States, Ireland and Austria. This is reproduced in the following table:

Table 4.2 – Business and Transport Tax Revenue Relative to GDP, 2000

Country	Revenues as a percentage of GDP
Corporate Income Taxation	Employers’ Social Security	Business Property Taxation	Business Transport Taxes	Total
Austria	2.1	7.2	0.2	0.2	9.8
Belgium	3.7	8.5	0.1	0.9	13.2
Finland	5.5	8.8	0.3	0.5	15.1
France	3.2	11.3	0.6	1.0	16.1
Germany	1.8	7.3	0.3	1.0	10.4
Ireland	3.8	2.7	0.6	0.9	8.0
Netherlands	4.2	4.7	0.6	0.9	10.4
Scotland	3.5	3.6	2.1	1.1	10.4
Sweden	4.1	11.9	0.5	0.7	17.2
UK	3.7	3.5	1.8	1.4	10.4
USA	2.5	3.5	1.5	0.2	7.7

Source: OECD (2002); GERS (2003).

As can be seen, revenue from business property taxation represents 2.1 per cent of GDP in Scotland, as opposed to 1.8 per cent for the UK as a whole. However, as the report stresses, comparing individual taxes in isolation is misleading. Furthermore, comparison of total tax revenue raised from business follows the methodology and definition used by the Confederation of British Industry in their paper, UK Manufacturing: Strategy into Action, published September 2003. Such a comparison reveals that the overall tax revenue raised from business in Scotland is 10.4 per cent of GDP, the same level as in the UK. This level is comparable to Germany, and the Netherlands, and less than countries such as France, Finland, Belgium and Sweden. As is stated through-out the report, comparing individual tax revenues in isolation can be misleading and the 17 per cent figure quoted in your question, which is a percentage of two percentages,has limited meaning.

Question reference: S2W-11982

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 November 2004
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 18 November 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it will take as a result of its Comparative Study of Business Tax Revenue showing that business property taxation in Scotland is 17% higher than in the rest of the United Kingdom.

I refer the member to the question S2W-11981 answered on 18 November 2004, and would again stress the limitations of such comparisons.

The Scottish Executive is committed to creating the conditions to maximise sustainable economic growth in the medium and long term. The Executive’s strategy to deliver this is laid out in the recently refreshed editions of The Framework for Economic Development in Scotland (Bib. number 33705) and Smart Successful Scotland (Bib. number 34212).

Question reference: S2W-11579

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 October 2004
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 18 November 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how often it will publish progress reports on meeting Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Targets 1 to 3 in Draft Budget 2005-06.

Enterprise and Lifelong Learning’s targets 1 to 3 refer to increasing business expenditure on research and development, improving the productivity of Scottish industry, and improving Scotland’s entrepreneurial performance respectively. Progress towards meeting these targets will be reported through the annual budget documents, along with all others set out in Building a Better Scotland: Enterprise, Opportunity and Fairness (Bib. number 33956).

In addition to this, Targets 1 and 2 are progress measures for A Smart, Successful Scotland (SSS) and are reported on in the reports Measuring Progress Towards a Smart, Successful Scotland (Bib. number 34212).

Question reference: S2W-11578

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 October 2004
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 17 November 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what criteria it will use to measure progress towards Enterprise and Lifelong Learning targets 1 to 3 in Draft Budget 2005-06.

Enterprise and Lifelong Learning’s targets 1 to 3 refer to increasing business expenditure on research and development (R&D), improving the productivity of Scottish industry, and improving Scotland’s entrepreneurial performance respectively. Progress will be measured in each target as follows:

Target 1 – Increase business investment in research and development compared to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) competitors.

An increase in business investment is defined as an increase in total R&D expenditure by businesses in Scotland as a proportion of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), as published annually by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in “R&D Statistics”. Any increase will be measured relative to the average figure for all OECD countries, as published by the OECD Economic Analysis and Statistics (EAS) Division of the Directorate for Science Technology and Industry (DSTI). An increase relative to the OECD average will be where the Scottish figure increases as a proportion of the OECD figure.

Target 2 - Improve productivity levels in Scottish Industry compared to OECD countries.

Productivity levels in Scottish Industry are defined using GDP per worker for international comparisons, and Gross Value Added (GVA) per worker for Scotland. Both measure the value of goods and services produced in an economy. OECD competitors are those countries included in the ONS Productivity database which relates to the G7 countries and includes USA, Japan, France, Germany, Italy and Canada.

Scotland’s performance against this target will be measured using bi-annual data from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)’s regional competitivenessindicators. This data compares each region of the UK against the aggregate UK performance, which is indexed at 100. International comparisons will be made using GDP per worker indices from ONS’s international comparisons of productivity series. These are also available on a bi-annual basis, with new data being released each September. Therefore, Scotland’s performance will be evaluated annually. As the UK is set at 100, an index above 100 indicates better relative productivity for Scotland compared against the UK.

Target 3 – Increase entrepreneurial activity over time.

This target is measured using annual data on VAT registrations per 10,000 of the resident Scottish adult population. The number of enterprises registering for VAT each year is an indicator of the number of business start-ups. It excludes most of the very smallest one-person businesses. The number of VAT registrations is measured per 10,000 persons aged 16 and over, which are taken from the annual mid-year population estimates. This allows the calculation of the number of VAT registrations per head of the adult population. An increase will be deemed to have taken place if the number of VAT registrations per head is higher in subsequent years relative to the baseline.