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: S5W-09835

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 June 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 19 July 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how the R100 open market review will help communities that are currently waiting at the bottom of a queue for Community Broadband Scotland funding.

Broadband, like defence and foreign affairs, is a matter reserved to the UK Parliament. Despite this, the Scottish Government has committed to extending superfast broadband access to 100% of premises by 2021 through the Reaching 100% (R100) programme.

The R100 Open Market Review is identifying those premises that do not currently have access to superfast broadband, and those for which there are no commercial delivery plans over the next three years. This information will then form the basis of a draft ‘intervention area’, which will be tested through a State Aid Public Consultation. This is a necessary precursor to public sector investment in broadband infrastructure, and will allow initial procurements to be launched later this year.

We expect that communities will then have the choice of continuing with their current proposals, or waiting on the outcome of initial R100 procurements. This would be a decision for the communities themselves. The State Aid process outlined above has the flexibility to allow a reasonable timescale for the Community Broadband Scotland schemes in the current pipeline to make a decision as to how they would like to proceed.

Question reference: S5W-10277

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 10 July 2017
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 19 July 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether there are plans to enact Part 7 of the Planning etc. (Scotland) Act 2006.

Part 7 of the Planning etc. (Scotland) Act 2006 would give Scottish Ministers powers to assess a planning authority's performance or decision making. We currently have no plans to commence this part of the Act.

The Scottish Government’s relationship with authorities changed in November 2007 with the signing of the concordat with COSLA. In the Concordat, the Scottish Government agreed to stand back from micro-managing local authorities. Part 7 was therefore, not commenced.

Instead, a planning performance framework was introduced voluntarily by Heads of Planning Scotland in 2011 which provides a holistic view of planning authorities’ performance and service quality.

The recent Places, People and Planning – Position Statement stated that we would continue to work with the High Level Group on Planning Performance and others in pursuit of improved performance.

Question reference: S5W-09836

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 June 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 29 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what support it can offer residents in the Loch Rannoch area who have reportedly been waiting for improved broadband access for a number of years.

Over 100 premises to the east of Loch Rannoch will gain access to fibre broadband as a result of Gainshare - a clawback mechanism built into the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) contracts. This funding is being made available to accelerate high speed broadband roll-out for Scotland’s rural communities.

Any premises that will not have superfast broadband delivered commercially or through DSSB will be eligible for investment through the Reaching 100% programme which will provide superfast broadband access to 100% of premises across Scotland by the end of 2021.

Question reference: S5W-09837

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 June 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 29 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many applications have been made to Community Broadband Scotland in each year since August 2012, and how many of these were approved.

Since August 2012, Community Broadband Scotland has received a total of 90 applications for grant funding from community organisations. Of the 90, 86 applications were approved. The remaining four applications were withdrawn before a decision was made. The breakdown of applications per year is as follows:

2013-14: 24 applications made (24 approved)

2014-15: 21 applications made (21 approved)

2015-16: 22 applications made (22 approved)

2016-17: 18 applications made (16 approved, 2 withdrawn)

2017-18: 5 applications made (3 approved, 2 withdrawn)

Question reference: S5W-07513

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 29 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how much it estimates the total revenue will be from non-domestic rates in (a) 2016-17 and (b) 2017-18.

Question reference: S5W-09699

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 June 2017
Current Status: Answered by Annabelle Ewing on 21 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-09650 by Annabelle Ewing on 14 June 2017, what the time frame is for its consideration of the recommendations made by the Scottish Law Commission.

Question reference: S5O-01158

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S5W-09650

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 June 2017
Current Status: Answered by Annabelle Ewing on 14 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government when it will implement the Scottish Law Commission's Report on Trust Law (Scot Law Com no 239).

Question reference: S5W-09559

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 June 2017
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 13 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the evidence given by Derek Mackay to the Finance and Constitution Committee on 8 February 2017 (Official Report, c. 1), what its Land and Business Transaction Tax revenues were for 2016-17, and what estimate it has made for 2017-18.

Question reference: S5O-01097

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2017
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 7 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what impact a 50% top rate of income tax would have on public finances.

The Scottish Government has published detailed analysis of the impact of a 50% top rate of income tax in 2017-18 on our website. Revenue forecasts from a 50% rate of income tax are particularly dependent on behavioral effects and so a range of possible revenue impacts was provided. The First Minister has asked the Council of Economic Advisors to consider how and to what extent any revenue risk can be mitigated and we look forward to seeing their report later in the year.

HMRC have indicated that a 5p increase in the additional rate of income tax may raise around £450m in 2018-19 at the whole of UK level. An increase in income tax in the rest of the UK would impact on the Scottish budget through the block grant adjustment and Barnett consequentials depending on how increased revenues were spent.