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: S4O-05693

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 March 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what support it provides to employers in the care sector to help them pay the living wage.

Question reference: S4F-03319

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 14 March 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 March 2016

To ask the First Minister when the Scottish Government expects a new film studio for Scotland to be delivered.

Question reference: S4W-29864

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Aileen McLeod on 8 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what resources it has allocated to provide support for farmers until a decision on the future of the beaver population is made.

Question reference: S4W-29923

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 1 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on introducing restrictions on charities and other third sector organisations in using public funds to lobby (a) it, (b) local government and (c) the Scottish Parliament.

A key theme of the Programme for Government is encouraging and facilitating participation by everyone in the debates and decisions that matter to them most, regardless of circumstances or backgrounds. We recognise that third sector and equalities organisations play an important role in this, providing a voice for communities on public policy, and bringing a deep level of insight into the issues faced by communities and the most vulnerable people in society. We have no wish to deter this important part of our democratic process, and have no intention of adding a clause to our grant offer letters, as the United Kingdom Government is planning to do.

Existing Scottish Government grant provisions give the required protection and would prevent the use of grants for party political lobbying activity. We therefore already have appropriate and well-designed controls in place to ensure that public money is spent for approved purposes only.

Question reference: S4W-29926

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Aileen McLeod on 29 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what the average cost is of planting one hectare of trees and what the cost will be of meeting its target of planting 100 million trees.

The average cost of planting one hectare of trees is £4,500. This figure is based on the average grant per hectare provided for tree planting within the new Forestry Grant Scheme as part of the Scotland Rural Development Programme 2014-20. The budget for tree planting within the Scotland Rural Development Programme is co-funded by the European Union, with 55% support from the European Union and 45% from the Scottish Government. Based on these figures, the cost of planting 100 million trees or 50,000 hectares will be approximately £225 million. It should be noted that this is an average cost and it will vary significantly depending on the location and type of woodland planted.

Question reference: S4O-05593

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 25 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met NHS Tayside and what issues were discussed.

Question reference: S4F-03231

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 February 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 February 2016

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to the latest Bank of Scotland's Purchasing Managers' Index.

Question reference: S4W-29392

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 January 2016
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 1 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) primary and (b) secondary school pupils have been classified as “school refusers” in each of the last five years, broken down by local authority.

Question reference: S4W-29393

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 January 2016
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 28 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what the availability is of superfast broadband in each local authority area, and what information it has regarding how many homes (a) are able to access and (b) have such a service.

Our Digital Superfast Broadband (DSSB) programme aims to make fibre-based broadband available to 95% of premises across Scotland by the end of 2017. Ofcom published its Connected Nations 2015 report on 1 December 2015. The information within the following table is extracted from the full dataset, which provides information on a range of speeds and corresponding take up. The full dataset is available at http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/research/connected-nations2015/Fixed_Local_Authority_2015.zip

Local Authority Name	Next Generation Access (NGA) Availability (% premises) by Local Authority	Superfast Broadband Availability (% premises) by Local Authority	Take-up of Lines 10-30 Mbit/s (number of lines) by Local Authority	Take-up of lines > 30 Mbit/s (number of lines) by Local Authority
Aberdeen City	93	83	36430	19666
Aberdeenshire	82	52	31186	11896
Angus	83	63	15970	8385
Argyll and Bute	41	21	3741	881
City of Edinburgh	90	88	69050	91531
Clackmannanshire	75	67	6755	3274
Dumfries and Galloway	86	55	15894	6915
Dundee City	96	94	17091	28186
East Ayrshire	83	70	13189	7376
East Dunbartonshire	91	83	11881	15365
East Lothian	74	57	17097	5010
East Renfrewshire	93	82	10303	12814
Falkirk	91	87	13258	26474
Fife	86	74	44088	38512
Glasgow City	90	80	82141	64072
Highland	78	43	20667	11152
Inverclyde	87	79	8454	12354
Midlothian	84	66	8849	5488
Moray	86	60	11883	5309
Na H-Eileanan an Iar	39	0	7	2
North Ayrshire	82	65	20334	8479
North Lanarkshire	89	84	29405	48061
Orkney Islands	54	19	2416	201
Perth and Kinross	75	52	18362	13061
Renfrewshire	88	79	19393	23569
Scottish Borders	81	52	14914	6874
Shetland Islands	73	30	1359	826
South Ayrshire	86	73	12950	8029
South Lanarkshire	91	83	28421	43268
Stirling	89	68	8708	6165
West Dunbartonshire	94	93	9319	16816
West Lothian	82	69	21427	17300

In terms of conventions, NGA refers to the rollout of fibre-enabled cabinets. Superfast broadband is defined as speeds above 24 Megabits per second (Mbps).

Question reference: S4W-29335

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 15 January 2016
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 22 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government when it will set out the detailed remit for its review of business rates announced in the Draft Budget 2016-17; who will conduct the review, and in what timescale.