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-04732

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 October 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has collected in Land and Buildings Transaction Tax.

Question reference: S4W-27865

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 28 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-27627 by Fergus Ewing on 1 October 2015, what capacity of hydro-storage projects it believes would be necessary in order to accommodate the intermittency issues arising from onshore wind power in order to equate to the baseload output from the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station.

Question reference: S4W-27889

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 27 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of funds distributed by the Community Broadband Scotland Initiative for projects in (a) each local authority area and (b) each year since its inception in 2012.

Community Broadband Scotland has awarded grants totalling £2,423,820 to 13 local authorities across Scotland, as of 23 October 2015. The breakdown is as follows:

2013
Local Authority	Grant Awarded
Argyll and Bute	£9,000
Highland	£234,259
Moray	£14,908
Shetland	£15,000
Aberdeenshire	£15,000
Dumfries and Galloway
East Lothian	£17,000
Midlothian
Fife
Perth and Kinross	£15,000
Scottish Borders	£23,300
South Lanarkshire	£19,620
Stirling	£21,000
Total	£384,087
2014
Local Authority	Grant Awarded
Argyll and Bute	£59,000
Highland	£130,649
Moray	£5,000
Shetland
Aberdeenshire	£21,000
Dumfries and Galloway	£5,000
East Lothian	£152,000
Midlothian	£5,000
Fife	£400
Perth and Kinross	£66,000
Scottish Borders	£5,866
South Lanarkshire	£13,387
Stirling	£7,500
Total	£470,802
2015 to date
Local Authority	Grant Awarded
Argyll and Bute	£1,037,479
Highland	£345,930
Moray
Shetland
Aberdeenshire	£1,000
Dumfries and Galloway
East Lothian
Midlothian
Fife
Perth and Kinross	£110,078
Scottish Borders	£67,444
South Lanarkshire	£7,000
Stirling
Total	£1,568,931

Question reference: S4F-03000

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 October 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 October 2015

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to reports from the Auditor General that it underspent its budget by almost £350 million in 2014-15.

Question reference: S4W-27626

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 5 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the economic impact of it declaring Scotland to be GM-food free.

The Scottish Government’s decision to opt out of growing EU approved GM crops was taken to protect the clean, green image of Scotland’s multi-billion pound food and drink sector. As the latest official figures show, the sector generated a record £14.3 billion for our economy and accounts for around 20% of all Scotland’s exports. Food exports alone are up by 57% from 2007. This growth has occurred without the cultivation of GM crops in Scotland.

The Scottish Government’s long-standing policy takes account of the wider social and economic ramifications that growing GM crops might have for Scotland and our unique brand. We know, from a recent Bank of Scotland study, that over 78% of firms surveyed said that Scottish provenance has a good reputation in international markets. And many of our key export markets for potatoes ask for sight of a GM-free certificate. Scottish food and drink is valued at home and abroad for its natural, high quality and often attracts a premium price.

Question reference: S4W-27655

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Aileen McLeod on 2 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether the decision on the permanent reintroduction of beavers will be (a) a decision in principle to retain or remove, followed by a further period of time to establish the necessary legal and practical detail to deliver this or (b) a fully considered legal and funded proposal that is ready to be implemented right away.

Question reference: S4W-27654

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Aileen McLeod on 2 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what the timetable is for announcing a decision on the future of beavers in Scotland.

Question reference: S4W-27627

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 1 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what evidence it has to support the statement by the Minister for Business, Energy and Tourism on 17 September 2015 that the cost of providing sufficient electricity storage to deal with the intermittency issue arising from onshore wind power “will be far less than the enormous cost of the Hinkley Point nuclear power station” (Official Report, c. 62).

Large hydro storage projects are an effective way of storing energy produced from onshore wind farms. The Department of Energy and Climate Change electricity generation statistics show that the pre-development and expected construction costs of this technology are far lower than nuclear. While the UK Government has made a commitment to provide a bespoke contract for difference for nuclear, there remain a number of barriers to investment in large scale pumped storage that have not been addressed through the Electricity Market Reform process.

Question reference: S4O-04670

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 September 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how the Higher Education Governance (Scotland) Bill will maintain democracy in universities.

Question reference: S4W-26251

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 June 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 29 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met officials from the Department of Energy and Climate Change to discuss the proposed closure of Longannet power plant and its potential replacement with a combined cycle gas turbine plant.

I have sought a meeting with Amber Rudd to discuss a number of energy matters since her appointment. An agreement was eventually made to meet her on 12 October 2015.

The Scottish Government has had extensive engagement with a range of parties over Longannet. I have set out the full range of this engagement in a series of related parliamentary questions. I refer the member to the answers to questions S4W-25246 and S4W-25247 on 7 May 2015, S4W-25248 on 1 May 2015, S4W-25588, S4W-25589, S4W-25591 and S4W-25895 on 2 June 2015, S4W-25896 and S4W-25897 on 26 June 2015 and S4W-26515 on 4 August 2015.

In terms of new thermal generation in Scotland, I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-26252 on 4 August 2015. I already consented a combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) station at Cockenzie in 2011, which Scottish Power confirmed on 18 August 2015 will not now be built, because a combination of high carbon taxes and high transmission charging means that running a thermal plant in Scotland is uneconomic.

In written evidence to the Public Petitions Committee on 16 January 2015 Hugh Finlay, Scottish Power’s Generation Director said:

“There continues to be a number of obstacles in the way of the construction of the CCGT development, undoubtedly the biggest being the continuation of the transmission charging regime that discriminates against new generation in the north.”

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.