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-04273

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 April 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to raise the speed limit on A roads for HGVs over 7.5 tonnes.

Question reference: S4W-25040

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 21 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many staff have been employed by the Directorate for Planning and Environmental Appeals in each year since 2007-08.

Question reference: S4W-25038

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 20 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many language support assistants have been employed in primary schools in each of the last five years.

There are several kinds of language support assistants managed by local authorities and the details of these are not held centrally.

The British Council Language Assistant Programme is a nationally available form of language support. The number of British council modern language assistants working in the primary and secondary sector in Scottish publicly funded schools over the last five years is as follows:

2014-15	88
2013-14	54
2012-13	48
2011-12	41
2010-11	105

We want all young people in Scotland to have excellent language learning opportunities as a normal and expected part of a broad, relevant school education and have provided an additional £7.2 million to support local authorities deliver this in 2015-16. It is up to local authorities to decide how to spend this but we would hope the use of language assistants will increase as they can be an effective enhancement to classroom practice in the implementation of the 1+2 languages policy.

Question reference: S4W-25037

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 20 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many primary school teachers have received training for teaching modern languages in each of the last five years.

This information is not held centrally.

There is a growing established expectation that all teachers identify and undertake career long professional learning in a planned and strategic manner. To support implementation of our 1+2 languages policy and deliver more and earlier language learning in schools, we have provided local authorities with an additional £7.2 million in 2015-16 which can be used to fund training. In addition, free ‘Train the Trainer’ languages courses have been run by Education Scotland and Scotland’s National Centre for Languages, which all local authorities were invited to participate in.

Question reference: S4W-25036

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 20 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many primary school teachers have an undergraduate degree in a modern foreign language.

Question reference: S4W-25063

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 17 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many times mobile speed camera teams were deployed on dual carriageway sections of the A9 between Perth and Inverness from (a) October 2014 to March 2015 and (b) October 2013 to March 2014.

Question reference: S4W-25041

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 8 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what the budget for the Directorate for Planning and Environmental Appeals has been in each year since 2007-08.

The Planning and Environmental Appeals Division (DPEA) of the Scottish Governments budget in the years 2007-2008 to date was as set out in the following table:

Year

2007-08

2008-

2009-10

2010-11

2011-12

2012-13

2013-14

2014-15

Budget

(£ 000)

2,796

2,847

3,578

3,457

3,145

2,989

3,253

3,262

The budget allocations from 2009-10 onwards took account of DPEA’s role in the new system for examining strategic and local development plans and ministers’ expectations that examinations will be completed within 6 to 9 months. This has resulted in a reduction in time from 18 months to 8 months. This improvement has been achieved by assigning teams of reporters to work on plans. The work involved in examining strategic and local development plans now accounts for around one half of DPEA’s workload.

In addition to planning appeals DPEA handles a wide range of casework including applications for consent for major infrastructure projects such as road schemes, ports and harbours, overhead power lines, renewable energy developments, and compulsory purchase orders supporting regeneration projects, the Forth Crossing, and the Commonwealth Games. DPEA also has responsibility for a wide range for environmental appeals and the recently introduced rights of appeal in relation to high hedges. Later this year DPEA will assume responsibility for appeals in relation to the listing of historic buildings and the scheduling of ancient monuments.

Question reference: S4W-25039

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 8 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many appeals have been submitted to the Directorate for Planning and Environmental Appeals in each year since 2007-08.

The number of Appeals dealt with by the Planning and Environmental Appeals Division (DPEA) of the Scottish Government is set out in the following table:

Year

2007-08

2008-09

2009-10

2010-11

2011-12

2012-13

2013-14

2014-15

Total number of Appeals

1372

1351

1069

505

570

618

517

549

These figures include planning, enforcement, listed building, advertisement and other types of appeal dealt with by DPEA. The reduction in appeal numbers in 2010-11 was largely as a result of planning reform with the introduction of local review bodies who now deal with appeals in respect of smaller scale planning applications.

Planning reform also changed DPEA’s role in the new system for examining strategic and local development plans and ministers’ expectations that examinations will be completed within 6 to 9 months. This has resulted in a reduction in time from 18 months to 8 months. This improvement has been achieved by assigning teams of reporters to work on plans. The work involved in examining strategic and local development plans now accounts for around one half of DPEA’s workload.

In addition to appeals and development plan examinations, DPEA handles a wide range of casework including applications for consent for major infrastructure projects such as road schemes, ports and harbours, overhead power lines, renewable energy developments, and compulsory purchase orders supporting regeneration projects, the Forth Crossing, and the Commonwealth Games. DPEA also has responsibility for a wide range for environmental appeals and the recently introduced rights of appeal in relation to high hedges. Later this year DPEA will assume responsibility for appeals in relation to the listing of historic buildings and the scheduling of ancient monuments.

Question reference: S4F-02722

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 March 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 April 2015

To ask the First Minister whether the Scottish Government respects the right of broadcasters such as the BBC to be free from political interference.

Question reference: S4W-24892

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 13 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 26 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to prevent the loss of the grass species, or landrace, Scots’ Timothy (phleum pratense).