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: S4W-00231

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 May 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 8 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding RAF (a) Leuchars and (b) Lossiemouth since 5 May 2011.

The First Minister most recently met with the Secretary of State for Defence in Glasgow on Thursday 26 May 2011. At that meeting the First Minister highlighted the disproportionate nature of any additional RAF withdrawal from Scotland following the decision to close RAF Kinloss and set out on behalf of the Residents Action Force Leuchars and the Moray Task Force the strategic defence, economic and social arguments for the continuation of both of Scotland's remaining RAF bases.

Scottish Government officials have also been in regular contact with the Ministry of Defence regarding the ongoing UK Strategic Defence and Security Review, including making continued and joint representations on behalf of both RAF Leuchars and RAF Lossiemouth.

Question reference: S4W-00008

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 May 2011
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 1 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what its road improvement priorities are for 2011.

Question reference: S4F-00005

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 May 2011
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 June 2011

To ask the First Minister what support is being provided to berry farmers whose crops and infrastructure were badly damaged by the recent severe weather.

Question reference: S4W-00010

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 May 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 24 May 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it can take if an NHS board removes or changes health services based on incorrect financial figures.

NHS boards receive annual allocations to meet the healthcare needs of their resident population. Each year, NHS boards receive confirmation of the level of funding available to them, and it is for boards themselves to decide how best to fund both local and national priorities from within available resources. All NHS boards are expected to ensure that the resources received are spent in a way that improves the health and wellbeing of the communities for which they are responsible. Each NHS board has robust financial governance and audit arrangements in place.

Proposals for service change in NHSScotland require to be based on robust evidence and data. This is particularly the case in major service change proposals which are all subject to full public consultation and, ultimately, ministerial endorsement. Additionally, in 2007 the government introduced independent scrutiny panels which, in appropriate cases of major service change, have a team of independent experts to test the evidence base of the relevant proposals.

Question reference: S4W-00009

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 May 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 24 May 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will review out-of-hours health provision for remote and rural areas.

The Scottish Government letter of 14 June 2010 to the Health and Sport Committee set out a detailed response to their report on out-of-hours healthcare provision in rural areas. As was made clear in that letter, the Scottish Government is committed to provision throughout Scotland of out-of-hours services that match the ambitions within the Healthcare Quality Strategy for Scotland.

The responsibility for the delivery of out-of-hours healthcare across Scotland rests with NHS boards and they must ensure that the services they provide meet the needs of their local communities.

Question reference: S4W-00013

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 May 2011
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 18 May 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average broadband speeds are for each exchange in Stirling.

Question reference: S4W-00011

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 May 2011
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 18 May 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average broadband speeds are for each exchange in Fife.

Question reference: S4W-00012

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 May 2011
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 18 May 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what list the average broadband speeds are for each exchange in Perth and Kinross.

Question reference: S3W-40345

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 07 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 18 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list the financial support that it has given to Perth and Kinross for new or improved flood prevention measures in each of the last five years.

From 1 April 2008 capital support provided to Councils has generally been provided without a ring-fence. Decisions on where to apply this non-ringfenced support are the responsibility of individual councils.

The following table provides information on the capital support provided by the Scottish Government available to Perth and Kinross Council to support flood prevention and protection measures from 2006-07 to 2010-11.

Year	Total £ million
2006-07	8.660
2007-08	8.877
2008-09	18.710
2009-10	21.351
2010-11	17.643

Prior to these new arrangements Perth and Kinross Council had been granted £0.7 million over 2006-7 for the Milnathort flood protection scheme.

Question reference: S3W-40346

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 07 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 18 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive which areas of Forestry Commission land in Perth and Kinross are available for wind farm development.

Perth and Kinross falls within Lot 2 - Central Scotland. Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS) has entered into an exclusivity agreement with PNE UK Ltd to explore the potential for wind energy generation in Lot 2. As such FCS has not attempted to pre-emptively exclude any specific areas from the initial exploratory phase except where we have clear reasons for doing so (such as an indentified community hydro interest in Strathyre or blocks perhaps being candidates for the FCS re-positioning programme). FCS expects PNE to professionally and objectively weigh up the opportunities for wind energy development across the lot and report back at the end of eight months.