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-14141

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 April 2013
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 7 May 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what assistance it will provide to farmers for the removal of animals that died as a result of the recent bad weather conditions.

Question reference: S4W-14142

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 April 2013
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 7 May 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what assistance it will offer to farmers facing financial difficulties as a result of the recent bad weather conditions.

Question reference: S4W-14140

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 April 2013
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 7 May 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what emotional support it is providing to farmers who have been adversely affected by the recent bad weather conditions.

<>I have spoken to many farmers and know the problems this has caused in terms of devastating livestock losses, crops not harvested or not planted and increased feed requirements at a time of rising prices. The Scottish Government has already acted swiftly to provide assistance and we have given £50,000 in support to the Royal Scottish Agricultural Benevolent Institution (RSABI: http://www.rsabi.org.uk/) which provides financial assistance, support and advice in confidence to those people who have worked in Scotland in land-based occupations and who are suffering hardship.

I continue to listen carefully to the industry as the scale of the problem is being assessed and I consider what further help can be given to those worst affected. My officials are working on ways to provide more help to farmers.

Question reference: S4T-00329

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 29 April 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 April 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Supreme Court ruling on the Salvesen v Riddell case.

Question reference: S4W-14271

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 15 April 2013
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 29 April 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S4W-13253 and S4W-13767 by Paul Wheelhouse on 11 March 2013 and 15 April 2013 respectively, when it issued the notice to quit to the Raasay Crofters Association.

Question reference: S4O-02049

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 April 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 May 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on ash dieback in Scotland.

Question reference: S4W-14068

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 April 2013
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 23 April 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how it will respond to reports that the recent bad weather is having a negative impact on seabird populations ahead of the breeding season.

I recognise that the recent spell of unusually bad weather has had a negative impact on Scotland’s wildlife including seabirds and also on livestock. There have been reports of groups of seabirds, such as puffins, being washed ashore on the East Coast of Scotland. This puffin “wreck” is indicative of difficulties faced by seabirds in sourcing food in periods of severe weather.

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) have advised that the impact of recent bad weather on seabird populations will not be known until after the forthcoming breeding season. SNH, in conjunction with the Joint Nature Conservation Committee and other organisations, participate in the Seabird Monitoring Programme which collects sample data on breeding numbers and breeding success of 26 species of seabird that regularly breed in Britain and Ireland to enable their conservation status to be assessed.

Results of the Seabird Monitoring Programme can be found on the JNCC web site;

http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/page-3201.

Question reference: S4O-02024

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 April 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 April 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on opencast restoration.

Question reference: S4W-13717

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 15 March 2013
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 16 April 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government on any changes to how environmental impacts will be assessed in Scotland under the UK Office for Unconventional Gas.

Question reference: S4W-14071

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 April 2013
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 16 April 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will reconsider the inclusion of sites to protect seabird foraging areas in the proposed network of marine protected areas to provide resilience against extreme weather events.

There is already a range of work ongoing to identify seabird foraging areas for possible inclusion in the Scottish MPA network either as Nature Conservation MPAs designated under national legislation or marine Special Protected Areas (SPAs) designated under the EU Birds Directive.

The Report to Parliament on progress on identifying an MPA network was laid in Parliament on 14 December 2012, and was accompanied by Scottish Natural Heritage and Joint Nature Conservation Committee’s detailed scientific network advice. Both of these documents, which can be found on the Marine Scotland website, highlights six proposals for black guillemot, all of which contain areas used for foraging.

The report also highlighted that work is ongoing to identify SPAs at sea for other species of seabirds. This will include areas used by seabirds for foraging. Both the new Nature Conservation MPAs and the additional marine SPAs are intended to complement existing SPAs, 31 of which were extended into the marine environment in 2009 and already provide some foraging areas.