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-28832

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 December 2015
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 17 December 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) resource accounting cost and (b) budgeting charge is for providing student loans, also expressed as a percentage of initial loan outlay.

Question reference: S4W-28833

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 December 2015
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 17 December 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has modelled the impact of increasing the student loan repayment threshold on the cost of the resource accounting and budgeting charge for providing student loans and what opportunity there is to do so in the current non-cash departmental expenditure limit.

As part of our consideration of increasing the student loan repayment threshold, the impact upon the resource accounting and budgeting (RAB) charge has been modelled.

As any increase in the repayment threshold would impact on the RAB charge and would require additional ring fenced non-cash Resource Delegated Expenditure Limit (DEL) budget arising from UK budget consequentials, varying the threshold of student loan repayments is a matter under continuing consideration.

Question reference: S4O-05224

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 December 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has carried out of the number of beds needed in the proposed new Balfour hospital in Orkney.

Question reference: S4W-28755

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 December 2015
Current Status: Answered by Aileen McLeod on 15 December 2015

To ask the Scottish Government (a) what action it has taken and (b) how much it has spent in each of the last five years to protect woodland in remote and rural places, including in Orkney.

Question reference: S4W-28781

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 December 2015
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 14 December 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is on target to meet its statutory requirement under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 to eradicate fuel poverty by November 2016 and, if not, whether it will set a revised target.

Question reference: S4W-28693

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 November 2015
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 10 December 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4T-01189 by Aileen Campbell on 24 November 2015 (Official Report, c. 3), what steps it took to advise the Parliament of the decision to dissolve the Getting It Right for Every Child Programme Board.

Question reference: S4W-28694

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 November 2015
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 10 December 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how much public funding it has given to universities in each of the last five years toward funding projects that are being carried out at CERN.

Question reference: S4W-28756

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 December 2015
Current Status: Answered by Aileen McLeod on 10 December 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to introduce a legal duty for landowners to produce management plans to protect woodland.

The Scottish Government has no plans to introduce a legal duty for landowners to produce management plans to protect woodland. However all landowners that intend to apply to the Scottish Rural Development Programme Forestry Grant Scheme for the sustainable management of woodland must have long-term forest plans approved by Forestry Commission Scotland that set out the management objectives for their woodland.

Question reference: S4W-28753

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 December 2015
Current Status: Answered by Aileen McLeod on 10 December 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to reduce the percentage of woodland deemed to be in an "unsatisfactory" condition.

Question reference: S4W-28752

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 December 2015
Current Status: Answered by Aileen McLeod on 10 December 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to end the loss of woodland, in light of a reported 14% loss of woodland in the last 40 years.

The Native Woodland Survey of Scotland identified that a 14% reduction may have occurred in ancient woodland cover over a 40 year period in unenclosed upland areas. The survey also identified that the current native woodland condition is moderate overall, with 46% of the area in satisfactory conditions.

The Scottish Government is taking action to protect ancient woodland as outlined in Scotland’s Biodiversity – a Route Map to 2020. The actions identified aim to improve the condition and extent of existing native and ancient woodland, through reducing browsing pressure and controlling non-native species, and new woodland planting.

In addition, the Scottish Government has implemented a policy on the control of woodland removal for all types of woodland. The policy is adopted within Scottish Planning Policy and provides guidance to planning authorities on how to minimise inappropriate woodland loss. With regards to ancient woodland, the policy places a strong presumption against removal.