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-14749

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 May 2013
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 22 May 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the contingency plans put in place to deal with the loss of MV Hamnavoe from the Stromness to Scrabster route were adequate.

Question reference: S4W-14796

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 May 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 21 May 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the use of hyperbaric chambers for emergencies in each year since 2003, broken down by NHS board area.

The information available is provided in the following tables:

Table 1: Divers from each NHS Board treated at Aberdeen hyperbaric chamber from 2003 to 2012

Board Area	2003-09	2010	2011	2012
Ayrshire and Arran	1
Borders
Dumfries and Galloway
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	8	1		1
Fife	10
Forth Valley	6		1
Grampian	24	2
Highland	5	1		1
Lanarkshire	6
Lothian	20	2
Orkney	1			1
Shetland	1
Tayside	6
Western Isles
Other UK	32	6	6	1
Outwith UK	1	1
TOTAL	121	13	7	4

Note: a breakdown of divers treated by NHS board for the years 2003 to 2009 is not centrally held.

Table 2: Divers from each NHS Board treated at Oban hyperbaric chamber from 2003 to 2012

Board Area	2003-09	2010	2011	2012
Ayrshire and Arran
Borders	1
Dumfries and Galloway
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	10	2		1
Fife	1
Forth Valley	1
Grampian	2	2
Highland	12	2	3
Lanarkshire	2
Lothian	9	1
Orkney
Shetland
Tayside	1			2
Western Isles	5	4
Other UK	57	1	4	3
Outwith UK			1
Not known/Missing		1
TOTAL	101	13	8	6

Note: a breakdown of divers treated by NHS board for the years 2003 to 2009 is not centrally held.

Table 3: Divers from each NHS Board treated at Orkney hyperbaric chamber from 2003 to 2012

Board Area	2003-09	2010	2011	2012
Ayrshire and Arran	1
Borders
Dumfries and Galloway
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	2
Fife	3
Forth Valley
Grampian	2	1	1
Highland
Lanarkshire
Lothian	6
Orkney	8	1	2	1
Shetland
Tayside
Western Isles
Other UK	99	10	14	12
Outwith UK	18	4	2	1
TOTAL	139	16	19	14

Note: a breakdown of divers treated by NHS board for the years 2003 to 2009 is not centrally held.

Table 4: Divers from each NHS Board treated at Millport hyperbaric chamber from 2003 to 2012

Board Area	2003-09	2010	2011	2012
Ayrshire and Arran	4
Borders
Dumfries and Galloway	2	2		1
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	23	1		1
Fife	1
Forth Valley	1
Grampian				1
Highland	2
Lanarkshire	6		1
Lothian
Orkney
Shetland
Tayside
Western Isles
Other UK	20		1	1
Outwith UK
Not Known/Missing	9
TOTAL	68	3	2	4

Note: a breakdown of divers treated by NHS board for the years 2003 to 2009 is not centrally held.

Question reference: S4W-14571

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 26 April 2013
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 16 May 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on a moratorium on the use of pesticides containing neonicotinoids, in light of the House of Commons' Environmental Audit Committee report, Pollinators and Pesticides, which was published on 5 April 2013.

The Scottish Government adopted a precautionary approach and supported restrictions to neonicotinoid use, whilst allowing further research to be undertaken to clarify whether these neonicotinoids harm bees in the field.

The European Appeals Committee met on 29 April 2013 to discuss proposals for EU-wide restrictions on the use of certain neonicotinoids, and while they did not reach a qualified majority decision for or against their introduction, the European Commission will nevertheless support restrictions which will come into force on 1 December 2013.”

Question reference: S4W-14887

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 13 May 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 14 May 2013

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish the consultants’ report to the Intergovernmental Scottish Islands Renewables Steering Group.

Question reference: S4W-14569

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 26 April 2013
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 13 May 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S4W-12317 and S4W-12330 by Richard Lochhead on 25 January 2013, whether it will review its responses, in particular its comment that “studies conducted under realistic field conditions have not identified any unacceptable risk at field population level”, in light of the House of Commons' Environmental Audit Committee report, Pollinators and Pesticides, which was published on 5 April 2013.

Question reference: S4W-14568

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 26 April 2013
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 13 May 2013

To ask the Scottish Government further to the answer to question S4W-12316 by Richard Lochhead on 25 January 2013, whether it has received the UK Advisory Committee on Pesticide’s advice.

Question reference: S4W-14260

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 12 April 2013
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 13 May 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether the waste from Scotland’s nuclear reactors that is currently stored in England would be returned if Scotland became independent and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.

Question reference: S4W-14259

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 12 April 2013
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 13 May 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether Scotland would have to pay toward continuing to store the waste from its nuclear reactors that is currently stored in England if Scotland became independent and, if so, how much, and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.

Question reference: S4O-02131

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 May 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 May 2013

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish the consultants’ report to the Intergovernmental Scottish Islands Renewables Steering Group.

Question reference: S4W-14408

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 April 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 8 May 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S4W-13559 and S4W-13887 by Fergus Ewing on 20 March 2013 and 22 April 2013 respectively, whether it will state what estimate it has made of net jobs for each project receiving funding support from the Renewable Energy Investment Fund.

Investment decisions by REIF are made following consideration of a range of commercially sensitive information and analysis. This includes the net jobs estimated for each project which will not be divulged on a project by project basis but will form part of the evaluation of REIF after its initial three years of operation. For project deals completed, the intention is that the level of investment and investment leveraged will be made publicly available with the agreement of co-investors.