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: S3W-30265

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 21 December 2009
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 15 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to produce guidance on the meaning of equivalent environmental benefit as referred to in section 72(4)(b) of the Marine (Scotland) Bill.

Question reference: S3W-29818

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 December 2009
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 14 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to EU Regulation 21/2004 on the identification of sheep and goats, when it next expects to meet stakeholders to discuss the issue of within-business moves.

Question reference: S3W-29817

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 December 2009
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 14 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to EU Regulation 21/2004 on the identification of sheep and goats, when it last met stakeholders to discuss the issue of within-business moves.

Question reference: S3W-29820

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 December 2009
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 12 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to EU Regulation 21/2004 on the identification of sheep and goats, when it plans to publish guidelines or regulations on within-business moves.

Question reference: S3W-29819

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 December 2009
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 12 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to EU Regulation 21/2004 on the identification of sheep and goats, what research it is undertaking to examine the continued viability of within-business moves.

Within-business moves is not currently applied to the sheep and goat identification system and therefore there is no question of continued viability. As with all proposals, the Scottish Government utilises all available information to assist with the decision making process. With regards to within-business moves, the following information has been considered: data and movement populations, epidemiological issues and risks, legal aspects and practical issues faced by farmers.

Question reference: S3W-29731

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 04 December 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 18 December 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many households have received support from the Energy Assistance Package in 2009-10, broken down by parliamentary constituency.

Statistical Information is not held at constituency level. The following table shows the households helped under the Energy Assistance Package (EAP) to the end of November 2009, analysed by local authority.

The type of support provided includes energy saving advice, assistance with benefits, advice on social tariffs, energy payment methods, insulation measures and installation of heating systems.

Households Helped Under EAP, from April to End November 2009

Aberdeen City	679
Aberdeenshire	1,094
Angus	815
Argyll and Bute	583
Clackmannanshire	243
Dumfries and Galloway	970
Dundee City	803
East Ayrshire	706
East Dunbartonshire	667
East Lothian	441
East Renfrewshire	652
Edinburgh, City of	2,073
Eilean Siar	372
Falkirk	955
Fife	2,408
Glasgow City	2,196
Highland	1,789
Inverclyde	665
Midlothian	389
Moray	497
North Ayrshire	963
North Lanarkshire	1,452
Orkney Islands	174
Perth and Kinross	883
Renfrewshire	816
Scottish Borders	626
Shetland Islands	50
South Ayrshire	824
South Lanarkshire	1,691
Stirling	639
West Dunbartonshire	379
West Lothian	733
No Value*	15
All Scotland	28,242

Note: *The address verification process requires a valid post code in order to assign the address to a local authority. Occasionally with new builds the post code is not available with the Ordnance Survey data used by the database and therefore cannot be assigned to a local authority via the verification process. The post code data in the database is updated regularly and as it is updated the properties are assigned to the relevant local authority area.

Question reference: S3W-29720

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 04 December 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 16 December 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what the total cost has been of the Stage Three and Stage Four measures issued under the Energy Assistance Package in 2009-10, broken down by parliamentary constituency

Question reference: S3W-29735

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 04 December 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 16 December 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many households have had their electricity supply disconnected in the last 12 months as a result of outstanding debt, broken down by parliamentary constituency.

The Scottish Government funds the Energy Saving Trust (EST) to provide free, comprehensive energy saving advice through the Energy Saving Scotland advice centres. Advisors signpost any callers reporting debt issues to appropriate money advice services.

EST manage the Energy Assistance Package (EAP) for the Scottish Government. EAP is a holistic approach to tackling fuel poverty that addresses both the home and the householder and includes services to maximise income, reduce fuel bills and improve energy efficiency. The package is supported by a budget of over £60 million in 2009-10.

Domestic energy suppliers have a number of licence obligations in relation to debt and disconnection and performance against these is monitored by the industry regulator Ofgem. Suppliers are required to report their performance to Ofgem on a quarterly and annual basis and data is published on the Ofgem website.

The total number of gas and electricity disconnections in Scotland due to debt in 2008 and the first two quarters of 2009 is provided in the table below. The information is not available broken down by Scottish parliamentary constituency.

	2008	January to March 2009	April to June 2009
Gas	248	21	91
Electricity	368	14	24

Question reference: S3W-29721

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 04 December 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 16 December 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average cost per claimant has been of the Stage Three and Stage Four measures issued under the Energy Assistance Package in 2009-10, broken down by parliamentary constituency.

Question reference: S3W-29736

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 04 December 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 16 December 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many households have had their gas supply disconnected in the last 12 months as a result of outstanding debt, broken down by parliamentary constituency.