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-28206

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 October 2009
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 4 November 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive which projects that have received funds under the Wave and Tidal Energy Support Scheme have spent the funds allocated.

All payments of funds to companies under the Wave and Tidal Energy Support (WATES) Scheme are issued in arrears, and on the evidence that the costs in question have actually been incurred. Based on this criteria, the following payments have been issued:

Completed Projects

Name of Developer	Total Grant Awarded
Aquamarine Power	£274,795
Openhydro	£1,124,603
Tidal Generation	£45,321
Wavegen	£149,160

Additional grant payments have been made to Ocean Power Technology (totalling £272,946) and Scotrenewables (totalling £329,255). Both of these developers have yet to complete their WATES projects.

Question reference: S3W-28208

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 October 2009
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 4 November 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how much of the funding available from the previous administration for the Wave and Tidal Energy Support Scheme (a) has been allocated and (b) remains unallocated.

Question reference: S3W-28065

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 October 2009
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 30 October 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-27342 by Stewart Stevenson on 2 October 2009, whether it will list the combined weight of freight and freight vehicles or trailers carried and the metres of deck space allocated to them on each route operated by (a) Calmac Ferries Limited, (b) Cowal Ferries Limited and (c) NorthLink Ferries Limited in each of the last 10 years for which records are available.

Further to the answer to question S3W-27342 on 2 October 2009, only part of the information requested is available. Although each company monitors the overall weight of freight vehicles and trailers for loading and space allocation purposes, this data is not retained for record keeping purposes. However, deck space data is available showing the lane meterage used by commercial vehicles on the Gourock-Dunoon route (as currently operated by Cowal Ferries Ltd), on the Clyde and Hebrides ferry network (as currently operated by CalMac Ferries Ltd) and on the Northern Isles ferry network (as currently operated by NorthLink Ferries Ltd). Please note that we do not hold comparable data for the Northern Isles prior to 2003.

The carrying statistics are available from the Scottish Parliament''s Information Centre (Bib. number 49477).

Question reference: S3W-25744

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 13 July 2009
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 23 October 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive by how much the budget for Highlands and Islands Enterprise will fall over the period of the current spending review, from 2007-08 to 2010-11, in (a) real and (b) cash terms.

The latest Gross Domestic Product deflators issued by Her Majesty''s Treasury shows 2008-09 as base year, 2009-10 as 1% and 2010-11 as 1.5%.

The right hand column of the table below shows the effect of applying these deflators to the Highlands and Islands Enterprise budget. The baseline is the financial year 2007-08.

	Cash Budget £ Million	Cash Terms Reduction Against 2007-08	Real Terms Reduction Against 2007-08
2007-08	89	-	-
2008-09	77.8	£11.2 million	£11.2 million
2009-10	74.8	£3 million	£3.03 million
2010-11	74.3	£0.5 million	£0.507 million

The reform of Highlands and Islands Enterprise has developed a sharper focus on its key role of supporting sustainable economic growth while continuing to support fragile rural communities. This has led to many success stories not least attracting Welcon Towers to Machrihanish to save and develop the wind tower manufacturing facility.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise should not be viewed in isolation however, as it is only one arm of the very significant package of funding we have in place to support and stimulate economic growth in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Skills Development Scotland, the newly established business gateway for the area, the Road Equivalent Tariff Scheme and the Town Centre Regeneration Fund together bring a funding investment of £26.7 million this year, in addition to that allocated to Highlands and Islands Enterprise

Businesses in the area also benefit from a range of non-domestic rates relief including the Small Business Bonus Scheme, which alone amounts to an estimated £14.4 million in 2009-10, Rural Rate Relief and Empty Property Relief.

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Question reference: S3W-26759

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 28 August 2009
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 8 October 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that there is a consensus of support for proposals to consolidate planning policy guidance into a single document.

Question reference: S3W-27342

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 2 October 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list the quantity of freight carried on each route operated by Calmac Ferries Limited, (b) Cowal Ferries Limited and (c) NorthLink Ferries Limited in each of the last 10 years for which records are available.

The quantity of freight carried on a route-by-route basis is not available.

CalMac Ferries and Cowal Ferries record the number of commercial vehicles carried and the tariff is based on a lane metre charge, i.e. on the amount of deck space taken up by the vehicle on the ferry. NorthLink Ferries also charge on a lane metre basis for the transport of commercial vehicles and drop-trailers.

While all three companies monitor the overall weight of the vehicles/trailers carried for loading and space allocation purposes, the companies do not require their customers to produce a manifest of the type or quantity of freight being carried (although dangerous goods do need to be notified to the operators before shipment).

Question reference: S3W-27542

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 21 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 1 October 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-26578 by Richard Lochhead on 18 September 2009, whether it will ask the Scottish Agriculture College to provide information on how many post-mortem examinations were carried out at the veterinary laboratory in Thurso in each year since 2000 and what the equivalent numbers were for each of the other veterinary laboratories in Scotland over the same period.

Question reference: S3F-01925

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 October 2009
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 1 October 2009

To ask the First Minister whether the Scottish Government is content with the rate of progress on the Home Insulation Scheme.

Question reference: S3W-27343

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 25 September 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list the number of (a) passengers and (b) cars carried on each route operated by (i) CalMac Ferries Limited, (ii) Cowal Ferries Limited and (iii) NorthLink Ferries Limited in each of the last 10 years for which records are available.

Question reference: S3W-26760

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 28 August 2009
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 23 September 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what meetings ministers have had with interested parties about concerns regarding a lack of detail contained in the proposed single planning policy guidance document.