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-26454

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 August 2009
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 7 September 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will estimate the percentage of dwellings being built, or built in the last 36 months, that fall into each energy performance certificate rating.

Question reference: S3W-26452

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 August 2009
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 7 September 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will estimate the number of dwellings that fall into each energy performance certificate rating, broken down by region.

The Scottish Government does not hold sufficient information on which to base an accurate estimate. The following table details Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) bandings for existing dwellings subject to sale or rental and excludes new construction subject to the building warrant application process introduced on 1 May 2007.

EPCs Lodged by Energy Rating Banding 1 December 2008 to 16 August 2009*

	A	B	C	D	E	F	G
Local Authority	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Total
Aberdeen City	0	563	2,149	2,348	1,333	593	184	7,170
Aberdeenshire	1	121	1,212	1,569	1,300	807	284	5,294
Angus	0	91	767	837	503	297	90	2,585
Argyll and Bute	0	72	410	645	684	435	198	2,444
Clackmannanshire	0	32	371	436	216	59	20	1,134
Dumfries and Galloway	0	41	487	794	813	543	230	2,908
Dundee City	0	227	1,393	1,449	903	455	152	4,579
East Ayrshire	0	130	1,321	1,131	446	147	36	3,211
East Dunbartonshire	0	41	436	713	372	118	24	1,704
East Lothian	0	136	712	865	438	189	62	2,402
East Renfrewshire	0	31	386	637	334	120	32	1,540
Edinburgh, City of	1	2,145	6,346	5,531	3,258	1,364	410	19,055
Eilean Siar	0	1	11	59	83	99	52	305
Falkirk	1	206	1,095	1,176	541	232	67	3,318
Fife	1	358	2,484	3,290	1,901	608	169	8,811
Glasgow City	0	2,763	8,890	6,215	3,011	1,009	305	22,193
Highland	0	161	930	1,391	1,371	933	314	5,100
Inverclyde	0	310	609	529	329	117	29	1,923
Midlothian	0	49	384	569	314	97	24	1,437
Moray	0	76	782	939	507	270	118	2,692
North Ayrshire	0	155	967	1,222	520	183	83	3,130
North Lanarkshire	0	315	1,848	1,999	854	264	71	5,351
Orkney Islands	0	1	36	137	157	95	46	472
Perth and Kinross	0	194	946	1,137	949	564	206	3,996
Renfrewshire	0	248	1,259	1,431	731	267	110	4,046
Scottish Borders	0	95	766	1,046	880	541	234	3,562
Shetland Islands	0	0	35	78	70	37	19	239
South Ayrshire	0	113	820	1,185	730	244	79	3,171
South Lanarkshire	0	479	2,240	2,546	1,411	512	138	7,326
Stirling	0	136	575	689	465	198	46	2,109
West Dunbartonshire	0	239	1,337	875	317	83	35	2,886
West Lothian	0	315	1,205	1,220	367	98	21	3,226
Grand Total	4	9,844	43,209	44,688	26,108	11,578	3,888	139,319

Note: *Estimate based on information submitted to the Energy Saving Trust Home Energy Efficiency Database. The information in this table should not be scaled up to represent either a regional or national picture of energy rating bandings.

Question reference: S3O-07605

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 3 September 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will work with Orkney Islands Council to find an acceptable alternative site for the Stromness Ferry Terminal lorry parking and marshalling area if a new school is built on the existing site.

Question reference: S3W-25735

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 13 July 2009
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 18 August 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding each local authority in the Highlands and Islands area has allocated to Business Gateway since the scheme’s introduction.

Question reference: S3W-26214

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 July 2009
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 17 August 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what level of funding it has provided to the Scottish Agricultural College to undertake research into the suitability of agricultural crops for Scottish environments in each of the last four years.

The Scottish Government commissioned a research programme on Profitable and Sustainable Agriculture “ Plants in 2006, from which the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) is receiving an annual grant for strategic research of approximately £1.5 million for the period 2006-07 to 2010-11. The Scottish Government is currently in discussion with stakeholders regarding the priority questions for strategic research which will be commissioned from 2011. SAC, as one of the Scottish Government''s main research providers, is aware of and fully involved in this process.

In addition, the Scottish Government contracts SAC to undertake crop variety trialling and associated activities. The funding for this is as follows:

2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11
Actual (£m)	Actual (£m)	Actual (£m)	Budget (£m)	Plan (£m)
0.261	0.336	0.292	0.260	0.230

The reduction in contract funding for 2010-11 is due to the constant search for best value and need to find sums for the pressing issue of climate change. The contract funding for 2011-12 will be determined nearer the time.

Question reference: S3W-26216

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 July 2009
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 17 August 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to reduce the level of funding for the Scottish Agricultural College to undertake research into the suitability of agricultural crops for Scottish environments in the next two years and, if so, for what reasons.

Question reference: S3W-26215

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 July 2009
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 17 August 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what level of funding it estimates it will provide to the Scottish Agricultural College to undertake research into the suitability of agricultural crops for Scottish environments in 2010-11.

Question reference: S3W-25733

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 13 July 2009
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 14 August 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what budget it has allocated to Highlands and Islands Enterprise in each year since 2002-03 and what budget it will allocate in each year to 2012-13.

The budget allocated to Highlands and Islands Enterprise since 2002-03 is shown in the following table:

2002-03

(£000)

2003-04

(£000)

2004-05

(£000)

2005-06

(£000)

2006-07

(£000)

2007-08

(£000)

2008-09

(£000)

2009-10

(£000)

2010-11

(£000)

79,700

95,300

104,300

99,000

114,400

114,700

74,000

73,100

73,200

The budget for 2002-03 was prior to the introduction of resource accounting and budgeting, arising from which a non-cash budget of £14 million per annum is included in each year''s figure above, from 2003-04 onwards. From 2008-09, Highlands and Islands Enterprise''s budget was reduced to reflect the refocusing of the organisation as part of this government''s reform of the enterprise networks, hence for that and subsequent years the figures are stated after budget transfers to Skills Development Scotland. Budget figures are not available beyond the spending review 2007, which allocated budgets up to 2010-11.

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 reliefs 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.

Question reference: S3W-25749

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 13 July 2009
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 5 August 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to Highlands and Islands Enterprise’s operating plan, whether it will publish the GVA impacts that the transformational projects and programmes are expected to generate.

The Scottish Government has no plans to publish the GVA impacts attributable to the transformational projects identified within Highlands and Islands Enterprise''s operating plan for 2009-12. The publication of this information, when quantified, is an operational matter for Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE).

I have written to HIE''s Chief Executive, Sandy Cumming, asking him to respond to you directly on this issue.

Question reference: S3W-25747

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 13 July 2009
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 5 August 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how the reduction in Highlands and Islands Enterprise’s budget over the spending review will impact on the development of renewable energy projects associated with the Pentland Firth.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise''s budget was reduced to reflect the refocusing of the organisation as part of this government''s reform of the enterprise networks.

Rather than having a negative impact on the economy, the reforms will enable it to maximise its contribution to economic recovery and growth by focusing more clearly on those activities likely to have the greatest economic impact on economic recovery and increased sustainable economic growth.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise continues to focus its interventions on selected account managed businesses and anticipate that many of these will benefit from opportunities arising from the Pentland Firth. The scale of the development of the Pentland Firth is such that the intervention of public funds will only be a small part of the total investment required. Highlands and Islands Enterprise is, therefore, prioritising its resources to ensure the most effective leverage of private funds.