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: S4F-01780

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 December 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 December 2013

To ask the First Minister what the impact will be on the Scottish Government's energy policy of Scottish Power's decision not to go ahead with its proposed wind turbine development off Tiree.

Question reference: S4W-18746

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 December 2013
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 16 December 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many applications for support from the start-up fund have been made to Community Broadband Scotland; which applications were successful; how much was awarded, and how many of the projects supported by this funding have been completed, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S4W-18744

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 December 2013
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 16 December 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many community-led projects have bid for support from Community Broadband Scotland; which bids were successful; how much was awarded, and how many of the projects have been completed, broken down by local authority area.

Community Broadband Scotland (CBS) provides a broad spectrum of support to community-led broadband projects including advice, guidance and funding support. The purpose of the funding support is to assist communities in the planning, development and delivery of their projects.

As of 11 December 2013, CBS had received 15 formal applications from community-led broadband projects for capital assistance grants from its Start Up fund. Of these, funding totalling £257,487 has been allocated to 11 projects, two of which have completed delivery of broadband connections. CBS is currently concluding the formal approval process for the four projects that have not yet been allocated a capital assistance grant.

As of the same date, CBS was actively engaged with 57 pre-application “pipeline” projects, all of which it expects to progress to the formal application stage upon completion and submission of a viable business plan. Three of these are in Fife.

The following table provides details of capital assistance grant applications to the Start Up fund, by local authority.

Local Authority	Capital assistance grant bids	Completed Bids	Grant Awarded	Completed delivery
Aberdeenshire	1
Argyll and Bute	1	1	£ 5,000
East Lothian	1	1	£ 2,000
Highland	6	4	195,759	2
Moray	1	1	11,808
Scottish Borders	2	2	23,300
South Lanarkshire	2	2	19,620
Stirling	1	0
Total	15	11	257,487	2

Question reference: S4O-02720

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 December 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 December 2013

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met the board of Scottish Opera and what issues were discussed.

Question reference: S4W-18484

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 November 2013
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 3 December 2013

To ask the Scottish Government (a) how many times and (b) for how long on average the (i) M9/A9 and (ii) A92/A972 have been closed as a result of crime scene investigations of accidents in the last three years, and for what reason these roads cannot be reopened for managed traffic flow more quickly in such cases.

Details of trunk road closures on the M9/A9 and A92/A972 in the last 3 full calendar years are contained in the following table. Our records for 2013 are not yet complete:

2010

2011

2012

Road

Number of Closures

Average time (hrs)

Number of Closures

Average time (hrs)

Number of Closures

Average time (hrs)

M9/A9

05:01

04:20

03:35

A92/

A972

06:27

05:00

05:44

The decision by Police Scotland to close a road is never taken lightly and only occurs when the collision itself has blocked the road, or where there is a need to protect those who might already have been injured and the emergency service staff who are dealing with the incident.

The impact on local communities and the wider economy is always at the forefront of investigators' minds, but there is a need to ensure that incidents are investigated thoroughly to ensure that families of those killed or seriously injured receive the support and information that they deserve and also to ensure that any safety issues are identified and addressed.

Roads are closed in such cases to gather evidence regarding an accident and the length of any closure can vary, depending on the nature and complexity of the incident.

Question reference: S4W-18462

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 November 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 3 December 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many music teachers there have been in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area.

Information on the number of music teachers in 2011 and 2012 can be found in the teacher census supplementary tables to the Summary Statistics for Schools in Scotland publication. This is available on the Scottish Government website and can be accessed using the following link:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/School-Education/teachcenssuppdata

The data for 2011 and 2012 have been summarised in the following table

Number of teachers (FTE) whose main subject taught is recorded as music:

	2011	2012
Aberdeen City	28	27
Aberdeenshire	54	51
Angus	24	22
Argyll and Bute	19	20
Clackmannanshire	10	11
Dumfries and Galloway	35	40
Dundee City	34	27
East Ayrshire	27	26
East Dunbartonshire	27	25
East Lothian	23	24
East Renfrewshire	23	24
Edinburgh, City of	52	55
Eilean Siar	10	8
Falkirk	35	39
Fife	70	71
Glasgow City	78	85
Highland	56	47
Inverclyde	17	18
Midlothian	20	20
Moray	21	19
North Ayrshire	26	28
North Lanarkshire	70	70
Orkney Islands	9	9
Perth and Kinross	31	33
Renfrewshire	34	38
Scottish Borders	23	27
Shetland Islands	12	12
South Ayrshire	25	28
South Lanarkshire	60	64
Stirling	23	23
West Dunbartonshire	20	18
West Lothian	42	42
All local authorities	1039	1049
Grant aided	2	2

For information on the number of music teachers prior to 2011, I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-03916 on 18 November 2011. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

Question reference: S4W-18461

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 November 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 3 December 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many pupils have been learning a musical instrument in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority.

This information is not held centrally.

However, as part of the work of the Instrumental Music Group which reported to the Scottish Government on 27 June 2013, the improvement service obtained information on the number of pupils learning a musical instrument across Scotland since 2007-08. This information was published at the time and is repeated in the following table:

Academic year	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13
Local Authority area
Aberdeen	1737	1912	1969	1924	1809	1738
Aberdeenshire		2644	2589	2711	2471	2175
Angus	1100-1200	1100-1200	1100-1200	1144 (June)	1142 (June)	1454 (March)
Argyll and Bute	1385	1344	1352	1226	1256
Edinburgh		4712	4652	4798	4758
Clackmannanshire	434	509	419	396	439
Stirling		c810	c810	c810	c810	810
Dumfries and Galloway		1896	2132	1799	2071	1210

Dundee

Approximately 1800

2200

East Ayrshire	1121	1103	1142	1126	1113	1147
East Dunbartonshire					1185	1301
East Lothian	1269	1237	1257	1263	1267
East Renfrew		1727	1858	1921	1856	1802
Falkirk		1113	1211	1148	1141	1142
Fife		5128	4043	3243	3888	3564
Glasgow		4080	4098	4540	4538
Highland		2800	2850	2920	2950	3000
Inverclyde	655	725	903	1087	1190	1222
Midlothian			1500	1300	1140	1100
Moray		825-850	825-850	825-850	825-850	850
North Ayrshire	1611	1629	1478	1749	1445	1570
North Lanarkshire		3940	3966	3012	3421	3853
Orkney	480-520	480-520	480-520	480-520	480-520	498
Perth and Kinross	1500	1570	1522	1558	1661
Renfrewshire		1780	1547	1208	1129	1050
Scottish Borders		2032	1889	1140	981	917
Shetland Islands				751	678	662
South Ayrshire	Approx 1000	Approx 1000	Approx 1000	Approx 1000	1100	1222
South Lanarkshire				3663	2487	2957
West Dunbartonshire	1036	972 - 1022	1140	1024	1105	965
West Lothian	2089	2128	2273	2182	2265	2379
Western Isles						360

Estimated total number of Instrumental Music Pupils across Scotland: 55,067 (8.3% of total primary and secondary school roll).

This is based on 2012-13 pupil numbers where available and 2011-12 pupil numbers where 2012-13 numbers were not available.

Question reference: S4W-18364

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 November 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 26 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the Scottish Qualifications Authority regarding introducing a learning scheme similar to that offered by the Nisai Virtual Academy in England.

Question reference: S4W-18151

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 November 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 21 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that the conditions it set with regard to the removal of the temporary access tracks associated with the construction of the Beauly-Denny transmission line will be met in full; whether it will write to the local authorities affected by the line to advise them of their of responsibilities, and whether it considers that deviation from the conditions might be considered a breach of trust.

The Beauly Denny consents state that the local authorities are responsible for monitoring the conditions relating to temporary access tracks.

The local authorities are already aware of their responsibilities in this regard and there is no indication that developers are not complying the these conditions.

The Scottish Government is however aware that planning applications have been received from some landowners/occupiers seeking a separate planning permissions to retain the access tracks on their land.

When such applications are made the local authorities will be required to consult with relevant parties and take into account the environmental, landscape and visual and other impacts before making a decision on an application.

Question reference: S4W-18301

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 November 2013
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 20 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the protection of the route of the former railway line between Inverkeithing and Perth.

The responsibility for this matter lies with the relevant planning authorities, namely Fife Council and Perth and Kinross Council, rather than the Scottish Government.

Scottish Planning Policy clearly states that disused railway lines with a reasonable prospect of being reused as rail, tram or active travel routes should be safeguarded in development plans.

Following representations, and examination of the Perth and Kinross Council Local Development Plan, the Reporter has concluded that the Council’s development policy in respect of public access should be amended to refuse any development proposals that would have an adverse impact upon the integrity of any disused railway, unless adverse impacts are adequately addressed in the plans and suitable alternative provision is made.

However, the Scottish Government has no plans or studies currently considering re-opening the former railway line between Inverkeithing and Perth.