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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S4W-24120

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Independent
Date lodged: Friday, 23 January 2015
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 5 February 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it can confirm that each stage of upgrading the A9 will be used as an opportunity to install English/Gaelic bilingual road signs.

Question reference: S4O-03994

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Independent
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 January 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 February 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to encourage industry to move from road haulage to rail freight.

Question reference: S4W-23915

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Independent
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 January 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Pentland on 21 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what consideration it has given to the exposure of the Scottish Parliamentary Pension Scheme to the so-called carbon bubble risk described in Scottish Environment LINK’s report, Scotland and the Carbon Bubble, and whether it is confident that the scheme's managers are correctly valuing its investments in oil and gas producers.

The Trustees of the Scottish Parliamentary Pension Scheme (SPPS) appointed Baillie Gifford as Fund Manager for the scheme and have delegated the responsibility for day to day investment management to them. The pension contributions are invested in 'pooled' funds (i.e. the SPPS is one of a number of investors in the funds) therefore under these arrangements the SPPS does not directly own any stocks and therefore cannot direct investments.

In light of the publication of the Scottish Environment LINK’s report, Scotland and the Carbon Bubble we brought the report to Baillie Gifford’s attention and asked them to comment on it and explain their investment strategy in terms of oil and gas producers.

Baillie Gifford look to the companies they invest in to be flexible and responsive to the global economy and emerging environmental and social trends and pressures. They are looking to companies with exposure to hydrocarbons to:

Have targets to reduce their own emissions over the long term (20-30 years);

Disclose their interaction with policy makers;

Structure asset portfolios so that they are resilient to a transition to a low carbon economy.

Baillie Gifford believes there is a strong argument and responsibility for investors to be active in the discussion, not by divesting but by being socially and environmentally responsible and looking for a global solution, by engaging with regulators, companies (within and outwith the hydrocarbon sector), and their clients.

In terms of the SPPS’ exposure to fossil fuels, the scheme currently has 3.64% exposure to the oil and gas industry (globally, via both producers and services companies) through its investment in the managed pension fund and 0.16% via the diversified growth fund (so a total exposure of 3.8%). The scheme also has about 0.75% exposure to renewables through the diversified growth fund. The weighting to oil and gas in the managed pension fund has come down significantly in the last five years, from just over 11% to just over 5% today.

Question reference: S4W-23788

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Independent
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 December 2014
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 20 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what discussion it has had with those responsible for nuclear power generation in Scotland about what lessons they have learnt following the so-called cyber-attack on nuclear facilities in South Korea and what reassurance it can give on public safety.

Nuclear security is a reserved matter. The Scottish Government works closely with the UK Government, the Office for Nuclear Regulation – the independent security regulator – and industry to ensure security measures at civil nuclear sites in Scotland are of the highest possible standard. Security is kept under review to ensure its effectiveness and arrangements take account of international guidance, best practice and lessons identified from exercises or real incidents.

Question reference: S4W-23734

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 December 2014
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 12 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many of Scotland’s regulated public bodies (a) own, (b) lease and (c) contract drones and for what purposes.

In total there are currently five devolved public bodies in Scotland making use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to support their particular needs.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) does not own or lease any UAVs, but on two occasions HIE has contracted with a licensed drone-operating photographer to make promotional films supporting marketing efforts for key development sites.

Scottish Canals does not own or lease any UAVs, but has contracted the use of UAVs on two separate occasions for the purpose of aerial filming to record and illustrate the construction process, location and scale of development of the Pinkston Watersports Centre.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency purchased one swinglet UAV in 2012 for the purpose of supporting a range of specific Water Framework Directive monitoring needs in coastal and estuary habitats and to support its business requirements.

Transport Scotland leases one UAV, the photography from which was used to help Transport Scotland improve its understanding of a recent landslide at the ‘Rest and Be Thankful’. Transport Scotland is currently considering whether they could make more use of imagery from UAVs in their on-going landslide monitoring programme.

Historic Scotland owns two UAVs for the purposes of survey work and assessing buildings (as previously noted in response to question S4W-23283 on 4 December 2014). I also understand that Historic Scotland has contracted the use of UAVs from two companies for the same purposes.

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-23662

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 December 2014
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 8 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how much it cost to calculate the figures set out in its document, Scotland Government Travel Strategy 2011-2016, and how much it would cost to collate similar information for travel by bicycle.

Question reference: S4W-23661

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 December 2014
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 8 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-23410 by Fiona Hyslop on 11 December 2014, whether it will nonetheless carry out an equality impact assessment of the decision of Historic Scotland not to schedule the Tinkers’ Heart as a monument of national importance, and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.

Question reference: S4W-23679

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Independent
Date lodged: Friday, 12 December 2014
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 8 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, until a decision is made about their future, whether it will give an assurance that the two fields that it plans to dispose of at its farm at Knocknagael, Inverness will remain in agricultural use.

Question reference: S4O-03896

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S4W-23663

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 December 2014
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 6 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government (a) how many bicycles and what (b) cycling training it provides for (i) ministers and (ii) its staff.