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: S5W-25644

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 October 2019
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 22 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many inspections of wrasse landings have been undertaken by Marine Scotland Compliance to monitor levels of compliance with paragraph 2 of Marine Scotland’s voluntary control measures for the live capture of Scottish wild wrasse for salmon farms.

Question reference: S5W-25645

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 October 2019
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 22 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what measures are being taken to ensure that Marine Scotland’s voluntary control measures for the live capture of Scottish wild wrasse for salmon farms are being complied with.

Marine Scotland monitors the wrasse fishery using both voluntary and statutory procedures.

All licensed fishers are required to submit statutory landings returns to Marine Scotland, with Wrasse being no exception. These statutory returns as well as the voluntary returns submitted by the Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation are used in monitoring compliance with the voluntary control measures.

Marine Scotland Compliance Fishery Officers also undertake inspections of wrasse landings at various landing ports.

Question reference: S5W-25455

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 September 2019
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 3 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-24636 by Paul Wheelhouse on 29 August 2019, what the total operating hours were for each vessel in the CMAL fleet for the period January 2018 to July 2019.

The total operating hours for each vessel in the CMAL fleet for the period January 2018 to July 2019 are listed in the following table:

Scheduled Departure Date From 1 Jan 2018 To 31 Jul 2019

Vessel Name	Actual Passage Hours (Rounded to nearest hour)
MV Finlaggan	5,609
MV Isle Of Arran	3,769
MV Isle Of Lewis	4,244
MV Isle Of Mull	4,331
MV Clansman	4,546
MV Isle Of Cumbrae	2,916
MV Loch Fyne	2,539
MV Loch Portain	3,191
MV Loch Ranza	2,907
MV Lochinvar	3,659
MV Carvoria	1,668
MV Bute	4,864
MV Caledonian Isles	4,758
MV Coruisk	2,962
MV Hebridean Isles	5,368
MV Hebrides	5,403
MV Loch Alainn	3,175
MV Loch Bhrusda	1,250
MV Loch Dunvegan	2,844
MV Loch Riddon	1,963
MV Loch Seaforth	7,861
MV Catriona	4,389
MV Loch Tarbert	2,821
MV Lochnevis	3,353
MV Lord Of The Isles	4,551
MV Raasay	61
MV Argyle	4,880
MV Loch Linnhe	1,802
MV Loch Shira	4,588
MV Hallaig	3,149
MV Loch Buie	2,166
MV Loch Striven	3,447
MV Hjaltland	6,958
MV Hrossey	7,015
MV Hamnavoe	4,450
MV Helliar	6,481
MV Hildasay	6,379

Question reference: S5O-03663

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 October 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on any planned upgrades to the Gourock-Dunoon passenger ferry service.

Question reference: S5W-25149

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 September 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 20 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what role or oversight it has in relation to monitoring the maintenance of roadside verges by local authorities.

Local authorities have the responsibility for maintenance and litter picking for all of the local roads including roadside verges within their respective areas. The Scottish Ministers, via Transport Scotland, have responsibility for the maintenance of all trunk roads in Scotland including the roadside verges. The Scottish Government has no role or oversight in monitoring the maintenance of the local road networks roadside verges.

Although Transport Scotland's Operating Companies are responsible for the maintenance of all trunk roads, local authorities as statutory litter authority are responsible for the clearance of litter on all roads (including trunk roads) within their area which are not motorways or special roads. To assist local authorities with this duty, Transport Scotland’s Operating Companies provide work programmes to allow litter picking to be co-ordinated with traffic management put in place for maintenance works.

Question reference: S5W-24886

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 17 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what the alternative berthing solutions are for the Isle of Bute and Isle of Arran ferry services following the closure of the linkspan at Gourock.

Should a situation arise that renders both berths at Ardrossan and the berth at Gourock inaccessible for use by MV Isle of Arran or MV Caledonian Isles, which serve the Ardrossan-Brodick route, Wemyss Bay would be considered for MV Isle of Arran as an alternative berth. MV Caledonian Isles is unable to berth at Wemyss bay due to her size, therefore her port of original departure may be the best solution. In this case passengers could use the Claonaig-Lochranza route to and from Arran.

Should a situation arise that renders both the linkspans at Wemyss Bay and Gourock inaccessible for either MV Argyle or MV Bute, which serve the Rothesay-Wemyss Bay route, there are currently no other alternative mainland ports available to enable safe berthing and discharging of passengers. In this case the vessel may return to her original port of departure, with passengers using the Colintraive-Rhubodach route to access Bute.

Question reference: S5O-03563

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 September 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that vessels operating on the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Service are robust and reliable.

Question reference: S5W-24672

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 August 2019
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 3 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-24316 by Derek Mackay on 1 August 2019, for what reason it has closed new applications for the (a) New Entrants Capital Grant, (b) New Entrants Start Up Grant, (c) Young Farmers Start Up Grant and (d) Food Processing, Marketing and Cooperation, despite there being an underspend in each of these grant schemes.

The answer to S5W-24316 did not identify an underspend in any of these specific grant schemes.

The Scottish Government takes a strategic approach to maintaining the SRDP 2014-20 budget, ensuring that we maximise the EU funds, while continuing support for key government priorities. The budget is managed and monitored at programme level, and schemes have indicative budgets allocated for the duration of the programme. These may be revised based on scheme performance and demand and policy priorities along with the impact of future Spending Reviews, to ensure that the SRDP continues to deliver towards our commitment to build growth all across rural Scotland.

Insofar as the new entrant/young farmer schemes are concerned, unlike the Rural Development Programme for England that offered no direct support for new entrants, we have invested the entire SRDP indicative budget of £22 million to kick-start over 250 new businesses and provide capital funding to hundreds of others, resulting in closure of the schemes in 2017 and 2018. The budgets available (2019-20) will pay only resulting grant claims. For further information on scheme expenditure, I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-18167 on 11 September 2018. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

Regarding Food Processing, Marketing and Co-operation Grant Scheme, the budgets for 2018-19 and 2019-20 have been fully allocated with a number of projects awarded grants having timescales for investment over two financial years. As with previous grant rounds, there are also potentially some awards which are not taken up. This situation is monitored closely to determine available budget for a further application round. We expect to make an announcement in this regard shortly.

Question reference: S5W-24636

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 29 August 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-23897 by Paul Wheelhouse on 23 July 2019, how much marine fuel was used on each route operated by CalMac Ferries in 2018-19.

Information regarding the amount of fuel used on each route operated by CalMac Ferries Ltd is not collected. CalMac record fuel use by vessel, which is shown in the following table for the period January 2018 to July 2019.

Vessel	Fuel Consumption 2018	Fuel Consumption Jan – July 2019	Total Consumption 2018 - 2019

Eigg	7,700	7,700	15,400
Raasay	5,202	-	5,202
Isle of Cumbrae	117,351	86,000	203,351
Catriona	257,974	158,750	416,724
Isle of Arran	1,727,020	1,181,914	2,908,934
Hebridean Isles	2,252,149	1,442,925	3,695,074
Loch Striven	165,259	96,174	261,433
Loch Linnhe	179,464	65,800	245,264
Loch Riddon	137,793	71,104	208,897
Loch Ranza	205,000	103,329	308,329
Isle of Mull	1,935,490	1,131,834	3,067,324
Lord of the Isles	2,593,381	1,561,582	4,154,963
Loch Dunvegan	257,065	152,082	409,147
Loch Fyne	167,274	110,742	278,016
Loch Buie	182,006	114,761	296,767
Loch Tarbert	163,907	110,352	274,259
Caledonian Isles	2,945,224	1,611,779	4,557,003
Isle of Lewis	3,954,739	2,132,801	6,087,540
Loch Bhrusda	188,222	136,733	324,955
Loch Alainn	328,443	205,400	533,843
Clansman	3,807,146	2,151,169	5,958,315
Loch Nevis	789,473	485,978	1,275,451
Hebrides	4,932,797	3,027,495	7,960,292
Loch Portain	1,037,525	666,967	1,704,492
Coruisk	749,143	537,468	1,286,611
Bute	1,399,625	868,601	2,268,226
Argyle	1,365,000	835,260	2,200,260
Loch Shira	541,232	306,360	847,592
Finlaggan	4,831,308	2,733,994	7,565,302
Alicat	318,122	204,773	522,895
Argyll Flyer	338,405	177,838	516,243
Hallaig	183,061	111,873	294,934
Lochinvar	222,628	104,605	327,233
Loch Seaforth	7,970,080	4,922,607	12,892,687
Carvoria (Petrol)	13,282	9,478	22,760

Total Consumption (MGO)	46,256,208	27,616,750	73,872,958
Total Consumption (Petrol)	13,282	9,478	22,760

Question reference: S5W-24316

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 July 2019
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 1 August 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) current underspend and (b) available budget is in each common agricultural policy pillar 2 scheme.

Current underspend within Common Agricultural Policy Pillar 2 schemes, Scottish Government Financial Year 2019/2020:

CAP Pillar 2 schemes	£ millions
Business Development
Crofting Agricultural Grant Scheme	0.01
Knowledge Transfer and Innovation Fund	0.03
Other legacy
Technical Assistance	0.14
Total	0.18

The underspend , which represents 0.10% of total CAP Pillar 2 budget, will be utilised over future remaining years of the current CAP Pillar 2 scheme to fulfil scheme needs over the whole of the Scottish Rural Development Programme.

Available budget in each common agricultural policy pillar 2 scheme

CAP Pillar 2 schemes	£ millions
Less Favoured Area Support Scheme	52.40
Forestry Legacy	0.90

Agri Environment
Legacy – Rural Priorities	1.90
Land Management Options	-
Agricultural Environment/HBS	-
Beef Efficiency Scheme	0.60
Beef Support- ScotEid	1.50
Agri Environment Climate Scheme	39.00
Sub-total Agri Environment:	43.00

Business Development
New Entrants Capital Grant	1.80
New Entrants Start Up grant	0.03
Young Farmers Start Up Grant	0.29
Small Farms Grant Scheme	0.04
Crofting Agricultural Grant Scheme	1.94
Food Processing, Marketing and Co-operation	10.20
Farm Advisory Services	4.50
Knowledge Transfer and Innovation Fund	1.30
Sub-total Business Development (Excludes Financial Transactions budget):	20.10

Other Legacy
Leader	20.40
Technical Assistance	1.00
Broadband	-
Sub-total	137.80

Scottish Forestry	46.0

Total:	183.80