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-05930

Asked by: Andy Wightman, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 11 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the recipients of financial contributions from VisitScotland to the strategy, Game for Growth Strategy - Country Sports Tourism in Scotland 2016; what information it has regarding how each recipient will use this; what action it has taken to ensure that no money was provided to the owners or managers of landholdings on which crimes against wildlife have been committed; whether it will publish the strategy on its website, and what aspects of this it is supporting or plans to support with public money.

VisitScotland has approved a grant of £17,925 to the Scottish Country Sports Tourism Group to promote Scotland as the destination of choice for all country sports. The Group will use this to develop content and supporting digital activity to attract visitors from across the UK and Scandinavia. As this money is for a specific project, no funding will be provided to individual estates or land owners. There is no intention to publish the strategy on VisitScotland's website and so there will be no funding support for this.

Question reference: S5W-03710

Asked by: Andy Wightman, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 15 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has evaluated the method of producing Whole of Government Accounts as produced for the UK by the Treasury and, if so, whether it will publish the results, and what plans it has to publish a version of Whole of Government Accounts for Scotland.

In a letter of 2 November 2016, the Permanent Secretary wrote to the Public Audit and Post-Legislative Scrutiny Committee, in advance of her attendance at the Committee on 10 November 2016: http://www.parliament.scot/S5_Finance/PAPLS_Papers_10_November.pdf

Annex A (Developing budget financial and performance reporting) of this letter sets out the Scottish Government’s response to planning for further developments in financial reporting. Page 36 of the above link provides information about the proposals for further publications.

Question reference: S5O-00359

Asked by: Andy Wightman, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 November 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with tenant farmers and their representatives.

Question reference: S5W-03787

Asked by: Andy Wightman, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 2 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish its formal response to the final report of the Commission on Local Tax Reform.

Question reference: S5W-03786

Asked by: Andy Wightman, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 2 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how much (a) financial and (b) in-kind support it provided to the Commission on Local Tax Reform.

The Commission on Local Tax Reform was jointly sponsored by the Scottish Government and COSLA. The Scottish Government’s financial contribution totalled £167,000. This covered a range of financial outlays incurred by the Commission ranging from Commissioners’ travel and subsistence costs to purchased analysis and research. Additionally, the Scottish Government and COSLA loaned staff to the secretariat of the Commission for the nine months it was in existence.

Question reference: S5W-03745

Asked by: Andy Wightman, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 27 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to dispose of land under the re-positioning programme; whether any additional targets have been set and, if so, what these are and what the timescale is for disposal.

Forest Enterprise Scotland notifies land and forest sales to give communities a prior opportunity to express an interest in using the National Forest Land Scheme for community acquisition.

Sites currently notified for sale can be viewed at:

http://scotland.forestry.gov.uk/managing/work-on-scotlands-national-forest-estate/land-and-building-management.

Income from these currently notified sales will be used to complete a pipeline of some 2,500 hectares of new woodland creation.

The Scottish Government has yet to decide on any further sales programme beyond those areas already notified.

Question reference: S5W-03734

Asked by: Andy Wightman, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 27 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to dispose of land held as part of the National Forest Estate.

Since 2005, Forest Enterprise Scotland has been selling land and forests from the National Forest Estate which are contributing least to delivery of public benefits and using the proceeds to invest in projects, particularly land acquisition for woodland creation, which contribute significantly to the delivery of the Scottish Government’s objectives.

Detailed information of land sold and acquired since that time can be found at: http://scotland.forestry.gov.uk/managing/work-on-scotlands-national-forest-estate/land-and-building-management/re-positioning-programme.

Forest Enterprise Scotland notifies land and forest sales to give communities a prior opportunity to express an interest in using the National Forest Land Scheme for community acquisition. Sites currently notified for sale can be viewed at: http://scotland.forestry.gov.uk/managing/work-on-scotlands-national-forest-estate/land-and-building-management.

Income from these currently notified sales will be used to complete a pipeline of some 2,500 hectares of new woodland creation.

The Scottish Government has yet to decide on any further sales programme beyond those areas already notified.

Question reference: S5W-03692

Asked by: Andy Wightman, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 27 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent in each year since 1999 to support pupils at St Mary's Music School in Edinburgh as part of the aided places scheme under the Education (Scotland) Act 1980.

The Scottish Government does not hold all of the information requested. As set out in the Scottish Public Finance Manual, financial records should normally be retained for six years.

The Scottish Government holds the information requested from 2004 onwards. The following table sets out how much has been spent as part of the aided places scheme at St Mary’s Music School since 2004.

Financial Year	Total Amount (£)
2004-05	1,025,045
2005-06	1,132,487
2006-07	1,150,332
2007-08	1,229,012
2008-09	1,230,589.93
2009-10	1,314,142.89
2010-11	1,331,923.74
2011-12	1,234,258
2012-13	1,252,,891.48
2013-14	1,258,398.40
2014-15	1,281,258.90
2015-16	1,289,134.02

Question reference: S5W-02251

Asked by: Andy Wightman, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 29 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many valid claims under the 2015 Basic Payment Scheme on the basis of having submitted an environmental assessment were made in each local authority area, broken down by the (a) name and location of the landholding, (b) extent in hectares of the claim and (c) amount (i) claimed and (ii) awarded.

Further details will be released in due course.

The following table provides an interim summary at 26 September, showing the number of locations by local authority area with estimated eligible areas and resulting BPS payments.

Local Authority	Number of locations	Hectares claimed	BPS claimed
Aberdeen City	1	5	£243
Aberdeenshire	5	36	£3,526
Angus	4	9964	£115,688
Argyll and Bute	2	5838	£136,158
City of Edinburgh	2	7	£768
Dumfries and Galloway	1	148	£5,448
East Dumbartonshire	1	8	£164
East Lothian	1	2	£303
Highland	24	67748	£2,249,391
Midlothian	1	2	£11
Moray	5	4942	£172,651
North Ayrshire	2	66	£1,618
Orkney	9	158	£11,766
Perth and Kinross	6	15614	£871,659
Scottish Borders	4	1821	£17,146
Shetland	1	53	£4,304
Stirling	4	13509	£138,967
Western Isles	4	8812	£649,502
Grand Total	77	128732	£4,379,314

Question reference: S5W-02242

Asked by: Andy Wightman, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 August 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 28 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish or make available the 2015 environmental assessment submitted to it by the Invermark Estate in Angus as part of the Basic Payment Scheme.