Questions and answers

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 ��˿�� 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: S4W-28021

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 9 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish an updated national reporting framework that will map its sustainable development goals.

Scotland’s aims and ambitions – such as tackling inequality, ensuring access to high quality education and healthcare – are already a key part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These aims and ambitions are enshrined in our National Performance Framework and Scotland’s National Action Plan for Human Rights. These will allow us to measure and report on progress in achieving the SDGs in Scotland.

Question reference: S4W-27845

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 02 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 30 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many protective expenses orders have been used in court cases in each of the last three years.

In March 2013 court rules came into effect to allow protective expenses orders (PEOs) to be applied for in certain environmental cases in the Court of Session. Since then, there have been a number of applications for protective expenses orders. Data on the number of applications for PEOs applied for in the Court of Session is not currently able to be extracted. However, the Scottish Government is aware of at least nine opinions in cases involving PEOs in the Court of Session. The Scottish Government is currently in discussions with the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service on a range of issues relating to data collection.

Question reference: S4W-27874

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 05 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 28 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to its news release of 4 October 2015, VW task force call, what response it has received from the UK Government to its call for a UK-wide taskforce to be set up to deal with the matters arising from Volkswagen Automobile Group's admission that it falsified some emissions details, and what analysis it has carried out of how the issue will impact on its climate targets.

The UK Government has responded to the Scottish Government on Volkswagen (VW) issues. They have confirmed the position on a number of the points raised by the Scottish Government, for example that having defeat software fitted will not lead to an increase in Vehicle Excise Duty for current or subsequent owners of vehicles. On a range of other issues, including the setting up of a UK wide task force, no decision has yet been taken.

The Scottish Government has not carried out any analysis on the impact of the VW scandal on climate targets. There is simply no data available from potentially affected vehicles. In addition, the impact on targets is likely to be marginal, because, rather than relying on car performance statistics, emissions recorded in the inventory are calculated from actual fuel sales.

Question reference: S4W-27846

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 02 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 27 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to change the level of fees for protective expenses orders.

A protective expenses order may be granted by the Court of Session. The limits for a protective expenses order are set out in Chapter 58A of the rules of that court. The Scottish Government has no plans to change those limits.

An application for a protective expenses order is made by motion. There are fees for making a motion and for other stages of procedure. The Scottish Government consulted on court fees in February 2015. Court of Session fees are set out in tables in the Court of Session etc. Fees Order 2015 no. 261. Those tables apply from September 2015, from April 2016, and then from April 2017. Thereafter the level of fees may be reviewed.

Question reference: S4O-04708

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 October 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government when the Longannet Taskforce and PACE team will report on the interventions they have made with the workers and apprentices affected by the power station's closure.

Question reference: S4W-27381

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 8 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the statement by Fergus Ewing on 3 September 2015 (Official Report, c.52), what plans it has to review its energy strategy.

Question reference: S4W-27368

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 07 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 5 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-26272 by Fergus Ewing on 27 July 2015, whether it will publish the minutes of the meetings with representatives of (a) Broad Alliance, (b) the UK Onshore Operators Group, (c) Friends of the Earth Scotland, (d) COSLA and (e) The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

Question reference: S4W-27382

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 1 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the statement by Fergus Ewing on 3 September 2015 (Official Report, c.52), what action it is taking to ensure that its energy strategy focuses on retaining the skills and expertise needed for thermal generation.

The Scottish Government’s skills agency Skills Development Scotland published an updated Energy Skills Investment Plan in March 2015. The plan maintains and develops the significant range of world-leading skills and expertise that Scotland has to offer the energy sector.

In response to the planned closure of Longannet power station in March 2016 specifically, we have already established a Longannet taskforce and our Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE) team is engaging with Scottish Power and its suppliers to offer tailored assistance to the workers affected. PACE has an excellent record in helping workers facing redundancy with 72 per cent of those who receive PACE support finding employment within six months.

Scotland’s diverse energy sector will continue to require a broad range of skills and expertise to maintain a balanced mix of energy generation sources, as set out in the Scottish Government’s Electricity Generation Policy Statement 2013 – including onshore and offshore wind, conventional thermal (for example at Peterhead), new carbon capture and storage (CCS) opportunities, hydro-electric and pumped storage schemes, biomass, marine energy and existing nuclear.

Scotland is the best place in these islands to develop large-scale and cost-effective renewables, pumped storage hydro and carbon capture and storage projects. That unique potential is recognised in our Third National Planning Framework (published in July 2014) through a series of National Developments.

The potential to develop in Scotland new clean thermal power is particularly strong and would create and safeguard jobs in thermal generation. Shell/SSE are expected to make a final investment decision on the Peterhead CCS project at the end of this year or in early 2016, with the aim of the project being operational in 2018/19, and Summit Power’s Caledonia Clean Energy Project at Grangemouth is aiming to achieve commercial operation in the early 2020s.

However, the development of any new thermal generation in Scotland will require both certainty on future UK Government policy support for low-carbon generation beyond 2020 and a solution to the problem of discriminatory grid charges which penalise generators located in Scotland.

Question reference: S4W-27379

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 1 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the comment in its 2015-16 programme for government that thermal generation will "continue to be an important part of Scotland’s electricity mix in the foreseeable future”, when it will announce details of its plans to ensure the delivery of thermal generation that relies on carbon capture and storage, and how it will ensure that this is sufficiently financed.

Energy is a reserved matter and we have continually pressed the UK Government on the development of carbon capture and storage (CCS) for years. The UK Government’s CCS commercialisation competition is nearing its conclusions soon and we hope that the Peterhead project will come out of that process with a positive result but the UK Government have made no clear response to the future of CCS beyond the two planned demonstration projects.

We believe CCS is a technology needed both for electricity generation and for emission reduction.

This world leading initiative is ultimately dependant on the UK Government making a positive final investment decision on the project early in 2016. If the UK Government is willing to make this commitment the building of this project will require a construction workforce of up to 600 people and the project is expected to be operational in 2018-19.

This is a large scale project which expects to capture around 1 million tonnes of CO2 each year and transport it offshore for safe and secure storage more than two kilometres beneath the North Sea.

A second major CCS project proposal for Scotland is the Caledonia Clean Energy Project, a low-carbon power generation project proposed by Summit Power for Grangemouth which proposes to capture up to 3.5 million tonnes of CO2 each year. It is important that follow-on CCS projects such as this continue to come forward and be supported and the Scottish and UK governments have jointly agreed to provide £4.2 million funding to advance the development of this project.

Summit Power aims to achieve commercial operation of this project in the early 2020’s.

Question reference: S4W-27377

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 29 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the statement by Fergus Ewing on 3 September 2015 (Official Report, c.52), (a) what support and (b) how much inward investment it will provide to mitigate the impact of the closure of Longannet Power Station on (i) communities, (ii) businesses and (iii) employees in (A) Kincardine and (B) other areas and manage the transitional issues arising from it; when it will announce full details of the inward investment, and how much of it will be new money.

We recognise that the impact of the closure of Longannet will be felt in Fife and across Scotland. An economic development plan will be developed by the Longannet taskforce, which was set up by the Scottish Government to support the workers, businesses and communities impacted by Scottish Power’s decision to close Longannet Power Station. The taskforce will develop an economic recovery plan to:

Help ensure individuals employed at the site are supported, maximising each individual’s opportunity to secure alternative employment;

Support the communities impacted by the closure;

Mitigate the effects on the supply chain;

Produce a masterplan for the long term future of the site, maximising the employment potential of the site; and

Consider the economic infrastructure of the local area, to identify how to create sustainable employment in the longer term.

While it is too early to say what resources might be required to support the delivery of the economic recovery plan, the taskforce will work towards identifying the various needs and requirements prior to Longannet’s closure.