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: S4O-02049

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 April 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 May 2013

To ask the Scottish Government��whether it will provide an update on ash dieback in Scotland.

Question reference: S4W-14068

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 April 2013
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 23 April 2013

To ask the Scottish Government��how it will respond to reports that the recent bad weather is having a negative impact on seabird populations ahead of the breeding season.

I recognise that the recent spell of unusually bad weather has had a negative impact on Scotland’s wildlife including seabirds and also on livestock. There have been reports of groups of seabirds, such as puffins, being washed ashore on the East Coast of Scotland. This puffin “wreck” is indicative of difficulties faced by seabirds in sourcing food in periods of severe weather.

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) have advised that the impact of recent bad weather on seabird populations will not be known until after the forthcoming breeding season. SNH, in conjunction with the Joint Nature Conservation Committee and other organisations, participate in the Seabird Monitoring Programme which collects sample data on breeding numbers and breeding success of 26 species of seabird that regularly breed in Britain and Ireland to enable their conservation status to be assessed.

Results of the Seabird Monitoring Programme can be found on the JNCC web site;

Question reference: S4O-02024

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 April 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 April 2013

To ask the Scottish Government��what its position is on opencast restoration.

Question reference: S4W-13717

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 15 March 2013
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 16 April 2013

To ask the Scottish Government��what discussions it has had with the UK Government on any changes to how environmental impacts will be assessed in Scotland under the UK Office for Unconventional Gas.

Question reference: S4W-14069

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 April 2013
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 16 April 2013

To ask the Scottish Government��what impact the proposed network of marine protected areas will��have on the recovery of sandeels.

Protected areas can help conserve the current populations of sandeels by protecting the sources of sandeel in Scottish waters.

Four inshore and offshore MPA proposals for sandeels have been identified and were included in the Report to Parliament in December 2012 in recognition of the importance of preserving the species in its own right but also given the importance of sandeels for key seabird species. Scottish National Heritage and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee have advised that the objectives for the MPA proposals should be to conserve sandeel. Evidence suggests that sandeel are not in decline in these areas because few are activities taking place likely to affect their conservation status. Populations of sandeel are also not considered to be in decline because of existing fisheries measures to protect sandeel, such as the measures that span the marine waters of the Forth, and the relatively quick turnover of sandeels.

Certain areas of the sea act as sources for populations of species. These sources add new individuals to increase the population numbers of the species. The role of the MPA network for sandeels is to protect sources for sandeel which supply young sandeel to other sandeel grounds around Scotland, thus promoting the health of the overall population. The MPA proposals for sandeels that were reported on in 2012 represent such sources of sandeel.

Question reference: S4W-14070

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 April 2013
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 16 April 2013

To ask the Scottish Government��whether the proposed network of marine protected areas will protect sandeels in the River Forth.

Question reference: S4W-14071

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 April 2013
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 16 April 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will reconsider the inclusion of sites to protect seabird foraging areas��in the proposed network of marine protected areas to provide resilience against extreme weather events.

There is already a range of work ongoing to identify seabird foraging areas for possible inclusion in the Scottish MPA network either as Nature Conservation MPAs designated under national legislation or marine Special Protected Areas (SPAs) designated under the EU Birds Directive.

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The Report to Parliament on progress on identifying an MPA network was laid in Parliament on 14 December 2012, and was accompanied by Scottish Natural Heritage and Joint Nature Conservation Committee’s detailed scientific network advice. Both of these documents, which can be found on the Marine Scotland website, highlights six proposals for black guillemot, all of which contain areas used for foraging.

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The report also highlighted that work is ongoing to identify SPAs at sea for other species of seabirds. This will include areas used by seabirds for foraging. Both the new Nature Conservation MPAs and the additional marine SPAs are intended to complement existing SPAs, 31 of which were extended into the marine environment in 2009 and already provide some foraging areas.

Question reference: S4W-13768

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 March 2013
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 15 April 2013

To ask the Scottish Government��when ministers became aware that the Rural Payments and Inspections Division intended to write to Raasay Crofters Association with a notice to quit the lease for the sporting rights on Raasay.

Question reference: S4W-13767

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 March 2013
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 15 April 2013

To ask the Scottish Government��whether ministers were informed that its Rural Payments and Inspections Division had written to Raasay Crofters Association on 1 November 2011 with a notice to quit the lease for the sporting rights on Raasay.

On 1 November 2011, the Scottish Government Rural Payments and Inspections Division served Raasay Crofters Association notice that their lease for Raasay sporting rights would end on 28 November 2012. There is a long standing precedent for decisions on award of leases across Scottish Ministers estates being taken by officials, as most of these leases are of low financial value. Ministers were not informed of the notice to quit being issued or the advertisement of the contract. Ministers were first made aware of the decision having been taken to award the contract for the Raasay sporting rights (on 8 January) to South Ayrshire Stalking when Dave Thompson MSP verbally informed the Minister for Environment and Climate Change of the community’s concerns of the outcome on 14 January. This was closely followed by correspondence from Jamie McGrigor MSP.

Question reference: S4W-13715

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 15 March 2013
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 15 April 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government about how environmental impacts are assessed under the licensing, planning and regulatory framework for onshore unconventional gas extraction.