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-05836

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 February 2012
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 8 March 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how much renewable electricity generation in megawatts is currently in local and community ownership and what plans there are to achieve the target for local and community ownership of electricity in the 2020 Routemap for Renewable Energy in Scotland.

The Scottish Government has commissioned work to produce a database on community and locally owned renewable energy projects in Scotland which will show how much renewable generation by technology is currently operational in Scotland. The report will be available shortly and will be published on the Scottish Government website.

To help achieve our target for 500 MW of community and locally owned renewables by 2020, we will continue to provide the Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) loan scheme which provides finance at the high risk pre-planning stage, and which has a budget of 23.5 million over the next three years. The CARES support will also include advice to communities on technical and financial issues and governance structures.

Question reference: S4W-05834

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 February 2012
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 8 March 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what barriers there are to the establishment by local authorities of energy companies to (a) develop publicly owned renewables, (b) bulk-buy electricity from the wholesale market and (c) become retail suppliers of electricity to domestic properties.

Many public bodies already own and operate renewable energy technologies manufactured, installed and supplied by third parties and which generate power that can either be exported to the national grid or used on site. The Scottish Futures Trust is working with COSLA to build on the public sector’s experience to date of taking forward renewables projects and to explore a range of potential commercial structures and funding sources for future projects.

Issues for consideration are likely to include the need for specialist knowledge of the energy market and trading requirements, the need to obtain a supply licence from the energy regulator and to comply with the associated regulatory requirements and conditions.

The Scottish Government is committed to promoting exemplary community benefits from renewables developments on the public estate and would encourage local authorities to consider this when developing any future renewables schemes.

Question reference: S4W-05837

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 February 2012
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 6 March 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how many planning enforcement officers there are, broken down by local authority.

Question reference: S4W-05641

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 February 2012
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 2 March 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive whether changes to legislation on public entertainment licences made by the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010 leave local authorities discretion regarding (a) the level of fees and (b) allowing small events to be exempt from the requirement to hold a licence.

Question reference: S4W-05835

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 February 2012
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 1 March 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that the prudential borrowing regime would allow local authorities to borrow in order to invest in renewable energy generation with a view to repaying the debt through the income from energy sales.

Legislation permits local authorities to borrow for capital expenditure, and places a statutory duty on a local authority to have regard to the CIPFA Prudential Code when determining the maximum amount it can afford to allocate to capital expenditure. Whether a local authority is able to borrow in order to invest in renewable energy generation will depend on the nature of the investment and if the expenditure can be capitalised in accordance with proper accounting practices.

Question reference: S4O-00747

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 February 2012
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 1 March 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what impact the Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme will have on existing rail services in Glasgow.

The Edinburgh Glasgow Rail Improvement Programme (EGIP) is a comprehensive programme of improvements to Scotland’s railway infrastructure, rolling stock and service provision which will provide a major boost to the wealth of Scotland and its long term economic sustainability.

The EGIP timetable is currently under development, this work will continue up to the introduction of services. The current operating assumptions include Cumbernauld Line services operating from Glasgow Queen Street Low level station, and the introduction of a suite of new Glasgow to Croy local services.

Question reference: S4O-00770

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 February 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 March 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive whether young unemployed people are at risk of exploitation.

Question reference: S4W-05761

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 February 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 29 February 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on the UK Government statement that "The education provisions of the Equality Act 2010 which prohibit discrimination against individuals based on their protected characteristics (including their sexual orientation) do not extend to the content of the curriculum".

Section 89 (2) of the Equality Act 2010 states that the provisions of the legislation do not apply to anything done in connection with the content of the curriculum. However, the way in which the curriculum is taught is covered by the provisions of the Act. It would be unacceptable and also unlawful if the curriculum was taught in a school in a way which was considered by the court to be discriminatory or amounted to harassment towards a pupil/s with certain protected characteristics (including their sexual orientation).

We are committed to enabling schools in Scotland to address all aspects of equality within learning. There are a vast range of resources available to schools to support this, across all protected characteristics, through the Education Scotland website.

Question reference: S4W-05344

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 January 2012
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 9 February 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people under 18 have been placed on Lifelong Restriction Orders since the establishment of the Risk Management Authority, and what proportion of the total number of people placed on such orders in Scotland is under 18.

The Order for Lifelong Restriction (OLR), which is a life sentence, has been available to the High Court of the Justiciary since June 2006. The following table sets out the number of OLR sentences imposed by the court including those for offenders under the age of 18:

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Financial Year	OLRs Made by High Court	No. Under 18*	% Under 18*
2006-2007	1	0	0
2007-2008	5	0	0
2008-2009	16	1	6.25
2009-2010	26	0	0
2010-2011	20	1	5
2011-2012	12	0	0
Total	80	2	2.5

Note: *On date of sentencing

Question reference: S4W-05264

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 January 2012
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 7 February 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive for what reason section 206 of the Bankruptcy and Diligence etc. (Scotland) Act 2007 has not been fully commenced and when the insertion of section 73D into the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 will be implemented.

Section 206 of the Bankruptcy and Diligence etc. (Scotland) Act 2007 inserts section 73D into the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1985. Section 73D contains a requirement for a Debt Advice and Information Package (DAIP) to be provided to a debtor within 48 hours of an arrestment of a debtor’s goods or bank account.

The provision of the DAIP after an arrestment has taken place would not provide debtors with an opportunity to seek advice prior to enforcement. This may undermine the value of the DAIP. Stakeholders also believe that the short timescale for provision of the DAIP may present practical difficulties for sheriff officers. Therefore, section 73D was specifically excluded when section 206 of the 2007 act was commenced in April 2009.

Officials are considering whether section 73D, as drafted, requires to be amended. Such an amendment would require an opportunity for primary legislation with sufficient scope to include diligence; therefore there are no immediate plans to amend or to commence this section.