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-03713

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 November 2011
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 15 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will consult on plans for an environmental court, as proposed in the 2011 SNP manifesto.

Question reference: S4W-03714

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 November 2011
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 15 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will launch the consultation on the codification of rules of court on Protective Expense Orders, which was due to start in summer 2011.

Question reference: S4W-03715

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 November 2011
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 15 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will introduce a new test of sufficient interest, as recommended by the Supreme Court.

Provision is already made by Scottish Statutory Instrument to widen standing for any non-governmental organisation bringing a case within the scope of the EU Public Participation Directive (2003/35/EC).

We are currently considering the judgment of the Supreme Court in the AXA General Insurance case and whether this may require further legislation to widen standing in public interest cases more generally.

Question reference: S4W-03524

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 October 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 11 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how it plans to mark the International Day Against Hate Crime on 28 October 2011.

Question reference: S4W-03525

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 October 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 10 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to increase reporting of homophobic and transphobic hate crime.

There are a range of actions that have been and that are being taken forward.

I attended the launch of the ACPOS Hate Crime Guidance Manual. This manual was launched by ACPOS in September 2010 and provides operational guidance to the police service on all aspects of dealing with hate crime. The manual has also highlighted the importance and raised awareness of hate crime and encourages reporting of all types of hate crime.

I also delivered a speech at a vigil organised by the NUS Scotland LGBT Campaign on 28 October 2011. The vigil was to mark International Day Against Hate Crime.

We supported an application from the University of Stirling to the Royal Society of Edinburgh to fund a series of seminars to improve understanding of what drives race and hate crimes. Those seminars are now underway.

We are also working with the police service through the Scottish Policing Performance Development Group to broaden the data currently reported on hate crime.

We intend to hold a one day event either later this year or early next year which will be designed to build on the findings of the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s research report on the “Rehabilitation of Hate Crime Offenders”. We hope that by bringing together policy makers, academics and service providers from across the criminal justice sector, the foundations can be laid for the design of a new rehabilitative programme for hate crime offenders in Scotland.

All of the above actions demonstrate our efforts to help to increase awareness and encourage reporting of hate crime.

Question reference: S4O-00335

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 November 2011
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will introduce legislation on same-sex marriage in 2012 following completion of its current consultation.

Question reference: S4O-00228

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 September 2011
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what national and local accountability mechanisms there will be to prevent the politicisation of the proposed national police force.

Question reference: S4W-02097

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 August 2011
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 26 August 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many meetings ministers and officials have had with representatives of Composite Energy/Dart Energy Ltd in the last 12 months; what the dates of the meetings were; who was present, and what issues were discussed.

Question reference: S4W-02099

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 August 2011
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 26 August 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that the risks involved in hydraulic fracturing are sufficiently understood to allow the use of the technique in Scotland.

The UK has a long history of onshore gas exploration and the range of techniques used in both conventional and unconventional gas extraction, including hydraulic fracturing, are understood by the relevant regulators. There is a robust regulatory, safety and environmental regime in place to ensure that potential risks to safety, the environment or the community are properly managed. Given the new dimension of hydraulic fracturing being applied to unconventional gas extraction the statutory regulators will continue to monitor hydraulic fracturing closely.

Question reference: S4W-02098

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 August 2011
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 26 August 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive under which category in the hierarchy of developments the planning aspects of a proposal to begin shale gas extraction by means of hydraulic fracturing would fall.

The interpretation of legislation is a matter for the planning authority in the first instance. It will be for them to consider in the circumstances of the case whether a proposal is a national, major or local development.

No such projects are designated as national developments in the second National Planning Framework. In terms of the Town and Country Planning (Hierarchy of Developments) (Scotland) Regulations 2009, which identify thresholds for major developments, there is no specific reference to “shale gas extraction by means of hydraulic fracturing”. The planning authority will have to consider which, if any, of the descriptions of development the proposal falls into and whether the associated threshold is met or exceeded. Where developments are neither national nor major developments, then they are classed as local developments.

The Hierarchy regulations can be found at the following link: