The Scottish Parliament

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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-01685

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 January 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 January 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to ensure that student debt in Scotland remains the lowest in the UK.

Question reference: S4O-01574

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 November 2012
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 5 December 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what it considers the economic impact will be of the proposed merger between AG Barr and Britvic.

Question reference: S4O-01535

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 November 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance it provides to local authorities to deliver safe transport routes to schools.

Question reference: S4W-10638

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 29 October 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 16 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4F-00858 by Alex Salmond on 20 September 2012, (Official Report, c. 11704), how much it has spent in dealing with the freedom of information (FOI) requests by the anonymous submitter referred to by the First Minister and what the average cost of dealing with FOI requests has been since 2007.

The report of the Scottish Government’s FOI Costing Exercise 2012, which was published on 14 November, shows that the average cost to the Scottish Government of responding an FOI request is £231, the cost of an internal review is £417, and an appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner costs £1,250. The previous cost exercise, carried out by this Government in 2010, is published on the Scottish Government website at: .

Our records show that the anonymous requester referred to by the First Minister has submitted 13.5 per cent of all of the requests received by the Scottish Government between the start of the summer recess on 29 June and 6 November 2012. Based on the results of the costing exercise, the costs to the government are:

85 Requests £ 19,635

6 Requests for internal review £ 2,502

1 Appeal to the Commissioner £ 1,250

Total £ 23,387

Question reference: S4O-01487

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 November 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 15 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what benefits it expects to arise from the shift from the PFI/PPP to the non-profit distributing financing model.

The NPD model seeks to transfer risk and exert private sector discipline both during the construction phase of a project and throughout its lifetime, but without the excessive profits to the private sector and financing costs to the public sector associated with past PFI projects.

The key benefits of the NPD model are:

returns to the private sector are capped;
NPD does not contain dividend-bearing equity;
surpluses from NPD projects can be directed in favour of the public sector; and
enhanced stakeholder involvement in the management of projects.

Question reference: S4W-10650

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 29 October 2012
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 12 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how long a tenant of a (a) local authority and (b) registered social landlord is entitled to retain their tenancy while in residential care for a limited period.

There is no set period that a tenant of a local authority or registered social landlord is entitled to retain their Scottish Secure Tenancy while in residential care. There are limited grounds under the Housing Scotland Act 2001 when a local authority or a registered social landlord can seek to recover possession of a tenancy. One ground is if the tenant and their spouse or partner have been absent from the property without reasonable cause for a continuous period exceeding 6 months or have ceased to occupy the property as their principal home. The court can make such an order only if it is reasonable to do so.

Question reference: S4W-10649

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 29 October 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 7 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what the process is for reclassifying a school as rural under the terms of the Schools (Consultation) (Scotland) Act 2010.

The Scottish Government Urban Rural Classification, on which the Rural School List is based, is updated every two years, and the most recent version was published in August 2012. Following the update of the Classification, the Rural Schools List is them amended to take account of the revisions. This review also takes place every two years with the next review planned for Spring 2013. As the classification of schools as rural is based on the population density of their postcode area, this classification may change over time as settlements expand or contract.

The Scottish Government is aware that some local authorities have indicated that current rural school list may include a small number of anomalies.

It is open to an education authority to raise a concern they might have about the post code allocation for a school with the Post Office and enquire whether the post code could be changed to that of an adjacent post code area.

Question reference: S4W-10648

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 29 October 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 7 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what the criteria are for determining whether or not a school is classified as rural under the terms of the Schools (Consultation) (Scotland) Act 2010.

The Schools (Consultation) (Scotland) Act 2010 requires Scottish Ministers to maintain a list of rural schools. Section 14 of the 2010 Act states that in determining the question of rurality when considering whether a school falls to be included in or excluded from the list of rural schools, the Scottish Ministers are to have regard (in particular) to—

(a) the population of the community (or settlement) in which the school is located,

(b) the geographical circumstances of that community (or settlement) including its

relative remoteness or inaccessibility.

The Scottish Government Urban Rural Classification, provides a standard definition of rural areas in Scotland. The rural school list is prepared using this classification system with 3 different classifications for rural school (Accessible Rural, Remote Rural and Very Remote Rural). These classifications are based on the settlement size where the school is located and also by the drive time to another settlement. The detail of the classification criteria is set out in the following table.

Accessible Rural	Settlements of fewer than 3,000 people and within 30 minutes drive of a settlement of 10,000 or more.
Remote Rural	Settlements of fewer than 3,000 people and with a drive time of between 30 and 60 minutes to a settlement of 10,000 or more.
Very Remote Rural	Settlements of fewer than 3,000 people and with a drive time of over 60 minutes to a settlement of 10,000 or more.

Question reference: S4W-09995

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 October 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 29 October 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what the estimated asset value is of buildings built under each PFI/PPP project from 1999 to 2007, broken down by local authority.

Question reference: S4W-09996

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 October 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 29 October 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what the cost of repayments will be over the lifetime of each PFI/PPP project initiated from 1999 to 2007, broken down by local authority.

Parliament dissolved ahead of election

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