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-03308

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 October 2011
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 29 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what provision it has made in the draft budget to extend the road equivalent tariff ferry fares pilot in the Western Isles to the Clyde and in what timescale.

The budget for RET in 2012 to 2013 is £4.5 million. This will allow Road Equivalent Tariff (RET) to continue on the Western Isles, Coll and Tiree for all passengers and traffic other than larger commercial vehicles. It will also allow RET to be rolled out to Islay, Colonsay and Gigha for all passengers and traffic other than larger commercial vehicles from October 2012. We will further roll out RET to Arran on the same basis from October 2014. RET will then be rolled out to the remaining West Coast and Clyde islands within the term of this parliament.

Question reference: S4W-03979

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 21 November 2011
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 28 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how much extra is being allocated to the International Development Fund in the 2012-13 budget to allow targeted support for people in developing countries.

Question reference: S4O-00427

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 November 2011
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 December 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many fewer nurses and midwives are working in the NHS than in 2009.

Question reference: S4W-03806

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 November 2011
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 21 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S4W-03387 by Fergus Ewing on 3 November 2011, what proportion of the 2020 renewables target it expects will be delivered by (a) tidal, (b) wave and (c) offshore wind energy, expressed in megawatts of projected demand; what percentage of (i) domestic and (ii) total demand it would consider major in this context and how it calculates these figures; when generation will start, and what the expected growth rate will be to 2020.

The Renewables Routemap estimates that we will need some 16 GigaWatts (GW) of capacity from across a wide range of renewable sources, but we have not published nor have we forecast targets for individual technologies.

As things stand, however, lease awards and agreements have been established which amount to over 11.5 GW of wave, tidal stream and offshore wind capacity in waters around Scotland. Our focus now is on working with the sector to address the technological, financial and infrastructural hurdles facing those projects – including the transition to a new support mechanism proposed as part of the UK Electricity Market Reforms – and to support the development of as much capacity as possible by 2020.

Question reference: S4W-03396

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 October 2011
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 16 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on inshore fisheries controls on the River Clyde and the extension of no-catch zones.

The Clyde Inshore Fisheries Group is nearing completion of its draft fisheries management plan and will soon submit it to Ministers for approval. The Scottish Government will consider the priorities and management measures proposed in the plan with a view to implementing them as appropriate in due course.

We will shortly be undertaking stakeholder engagement on the outputs from the Clyde Project, which was initiated last autumn in the first instance to review the evidence on the state of the Clyde.

Question reference: S4W-03392

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 October 2011
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 16 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will review the national planning framework to remove support for a new coal-fired power plant at Hunterston.

Question reference: S4W-03391

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 October 2011
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 15 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what the cost is to consumers in Scotland of transmission losses from Scottish electricity generators to the rest of UK.

The costs of transmission losses are not allocated to the consumer. They are dealt with through the Balancing Mechanism used by the National Grid as a means of balancing power flows on to and off of the electricity Transmission System in Great Britain. The costs of transmission losses are met by electricity generators and distribution companies drawing the electricity off the transmission network.

Elexon is the body that administers the Balancing Mechanism. More information can be found on its website:

Question reference: S4W-03807

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 November 2011
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 15 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S4W-03390 by Fergus Ewing on 2 November 2011, where it believes the 52 megawatts of capacity will be deployed; whether the 50p per annum projected cost to consumers is based on spreading the Renewables Obligation cost over a UK or Scottish consumer base, and, if the former, what the cost to Scottish consumers alone would be for 52 megawatts of distributed generation.

The location of marine renewables projects around Scotland will be a matter for developers, subject to their obtaining both a site lease and the necessary marine license from the Scottish Government. The estimated additional cost incurred by this forecast capacity is based on the costs being spread across the UK – deliberately and advisedly so, since this is how the Renewables Obligation operates and will continue to do so.

Question reference: S4W-03393

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 October 2011
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 10 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding has been drawn down by successful applicants for Wave and Tidal Energy: Research, Development and Demonstration Support, and how many jobs it supports.

Question reference: S4W-03394

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 October 2011
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 10 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive when it expects the planned improvements to the A737 at the Head Street and Barrmill Road junctions in Beith and the Den realignment outside Dalry to be completed.

The Head Street scheme has completed the statutory process; the Den realignment scheme is currently in preparation and construction of both schemes is dependent on the availability of funding and the competing priorities of other schemes on the network.

At Barrmill Road the A737 Road Safety Route Action Plan is on-going. It will propose measures aimed at reducing the number of injury accidents. Some of the early identified outcomes from the bend assessment section of this Road Safety Route Action Plan will be implemented during December 2011.