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 MSPs 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: S3W-00504

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 04 June 2007
Current Status: Answered by Adam Ingram on 18 June 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive when it expects to publish its strategy for fostering and kinship care.

Question reference: S3W-00505

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 04 June 2007
Current Status: Answered by Adam Ingram on 18 June 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to take forward the recommendations of the previous Executive’s implementation plan, Getting it right for every child, in respect of the delivery of children’s services and the effectiveness of the children’s hearing system and, if so, how it will do this.

Getting it right forevery child supports many of the Scottish Executive’s objectives. We are keen toprogress action which improves outcomes for children. We will continue to supportmeasures designed to improve practice and remove barriers We are currently consideringwhether the implementation plan and draft legislation brought forward by the previousadministration will support this agenda. This will be considered in the light of the responses to the consultation and learning so far.

Question reference: S3W-00058

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 May 2007
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 15 June 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will approve the application by the Education for Dumfries and Galloway (E4D&G) consortium to build or rebuild nine new schools in Dumfries and Galloway, including Heathhall Primary School, Lockerbie Primary School, Lockerbie Academy, Moffat “All Through” school and a new Roman Catholic primary school in Dumfries.

These schools areincluded in a PPP project which Dumfries and GallowayCouncil has been working up over an extended period of time, following an Executiveoffer of financial support which was first made in 2002. It is our intention tohonour existing offers of financial support for school PPP projects even where,as in Dumfries and Galloway, they have yet to reach the construction phase.

It is our intentionto offer an attractive funding stream through a not for profit Scottish FuturesTrust which we anticipate will squeeze out PPP for future proposals.

Question reference: S3W-00484

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 04 June 2007
Current Status: Answered by Adam Ingram on 15 June 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress it is making in considering the case for the payment of allowances to kinship carers.

Question reference: S3W-00285

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 May 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 14 June 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what public consultation would require to be undertaken by a company wishing to open a deep coal mine in Scotland.

Question reference: S3W-00286

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 May 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 14 June 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what role the Scottish Ministers would have in determining an application for a new deep coal mine in Scotland.

Question reference: S3W-00284

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 May 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 14 June 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what procedures would have to be followed by a company wishing to open a new deep coal mine in Scotland.

Question reference: S3W-00288

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 May 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 13 June 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has received any representations from Scottish Coal regarding the possibility of opening a deep coal mine at Canonbie in Dumfriesshire.

We have not received anyrepresentations from Scottish Coal on this issue.

It would be for the company,in the first instance, to consider the feasibility of opening a deep mine. Anyproposal brought forward would need to be considered against the relevantstatutory provisions in Scottish planning legislation. These ensure that anylikely significant effects on the environment are taken into account in thedecision making process.

Public consultation would,of course, be vital for a project such as this and advertisement in the localpress and neighbour notification would be required. In addition, planningguidance encourages operators to work closely with local communities at thepre-application stage and the Executive would certainly encourage fullcommunity involvement for a project like this. We intend to introduce regulationsunder the Planning Act 2006 to put in place new statutory procedures forpre-application consultation for major developments.

Decisions on planningapplications are, in the first instance, a matter for planning authorities. Thecircumstances for notifying applicationsto the Scottish ministers is set out in Scottish ExecutiveDevelopment Department Circular 5/2007: Notification of Planning Applications, which has been placed in the Scottish ParliamentInformation Centre (Bib. number 42716). Paragraphs 24 to 27 explain some of thecircumstances where ministers may call in applications for their owndetermination, although much will depend on the individual circumstances of specific cases. Applicants that arerefused planning permission also have a right of appeal to the Scottish ministers.

Question reference: S3W-00474

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 01 June 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 13 June 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what improvements are planned for the A75 in Dumfries and Galloway; when these are expected to be undertaken, and at what estimated cost.

A contract worth £9.2 million(excluding VAT) has been awarded to Graham Construction to build what is known asthe A75 Overtaking Opportunities scheme. The scheme consists of new overtaking opportunitiesat Barfil; at Newton Stewart, and at Planting End. Works started on 11 June 2007.

Inaddition, the following improvements to the A75 are currently being prepared.

Scheme	Cost £ Million*	Earliest Possible Start Date
Cairntop to Barlae	6.2	Summer 2008
Hardgrove to Kinmount	10.2	Early 2009
Dunragit Bypass	16.0	Spring 2009

Note:*Figures exclude VAT.

The Strategic Transport ProjectsReview will also examine the longer term needs of Scotland’s nationallystrategic transport network to develop the investment plan for 2012 to 2022.

Question reference: S3W-00476

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfries, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 01 June 2007
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 13 June 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will announce the results of its consultation on snaring.