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: S4W-07900

Asked by: Jean Urquhart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 June 2012
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 26 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it remains its position to bring forward the third commencement order for the Crofting Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 in summer 2012.

Question reference: S4W-07901

Asked by: Jean Urquhart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 June 2012
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 26 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how it encourages the development of new crofts.

The Scottish Government encourages the development of new crofts in a number of ways, including through working closely with the Crofting Commission to help it better regulate crofting and with Highlands and Islands Enterprise in its crofting development function.

The Scottish Government also encourages communities to purchase Scottish Ministers’ croft land under the transfer of Crofting Estates (Scotland) Act 1997 as a means to establishing new crofts for community benefit. We would encourage all landlords, in both the public and private sectors to consider setting up new crofts, which should contribute to the long-term sustainability of crofting.

Once new crofts have been established, financial support is available from specific crofting grants and the Scotland Rural Development Programme (SRDP). Specific measures to assist new, primarily young, entrants are the extra 10% assistance from the Crofting Counties Agricultural Grants Scheme made available to those under 40 years of age, and the assistance with interest rate relief for new entrants to agriculture whose agricultural standard labour requirement is greater than 25%. In addition, the Croft House Grants Scheme provides up to £22,000 assistance to help crofters live on the crofts they work.

Question reference: S4W-07904

Asked by: Jean Urquhart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 June 2012
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 25 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what the value is of the returned quotas that have been allocated to the Scottish Fishermen’s Organisation and the (a) Orkney, (b) Shetland and (c) Lunar fish producer organisations.

The value of any fish quota, in terms of the price per tonne achieved at first sale, can fluctuate considerably in light of prevailing market conditions. Any estimate of value can therefore only be an approximation. Noting this level of uncertainty, the table below shows the approximate value of quotas allocated to the Fish Producer Organisations noted there. These estimates are based on average first sale prices in 2011.

Producer Organisation	Value allocated (£ millions)
Scottish Fishermen’s Organisation	2.12
Orkney FPO	0.20
Shetland FPO	0.23
Lunar FPO	0.02

Question reference: S4W-07905

Asked by: Jean Urquhart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 June 2012
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 25 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive whether returned quotas that are allocated to the Scottish Fishermen’s Organisation and the (a) Orkney, (b) Shetland and (c) Lunar fish producer organisations are directed to the producer organisations or to specific vessels.

Allocations of fish quota are made to Fish Producer Organisations. In the case of the quotas that were reserved by the European Union to facilitate a mutual access agreement with the Faroe Islands (where agreement was not reached and therefore quotas will be returned to EU member states) allocations have been made to producer organisations with member vessels that have fished in Faroese waters in recent years (2009 and 2010). The purpose of the allocation is therefore to provide assistance to producer organisations with members active in the Faroese fishery. It is for producer organisations to decide how to make that assistance available to individual members.

Question reference: S4W-07906

Asked by: Jean Urquhart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 June 2012
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 25 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive when the returned quotas that have been allocated to the Scottish Fishermen’s Organisation and the (a) Orkney, (b) Shetland and (c) Lunar fish producer organisations will come into force.

These fish quotas can be utilised now.

It is the practice of the UK Fisheries Administrations to issue provisional allocations of fish quotas in the early part of the year. These provisional allocations then become final allocations later in the year, when all in-year amendments made by the EU and any adjustments made as a consequence of the application of UK quota management rules (for example, in relation to any penalties for over-fishing) can be taken into account. Provisional allocations for 2012 have already been issued. It is expected that final allocations will be issued shortly, although there remains provision in quota management rules for allocations to be adjusted further (for example where producer organisations wish to “borrow” from 2013 quotas).

Question reference: S4W-07903

Asked by: Jean Urquhart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 June 2012
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 25 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what assistance it has given to fish producer organisations affected by the reported lack of access to waters around the Faroe Islands for mackerel fishing.

The absence of an agreement between the EU and the Faroe Islands for mutual access to fishing waters has caused a number of significant disruptions to the Scottish fishing industry. Most importantly, the setting of unilateral and excessive quotas by the Faroe Islands (and Iceland) places the long term sustainability of the mackerel stock in jeopardy. At present, however, Scottish vessels prosecuting the mackerel fishery in EU waters are able to access significant fishing opportunities. The provisional UK 2012 allocation of mackerel is over 130,000 tonnes, and this will be adjusted upwards when final allocations are made.

Question reference: S4W-07907

Asked by: Jean Urquhart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 June 2012
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 25 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with the Faroe Islands Government on the resumption of access to mackerel fishing

The Scottish Government has actively participated in all rounds of negotiations between the coastal states for mackerel so far. We act as part of the UK delegation to the European Union, the EU being the Coastal State with negotiating authority on behalf of member states. The latest round ended without agreement in Reykjavik in February. Since then, Scottish Government officials have engaged with the Faroe Islands Government by meeting with a delegation of Faroese MPs in Edinburgh. We will continue to work hard to ensure the Scottish position is well represented in the autumn negotiations for a 2013 agreement.

Question reference: S4O-01037

Asked by: Jean Urquhart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 24 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive whether part of its preventative spend budget will be spent on health matters.

Question reference: S4O-01061

Asked by: Jean Urquhart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 May 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 31 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made on land reform.

Question reference: S4O-01018

Asked by: Jean Urquhart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 May 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what the outcome is of the trial of using retained staff to provide ambulance cover in the Shetland Islands.