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-20567

Asked by: Jean Urquhart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 April 2014
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 22 April 2014

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-20307 by Keith Brown on 2 April 2014 and given the interpretation of "prescribe" in section 142 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, whether a special road scheme under section 7 of the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 is exercising powers of regulation in a way that the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 had not done.

The definition of “prescribed” in section 142 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 does not apply to section 7 of the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984. The Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 regulates, among other matters, the use of special roads authorised under section 7 of the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984. “Special road” is defined in section 142 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 and section 17 of that Act is the primary regulating provision.

Question reference: S4W-20531

Asked by: Jean Urquhart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Independent
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 April 2014
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 22 April 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will place a copy of the alternative route certificate for the A87 Skye crossing in the Scottish Parliamentary Information Centre (SPICe).

Question reference: S4W-20661

Asked by: Jean Urquhart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Independent
Date lodged: Friday, 04 April 2014
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 22 April 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will adopt the Corran ferry crossing as part of the national trunk road system.

Question reference: S4O-03132

Asked by: Jean Urquhart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Independent
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 April 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 April 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what the impact is on crofting of the reintroduction of sea eagles.

Question reference: S4W-20307

Asked by: Jean Urquhart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Independent
Date lodged: Friday, 21 March 2014
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 2 April 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Scottish Ministers exercise a form of road regulation when a special road scheme prescribes types of traffic that may, or may not, use a route.

Question reference: S4O-03113

Asked by: Jean Urquhart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Independent
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 March 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 April 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether the provisions regarding school closures in the Children and Young People (Scotland) Bill will be applied retroactively to schools that have recently been proposed for closure.

Question reference: S4W-20067

Asked by: Jean Urquhart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Independent
Date lodged: Friday, 07 March 2014
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 19 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-19901 by Keith Brown on 6 March 2014, whether section 7 of the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 requires that the power to make a special road scheme is exercised by means of a statutory instrument.

Question reference: S4W-19901

Asked by: Jean Urquhart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Independent
Date lodged: Monday, 24 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 6 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-19745 by Keith Brown on 21 February 2014, whether a special road scheme made under section 7 of the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 in relation to a trunk road must be published as a general print or can be issued as a local and private non-print.

Regulation 6 of the Scottish Statutory Instruments Regulations 2011 requires publication of special roads schemes, which are Scottish statutory instruments, on the Queen’s Printer’s website. A scheme would only be printed if it was laid before the Scottish Parliament, either because it was designated as a ‘national development’ as defined in section 143A of the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 or if the Scottish Ministers directed that it should be so laid, or, if the Queen’s Printer was requested to print it under regulation 7(2) of the 2011 Regulations.

Question reference: S4W-19585

Asked by: Jean Urquhart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Independent
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 5 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government from what date it will be able to implement areas of natural constraint.

The Rural Development Regulation (RDR) requires the new Areas Facing Natural Constraint (ANC) designation to be in place from 2018. To inform negotiations on the RDRs we undertook some initial analysis and mapping through the stakeholder ANC working group. More information can be found at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/farmingrural/SRDP/SRDP20142012/SRDP201420AreasofNaturalConstraints

However, further work is required to complete the designation, including the requirement for fine tuning, in line with the final regulations. We will work with stakeholders to consider the options for the ANC designation to agree the most favourable scenario for Scotland. This will be part of a wider review in 2015 of the current support to Less Favoured Areas (LFA).

Our intention, subject to the results of the recent consultation exercise on the new Scotland’s Rural Development Programme, is to leave the existing LFA designation and Less Favoured Areas Support Scheme(LFASS) in place until the move to ANC is implemented.

The specific issues around LFA support and the move to ANC will be considered in a separate public consultation once the details are known.

Question reference: S4W-19792

Asked by: Jean Urquhart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Independent
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 26 February 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will increase the number of contested community council elections from the current level of 8% and, if so, to what level.

Local authorities have statutory oversight of community councils under the Local Authority Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and that includes the responsibility for community council elections. That said, the Scottish Government acknowledges that the number of community council contested elections are low across the country.

As part of the Scottish Government’s work in collaboration with COSLA to enhance the role of community councils, the improvement service has established three Short-Life Working Groups consisting of a number of Community Council Liaison Officers who work for Scotland’s 32 local authorities. One of these newly established groups will evaluate the use of alternative voting methods such as evoting to increase the number of community councils contested elections across Scotland. The group’s work is at a very early stage.