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-30349

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 January 2010
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 13 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many households have applied to the free home insulation scheme, broken down by Scottish Parliament constituency.

As at 3 January 2010, the number of households by parliamentary constituency who have, or will receive, an energy efficiency report as a result of the home insulation scheme is shown in the following table. It is not possible to provide a further breakdown between the multiple constituencies which form part of the Highland and Glasgow/South Lanarkshire local authority programmes.

Parliamentary Constituency	Local Authority	Energy Efficiency Report
Angus	Angus	1,603
Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross/Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber	Highland	1,145
Central Fife	Fife	2,951
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	1,837
Dundee East	Dundee	1,048
Edinburgh East and Musselburgh	Edinburgh	2,788
Glasgow Cathcart/Glasgow Pollok/Glasgow Rutherglen	Glasgow (Cathcart/Pollok) South Lanarkshire (Rutherglen)	3,443
Orkney	Orkney	206
Stirling	Stirling	4,158
Total		19,179

Question reference: S3W-30348

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 January 2010
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 13 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many households have applied to the free home insulation scheme, broken down by local authority area.

As at 3 January 2010, the number of households by local authority area who have, or will receive, an energy efficiency report as a result of the home insulation scheme is as follows:

Local Authority	Energy Efficiency Report
Angus	1,603
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	1,837
Dundee	1,048
Edinburgh	2,788
Fife	2,951
Glasgow	2,690
Highland	1,145
Orkney	206
South Lanarkshire	753
Stirling	4,158
Total	19,179

Question reference: S3W-29564

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 December 2009
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 8 December 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing’s statement to the Parliament on 26 November 2009 in relation to the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary Healthcare Environment Inspectorate report, how it is ensuring that the Senior Charge Nurse Review is being implemented in such a way that senior charge nurses are able to challenge all individuals in their role of maintaining the highest standards in hospital wards.

Through Leading Better Care, we are empowering Senior Charge Nurses (SCNs) to become clinical leaders in their ward areas and to have professional responsibility for ensuring a safe and effective healthcare environment for patients. They act as the first point of contact for patients, their families and their carers and have access to budgets for urgent repairs and the replacement of equipment. The SCNs role is supported by a number of clinical quality indicators and they must also monitor infections within their clinical area - a key element of Scotland''s patient safety programme.

The transition of SCNs to this revised role is a phased process and is being underpinned by an educational framework and national facilitator network. All NHS boards have submitted their implementation plans, with all hospital based SCNs in Scotland working to this role by the end of 2010.

Question reference: S3W-29561

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 December 2009
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 8 December 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether, with regard to allotments, a regulation is a rule or other device that has the effect of regulating the letting of allotments and for putting into effect the provisions of the allotments legislation.

Question reference: S3W-29321

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 November 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 7 December 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people are registered with a local authority or housing association as looking for a home, broken down by parliamentary constituency.

Information on the number of people registered with a local authority or housing association as looking for a home is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government does however collect information on the number of applications there are on local authorities'' housing registers. This information is published at local authority (LA) level on the Housing Statistics for Scotland website:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/HSfS/StockManagement.

As the information is collected at aggregate LA level from the individual local authorities it is not possible to break it down by parliamentary constituency area.

These figures show that at March 2009, there were almost 200,000 applications recorded for Scottish local authority owned housing. It is important to note that this will include a significant and unquantified level of double counting as people looking for a home can record an application with a number of local authorities and will appear on multiple lists.

At March 2009, there were also around 244,000 applicants registered on registered social landlord (RSL) waiting lists. This data is collected by the Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) and is only available broken down by RSL.

Note that neither the RSL nor LA lists show the number of people waiting for social rented accommodation, but the number of applications. There is potentially a large, unquantified level of duplication within and between the lists. It is also possible that some people on RSL and LA waiting lists have already secured social rented accommodation but have not informed the other RSL''s and LA''s, so continue to be counted on the other lists for a period of time.

Question reference: S3W-28338

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 October 2009
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 17 November 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what support it is providing to farmers to take forward mini-hydro schemes to help achieve its renewable energy targets.

Increased support for micro-hydro is available under the renewables obligation. Since April 2009, hydro schemes with a capacity of less than 50kW now receive two Renewable Obligations Certificates (ROCs) per megawatt hour.

The Scottish Government''s Scottish Rural Development Programme provides capital support to farmers to install renewable energy systems, including hydro-electric schemes. The programme also provides capital support to farmers who wish to diversify into renewable energy generation.

In addition, the Scottish Government has also formed a micro-hydro sub-group of the Forum for Renewable Energy Development in Scotland. The sub-group met for the first time on 19 October and will work to address the opportunities and barriers facing the sector.

Question reference: S3W-28339

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 October 2009
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 17 November 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance it has given to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency regarding abstraction licences for mini-hydro schemes to help achieve its renewable energy targets.

Under the Water Framework Directive provisions, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) is required to strike the right balance between supporting hydropower development and protecting the water environment and other users. As part of the implementation of the Directive, the Water Environment and Water Service (Scotland) Act 2003 introduced the Water Environment (Controlled Activities) (Scotland) Regulations (CAR). These regulations require that any developer of a hydropower scheme obtain prior authorisation from SEPA for a CAR license to allow for water abstraction.

Question reference: S3W-28596

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 November 2009
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 13 November 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many petroleum licences for retail sites have been issued in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority.

Question reference: S3W-28597

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 November 2009
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 13 November 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many petrol stations that received funding under the Rural Petrol Station Grant Scheme are still in operation, broken down by local authority.

Question reference: S3W-28595

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 November 2009
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 13 November 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many petroleum licences have been issued in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority.