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: S2W-28375

Asked by: Alex Fergusson, MSP for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 September 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 29 September 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-21738 by Tavish Scott on 20 January 2006, whether Dumfries and Galloway Council has now responded, or indicated when it will respond, to the Executive’s invitation to explore the possibilities of a road improvement project in the Gateside area of the A76 and whether the Executive has given the council an indicative timescale for completing the exploratory work.

Question reference: S2W-28379

Asked by: Alex Fergusson, MSP for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 September 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 29 September 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S2W-21784 and S2W-21736 by Tavish Scott on 17 and 20 January 2006 respectively, whether any schemes considered for, but not included in, the A76 Route Action Plan will be considered for Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance appraisal and possible inclusion in the Executive’s future roads capital programme.

The Strategic Transport ProjectsReview which is currently under way will provide an opportunity to consider themajor public transport and road transport priorities for the future. This reviewwill take into account issues of national or strategic importance affecting thetrunk road network throughout Scotland. The A76 will be included in this process.

Transport Scotland hasthe operational responsibility for this area, and can be contacted for more informationif required.

Question reference: S2W-26954

Asked by: Alex Fergusson, MSP for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 19 July 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many hectares of hill land are no longer being grazed by sheep, broken down by SEERAD area office, and what the comparative figures were for (a) 1990 and (b) 2000.

Specific information on hillland is not available.

Information is availablefrom the June Agricultural Census on the area of Rough Grazing land, which is defined as: “Mountain, Hill, Moor, Deer Forest situated within the farming unit.”

The following table showsthe area (in 000 ha) of rough grazing land, on holdings that also reportedhaving sheep on the June Agricultural Census, by SEERAD area office. Byconsidering changes in these areas, we can produce an estimate of how muchrough grazing land is no longer being grazed by sheep.

SEERAD Area Office	Area of Rough Grazing (000 ha) on holdings with sheep			Area of Rough Grazing (000ha) no longer being grazed by sheep
	1990	2000	2005	1990 to 2000	2000 to 2005
Ayr	161	138	125	23	13
Benbecula	14	10	8	4	2
Dumfries	174	143	130	31	13
Elgin	29	22	22	7	0
Galashiels	214	190	178	24	12
Grampian	103	58	54	45	4
Hamilton	71	65	64	6	1
Inverness	640	454	433	186	21
Kirkwall	22	23	22	1	1
Lairg	172	115	95	57	20
Lerwick	54	54	50	0	4
Oban	427	329	324	98	5
Perth	523	417	388	106	29
Portree	51	51	45	0	6
Stornoway	16	11	11	5	0
Thurso	168	118	99	50	19
Scotland	2,839	2,198	2,047	641	151

Notes :

1. Theseresults only relate to “sole right” rough grazing land, as comparableinformation is not available for “common” rough grazing land. However, littlechange is expected in the area of “common” rough grazing land being grazed bysheep since 1990.

2. Inproducing these estimates, an assumption is made that sheep on a holding havegrazing access to all the rough grazing land on that holding.

3. Some of the reduction in rough grazing land on holdings with sheep is due to this landno longer being reported as rough grazing or no longer being reported asagricultural land.

4. Noaccount has been taken of other livestock which may be grazing on the land.

Question reference: S2W-26953

Asked by: Alex Fergusson, MSP for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 19 July 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide figures in respect of the change in sheep numbers in (a) very fragile and (b) fragile areas under the Less Favoured Areas Scheme from (i) 1995 to 2000 and (ii) 2000 to 2005, broken down by SEERAD area office.

The following tables provideinformation from the June Agricultural Census on the change in sheep numbers,for holdings in Less Favoured Areas, by SEERAD area office.

Very Fragile Areas
SEERAD Area Office	Total Sheep Numbers			Change in Total Sheep Numbers
	1995	2000	2005	1995 to 2000	2000 to 2005
Ayr	69,809	67,823	56,021	-1,986	-11,802
Benbecula	92,279	93,012	76,344	733	-16,668
Inverness	5,332	6,580	6,797	1,248	217
Kirkwall	144,696	149,715	150,847	5,019	1,132
Lerwick	397,378	399,740	343,407	2,362	-56,333
Oban	182,213	185,759	161,558	3,546	-24,201
Portree	192,044	191,937	156,852	-107	-35,085
Stornoway	205,255	206,300	163,105	1,045	-43,195
Total	1,289,006	1,300,866	1,114,931	11,860	-185,935

Fragile Areas
SEERAD Area Office	Total Sheep Numbers			Change in Total Sheep Numbers
	1995	2000	2005	1995 to 2000	2000 to 2005
Ayr	48,325	45,713	24,462	-2,612	-21,251
Elgin	148,596	147,650	144,909	-946	-2,741
Grampian	40,881	24,953	28,212	-15,928	3,259
Inverness	531,392	481,794	408,326	-49,598	-73,468
Lairg	182,240	179,082	154,577	-3,158	-24,505
Oban	486,255	449,441	387,462	-36,814	-61,979
Thurso	321,115	307,116	280,241	-13,999	-26,875
Total	1,758,804	1,635,749	1,428,189	-123,055	-207,560

Question reference: S2O-10187

Asked by: Alex Fergusson, MSP for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 15 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it has taken to ensure the continued operation of Scottish Enterprise Dumfries and Galloway following the suspension of four senior managers in the agency.

Question reference: S2W-26238

Asked by: Alex Fergusson, MSP for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 May 2006
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 9 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2O-8697 by Hugh Henry on 19 January 2006, when it will notify the Parliament about its plans to increase the financial limit for small-claims cases dealt with by sheriff courts.

Question reference: S2W-26046

Asked by: Alex Fergusson, MSP for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 May 2006
Current Status: Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 6 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of visitors to Scotland participated in recreational sea angling in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S2W-26045

Asked by: Alex Fergusson, MSP for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 May 2006
Current Status: Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 6 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what the value of recreational sea angling is to the Scottish economy.

Question reference: S2W-26047

Asked by: Alex Fergusson, MSP for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 May 2006
Current Status: Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 6 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has undertaken any studies to determine the economic potential of recreational sea angling and, if not, what plans it has to do so.

Question reference: S2W-26044

Asked by: Alex Fergusson, MSP for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 May 2006
Current Status: Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 1 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people participated in recreational sea angling in Scotland in each of the last five years.