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-07164

Asked by: Jamie McGrigor, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 25 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S4W-06754 by Keith Brown on 1 May 2012, under what circumstances the ferries regulator would regulate pricing and what legislation would be required to achieve this.

We have noted in the response to S4W-06754 that a Ferries Regulator could regulate the pricing and provision of ferry services not provided under contract to the Scottish Government. Our intention is to keep the need for a Ferries Regulator under review and to explore the legislative provision required to achieve this. Again as noted in the previous response, we will make further details available in the Final Ferries Plan, to be published later in 2012.

Question reference: S4W-07161

Asked by: Jamie McGrigor, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 25 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S4W-06757 by Keith Brown on 1 May 2012, for what reasons road equivalent tariff status was omitted for (a) Argyll Ferries’ Gourock to Dunoon service and (b) the Calmac Tarbert to Portavadie service in appendix 3 of the Draft Ferries Plan.

Question reference: S4W-07162

Asked by: Jamie McGrigor, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 25 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S4W-06756 by Keith Brown on 1 May 2012, for what reason its policy preference is for the service between Gourock and Dunoon to carry both vehicles and passengers.

Question reference: S4W-07163

Asked by: Jamie McGrigor, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 25 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S4W-06755 by Keith Brown on 1 May 2012, what the percentage increase has been in (a) fuel usage and (b) emissions by the MV Finlaggan.

As set out in my reply to question S4W-06755, the MV Finlaggan has a much increased carrying capacity compared to the MV Isle of Arran so a direct comparison of fuel usage and emissions is misleading.

The MV Finlaggan uses around 87% more fuel per hour of sailing than the MV Isle of Arran. However, the MV Finlaggan can carry 250% more freight (by weight) than the MV Isle of Arran. The MV Finlaggan is therefore much more efficient in this respect than the MV Isle of Arran.

Changes in carbon emissions are largely consistent with fuel consumption. In terms of other emissions, the MV Finlaggan’s more modern engines mean that NOx emissions are lower than those of the MV Isle of Arran. SOx emissions are higher, though still within regulatory limits, because the MV Finlaggan uses different, less expensive fuel than the MV Isle of Arran.

Question reference: S4O-01087

Asked by: Jamie McGrigor, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 May 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 31 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how it is supporting further and higher education in the Highlands and Islands.

Question reference: S4O-01047

Asked by: Jamie McGrigor, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 May 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to build affordable housing in the Highlands and Islands.

Question reference: S4O-01004

Asked by: Jamie McGrigor, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 May 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of the potential impact on the construction industry, what its position is on the UBC Group entering administration.

Question reference: S4W-06758

Asked by: Jamie McGrigor, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 April 2012
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 1 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to proposals to award free travel to Jura residents who access mainland services via Islay, whether it will extend this to the residents of Iona, Shetland and Orkney who also access mainland services via another island.

Our needs-based assessment concluded that residents of Orkney and Shetland’s outlying islands access their services respectively from Orkney and Shetland mainland rather than the Scottish mainland.

We have confirmed that RET will be rolled out to Islay from autumn 2012. As noted in the Draft Ferries Plan, Islay and Jura are part of the same island group. We therefore want to ensure that residents of Jura have equal access to the Scottish mainland set of services. Offering free travel on the Jura to Islay leg of an onward journey to the mainland therefore provides a more consistent approach when managing the implementation of RET.

Question reference: S4W-06751

Asked by: Jamie McGrigor, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 April 2012
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 1 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the fares under the road equivalent tariff pilot on the Gigha, Colonsay and Islay services from October 2012 will be (a) lower than, (b) equal to or (c) higher than the unit prices of the current multi-journey tickets.

Question reference: S4W-06756

Asked by: Jamie McGrigor, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 April 2012
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 1 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish the needs-based assessment of the Gourock to Dunoon route carried out as part of its review of ferry services.

As noted in the Draft Ferries Plan, we are absolutely committed to providing a ferry service that meets the needs of users on the Gourock to Dunoon town centre to town centre route. Following a fair and open tendering process, the contract awarded in 2011 was the best that could be achieved within very clear European Commission restrictions that only allow for subsidy of a passenger service on this route. Although we appreciate that providing a vehicle service was not a viable option for tenderers, we were disappointed not to be able to continue the vehicle and passenger service. Our clear policy preference is that the service should carry both vehicles and passengers. We will continue to look at more options to achieve that and to improve the overall service and facilities.

Also as noted in the Draft Ferries Plan, where we have sufficiently robust data, we have applied our needs-based assessment to all main communities. For the Gourock to Dunoon route we did not have sufficient information to allow us to apply the methodology in full. We have, however, been able to establish that the town centre to town centre route is consistent with a commuting dependency.