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-16759

Asked by: Jim Mather, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 May 2005
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 6 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive whether, following the Deputy First Minister's discussion with the European Commissioner for Regional Policy, it will support a European Union budget that maintains regional funding for the Highlands and Islands.

To the extent that an increasedUnited Kingdom contribution to the Commission budget could result ina reduction in the Scottish Assigned Budget, the Scottish Executive supports a budgetdiscipline approach to the negotiations on the future of EU budget post-2006. TheUK Treasury has estimated that the Commission’s proposed budget of 1.24% of EU GNIwould cost the United Kingdom around Euro 25 billion between 2007 and 2013.

Notwithstanding the outcome of the negotiations on the EU budget, however, the Scottish Executive is committedto a continuing regional development policy in Scotland, including the Highlands andIslands.

Question reference: S2W-16758

Asked by: Jim Mather, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 May 2005
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 3 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive whether, following the Deputy First Minister's discussion with the European Commissioner for Regional Policy, it still supports a policy of repatriating European structural funds after 2006.

The Scottish Executive believes that future structural funds should be focused primarily on the poorer member states. We are continuing to liaise closely with the UK Government to ensure that Scottish interests are taken into account as the negotiations on the future of the structural funds for the 2007-13 period continue.

We are committed to a fully funded regional development policy for Scotland whatever the source of the funding.

Question reference: S2W-16637

Asked by: Jim Mather, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 May 2005
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 2 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on the European Commission's Green Paper on Financial Services Policy (2005-2010); whether it will make a submission to the commission; whether it plans to consult interested parties and/or key stakeholders, and whether any submission will be made available beforehand to the Parliament for the purposes of democratic scrutiny and accountability.

This issue was discussed at the first meeting of the Financial Services Advisory Board (FiSAB) on, 31 May. We agreed that any position on the EU Green Paper on Financial Services Policy for the next five years would be drawn up in consultation with the industry in Scotland. We also agreed that Scottish Financial Enterprise, in line with its core function as a representative organisation, would draw together industry views in response to the Commission’s proposals. The response to the Commission will therefore come directly from the industry in Scotland, though Executive ministers and officials are prepared offer any appropriate assistance.

Question reference: S2W-16784

Asked by: Jim Mather, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 May 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 2 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has been informed by the Home Office or any other UK department of the date on which individuals will be able to start applying for visas under the Fresh Talent: Working in Scotland scheme and, if so, on what date it was informed of this and when it will inform students who may be interested in applying for such visas of the start date.

Question reference: S2W-16066

Asked by: Jim Mather, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 April 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 1 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what the maximum fee is that a student from outwith the European Union can be charged for applying for the two-year visa extension under the Fresh Talent initiative.

Question reference: S2W-16593

Asked by: Jim Mather, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 May 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 31 May 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what its view is on the report adopted on May 2005 by the European Parliament's Temporary Committee on Policy Challenges and Budgetary Means of the Enlarged Union 2007-2013 and whether it considers that the Committee's call for 0.41% of the European Union's gross national income to be spent on cohesion policy within an overall budget expenditure limit of 1.07% will provide the necessary financial means to ensure the continuation of EU regional economic development funding in Scotland and, in particular, in the Highlands and Islands.

Question reference: S2W-16592

Asked by: Jim Mather, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 May 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 31 May 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has read and considered the report adopted on 10 May 2005 by the European Parliament's Temporary Committee on Policy Challenges and Budgetary Means of the Enlarged Union 2007-2013.

Question reference: S2W-16718

Asked by: Jim Mather, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 May 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 31 May 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many businesses there have been in each year since 1993 with a rateable value for non-domestic rate purposes of (a) less than £3,000, (b) £3,000 or above but under £4,000, (c) £4,000 or above but under £5,000, (d) £5,000 or above but under £6,000, (e) £6,000 or above but under £7,000 and (f) £7,000 and above.

Data on the number of non-domestic subjects, broken down by rateable value is only held centrally for the years 2000, 2002 and 2005. The following table gives the number of subjects in Scotland, in each rateable value band, for each of these three years.

Rateable Value	Number of Subjects
Rateable Value	April 2000	April 2002	April 2005
£1 to £2,999	71,977	72,966	64,909
£3,000 to £3,999	15,688	15,779	15,355
£4,000 to £4,999	12,816	12,759	13,121
£5,000 to £5,999	10,394	10,512	10,367
£6,000 to £6,999	8,293	8,338	8,572
£7,000 and over	77,564	78,618	84,446

Sources: Valuation Rolls supplied to the Scottish Executive at the time of revaluation (2000, 2005) and special data collection exercise (2002). Excludes subjects with zero rateable value

The large decrease in th. number of subjects with a rateable value of £1 to £2,999 in April 2005 and the corresponding large increase in the number of subjects with a rateable value of £7,000 or more is a result of the 2005 Revaluation, when on average rateable values in Scotland rose by 13.3%.

Question reference: S2W-16719

Asked by: Jim Mather, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 May 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 31 May 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what the revenues from non-domestic rates have been in (a) cash and (b) real terms in each year since 1993, broken down by rateable values of (a) less than £3,000, (b) £3,000 or above but under £4,000, (c) £4,000 or above but under £5,000, (d) £5,000 or above but under £6,000, (e) £6,000 or above but under £7,000 and (f) £7,000 and above.

Question reference: S2W-16208

Asked by: Jim Mather, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 April 2005
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 26 May 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how it has applied the European Commission's Action Plan on Better Regulation; how many regulatory impact assessments have been conducted by the Executive; how many proposed regulations have been amended or withdrawn as a result of regulatory impact assessments conducted by the Executive, and how many pieces of existing primary or secondary legislation have been repealed or amended as a result of a regulatory impact assessment since the publication of the action plan.

Under the devolution settlement in the UK, matters of EU policy are reserved to the UK Government. However, the Scottish Executive fully supports the UK Government’s response to the European Commission’s Action Plan on Better Regulation and has worked closely with the UK Government. The Scottish Executive promotes “better regulation” in Scotland through its Improving Regulation unit and in December published it first annual report which includes an annex covering Regulatory Impact Assessments (RIAs). This showed that 47 RIAs had been processed in the year to 31 March 2004. Since then, a further 60 have been received, 37 of which are of EU origin.

Regulations are usually amended or simplified. It is therefore not possible to give figures for reductions in bureaucracy. The Executive works to ensure that all regulations are necessary and proportionate. In particular, for regulations which impact on business, charities and the voluntary sector, the use of the Regulatory Impact Assessment and the review Regulatory Impact Assessment help ensure that regulations are proportionate, necessary and fit for purpose when they are introduced and that they remain so over time.