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-31048

Asked by: Mr Jim Wallace, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 January 2007
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 2 February 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many individuals and community groups in Orkney have received support under the Scottish Communities and Householder Renewables initiative since its inception and what the total value of that support has been.

Question reference: S2W-31244

Asked by: Mr Jim Wallace, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 22 January 2007
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 1 February 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many Orkney residents have registered for concessionary ferry travel under the national concessionary travel scheme.

Question reference: S2W-31085

Asked by: Mr Jim Wallace, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 January 2007
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 31 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how financial contributions from modulation of single farm payments were spent in each year since the inception of modulated payments and what proposals there are with regard to planned expenditure of modulation payments in the next financial year.

The Single Farm Payment Scheme(SFPS) was only introduced in 2005, so the information detailed below is based oninformation for the financial year 2005-06.

Compulsory modulation is currentlyused to fund the Land Management Contract Menu Scheme, which is part of the 2000-06Scottish Rural Development Programme (SRDP). The first expenditure under the MenuScheme was incurred in 2006, and £6,685,744 was allocated in the financial year.It is estimated that a further £10 million will be paid out under the Menu Schemein 2006-07.

Voluntary modulation is currentlyused to fund agri-environment and afforestation measures within the SRDP. The expenditureof funds from voluntary modulation in 2005-06 was as follows:

Countryside Premium Scheme	£433,651
Environmentally Sensitive Areas	£422,996
Organic Aid Scheme	£1,045,353
Rural Stewardship Scheme	£7.889.134
Scottish Forestry Grant Scheme	£903,969
Woodlands Grant Scheme	£121,236
	£10,816,339

These are multi-annual commitmentswhich will continue to be funded from modulation. Under present co-financing limitsit is likely that modulation receipts will fund these commitments until early in2008.

Question reference: S2W-31084

Asked by: Mr Jim Wallace, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 January 2007
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 31 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the revenue return has been from modulation of single farm payments in each year since their inception and what sum is estimated to be raised in the (a) current and (b) next financial year.

Question reference: S2W-31036

Asked by: Mr Jim Wallace, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 15 January 2007
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 26 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what funding has been made available to (a) Orkney Islands Council, (b) Shetland Islands Council and (c) Highlands Council for port and harbour infrastructure developments in each year since 1999-2000.

The Scottish Executive has made£26.273 million available to Orkney IslandsCouncil, Shetland Islands Council and The Highland Council towards ports and harbourinfrastructure developments that support lifeline ferry services and emergency improvement works at fishing ports in their areas since 1999-2000, as detailedin the following table (£ Million):

	Orkney Islands Council	Shetland Islands Council	The Highland Council	Total
1999-2000	0	0	0	0
2000-01	0	0	0.247	0.247
2001-02	0.491	0	0	0.491
2002-03	11.429	0	3.195	14.624
2003-04	4.430	0	1.863	6.293
2004-05	0.748	0	1.236	1.984
2005-06	0.383	0	1.387	1.770
2006-07 (to January 2007)	0	0.153	0.711	0.864
Total	17.481	0.153	8.639	26.273

Question reference: S2W-31037

Asked by: Mr Jim Wallace, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 15 January 2007
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 26 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what specific funding has been (a) paid or (b) agreed to be paid to Orkney Islands Council for the maintenance, refurbishment and development of its school estate in each year since 1999-2000.

The Scottish Executive’s SchoolsFund capital grant allocations to Orkney Islands Council are set out in the followingtable 1. The money is used for schools capital investment both large and small.In addition, the Executive has made an indicative offer of future revenue supporttowards the cost of a £50 million Orkney schools PPP project.

In addition to these specificresources, authorities also have general resources at their disposal, principallythrough borrowing and capital receipts, for capital expenditure on infrastructure,including school buildings. The Executive provides loan charges support for suchborrowing, which is not specific to particular services. Total gross capital expenditureby Orkney on education is set out in the following table 2. The authority also hasdiscretion in the use of its current expenditure resources for smaller scale maintenanceactivities on school buildings in its area.

Table 1: Schools Fund CapitalGrant Allocations (£000)

	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
Orkney	169	169	252	174	227	474	598	936	655

Table 2: Education - Total GrossCapital Expenditure (including payments funded from revenue) (£000)

	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06
Orkney	6,250	2,724	2,503	1,527	1,229	1,740	3,043

Source: As reported by localauthorities on Capital Payment Returns (CPR5)

Notes:

1. Education includes nursery,primary, secondary and special schools

2. Figures do not include expenditureon public private partnership (PPP) schemes, where the capital expenditure is incurredby the private sector partner, not the local authority. Authorities make annualpayments to their PPP partners over the contract period in respect of capital works,services and on-going maintenance.

3. Figures in table 2 includeSchools Fund capital grant expenditure.

Question reference: S2W-31046

Asked by: Mr Jim Wallace, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 January 2007
Current Status: Answered by Des McNulty on 24 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many households in Orkney have benefited from installations under the central heating programme since its inception.

Question reference: S2W-30858

Asked by: Mr Jim Wallace, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 January 2007
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 24 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on the average weekly cost per resident in (a) Scotland and (b) each local authority area of providing care home services in (i) local authority and (ii) private sector care homes in the most recent year for which figures are available.

Question reference: S2W-31047

Asked by: Mr Jim Wallace, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 January 2007
Current Status: Answered by Des McNulty on 24 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many households in Orkney have benefited from the provision of insulation under the Warm Deal scheme since its inception.

Question reference: S2W-30860

Asked by: Mr Jim Wallace, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 January 2007
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 24 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how much was paid (a) in total and (b) by each local authority to operators of private sector care homes in the last year for which figures are available.