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: S5W-06481

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 1 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it will give when drafting the Inshore Fisheries Bill to (a) international evidence from the north-east Atlantic, suggesting that marine spatial management improves the resilience of inshore fisheries and (b) measures to encourage whitefish recovery in order to diversify Scotland's commercial inshore fisheries.

Question reference: S5W-06053

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 26 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how it uses section 48 of the Conservation (Natural Habitats, &c.) Regulations 1994 (as amended) to assess the impact on wildlife sites of ship-to-ship transfers of (a) oil and (b) other chemicals in (i) harbour authority areas, (ii) other inshore waters and (iii) offshore waters, and what assessment it has made of (A) the impact of its approach and (B) whether its approach meets the requirements of the habitats directive.

Question reference: S5W-06060

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 26 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Cromarty Firth Port Authority has consulted Scottish Natural Heritage for the purpose of carrying out an appropriate assessment of a plan or project under the Conservation (Natural Habitats, &c.) Regulations 1994 (as amended) for ship-to-ship transfers of oil in the Moray Firth.

The Secretary of State for Transport is the Competent Authority, under the Merchant Shipping (Ship-to-Ship Transfers) Regulations 2010, and is responsible for undertaking appropriate assessments when required. Scottish Natural Heritage has provided advice to the environmental advisors of the Cromarty Firth Port Authority. The Scottish Government has repeatedly requested devolution of this function to allow decisions to be taken by those with responsibility for protecting Scotland's environment.

Question reference: S5W-06146

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 13 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 26 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what meetings (a) ministers and (b) officials have had with (i) Scottish Natural Heritage and (ii) Scottish Enterprise at which proposals by Cromarty Firth Port Authority to carry out ship-to-ship oil transfers were discussed, broken down by (A) date and (B) location.

Question reference: S5W-05777

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 December 2016
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 26 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions have taken place with stakeholders in relation to proposals for a tidal barrage on the River Forth at Stirling and the potential impact on designated local Special Protection Areas (SPA) and Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) interests.

Question reference: S5W-05976

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 06 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 25 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many wildlife crimes were committed in each quarter of 2014-15.

The number of wildlife crimes committed in each quarter of 2014-15 is shown in the following table.

A total of 284 offences relating to wildlife crime, as defined in the Wildlife Crime in Scotland Annual Report, were recorded by the Police in Scotland in the financial year 2014-15.

It should be noted that these figures detail only the number of offences brought to the attention of the Police and do not represent prosecution data.

Wildlife offences recorded by the police, Scotland, 2014-15
	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Total
Offences involving badgers	2	1	0	2	5
Birds, offences involving	20	15	4	10	49
Cruelty to wild animals	11	18	6	3	38
Deer (S) offences	3	3	7	11	24
Hunting with dogs	1	7	3	9	20
Poaching and game laws	1	1	0	0	2
Salmon and freshwater fisheries offences	37	42	14	4	97
Possession of salmon or trout unlawfully obtained	1	1	0	2	4
Possession of salmon or trout as result of offence	0	0	0	0	0
Other conservation offences	0	0	1	0	1
Other wildlife offences	15	16	7	6	44
Total	91	104	42	47	284

Question reference: S5W-06180

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 13 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 24 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it considers that ship-to-ship oil transfer operations, as proposed in the licence application by Cromarty Firth Port Authority in December 2015, are compliant with regulations established under directives 92/43/EEC and 79/409/EEC.

Question reference: S5W-06061

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether a harbour authority can consent to a programme of ship-to-ship oil transfers without amending its by-laws to take account of such transfer operations.

The licensing of port authorities for the purposes of ship to ship transfers is a matter for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), on behalf of the Secretary of State for Transport. Once a licence is issued by the MCA, it would be for individual port authorities to ensure that such activity was not inconsistent with its byelaws before any such activity commences.

On the basis of the current information, the Scottish Government is unconvinced that ship-to-ship oil transfers can, or should, take place at anchor in the Cromarty Firth without unacceptable risk to the marine environment. The Scottish Government expects to be fully consulted by the MCA on any revised application put forward by the Port of the Cromarty Firth.

Question reference: S5W-05975

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 06 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 24 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what impact changes in land reform legislation have had on tackling wildlife crime.

The Scottish Government is currently implementing the provisions of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2016, which will drive land reform across urban and rural Scotland.

We are working to improve the transparency of land ownership in Scotland and we intend to introduce a public register of persons with controlling interests in landowners and tenants. The consultation on this closed on 5 December and the responses are currently being analysed. Our proposals seek to ensure that land in Scotland is sustainably owned, used and developed in the interests of landowners, communities and wider society, by delivering increased transparency about the individuals taking decisions about Scotland’s land. These proposals, once implemented, will deliver a number of benefits to the people of Scotland, which potentially may include assisting in the identification of perpetrators of wildlife crime.

Question reference: S5W-06000

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 24 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S5W-03348 and S5W-05292 by Keith Brown on 16 November and 13 December 2016 repectively, whether the cabinet secretary has received a response to his letter to the Secretary of State for International Trade and, if so, whether it will publish this.

As indicated in response to S5W-03348 and S5W-05292, I wrote to the Right Honourable Liam Fox MP, the Secretary who State for International Trade on 18 November 2016. I have not yet received a response. On 12 January 2017, I received a letter from The Lord Price, Minister of State for Trade Policy, updating me on the current status of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement. This letter has been placed in SPICe (Bib number 58483).

As I haven’t received the assurances I sought from Dr Fox I have written to Lord Price in similar terms seeking his assurances.