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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 2683 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S4W-14349

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 April 2013
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 7 May 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will take action in response to the closure of Vion's Welsh Country Foods abattoir and processing unit in Anglesey in light of the number of farmers in Scotland who send lambs to the facility for processing.

We are currently discussing with the industry further opportunities to increase the amount of lamb processed within Scotland, but continue to be constrained by the Scottish industry losing approximately £1 million per annum in levies through the current arrangements. In the meantime, we will continue to do all we can to support the sector, such as through our Food Processing, Marketing and Co-operation Grant scheme, which has committed over £7 million to the red meat sector since 2008.

Question reference: S4W-14335

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 April 2013
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 7 May 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether the agricultural census will collect information on the number of registered crofters, the scale of crofting, numbers of livestock, area cropped and other such data and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.

The Scottish Government collects information from agricultural holdings in Scotland in its annual agricultural census which covers detailed information on crops and livestock.

The census also collects information on any owned or “rented in” areas that are registered with the Crofting Commission. However, for most agricultural holdings, anything more detailed (e.g., the distribution of crops and livestock) cannot be accurately attributed to these crofting areas.

This is because the information collected on crops and livestock relates to the total area on the holding and crofts usually account for one or more components (or land parcels) within that total area.

In addition to this, there are numerous crofts that are registered with the Crofting Commission, but are either not returning a census form, or not reporting any Crofting Commission area on their census return.

To collect crop and livestock data specifically for croft areas using the census would require sending thousands of additional census forms to crofters every year which would present them with an unacceptable and disproportionate data burden.

Question reference: S4W-14331

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 April 2013
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 2 May 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the availability of self-build mortgages and what it is doing to encourage more banks to offer them.

Margaret Burgess: The Scottish Government recognises the important role that self build plays in Scotland’s housing supply system, particularly in rural and island communities. Officials have discussed the extent to which lending for self build is available with representatives of the Council of Mortgage Lenders and individual lenders on various occasions and will continue to seek to encourage support for self build activity in Scotland.

Question reference: S4O-02077

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 May 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 May 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what recent assessment has been made of dementia services in NHS Shetland and the availability and retention of staff to deliver these.

Question reference: S4W-14332

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 April 2013
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 1 May 2013

To ask the Scottish Government (a) what the status is of and (b) when it will respond to the proposal for an enhanced crofting counties agricultural grant scheme submitted by a group including the Crofting Commission.

The Scottish Government received revised proposals from the Scottish Parliament’s Cross Party Group on Crofting’s Working Group on 22 March 2013.

The Scottish Government is seeking views on future design of support for crofting through the recently released public consultation on the design of the Scotland Rural Development Programme (SRDP) for 2014-20 and welcomes the submission made by the Cross Party Group on Crofting’s Working Group and engagement by the Working Group as we consider the future shape of SRDP. The proposals received from the working group will be given full consideration as part of the public consultation.

Officials will enter into further discussions with the Working Group after that public consultation process concludes.

Question reference: S4W-14330

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 April 2013
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 1 May 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to increase the grants for new-build croft houses to a maximum of £50,000 per application to encourage more building.

Question reference: S4W-14329

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 April 2013
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 1 May 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether grants for new-build croft houses have been undersubscribed in each year since 2005 and, if so, by how much, broken down by area; what the reasons are, and what it is doing to encourage applications.

The Croft House Grant Scheme opened to applications on 1 January 2005 and provides grants for new houses and the rebuilding and renovation of existing croft houses in the crofting areas of Scotland.

The grant scheme has been undersubscribed in relation to the available budget in each year of the scheme.

Year	Budget	Actual	Variance
2005-06	£2, 000, 000	£570,329	(£1,367,633)
2006-07	£1, 600, 000	£1,188,044	(£411,956)
2007-08	£2, 545, 000	£1,687,092	(£857, 908)
2008-09	£3, 300, 000	£2,014,323	(£1,285,677)
2009-10	£2, 035, 000	£1,740,678	(£294,322)
2010-11	£2, 894, 000	£1,569,567	(£1,324,433)
2011-12	£1, 840, 000	£1,276,441	(£563,560)
2012-13	£1, 389, 000	£1,365,956	(£23,044)

Expenditure amounts are not recorded by geographical area on SG’s financial accounting system. However over the past three years approvals in each geographical area have averaged:

Area	Percentage
High Priority	70%
Standard	27%
Low	3%
Total	100%

The Croft House Grant Scheme (CHGS), and it’s forerunner, the Croft Building Grant and Loan Scheme (CBGLS), has operated since 1911 throughout the crofting areas of Scotland and is well known to potential applicants and stakeholder organisations. Scheme guidance and application forms are available throughout the Scottish Government’s Rural Payments and Inspection Division offices located throughout the Highland and Islands and also available for download from the Scottish Government’s internet site. Within the Crofting Services section of the Crofting Commission’s website there is a reference to the CHGS Scheme, referring enquiries to the CHGS Team in Tiree.

Under the Croft House Grant Scheme, no application has been rejected on the basis of limited budget.

Question reference: S4W-14334

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 April 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 1 May 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what the status is of the crofting development budget that was given to Highlands and Islands Enterprise and what the spend was in 2011-12.

Question reference: S4W-14333

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 April 2013
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 29 April 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to carry out an empirical analysis of the economic impact of crofting and, if so, what the role of Highlands and Islands Enterprise will be.

The Scottish Government is required, by section 51 of the Crofting Reform (Scotland) Act 2010, to report, once every four years, to the Scottish Parliament on the economic condition of crofting.

Copies of the Scottish Government’s Report to Parliament on the Economic Condition of Crofting 2007-2010 are available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. Number 52273).

The Scottish Government’s Report to Parliament on the Economic Condition of Crofting 2011-2014 will be laid before the Scottish Parliament by 1 January 2015. A view on who will be involved in the production of the report will be taken nearer the time.

Question reference: S4W-14236

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 April 2013
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 29 April 2013

<>The percentage of FOI requests answered within 20 working days in 2013 is 79%, as at 18 April 2013. The percentages for 2011 and 2012 are published in the FOI Annual Reports for 2011 and 2012 on the Scottish Government website at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/Information/FOI/Reporting.

In 2006, the last full year of the previous administration, 61% of responses were issued within 20 working days.