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: S3W-24466

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 29 May 2009
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 11 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what the opening hours are for a grade two VisitScotland tourist information centre and whether they change according to the time of year.

Question reference: S3W-24361

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 May 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 10 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive when the criteria for making funding allocations to housing associations were changed from approvals to completions.

There has been no change to the criteria for making funding allocations to housing associations of the kind referred to in the question. This year, as with previous years, registered social landlords are issued with programme agreements at the beginning of the financial year. These documents are jointly agreed with local authorities as the statutory housing authority and are based on the locally produced Strategic Housing Investment Plan (SHIP).

Question reference: S3W-24360

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 May 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 8 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will detail the comparison between the allocated grant and the uptake of grant under the Housing Association Grant scheme in each of the last three years for which information is available, broken down by local authority.

The details of the comparison between Affordable Housing Investment Programme (AHIP) funding allocated and actual spend achieved, broken down by local authority is as follows:

	2006-07 Spend		2007-08 Spend		2008-09 Spend
	Planned	Out-Turn	Planned	Out-Turn	Planned	Out-Turn
Highland	31.500	43.557	36.325	37.802	27.120	29.777
Orkney	5.500	5.018	6.000	7.007	5.033	6.287
Shetland	2.500	3.030	3.800	5.728	2.640	3.401
Western Isles	4.200	6.704	6.500	7.698	4.130	4.380
Aberdeenshire	11.500	17.223	16.508	9.202	19.637	24.382
City of Aberdeen	11.500	5.014	6.767	4.232	3.922	5.184
Moray	6.000	11.262	9.525	14.742	6.372	5.508
Angus	4.000	8.302	5.714	8.108	3.890	4.492
City of Dundee	10.000	12.975	12.250	17.606	7.766	8.467
Perth and Kinross	13.000	16.524	15.270	14.989	10.886	13.063
Clackmannanshire	2.697	2.640	3.500	2.616	2.150	2.627
Falkirk	2.697	4.350	7.366	4.063	3.866	4.966
Stirling	9.706	10.135	10.724	9.067	3.476	4.619
East Lothian	4.981	4.440	5.600	4.836	4.400	6.916
Fife	19.992	16.210	21.545	25.957	13.133	15.050
Midlothian	2.542	2.786	4.580	6.568	3.400	3.965
Scottish Borders	6.577	7.470	7.200	8.790	5.600	6.883
West Lothian	7.108	10.706	10.220	4.413	6.600	8.279
City of Edinburgh	36.100	39.206	36.100	38.601	36.100	37.900
Dumfries and Galloway	11.267	14.880	12.767	16.728	9.700	11.625
East Ayrshire	5.960	9.206	11.533	12.679	7.000	7.800
North Ayrshire	6.925	11.687	10.281	10.256	6.640	7.240
North Lanarkshire	17.085	17.778	23.961	20.418	14.600	16.269
South Ayrshire	6.183	6.175	6.674	3.552	6.300	6.800
South Lanarkshire	16.380	18.074	19.284	23.694	15.300	16.400
Argyll and Bute	15.550	21.930	17.675	21.920	14.757	15.280
West Dunbartonshire	10.000	8.750	10.350	8.463	7.835	8.335
East Dunbartonshire	3.000	5.345	5.800	8.728	5.386	6.746
Inverclyde	13.851	14.353	23.565	20.827	19.280	18.479
Renfrewshire	24.631	22.969	17.096	22.415	12.510	12.776
East Renfrewshire	3.568	2.490	4.775	3.324	3.271	3.749
Glasgow	70.700	82.999	83.000	83.000	83.000	84.000
Glasgow Housing Association	52.200	57.522	68.400	63.297	79.300	79.300
Other Programmes	1.000	17.908	3.836	3.412	4.000	3.219
LIFT: Shared Equity Open Market Pilot	4.200	22.296	30.000	29.838	24.000	20.321
Mortgage to Rent	0.000	0.000	10.000	9.433	10.000	15.226
Glasgow Housing Association 2nd Stage Transfers	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.248	0.000	0.000
Total*	454.600	561.914	584.491	594.257	493.000	529.711

Note: *Planned programme excludes additional funding allocated during the financial year.

The majority of the Affordable Housing Investment Programme funding is Housing Association Grant allocated to Registered Social Landlords, but allocations to local authority level includes all grants. The figures provided above include all grants.

Question reference: S3W-24362

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 May 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 5 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what indices were used to make the Housing Association Grant allocations announced in the Affordable Housing Investment Programme 2009-10 and whether these indices alter according to region or are determined and applied nationally.

Allocation of Affordable Housing Investment Programme resources for 2009-10 was based on the following principles:

Core programmes for all local authority areas would be reinstated to 2007-08 core programme levels;

Top slicing commitments (arising e.g. from previous stock transfer agreements) would be honoured;

Core funding for Glasgow and Edinburgh (combined) would be maintained in line with plans announced under the current Spending Review, and

The small balance of resources (after the above principles are taken into account) would be added to the allocation of the 16 councils with greatest homelessness pressures and housing shortfalls.

The measure of greatest homelessness pressure was based on the work of Dr Andrew Waugh. The measure of housing shortfall was based on the report by Professor Glen Bramley on Local Housing Need and Affordability Model for Scotland.

Allocations with each local authority area reflect the priorities of the local authority set out in its Strategic Housing Investment Plan, and include Housing Association Grant and other grants.

Question reference: S3W-24363

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 May 2009
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 3 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether there are upper or lower limits on the area of a croft or farm unit eligible for support under the Less Favoured Area Support Scheme and, if so, what these limits are; when they were introduced, and for what reasons.

Question reference: S3W-24364

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 May 2009
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 3 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what financial allocations it is making to the third sector for 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12.

The Scottish Budget Spending Review 2007 outlined our spending plans for the Third Sector, investing £93.6 million over the three-year period (£23.2 million, £32.2 million, £38.2 million) from April 2008 to March 2011. Since the 2007 review report was published, HM Treasury has reduced overall resources available to Scotland in 2010-11.

The annual Budget Bill confirms the allocation of expenditure in each year. A draft budget for 2010-11 will be presented to Parliament in September of this year. Expenditure plans post-March 2011 are subject to the next Strategic Spending Review.

Question reference: S3W-23697

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 08 May 2009
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 26 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether (a) Highlands and Islands Enterprise and (b) Scottish Enterprise must seek its approval for their policies for undertaking rent reviews of commercial premises leased by them to businesses.

Scottish Government electricity policy was discussed by the Council at its sixth meeting on 15 May 2009.

At the fifth meeting, in January 2009, the key sector, financial and business services, was discussed by the Council.

The most recent representation the First Minister has received from the Council of Economic Advisers on unemployment was Chapter 5 of its Annual Report, published in December 2008.

The minutes of Council meetings and the Annual Report are available for download on the Scottish Government website. The minutes of the sixth meeting will be published in due course.

Question reference: S3W-22846

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 April 2009
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 6 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list the research projects funded by Seafish in the last year for which information is available, detailing the (a) research contractor, (b) value of the research contract and (c) an outline of the research in each case.

Question reference: S3W-22845

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 April 2009
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 6 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what the total expenditure by Seafish was in Shetland in the last year for which information is available, broken down by expenditure on (a) research, (b) business development and (c) administration.

Question reference: S3W-22842

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 April 2009
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 6 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what levy was collected in Shetland by Seafish in the last year for which information is available, broken down by (a) wild fish and shellfish landings, (b) farmed fish and shellfish production and (c) imports.