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

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Question reference: S5W-12689

Asked by: John Scott, MSP for Ayr, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 22 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration the ongoing planning review is giving to surface water management and infrastructure.

The planning review aims to strengthen and simplify the planning system, and to ensure planning better serves Scotland’s communities and economy. It brings a greater focus on delivering the developments Scotland needs, with the infrastructure to support it.

Reducing flood risk is a priority for this Government and we will continue to work to support responsible authorities to deliver actions that protect our communities; as well as raising awareness amongst the public and businesses.

Local Authorities and Scottish Water are working together to understand how drainage and sewerage systems perform in storm events. This information is essential to the delivery of infrastructure which delivers better value for money and creates healthier, safer and more prosperous cities that are fit for the future.

The increasing importance of water management and flooding issues is already set out in National Planning Framework 3 and Scottish Planning Policy. We will issue a fuller, collaborative programme for preparing NPF4 in due course, but currently expect its preparation to commence in 2018 with a view to adoption in 2020, and for the Scottish Planning Policy to be reviewed in parallel.

Question reference: S5O-01460

Asked by: John Scott, MSP for Ayr, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 November 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with VisitScotland regarding tourism in Ayrshire.

Question reference: S5W-11858

Asked by: John Scott, MSP for Ayr, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 October 2017
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 25 October 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has invited any research institutions to evaluate the work of the University of Queensland with regard to methane reduction in cattle by including seaweed in their diet, and to assess whether a Scottish application might be found for this research.

Question reference: S5W-11857

Asked by: John Scott, MSP for Ayr, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 October 2017
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 25 October 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what evaluation it has made of the claim made by the University of Queensland that including a certain type of seaweed in the diet of cattle can reduce their methane output by up to 90%.

Question reference: S5W-11383

Asked by: John Scott, MSP for Ayr, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 September 2017
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 28 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what measures it is taking to eradicate bovine viral diarrhoea.

The Scottish Government provides legislative backing and the ScotEID BVD database in support of an industry-led scheme to eradicate bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) from cattle in Scotland. Measures are currently in place to determine the BVD status of all cattle breeding herds in Scotland and to restrict the movement of animals where there is evidence of disease.

The BVD advisory group has indicated that they wish to increase the BVD control measures and to this end, Scottish Government are conducting a public consultation on which measures should be introduced or altered in the next phase of the eradication scheme.

Question reference: S5W-11384

Asked by: John Scott, MSP for Ayr, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 September 2017
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 28 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government when it expects bovine viral diarrhoea will be eliminated from Scotland.

It is not possible to accurately predict how long Scotland’s industry-led bovine viral diarrhoea eradication (BVD) eradication scheme will take due to the nature of BVD spread, the variation of farming practices across Scotland and the changeable market forces in play for those farmers sourcing replacement animals outside Scotland. Scottish Government will continue to work with industry, taking these factors into account to eliminate BVD from Scotland as soon as possible.

Question reference: S5W-11271

Asked by: John Scott, MSP for Ayr, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 September 2017
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 26 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the disease being present in Cumbria, what further action it is considering to stop the spread of bovine TB to Scotland.

The Scottish Government is closely monitoring the situation in Cumbria and the stringent disease control measures already in place for bovine TB continue to apply.

The Scottish Government is committed to a comprehensive, practical and proportionate programme of TB controls in order to maintain current low levels of TB and safeguard our Officially TB Free (OTF) status. To further enhance our TB controls, a public consultation is currently underway on proposals to review and update some aspects of Scottish TB legislation in order to further incentivise compliance and encourage farmers to follow good farming practices and keep disease out of their herds.

Question reference: S5W-11209

Asked by: John Scott, MSP for Ayr, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 September 2017
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 20 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government when funding will be available to Scottish Water to address long-term flooding issues in Prestwick.

The Scottish Government is making £760 million available in the 2015-21 period to support Scottish Water’s £3.6 billion investment programme. Included within this investment programme is over £150 million to reduce flooding and pollution from sewers.

Flooding from sewers is of great concern to many communities across Scotland. For this reason it is important that resources are focussed on the worst instances first. For Scottish Water this means prioritising solutions for those properties which are at risk of internal sewer flooding.

The long-term flooding issues in Prestwick are known to Scottish Water. It is developing options and will consider the priority for delivery together with many similar projects elsewhere in Scotland.

Question reference: S5O-01212

Asked by: John Scott, MSP for Ayr, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 6 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to support the development of collaborative working and better supply chain management in the aerospace sector.

The Scottish Government, and our enterprise agencies, are working with the sector to grow the aerospace cluster at Prestwick. The cluster includes successful companies such as GE Caledonian, Spirit AeroSystems, UTC Aerospace Systems, BAE Systems, and Woodward Aircraft Engineering Systems. Together with industry, local council and academia, Scottish Enterprise is working collaboratively to see how they can best capitalise on the existing strengths in the area, including considering a new aerospace innovation centre.

Just last week, on 31 August, the First Minister announced a new contract won by Spirit AeroSystems for the manufacture of spoilers for the A320 Airbus aircraft. The composite technology being used to manufacture the spoilers was developed by Spirit and is being industrialised with the help of a £2.1 million funding grant from Scottish Enterprise.

The Aerospace, Defence, Marine & Security Industry Leadership Group (ADMS ILG) is a partnership of key public and private sector players and is at the heart of the work around Supply Chain Capability activity. The partnership supports SMEs to invest so they can meet the criteria required to bid for aerospace contracts and expand further into global markets.

Question reference: S5O-01130

Asked by: John Scott, MSP for Ayr, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 June 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what plans it has to address the pooling of water on the roof of the Garden Lobby.