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: S2O-05080

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 January 2005
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 27 January 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how it encourages small-scale hydro power schemes.

Question reference: S2O-04768

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 December 2004
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 23 December 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is satisfied with truancy levels in schools.

Question reference: S2W-12870

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 December 2004
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 21 December 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive why exempt suppliers of renewable energy from hydro power are not eligible for Renewable Obligation Certificates.

Output from large hydro schemes (those over 20 MegaWatts) commissioned before 2 April 2002 is not eligible for support under the Renewables Obligation (Scotland) Order 2004 (the ROS), as the schemes are long established – support under the ROS would constitute a windfall. Output from these schemes is of course classified as renewable, and will continue to make an important contribution towards meeting the Executive’s targets.

Question reference: S2W-12871

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 December 2004
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 21 December 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to change the regime for Renewable Obligation Certificates to bring exempt suppliers of renewable energy from hydro power within the ambit of the scheme.

Question reference: S2W-12680

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 26 November 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 13 December 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many police officers from each police force are scheduled to be on secondment to police the G8 Summit at the Gleneagles Hotel and for how long.

Question reference: S2W-12574

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 November 2004
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 10 December 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how it will address the issue of whether there are sufficient affordable dentists in Fife.

Responsibility for the overall provision of NHS dental services in the area rests with NHS Fife. NHS boards are encouraged to apply to Scottish ministers for approval for salaried dentist posts where they consider that there is a gap in NHS general dental service provision, which cannot be filled by other means. We continue to support NHS Fife by approving salaried dentist posts where required.

Our consultation Modernising NHS Dental Services in Scotland took a fundamental look at the way NHS dental services are provided, including remuneration. Our forthcoming response to the consultation will include further measures to support NHS dental services in Scotland.

Question reference: S2W-12575

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 November 2004
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 10 December 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to attract more dentists to the NHS.

The Executive has introduced a range of measures over the last few years aimed at the recruitment of dentists within NHS general dental services. These include allowances for vocational trainees taking up their vocational training year in Scotland and for dentists entering substantive NHS general dental practice in Scotland on completion of vocational training.

Our forthcoming response to the consultation Modernising NHS Dental Services in Scotland will include further measures to support NHS dental services in Scotland.

Question reference: S2W-11393

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 October 2004
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 26 November 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive why it decided not to carry out improvements to the Ballinluig junction on the A9 until 2005-06, when the then Deputy Minister for Transport and Planning announced in April 2002 that funding for the junction upgrade would come from budgets in 2003-04 and 2004-05.

Question reference: S2W-11981

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 November 2004
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 18 November 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive why its Comparative Study of Business Tax Revenue shows that business property taxation in Scotland is 17% higher than in the rest of the United Kingdom.

Table 4.2 of the Comparative Study of Business Tax Revenue shows that totaltax revenue raised from business in Scotland relative to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is lower or comparable to most of our competitors with the exception of the United States, Ireland and Austria. This is reproduced in the following table:

Table 4.2 – Business and Transport Tax Revenue Relative to GDP, 2000

Country	Revenues as a percentage of GDP
Corporate Income Taxation	Employers’ Social Security	Business Property Taxation	Business Transport Taxes	Total
Austria	2.1	7.2	0.2	0.2	9.8
Belgium	3.7	8.5	0.1	0.9	13.2
Finland	5.5	8.8	0.3	0.5	15.1
France	3.2	11.3	0.6	1.0	16.1
Germany	1.8	7.3	0.3	1.0	10.4
Ireland	3.8	2.7	0.6	0.9	8.0
Netherlands	4.2	4.7	0.6	0.9	10.4
Scotland	3.5	3.6	2.1	1.1	10.4
Sweden	4.1	11.9	0.5	0.7	17.2
UK	3.7	3.5	1.8	1.4	10.4
USA	2.5	3.5	1.5	0.2	7.7

Source: OECD (2002); GERS (2003).

As can be seen, revenue from business property taxation represents 2.1 per cent of GDP in Scotland, as opposed to 1.8 per cent for the UK as a whole. However, as the report stresses, comparing individual taxes in isolation is misleading. Furthermore, comparison of total tax revenue raised from business follows the methodology and definition used by the Confederation of British Industry in their paper, UK Manufacturing: Strategy into Action, published September 2003. Such a comparison reveals that the overall tax revenue raised from business in Scotland is 10.4 per cent of GDP, the same level as in the UK. This level is comparable to Germany, and the Netherlands, and less than countries such as France, Finland, Belgium and Sweden. As is stated through-out the report, comparing individual tax revenues in isolation can be misleading and the 17 per cent figure quoted in your question, which is a percentage of two percentages,has limited meaning.

Question reference: S2W-11982

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 November 2004
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 18 November 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it will take as a result of its Comparative Study of Business Tax Revenue showing that business property taxation in Scotland is 17% higher than in the rest of the United Kingdom.

I refer the member to the question S2W-11981 answered on 18 November 2004, and would again stress the limitations of such comparisons.

The Scottish Executive is committed to creating the conditions to maximise sustainable economic growth in the medium and long term. The Executive’s strategy to deliver this is laid out in the recently refreshed editions of The Framework for Economic Development in Scotland (Bib. number 33705) and Smart Successful Scotland (Bib. number 34212).