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-07550

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 29 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many woodland creation schemes of (a) up to two, (b) two to five, (c) six to 10, (d) 11 to 20, (e) 21 to 50, (f) 51 to 100, (g) 101 to 200 and (h) over 200 hectares have been approved in each year since 2008, also broken down by total area of woodland in each category.

Since 2008, there have been 2,388 woodland creation schemes approved covering a total area of 43,502 hectares. The number and area of woodland in each size category are shown in the Tables 1 and 2.

Approvals under the new SRDP Forestry Grant Scheme only began in November 2015, and as a result the area approved for 2016 was less than in previous years. Because of the long lead in time for woodland creation projects, recent improvements to the forestry grant scheme and the ongoing work to streamline the approval process are likely to impact from 2018 onwards.

Table 1 – Number of woodland creation schemes by size categories and year

Year

<2ha

2-5ha

5-10 ha

10-20ha

20-50 ha

50-100 ha

100-200 ha

>200 ha

Total

2008

2009

191

2010

134

137

396

2011

115

181

452

2012

109

371

2013

278

2014

355

2015

137

2016

208

Total

637

702

320

259

237

126

2388

Note:Data not available to show breakdown by size class separately for 2008 and 2009

Table 2 – Area in hectares (ha) of woodland creation schemes by size categories and year

Year

<2ha

2-5ha

5-10 ha

10-20ha

20-50 ha

50-100 ha

100-200 ha

>200 ha

Total

2008

2009

61.91

113.69

159.97

259.23

281.59

74.12

344.32

963.57

1334

924.4

2010

127.06

382.13

327.75

388.93

1013.17

600.76

1638.11

200.6

4678.51

2011

114.64

487.84

306.59

641.21

718.86

1515.43

2291.56

1206.67

7282.8

2012

103.85

321.66

455.86

439.42

1194.68

1779.56

1689.74

850.52

6835.29

2013

64.63

257.31

220.33

343.18

925.89

1435.09

2155.6

1234.31

6636.34

2014

83.77

211.65

381.07

923.72

1679.62

1655.07

1302.39

1449.68

7686.97

2015

26.04

73.37

158.77

288.23

853.61

749.36

772.66

1312.88

4234.92

2016

41.08

187.18

281.43

348.39

1024.30

1015.33

449.08

542.01

3888.80

Total

622.98

2034.83

2291.77

3632.31

7691.72

8824.72

10643.46

7760.24

43502.03

Note:Data not available to show breakdown by size class separately for 2008 and 2009

Question reference: S5O-00837

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 29 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what currency an independent Scotland would use.

Question reference: S5T-00479

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 March 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that the Queensferry Crossing will not be ready by the revised completion date of the end of May.

Question reference: S5W-07552

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 14 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has cost to erect (a) deer and (b) non-deer fencing in new woodlands of (i) up to two, (ii) two to five, (iii) six to 10, (iv) 11 to 20, (v) 21 to 50, (vi) 51 to 100, (vii) 101 to 200 and (viii) over 200 hectares in each year since 2008.

The Scottish Government does not have data on how much it has cost to erect deer or non-deer fencing in new woodlands. However, grant support at standard payment rates for fencing is provided to ensure the successful establishment of new woodlands. The grant support provided since 2008 for deer and non-deer fencing is given in table one. Because of the way the data is recorded, it is not possible to break this down by woodland size category.

Table 1 – Grant Support for Fencing by Year

Year	Deer Fence Grants	Non-Deer fence Grants
2008-09	£222,409.96	£143,686.94
2009-10	£1,884,665.31	£734,745.90
2010-11	£3,326,704.86	£764,606.55
2011-12	£2,954,909.62	£712,374.75
2012-13	£2,491,324.78	£477,905.69
2013-14	£3,113,641.70	£650,678.03
2014-15	£1,361,452.46	£300,028.87
2015-16	£2,461,657.81	£635,634.36
Total	£17,816,766.48	£4,419,661.08

Question reference: S5T-00421

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 March 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what impact the proposed merger between Aberdeen Asset Management and Standard Life would have on Scotland’s economy.

Question reference: S5O-00636

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 2 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what impact the business rates revaluation will have on the tourism and hospitality sectors.

As a result of the Assessors independent business rates revaluation the individual rateable value of any property in the tourism and hospitality sectors may increase, decrease or remain the same.

However, many thousands of premises in the sector will be amongst beneficiaries of the package of measures I have announced, which include:

The Small Business Bonus Scheme – which has already saved businesses more than £1.2 billion – will be expanded from April to lift 100,000 properties out of rates completely;

8,000 business properties will no longer pay the Large Business Supplement; and

The overall business rates poundage being cut by 3.7% to 46.6p.

Question reference: S5T-00277

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 December 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it has downgraded its forecast of revenues from the residential element of Lands and Buildings Transaction Tax.

Question reference: S5O-00465

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 14 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish its bill on a replacement for air passenger duty.

Question reference: S5W-05145

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 12 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government (a) when and (b) how it will consult on the appointment of building standards verifiers.

The Building (Scotland) Act 2003 allows Scottish Ministers to appoint verifiers on such terms or limitations as they feel appropriate. It also allows any appointment to be made, varied or terminated at any time. Local authorities are appointed as verifiers until end the end of April 2017. I am currently reviewing the appointment process for verifiers from May 2017 onwards, however there are no plans for wider consultation on the matter.

Question reference: S5W-05147

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 12 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether local authorities are sufficiently resourced to provide the building standards verification service.

Each of the 32 local authorities is responsible for resourcing their building standards services appropriately.

I have become aware that since the economic downturn of 2008 there have been situations where experienced Building Standards Managers and staff have either retired or taken voluntary exit arrangements from local authorities. At the same time there appears to have been little corresponding intake of trainee or apprentice Building Standards Officers in many areas of Scotland. I understand that as the volume of building projects has been increasing some local authorities have had difficulty in recruiting and replacing staff. The Scottish Government is currently consulting on Building Warrant Fees which includes a proposal to increase fees to provide additional funding to local authorities.