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: S4W-29590

Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Independent
Date lodged: Monday, 01 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 2 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-29191 by Fergus Ewing on 20 January 2016, how it will engage with the community, industry and environmental stakeholders.

The Scottish Government is committed to engaging widely on the issue of unconventional oil and gas. A variety of engagement tools and platforms will be used before and during the formal public consultation. This will include meeting with community, industry and environmental groups. We also anticipate engaging through existing networks and forums, including community networks, alongside electronic engagement.

During the pre-consultation period, our focus will be on listening to views on promoting an inclusive and comprehensive debate of the issues and discussing our work to prepare objective evidence to inform the debate.

In November 2015, Health Protection Scotland hosted a series of workshops to give stakeholders an opportunity to highlight issues of particular interest to them. The information collected at these workshops has been used to inform the scope of the evidence-gathering for the public health impact assessment.

The research projects the Scottish Government has commissioned also require the contractors to engage with stakeholders representing community, environmental and industry interests to give them an opportunity to provide sources of information and highlight issues of concern that fall within the scope of this research.

Question reference: S4W-29593

Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Independent
Date lodged: Monday, 01 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 26 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what progress is being by Health Protection Scotland in its consultation on the health impact of extracting unconventional oil and gas and when it will make publish the responses to the first round of the consultation.

Health Protection Scotland are undertaking a Public Health Impact Assessment of unconventional oil and gas extraction as part of the wider programme of evidence-gathering work that will take place prior to a Scottish Government-led public consultation on this issue.

Health Protection Scotland will publish a summary of the workshops they ran to support the process of defining the Public Health Impact Assessment’s scope on their website by early March 2016, available at

http://www.hps.scot.nhs.uk/enviro/unconventionalgas.aspx?subjectid=49.

Question reference: S4O-05594

Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 February 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body how it disposes of food that is left over from events and functions.

Question reference: S4W-29305

Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 January 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 28 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government who will be responsible for bringing together the findings of the unconventional oil and gas research streams into a single consultation response and what weighting will be applied to each stream.

The Scottish Government will ensure that the findings of the research projects are presented in a clear and accessible way, and made publicly available in advance of the consultation. Access to this wide-ranging evidence base will enable members of the public to reach a considered view and to respond knowledgably to the consultation. The consultation will be designed to ensure that responders are able to express those views clearly to ministers.

Question reference: S4W-29304

Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 January 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 28 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government which research elements of the consultation on unconventional oil and gas will cover worker health and safety and socioeconomic impacts.

The research package includes a specific project on the economic impacts of unconventional oil and gas.

Health and safety in the workplace is currently a reserved matter, and is therefore the responsibility of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). Information about the HSE guidance on unconventional oil and gas can be found on the HSE website at http://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/unconventional-gas.htm.

Wider issues relating to the public health implications of unconventional oil and gas will be covered by the public health impact assessment to be undertaken by Health Protection Scotland.

Further information about the research projects is available on the Scottish Government website at:

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Business-Industry/Energy/onshoreoilandgas/EvidenceGathering.

Question reference: S4W-29192

Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Independent
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 January 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 20 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government (a) what the timescales are and (b) how many responses it has received for the tender processes for the research projects, (i) Transport Impacts, (ii) Decommissioning and Aftercare and (iii) Seismic Activity and Monitoring, which are part of its consultation on unconventional oil and gas.

Question reference: S4W-29191

Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Independent
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 January 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 20 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how it will conduct the pre-consultation public engagement exercise on unconventional gas and oil.

The Scottish Government is committed to engaging widely on the issue of unconventional oil and gas. For example, the research projects that we announced on 8 October 2015 include opportunities for a range of stakeholders to input their views at the outset of the process. This participative approach forms the cornerstone of our plans for engaging with community, industry and environmental stakeholders both in the run up to, and during, the formal consultation.

Question reference: S4W-29190

Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Independent
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 January 2016
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 18 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of attendees at the Health Protection Agency's public health impact assessment workshop for community stakeholders that was held on 23 November 2015 as part of the consultation on unconventional oil and gas.

Question reference: S4O-05271

Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Independent
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 January 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met Scottish Water.

Question reference: S4O-05232

Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Independent
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 December 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met the council leader and chief executive of North Lanarkshire Council.