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: S4O-05628

Asked by: Rob Gibson, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 March 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how traditional instrument tuition fits in with its strategy for Scottish traditional arts.

Question reference: S4O-05610

Asked by: Rob Gibson, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 February 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what progress there has been on the review of neonatal and maternity services.

Question reference: S4W-29442

Asked by: Rob Gibson, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 January 2016
Current Status: Answered by Aileen McLeod on 1 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what upland areas of Scotland have been mapped as suitable for extensive new planting to both absorb water and capture CO2.

The Scottish Government does not hold maps specifically showing which upland areas are suitable for new planting for water management and carbon sequestration alone.

However, local authority led regional forestry and woodland strategies use maps to guide the location of new planting in Scotland to deliver a range of objectives, including water management and climate change mitigation. These strategies divide the local authority area into categories for new woodland planting. These categories usually indicate preferred, potential and sensitive areas for new planting and cover both uplands and lowlands.

In addition to forestry and woodland strategies, target areas have been identified within the Scottish Environment Protection Agency’s priority catchments where woodland creation would contribute most to water related benefits including flood alleviation and climate change. These maps are used to target enhanced grant support.

Although we do not have specific maps for new planting to sequester carbon, the Scottish Government has mapped all areas of soils with peat exceeding 50 centimetres depth that are unsuitable for planting due to a negative impact on the carbon balance and hydrology of the bog habitat.

Question reference: S4O-05518

Asked by: Rob Gibson, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 January 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what aspects of fair work it has discussed recently with Highlands and Islands Enterprise.

Question reference: S4O-05287

Asked by: Rob Gibson, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 January 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how much surface water plantation forestry absorbs from surrounding water courses and rainfall in the Highlands per annum.

Question reference: S4O-05251

Asked by: Rob Gibson, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 January 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 13 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many patients' homes have been sold to pay for long-term nursing care since May 2011, and whether any agricultural land has been included.

Question reference: S4W-28898

Asked by: Rob Gibson, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 December 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 6 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many windfarm applications have been refused on the grounds of wild land in the last three years and what the impact was in terms of potential (a) megawatts, (b) community benefit, (c) the amount of carbon that would have been displaced, (d) investment in the area and (e) jobs.

Wind farms of 50 megawatts or more are determined by Scottish Ministers through the Electricity Act 1989, those of less than 50 megawatts are determined by planning authorities under the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 (as amended). Planning applications are generally determined by planning authorities in Scotland and the information requested is not held centrally.

In relation to decisions under the Electricity Act, the requested information on the impacts and benefits of individual wind farm applications is not routinely collated, however all the wind farm application decision letters are available from the Scottish Government’s energy and consents webpage http://www.energyconsents.scot/.

Question reference: S4W-28902

Asked by: Rob Gibson, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 December 2015
Current Status: Answered by Aileen McLeod on 5 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to review areas designated as core wild land.

The Scottish Government does not have any plans to ask Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) to review its 2014 map of wild land areas, which are not a statutory designation.

SNH provided advice to the Scottish Government at the time when the map was published and noted that frequent review was unlikely to be necessary. The areas of wild land on the 2014 map would remain important in the national context unless a significant development or land use change took place.

Question reference: S4W-28901

Asked by: Rob Gibson, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 December 2015
Current Status: Answered by Aileen McLeod on 5 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what criteria are used to designate an area as wild land.

Wild land areas, which are not a statutory designation, were identified by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) using a three phase mapping methodology. This involved:

1) Using geographic information system analysis to map four physical attributes across Scotland: perceived naturalness, rugged or challenging terrain, remoteness from public roads, and visible lack of built development/modern artefacts;

2) Applying statistical techniques to identify the largest and most wild areas;

3) Making informed judgements to select and define areas of wild land of most importance in a national context.

A more detailed non-technical description of the mapping methodology has been published by SNH: http://www.snh.gov.uk/protecting-scotlands-nature/looking-after-landscapes/landscape-policy-and-guidance/wild-land/mapping/

Question reference: S4W-28900

Asked by: Rob Gibson, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 December 2015
Current Status: Answered by Aileen McLeod on 5 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason Garvie Island live bombing range is considered an area of wild land.