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-01215

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 June 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what it is doing to promote the availability in the building of beer brewed in Scotland.

Question reference: S4W-07618

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 31 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 19 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S4W-07396 by Alex Neil on 30 May 2012, when it will provide a substantive response.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on individual contracts centrally over this period.

Monthly details of individual items of expenditure over £25,000 since 2010 are published at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/expenditure.

Details of individual public contracts awarded can be accessed through Public Contracts Scotland using the guidance available at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Government/Procurement/directory.

Question reference: S4O-01127

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 June 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive when the Renewable Energy Investment Fund will be open for bids from community bodies.

Question reference: S4W-07396

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 30 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what value of public contracts it has awarded to (a) PricewaterhouseCoopers, (b) Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, (c) Ernst & Young and (d) KPMG in each year from 1999-00.

Question reference: S4W-07230

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 24 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how many households have been (a) contacted, (b) offered free insulation and (c) given free insulation under the (i) Home Insulation Scheme and (ii) Universal Home Insulation Scheme since the scheme was introduced.

The Home Insulation Scheme which ran in 2009-10 and 2010-11 offered free loft top-up insulation and access to virgin loft insulation or cavity wall insulation through the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) scheme. In some cases the measures available through CERT would be free to the householder and in others there would have been a client contribution to pay. Of the 7,444 loft and cavity wall insulation measures installed information is not held on how many were provided free. The information shown is therefore restricted to the loft top-up measures which are known to have been provided free to every household.

Households Contacted	Households Offered Free Insulation	Households Given Free Insulation
393,942	21,576	21,576

The scheme also generated 45,600 referrals for measures under the Energy Assistance Package.

An overview of Home Insulation Scheme activity is provided at the Energy Saving Trust website.

http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/scotland/Take-action/Grants-and-offers/Home-Energy-Scotland/Free-and-discounted-insulation/Overview-of-Home-Insulation-Scheme-activity#All%20HIS%20phases.

Data on the Universal Home Insulation Scheme will be published shortly.

Question reference: S4W-07228

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 24 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will (a) receive and (b) publish the interim report of the Fuel Poverty Forum.

Question reference: S4W-07232

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 23 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will lay before the Parliament a report on energy-efficient discount schemes, as required under section 66 of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009.

Question reference: S4W-07037

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 16 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will ensure that Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd can borrow funds in order to invest in (a) new vessels and (b) future harbour and port upgrades on Scottish ferry routes.

Question reference: S4W-07041

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 16 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how many seafarer (a) ratings and (b) officers have been trained by Caledonian MacBrayne in each year since 2002.

Training provided by Caledonian MacBrayne between 2002 and September 2006 and by CalMac Ferries Ltd from October 2006 to 2011 is as follows:-

Year	New Ratings Trained (all disciplines)	Rating to Officer Training	Officers Trained to a Higher Certificate of Competency
2002	8	4	5
2003	27	5	15
2004	14	2	4
2005	28	1	6
2006	15	1	8
2007	25	1	8
2008	18	2	17
2009	15	2	9
2010	14	3	8
2011	20	Nil	4

In addition, between 2006 and the current year CalMac Ferries Ltd has sponsored 11 officer cadets per year. CalMac Ferries Ltd currently sponsor a total of 32 deck or engineer officer cadets. The officer cadets are all employed by Clyde Marine Training Limited and are sponsored by CalMac Ferries Ltd.

Question reference: S4W-07038

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 11 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average fare will be under the proposed road equivalent tariff for a (a) passenger, (b) private vehicle and (c) commercial vehicle on each ferry route affected.

As set out in our 29 November 2011 news release, RET for passengers and cars will become a permanent feature in the Western Isles, Coll and Tiree. On ferry routes to the Western Isles, Coll and Tiree, RET has been extended to include small commercial vehicles. In addition, on these routes, we have taken a number of steps to reduce the impact of removing RET for larger commercial vehicles. Significant financial help has also been given to all hauliers and businesses using these ferry routes.

RET for passengers and cars will also be rolled out to other West Coast and Clyde islands within the term of this Parliament. Decisions about the exact level of RET fares for passengers and cars on each ferry route will be made available prior to the introduction of the scheme on each route. However, as noted in the Draft Ferries Plan, we want the RET single fare to be competitive with any discounts that would or might be available through any multi-journey ticket scheme.

In the longer term it is our aim to develop an overarching freight fares policy.