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-05577

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 February 2012
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 13 March 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what the budget for public service obligation flights has been in each year since 2007.

Question reference: S4W-05574

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 February 2012
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 13 March 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with the European Commission since 2007 regarding the extension of public service obligation flights to other air routes, including those eligible for the Air Discount Scheme.

Question reference: S4W-05578

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 February 2012
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 13 March 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what criteria it has used since 2007 to determine a region’s eligibility for public service obligation flights.

Question reference: S4W-05969

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 February 2012
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 9 March 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what (a) weight and (b) value of seafood has been exported directly from Scotland to China in each quarter of the last two years, broken down by species.

Due to the way data is reported by HM Revenues and Customs (HMRC) the weight and value of each individual seafood species exported from Scotland to China is unavailable. However, the HMRC Regional Trade Statistics data for “Fish, Crustaceans, Molluscs, Aquatic Invertebrates and Preparations Thereof” by weight and value exported from Scotland to China is shown on the following table. This information covers Quarter 1, 2010 to Quarter 3, 2011 (the latest data available).

	Value (£)	Weight (Tonnes)
Q1 2010	200,000	208
Q2 2010	1,400,000	2,628
Q3 2010	1,100,000	1,886
Q4 2010	5,100,000	4,180
Q1 2011	7,900,000	2,038
Q2 2011	6,800,000	1,111
Q3 2011	3,100,000	676

Question reference: S4O-00790

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 March 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 March 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will announce the preferred bidder for the Northern Isles ferry contract.

Question reference: S4W-05966

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 27 February 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 7 March 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how many school groups from (a) island and (b) remote mainland communities have gone on visits in each year as part of the heritage education travel subsidy scheme, also broken down by site.

The Heritage Education School Visits Travel Subsidy scheme was established in April 2010 and is administered by Historic Scotland. Information on how the scheme operates and the sites included is available at: www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/education-travel-subsidy.

Information on the numbers of school groups, numbers of pupils and amount of travel subsidy awarded relating to visits to sites are set out in the following tables for 2010-11. Figures for financial year 2011-12 are not currently available.year 2011-12 are not currently available.

Site	Number of School Groups from an Island
Arnol Blackhouse	2
Bishop's Palace	1
Bonawe	1
Broch of Gurness	1
Earl's Palace	1
Edinburgh Castle	1
Iona Abbey	1
Jarlshof	1
Kilmartin Glen	2
Ring of Brodgar	1
Robert Burns Birthplace Museum	2
Skara Brae	8
Stirling Castle	1

Site	Number of School Groups from a Remote Mainland Community *
Bannockburn	4
Caerlaverock	1
Culloden	13
Dirleton Caslte	1
Duff House	1
Edinburgh Castle	3
Fort George	3
Huntly Castle	1
Jarlshof	1
Kildrummy Castle	1
Kilmartin Glen	1
Melrose Abbey	1
New Lanark World Heritage Site	4
Robert Burns Birthplace Museum	5
Skara Brae	2
Stanley Mills	3
Stirling Castle	11
Urquhart Castle	3

Note: *Based on the definition of “remote rural areas” - settlements of less than 3,000 people who are not within 30 minutes drive of a settlement of 10,000 or more people.

Question reference: S4W-05964

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 27 February 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 7 March 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how many school (a) groups and (b) pupils have gone on visits in each year as part of the heritage education travel subsidy scheme, also broken down by site.

Question reference: S4W-05954

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 27 February 2012
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 7 March 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how the views of the Orkney and Shetland communities will be taken into account when discussions begin with a preferred bidder for the Northern Isles ferry contract.

The views of the Orkney and Shetland communities were first invited during the full public consultation in 2010. In addition to the published consultation document, government officials held a series of public meetings in both Orkney and Shetland. Once the tender process began in the spring of 2011, officials from the relevant local authorities and regional transport partnerships were invited to comment on emerging proposals and their views were included in the subsequent policy advice to Scottish Ministers.

Significant efforts have therefore been made to ensure that the views of the Orkney and Shetland communities were taken into account during the period when the service specification was being developed. This has been done and that period is now concluded. Future discussions with the preferred bidder will not influence the services procured. However, once confirmed, the new operator will be actively engaging with the local communities.

Question reference: S4W-05961

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 27 February 2012
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 7 March 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how it will ensure that any cultural benefits arising from the Cultural Olympiad and the Year of Creative Scotland 2012 will be carried forward to the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

We are committed to ensuring that the benefits of creative and cultural activity underway in 2012 carry through to 2014 and we have already established the appropriate governance structures and evaluation frameworks across all our 2012 and 2014 activity to ensure that happens. On 27 July 2011, I announced Scotland's Cultural Plan for London 2012 and Glasgow 2014, which sets out how we are working to fully capitalise on these amazing opportunities for the cultural sector and our communities. In addition, the Year of Creative Scotland, one of a series of years focussing on some of Scotland's greatest assets, is encouraging collaborative working between the creative and tourism sectors as well as between national agencies working in the arts, events and tourism. The legacy of this work will inform and enhance the exciting programme of activity that will take place across Scotland throughout 2014 and beyond.

http://www.creativescotland.com/explore/2012-2014.

Question reference: S4W-05953

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 27 February 2012
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 7 March 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it took to incorporate the views of the Orkney and Shetland communities during the competitive dialogue process leading to the retendering of the Northern Isles ferry contract.

During the Competitive Dialogue stage of the Northern Isles tender process, Transport Scotland engaged directly with officials from HITRANS and ZetTrans in order to benefit from their detailed local knowledge and perspective. This followed extensive engagement during earlier phases of the tender process with both of the Regional Transport Partnerships and all the local authorities with an interest. This engagement included meetings with members and officials of both Orkney Islands Council and Shetland Islands Council. This, in turn, followed a full public consultation on the Northern Isles ferry services in 2010 which elicited over 400 responses from individuals and organisations.

2007-08	£1.8 million
2008-09	£1.9 million
2009-10	£2.0 million
2010-11	£2.0 million
2011-12 to date	£1.8 million