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-24061

Asked by: John Lamont, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 January 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 26 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-23804 by Shona Robison on 15 January 2015, if any changes to NHS services were not in line with the 2020 strategy, whether it has the power to intervene and, if so, whether it would do so.

<>Ministers can consider proposals that are deemed to be a major service change under the Scottish Government guidance Informing, Engaging and Consulting People in Developing Health and Community Care Services http://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/mels/CEL2010_04.pdf.

If a major service change was to be considered health boards must ensure that the proposed changes are in line with the 2020 vision, and fully engage with their local population before any changes are taken forward. Proposals need to give clear evidence of how the board has carried out this engagement, and how it would address the impact on outcomes for their community.

Question reference: S4W-24023

Asked by: John Lamont, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 January 2015
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 22 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what guidelines there are regarding the proximity of wind turbines to public roads, and whether it plans to review these in light of reports that, following storms, part of a turbine was found by a roadside near Stow.

Paragraph 169 of Scottish Planning Policy (2014) indicates that proposals for energy infrastructure developments should consider impacts on trunk roads and road traffic.

Scottish Government on-line planning advice for onshore wind turbines last updated in December 2013 states:

‘Road Traffic Impacts: In siting wind turbines close to major roads, pre-application discussions are advisable with Transport Scotland’s Trunk Roads Network Management. This is particularly important for the movement of large components (abnormal load routing) during the construction period, periodic maintenance and for decommissioning. Although wind turbines erected in accordance with best engineering practice should be stable structures, it may be advisable to achieve a set back from roads and railways of at least the height of the turbine proposed, to assure safety. Driver distraction may in some circumstances, be a consideration.’

There are no plans to review Scottish Planning Policy or these guidelines.

Question reference: S4W-23803

Asked by: John Lamont, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 January 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 19 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it considers community hospitals to be an important part of the provision of healthcare in rural areas.

Question reference: S4W-23804

Asked by: John Lamont, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 January 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 15 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what its role would be in relation to any proposal by NHS Borders to close a community hospital.

Question reference: S4W-23805

Asked by: John Lamont, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 January 2015
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 14 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many community hospitals have been closed in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S4W-23669

Asked by: John Lamont, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 December 2014
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 9 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many community hospitals have closed in each year since 2007, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S4W-23668

Asked by: John Lamont, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 December 2014
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 9 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how it supports community hospitals.

The Scottish Government published the refreshed community hospital strategy in April 2012. This included a commitment that we would ‘support NHS Education for Scotland to develop a national network to facilitate education, sharing of good practice, exchange of knowledge and clinical skills to provide an improvement forum’.

To meet this commitment, in 2012 we provided funding to NHS Education Services to establish the Community Hospitals Improvement Network.

The network supports NHS boards and community hospital staff to develop the skills and processes required to provide joined up care in community hospitals. They are currently working on developing the use and spread of telemedicine, improvements in data collection, and a range of dementia training days for hospital staff.

Question reference: S4O-03892

Asked by: John Lamont, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 January 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it supports the role that community hospitals play in helping with the provision of local healthcare and freeing up beds in larger hospitals.

Question reference: S4W-22938

Asked by: John Lamont, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 11 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what its strategy is for promoting and developing tourism in the Scottish Borders.

The Government Economic Strategy identifies tourism as a growth sector. The Scottish Government is assisting public bodies to support tourism via the industry-led Scottish Tourism Alliance ‘Tourism Strategy 2020’ by way of joined up working between the public agencies, especially (in the Scottish Borders) VisitScotland, Scottish Enterprise, Scottish Development International, and the relevant local authority.

29 Homecoming 2014 events have taken place in the Scottish Borders, four of which have received funding of £112,000 in total. The breakdown of funding is:

Melrose Sevens	£20,000
Return to the Ridings	£37,000
TweedLove Bike Festival	£35,000
Borders Book Festival	£20,000
Total	£112,000

VisitScotland promotes the Scottish Borders to millions of consumers through the national visitscotland.com website, with over 700 Scottish Borders business listings and a wealth of information and inspiration on what to see and do in the region. VisitScotland also operates five VisitScotland Information Centres in the Scottish Borders, at Hawick, Melrose, Peebles, Jedburgh and Kelso with two further Information Points in Partnership in Eyemouth and Selkirk.

The VisitScotland Growth Fund has to date supported two projects within the Scottish Borders, one of which was a national campaign through Scottish Racing promoting Kelso Racecourse and the other the Jedburgh Events Forum. VisitScotland’s Conference Bid Fund supported the Scottish Borders to secure the Developing Mountain Biking in Scotland conference 2014, to be hosted at Peebles Hydro Hotel from 11-13 November 2014.

EventScotland holds regular strategic meetings with Scottish Borders Council to discuss event strategy, as well as meeting on a project basis to discuss specific events. EventScotland has invested almost £790,000 in events taking place in the Scottish Borders over the last three years.

Name of Event	Start date	End date	Amount of EventScotland Funding
Melrose Sevens	08-04-2011	09-04-2011	15,000.00
TweedLove Bike Week	11-06-2011	19-06-2011	12,500.00
Traquair Fair	06-08-2011	07-08-2011	5,637.00
Floors Massed Pipe Band Day	28-08-2011	28-08-2011	4,000.00
Doors Open Days*	03-09-2011	30-09-2011	13,500.00
Tour of Britain	11-09-2011	11-09-2011	100,000.00
Count Us In	27-10-2011	27-10-2011	8,630.99
Melrose Sevens	14-04-2012	14-04-2012	20,000.00
Traquair Shakespeare Festival	26-05-2012	27-05-2012	4,000.00
Tweedlove Bike Festival	26-05-2012	05-06-2012	15,000.00
iXS Downhill Cup Innerleithen	16-06-2012	17-06-2012	9,900.00
Tour of Britain	11-09-2012	11-09-2012	105,000.00
Scottish Ploughing Championships	27-10-2012	28-10-2012	4,000.00
Melrose Sevens	13-04-2013	13-04-2013	20,000.00
Tour o' the Borders	14-04-2013	14-04-2013	8,000.00
TweedLove Bike Festival	24-05-2013	02-06-2013	15,000.00
Traquair Medieval Fayre	25-05-2013	26-05-2013	4,500.00
Jim Clark Rally	31-05-2013	02-06-2013	8,000.00
Dancing Dreams	01-06-2013	31-08-2013	10,000.00
Border Union Show	26-07-2013	27-07-2013	10,000.00
Traquair Fair	27-07-2013	28-07-2013	8,800.00
Tour of Britain	15-09-2013	15-09-2013	100,000.00
Scotland Sings*	29-11-2013	01-12-2013	6,000.00
Melrose Sevens	11-04-2014	12-04-2014	20,000.00
TweedLove Bike Festival	24-05-2014	08-06-2014	35,000.00
Return to the Ridings	01-06-2014	08-08-2014	37,000.00
Borders Book Festival	12-06-2014	15-06-2014	20,000.00
Haka Hawick	18-06-2014	18-06-2014	10,000.00
Generation*	26-06-2014	31-10-2014	150,000.00
Tour o' the Borders	10-08-2014	10-08-2014	10,000.00
Total			£789,467.99

* denotes that the event occurs across more than one local authority and the value is therefore divided accordingly (i.e. if an event spans two local authorities, the total award is divided by two).

Scottish Enterprise continues to work closely with partners to develop and promote the tourism offering across the Scottish Borders in specific key projects that have both Scottish Borders and Scotland–wide economic impacts. As well as the redevelopment of the world renowned Abbotsford House (the former home of Sir Walter Scott in the Scottish Borders) Scottish Enterprise has been working with a number of partners developing mountain biking across the South of Scotland and has supported the establishment of the Mountain Bike Centre of Scotland, launched in the summer of 2014 at Glentress.

Trains will be operational on the Borders Railway from 6 September 2015 which will have 30 miles of new track running between ten stations, seven of them new, connecting Edinburgh Waverley through Midlothian to the Scottish Borders. Infrastructure works at and around the new stations are connecting passengers to towns and transport infrastructure and services, notably at the new Galashiels bus-train interchange.

The line brings real opportunity for tourism and other economic development to communities throughout the Scottish Borders and Midlothian and on 20 August 2014 the First Minister announced a feasibility study, led by Scottish Enterprise in partnership with VisitScotland, Scottish Borders Council and Transport Scotland, which will look at how the Borders Railway will transform the tourism potential of the region.

Question reference: S4T-00822

Asked by: John Lamont, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 10 November 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to Scottish Borders Council's decision not to allow the Jim Clark Rally to take place in 2015.