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-10876

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 November 2012
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 12 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what the target date is for the delivery of single farm payments to claimants in 2012-13 and what percentage of claimants in receipt of payments it aims to achieve by that date.

We aim to make the first payment under the 2012 Single Farm Payment Scheme on 3 December. This is the earliest possible date given that EC regulations require payments to be contained in a “window” that opens on 1 December and closes on 30 June in the following year. Monday 3 December is the first banking day in that window. Our aim this year, as in all previous years, is to pay as many claims, as early as we can in the payment window. The validation of applications, likely to total some 18,900 claims, is still in progress as is the testing of the computer system to process those claims. It is, therefore, not possible to say at this point precisely what percentage of farmers will be paid on the first day of the payment window, but we are on track to deliver the majority of payments in December.

Question reference: S4W-10301

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 October 2012
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 12 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been employed in the fishing industry in each year since 2007-08.

Question reference: S4W-10300

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 October 2012
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 12 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been employed as trawlermen on fishing vessels registered in Scotland in each year since 2007-08.

The available information on those employed on fishing vessels does not distinguish the fishing method used. Information on the number of trawlermen is therefore not available. Information on the total numbers of sea fishermen employed between 2007 and 2011, the latest year for which the information is available, is published in Table 2.8 in the Statistical Bulletin Scottish Sea Fisheries Statistics 2011, copies of which are available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. Number 54279).

Question reference: S4W-10256

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 15 October 2012
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 12 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how many trees were or have been planted in the national forest estate in (a) 2011-12 and (b) 2012-13, also broken down by area in hectares.

The following tables show the area of trees planted on the national forest estate in 2011-12 and a forecast of the area planted in 2012-13. The tables include restocking and new planting. Numbers of trees are estimated on the basis of 2,000 trees per hectare.

2011-12 (1 April 2011 to 31st March 2012):

2011-12	Restocking	New Planting	Total (Restocking and New Planting)
Conifer (Hectares)	4,100	800	4,900
Broadleaves (Hectares)	600	500	1,100
Total	4,700	1,300	6,000

Conifer trees	8,200,000	1,600,000	9,800,000
Broadleaved trees	1,200,000	1,000,000	2,200,000
Total	9,400,000	2,600,000	12,000,000

2012 -13 (1st April 2012 to 31st March 2013):

2012-13 (forecast)	Restocking	New Planting	Total (Restocking and Broadleaves)
Conifer (Hectares)	5,100	500	5,600
Broadleaves (Hectares)	600	600	1,200
Total	5,700	1,100	6,800

Conifer trees	10,200,000	1,000,000	11,200,000
Broadleaved trees	1,200,000	1,200,000	2,400,000
Total	11,400,000	2,200,000	13,600,000

Question reference: S4W-10257

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 15 October 2012
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 12 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what size the national forest estate will be by 2015 including the 100 million trees as per the SNP manifesto commitment.

The national forest estate will probably be slightly smaller in 2015 than it is now. This is because the total area of land with relatively low public benefits that is sold under the repositioning programme is likely to be larger than the area of land acquired to create new woodlands (for example, on sites in and around towns). New planting on the national forest estate is expected to contribute around 10% of the 100 million tree target; the remaining 90% is expected to consist of new planting on land in other ownership.

Question reference: S4W-10259

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 15 October 2012
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 12 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what the size of national forest estate (a) acquisitions and (b) disposals has been in each year since 2007-08.

The size of national forest estate acquisitions and disposals in each year since 2007-08 is shown in the following tables:

Forestry Commission Scotland Acquisitions

Year	Hectares
2007-08	2,879
2008-09	2,112
2009-10	423
2010-11	3,099
2011-12	2,045

Forestry Commission Scotland Disposals

Year	Hectares
2007-08	3,062
2008-09	2,954
2009-10	5,481
2010-11	6,991
2011-12	5,955

Question reference: S4W-10255

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 15 October 2012
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 12 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what the size of the national forest estate (a) is and (b) has been in each year since 2007-08.

The current size of the national forest estate as at 31 March 2012 is 651,000 hectares.

The size of the national forest estate in previous years is shown in the following table:

Year (as at 31 March)	Size of national forest estate
2011	654,000 hectares
2010	660,000 hectares
2009	665,000 hectares
2008	667,000 hectares

The above figures are for the total area of Scotland's national forest estate and includes non-planted land (i.e. agricultural land, moorland, mountain, etc).

Question reference: S4W-10288

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 October 2012
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 6 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how many miles of rail track are in use in Scotland.

Question reference: S4W-10289

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 October 2012
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 6 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how many miles of the rail network are electrified and how many miles and what areas have been electrified since May 2007.

There are approximately 1,724 miles of rail track in Scotland, of which 25% is electrified. In terms of miles this equates to 431 miles of the rail network. These figures are the route length which includes multiple tracks where they exist. The single track length will therefore be greater.

Since May 2007, 66 track miles of the rail network in Scotland has been electrified. This took place on the Airdrie-Bathgate rail link where 15 miles of new double track electrified railway was laid between Airdrie and Bathgate. Also between Bathgate and Edinburgh Waverley, 18 miles of double track railway was upgraded.

Furthermore, 5.5 miles of track is being electrified between Corkerhill and Paisley Canal.

Question reference: S4W-10248

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 15 October 2012
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 30 October 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what its carbon footprint has been in each of the last five financial years, broken down by (a) directorate and (b) agency.

The Scottish Government’s carbon footprint for the last five financial years can be found in the following published Annual Environmental Reports and Sustainability Report:

2009-10 to 2011-12: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2012/09/2732

2008-09: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2010/05/14145517/0

2007-08: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2009/06/03115447/0.

We do not hold information broken down by individual Directorate level.

Information regarding agencies is not held centrally. Agencies are excluded from Scottish Government reporting, except where they are a tenant of a core Scottish Government building for energy use. Agencies have their own reporting obligations in line with the Scottish Sustainability Reporting Framework which was published on 5 January 2011 http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2012/01/051534/3/0.