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-22976

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Independent
Date lodged: Monday, 03 November 2014
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 12 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the potential impact on the community, whether it has discussed with the Ministry of Defence the reported explosion-like noises heard in the South Uist area on 29 October 2014 and, if so, what information it has on the cause of these and, if they had been planned, for what reason residents received no prior warning.

Question reference: S4O-03697

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 November 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what proportion of the Scottish Parliamentary Pension Scheme is invested in the fossil fuel, defence and tobacco industries.

Question reference: S4W-22808

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 4 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many unfilled vacancies there are across the NHS in radiology and neurology.

Information on vacancies within NHS Scotland in the radiology and neurology medical specialties can be found in the following table:

Whole time equivalent (WTE) of consultant vacancies as at 30 June 2014

	Clinical radiology	Neurology
Scotland	26.4	7.0

Source: Scottish Workforce Information Standard System, Information Services Division Scotland.

Increases in numbers of established posts often result in a small increase in vacancies – it should be noted that the combined number of established posts within these staff groups has increased by 34.3 WTE since September 2011.

Question reference: S4O-03601

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Independent
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 October 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 October 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how it encourages cooperation across local authorities on equality issues.

Question reference: S4W-22450

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 August 2014
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 24 September 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether it actively seeks to protect trees on land that it or its agencies owns by means of tree preservation orders.

The Scottish Government does not proactively seek to introduce tree preservation orders on its land. Scottish Ministers and local planning authorities have a duty to ensure, whenever it is appropriate, that in granting permission for any development adequate provision is made for the preservation or planting of trees.

In practice, local planning authorities are the mechanism through which tree preservation orders are administered. Local planning authorities therefore have the powers to make such tree preservation orders, as they deem necessary, with the granting of any planning permission and, from time to time, to review any tree preservation orders.

Scottish Government agencies manage the land owned by Scottish Ministers in line with the public interest and are responsible to ministers for doing so. The land is managed and developed in line with all relevant planning regulations and Scottish Ministers encourage good practice in land management by Scottish Government agencies.

Question reference: S4W-22449

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 August 2014
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 17 September 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether it considered using the reported saving of £0.15 billion from the Queensferry Crossing to upgrade the Highland Main Line.

The Scottish Government is using the rail infrastructure investment funds available to it to support an ambitious £5 billion package of funding and investment for our railways until 2019. This will facilitate improvements to infrastructure and services across the network, including substantial improvements to the Highland Main Line.

Phase one of the Highland Main Line project delivered two additional trains each way per day from 2011 and journey time improvements of up to 18 minutes on some services from December 2012. Phase two of the project will deliver further improvements to passenger journey times and service frequency in addition to more efficient freight operations by 2019.

Question reference: S4W-22196

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 July 2014
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 10 September 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to adopt the open document format for all official publications.

Question reference: S4W-22344

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Independent
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 August 2014
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 10 September 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how it supports the use of brownfield sites for (a) building and (b) other developments.

Revised Scottish Planning Policy (SPP), published on 23 June 2014, sets out guiding principles for planning which include making efficient use of existing capacity of land, buildings and infrastructure; supporting town centre and regeneration priorities; and considering the reuse or redevelopment of brownfield land before new development takes place on greenfield sites. Planning policies and decisions are also expected to have regard to the principles of sustainable land use set out in the Land Use Strategy.

The SPP is a statement of the Scottish Government policy on how nationally important land use planning matters should be addressed across Scotland, and directly relates to the preparation of development plans, the design of development, and the determination of planning applications and appeals.

Question reference: S4W-22343

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Independent
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 August 2014
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 10 September 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how much (a) greenfield and (b) agricultural land has been used for (i) building and (ii) other developments in each of the last 10 years.

Question reference: S4W-22345

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Independent
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 August 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 9 September 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of whether the housing needs of families in the Highlands and Islands that (a) require additional assistance and (b) are large are being met.

The Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 places a statutory requirement on local authorities to prepare a local housing strategy supported by a Housing Need and Demand Assessment, to quantify and fully consider the needs of different client groups. The Scottish Government considers these strategic documents, with the local authority, to ensure a suitable provision for different housing needs are identified. The Scottish Government has provided over £38 million to the Highlands and Islands, for the period 2012-13 to 2014-15, to deliver affordable housing options.