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: S4T-01033

Asked by: Mike MacKenzie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with the UK Government on the subject of HS2.

Question reference: S4O-04369

Asked by: Mike MacKenzie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 May 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what socioeconomic benefits would arise from providing interconnectors to the islands.

Question reference: S4O-04327

Asked by: Mike MacKenzie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 May 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what assistance it is providing to increase affordable housing in rural and remote areas.

Question reference: S4O-04228

Asked by: Mike MacKenzie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 April 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing in this year of food and drink to encourage local authorities and NHS boards to promote Scottish food.

Question reference: S4W-25030

Asked by: Mike MacKenzie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 March 2015
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Fergus Ewing on 23 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what targets it expects Registers of Scotland to achieve in 2015-16.

Scottish Ministers have set the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland (RoS) the financial targets of achieving:

3% efficiency savings; and

an increase in RoS’ commercial income of 5%.

In addition, the keeper has set the following service standards for her department:

1. Record new Land Register applications on the application record	Within one working day
2. Process automated registration of title to land applications	Within 24 hours
3. Process Chancery and Judicial Registers applications	Within three working days
4. Process Crofting Register applications	Within three working days
5. Process General Register of Sasines applications	Within 20 working days
6. Register applications for deeds affecting registered land	Within 30 working days
7. Register applications for deeds affecting unregistered land (standard)	Within 40 working days
8. Register other applications for deeds affecting unregistered land	Within six months
9. Register applications for deeds affecting part of registered land	Within nine months
10. Complete all 1979 Act casework	by 8 December 2015
11. Process all customer enquiries to RoS’ customer service centres	Within two working days
12. Increase our Public Service Quality Index rating	Achieve a score of 74
13. Complete 98.5% or more of registrations, over a 12 month rolling period, without corrective action

Question reference: S4W-24756

Asked by: Mike MacKenzie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 16 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what estimate it has made of the number of homes that have been purchased through the (a) Help to Buy (Scotland) and (b) Open Market Shared Equity scheme, broken down by local authority.

Help to Buy (Scotland) sales are published quarterly in arrears on the Scottish Government website (www.gov.scot/htb). The following table provides the most recent data covering Help to Buy sales from October 2013 until 31 December 2014.

Help to Buy (HtB) – Financial Year Monitoring¹

HtB Funding by Local Authority

Grand Total to Date (Oct 2013 to Dec 2014)

Homes

Scottish Government Funding (£)^2,3,4

Average Scottish Government HtB stake (£)

Average Value of Property Purchased (£)

Aberdeen	130	6,400	52,000	259,000
Aberdeenshire	280	14,600	52,000	260,000
Angus	40	1,700	39,000	198,000
Argyll and Bute	*	*	*	*
Clackmannanshire	40	1,200	30,000	151,000
Dumfries and Galloway	50	1,700	37,000	184,000
Dundee	40	1,500	34,000	174,000
East Ayrshire	90	2,800	33,000	166,000
East Dunbartonshire	140	7,300	54,000	272,000
East Lothian	80	3,200	39,000	195,000
East Renfrewshire	60	3,100	54,000	271,000
Edinburgh	260	11,600	44,000	223,000
Eilean Siar (Western Isles)	*	*	*	*
Falkirk	190	7,100	38,000	192,000
Fife	260	9,000	35,000	174,000
Glasgow	310	10,300	33,000	167,000
Highland	220	8,500	38,000	190,000
Inverclyde	20	800	37,000	183,000
Midlothian	310	11,800	38,000	193,000
Moray	60	2,300	37,000	184,000
North Ayrshire	50	1,800	35,000	173,000
North Lanarkshire	440	15,800	36,000	181,000
Orkney Isles	10	200	22,000	110,000
Perth and Kinross	130	5,200	40,000	206,000
Renfrewshire	190	7,900	42,000	212,000
Shetland Isles	*	*	*	*
South Ayrshire	50	2,000	44,000	222,000
South Lanarkshire	320	11,300	35,000	177,000
Stirling	70	2,900	41,000	206,000
The Scottish Borders	40	1,200	34,000	171,000
West Dunbartonshire	80	3,000	38,000	189,000
West Lothian	240	9,500	39,000	195,000
Scotland	4,180	166,000	40,000	199,000

Source: Scottish Government administrative data

Notes:

1. The Scottish Government Help to Buy stake is up to 20 per cent of the purchase price of a property.

2. Some values have been rounded for ease of presentation and therefore may not sum to total.

3. Sales figures represent actual sales based on date of entry.

4. Small numbers have been supressed (*) to prevent disclosure.

The number of completions for the Open Market Shared Equity scheme by local authority area for 2013-14 and 2014-15 is provided in the following table:

Local Authority	2013-14	*2014-15
Aberdeen City	33	6
Aberdeenshire	21	8
Angus	15	8
Argyll and Bute	2	3
Clackmannanshire	10	9
Dumfries and Galloway	19	20
Dundee City	34	23
East Ayrshire	1	-
East Dunbartonshire	3	3
East Lothian	51	52
East Renfrewshire	2	6
Edinburgh, City of	263	292
Eilean Siar	0	-
Falkirk	24	27
Fife	42	36
Glasgow City	58	68
Highland	93	86
Inverclyde	3	3
Midlothian	42	51
Moray	6	7
North Ayrshire	5	-
North Lanarkshire	25	18
Orkney	10	5
Perth and Kinross	73	88
Renfrewshire	19	13
Scottish Borders	5	3
Shetland	2	-
South Ayrshire	4	1
South Lanarkshire	34	23
Stirling	20	15
West Dunbartonshire	4	-
West Lothian	128	119
Total Sales	1,051	993

*In line with published statistics, the 2014-15 figures cover sales between
1 April 2014 and 31 December 2014.

Question reference: S4O-04125

Asked by: Mike MacKenzie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 March 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how the Schools for the Future programme can help improve the school estate and how many pupils it impacts on.

Question reference: S4W-24618

Asked by: Mike MacKenzie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 February 2015
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Fergus Ewing on 25 February 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it will allocate to Wave Energy Scotland and what its work programme will be.

The budget for Wave Energy Scotland (WES) is £1.3 million in the current financial year (2014-15) and £13 million in 2015-16.

Scottish ministers recognise the potential of wave energy to contribute to Scotland’s sustainable energy future. We set up WES to encourage collaboration in research and development activity and accelerate the development of wave energy technologies.

The £1.3 million budget for this financial year covers the costs of establishing the new entity and the costs of the acquisition of intellectual property and other assets from Pelamis Wave Power.

The £13 million budget for 2015-16 will allow WES to offer five funding calls worth £10.5 million to address a range of technology priorities, including power-take off systems, control systems, and moorings and foundations. It will also enable WES to recruit a small staff team and an industry-led advisory group. WES has awarded its first contract to 12 former Pelamis employees to capture the knowledge of the Pelamis technology path for the wider benefit of the wave energy sector.

Question reference: S4W-24448

Asked by: Mike MacKenzie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 February 2015
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Derek Mackay on 17 February 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-24217 by Derek Mackay on 11 February 2015, on what date it will announce the details of its approach to the invitation to tender.

The contract notice for the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services was submitted to Public Contracts Scotland today for publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. This is the first formal step in taking forward a competition for the next Clyde and Hebrides ferry services contract. The contract notice invites potential operators to provide evidence of their suitability to tender for the public service contract to operate these services for a period of up to eight years, effective from 1 October 2016.

Question reference: S4O-03978

Asked by: Mike MacKenzie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 January 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 February 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to help bring empty properties back into use as housing.