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-18907

Asked by: Margaret McCulloch, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 December 2013
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 9 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions (a) it has and (b) its enterprise agencies have had regarding the development of strategic sites in East Kilbride to attract business investment to the town.

Ministers and officials regularly meet local authorities across Scotland to discuss a range of issues, including local economic development, as do our enterprise agencies.

While discussions held between the enterprise agencies and stakeholders are operational matters for the agencies involved, Scottish Enterprise is working with South Lanarkshire Council to promote the key strategic industrial sites within East Kilbride. This has included recent discussions with the individual owners of each site, property agents and potential developers, seeking to review and update the marketing, promotion and potential development of the sites to ensure that East Kilbride is being actively promoted as a location for existing Scottish businesses and potential new inward investors.

Question reference: S4W-18897

Asked by: Margaret McCulloch, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 December 2013
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 9 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with COSLA regarding a shared understanding of the town-centre-first principle.

Question reference: S4W-18898

Asked by: Margaret McCulloch, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 December 2013
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 9 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to renew the Town Centre Housing Fund in future budget bills.

Question reference: S4W-18906

Asked by: Margaret McCulloch, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 December 2013
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 9 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions (a) it has and (b) its enterprise agencies have had with Rolls-Royce and South Lanarkshire Council regarding the preparation of a masterplan for the redevelopment of the Rolls-Royce site in East Kilbride.

Ministers and officials regularly meet local authorities across Scotland to discuss a range of issues, including local economic development, as do our enterprise agencies. While discussions held between the enterprise agencies and stakeholders are operational matters for the agencies involved, Scottish Enterprise, together with South Lanarkshire Council, is engaged in on-going discussions with Rolls Royce and the company’s agents on the future use of the Rolls Royce site in East Kilbride.

Rolls Royce is in the process of producing a masterplan for the site and is in discussion with the council about potential future uses. The site is being actively promoted by Scottish Enterprise and South Lanarkshire Council to businesses within East Kilbride seeking to expand, as well as businesses seeking to locate to East Kilbride.

Question reference: S4W-18904

Asked by: Margaret McCulloch, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 December 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 8 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has included the town-centre-first principle in the NHSScotland Property Transactions Handbook.

The Property Transactions Handbook was last reviewed and published in 2011. A review of the Handbook has recently been commissioned with a view to updating it in the course of 2014. The handbook deals with the processes and procedures for the acquisition or disposal of property rather than covering the context of broader government policy. It would not therefore be appropriate to include specific reference to the town centre principle within the handbook. Business cases prepared by NHSScotland bodies for new or replacement facilities are however required to demonstrate their strategic fit with Scottish Government policy and therefore, where appropriate, the assessment of business cases will consider the town centre first principle.

The handbook can be accessed at: http://www.pcpd.scot.nhs.uk/PropTrans/PTHome.htm.

Question reference: S4W-18956

Asked by: Margaret McCulloch, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 December 2013
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 6 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether park and ride facilities will be expanded to support increased capacity following electrification of the East Kilbride railway line.

Question reference: S4W-18954

Asked by: Margaret McCulloch, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 December 2013
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 6 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what associated works will be carried out at the same time as the electrification of the East Kilbride railway line.

Question reference: S4W-18955

Asked by: Margaret McCulloch, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 December 2013
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 6 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government to what extent electrification will increase capacity on the East Kilbride railway line.

Question reference: S4W-18953

Asked by: Margaret McCulloch, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 December 2013
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 6 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) start and (b) completion dates are for the electrification of the East Kilbride railway line.

Question reference: S4W-18903

Asked by: Margaret McCulloch, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 December 2013
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 19 December 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what new guidance it has made available to commercial premises to ensure compliance with energy performance certificate ratings from January 2014.

The need to provide an energy performance certificate is driven primarily by European legislation. Since its introduction, the energy performance of buildings directive requires building owners to provide energy performance certificates on construction (from May 2007) and on sale or rental of a building (from January 2009).

From 9 January 2013, the recast directive introduced the need to include the energy rating of the building within advertisement in commercial media. Scottish Government guidance was updated to reflect these changes, published on the website and notification of the changes issued to stakeholder organisations at that time. There are no proposed changes to energy performance certificates scheduled for January 2014.