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: S5F-00232

Asked by: Kate Forbes, MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 September 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 September 2016

To ask the First Minister how the Scottish Government will achieve 100% broadband rollout across Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-01622

Asked by: Kate Forbes, MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 25 July 2016
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 22 August 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many homes were powered by renewable energy in (a) 2014 and (b) 2015.

The information requested is not held centrally. However, we do have some information that may be useful. The reply refers to electricity and heat, both of which can be generated from renewable sources.It is estimated that, in 2015, Scotland generated enough renewable electricity to power the equivalent of around 4.6 million households - close to double the number of households in Scotland. A year earlier, in 2014, this figure was just over 4 million households. Provisionally, 56.9% of Scotland’s gross electricity consumption came from renewables in 2015.Figures published by the Energy Saving Trust in October 2015, on behalf of the Scottish Government, estimate over 1 gigawatt of renewable heat capacity was in operation in Scotland in 2014. This accounts for an estimated 3.8 per cent of the total non-electrical heat demand.The Scottish Government does not hold a complete dataset of the number of homes heated from renewable sources. Latest data on the number of domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) accreditations in Scotland, which represents a proportion of renewably heated homes, shows there have been 10,280 accreditations to the domestic RHI scheme from April 2014 (when the scheme commenced) up to end of June 2016. This equates to 21% of all UK installations as at end of June 2016.Further information is also available in the Energy Saving Trust’s Renewable Heat Report. Additionally a proportion of homes are heated via district heating supplied with renewable heat. Further data on the scale of deployment of district heating is expected later this year.It should be noted that renewable generated energy will be used both domestically and non-domestically

Question reference: S5W-01623

Asked by: Kate Forbes, MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 25 July 2016
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 22 August 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many churches are powered by renewable energy.

We do not hold information directly regarding churches and their energy sources and this information might best be sought from central contacts for each denomination in Scotland. However, the Energy Saving Trust has supported four churches with funding to install renewable technologies through the Resource Efficient Scotland SME loan while other groups, such as Eco-congregations, have been active in the promotion of renewable energy through engagement with a number of Climate Challenge Fund projects.

Question reference: S5W-01118

Asked by: Kate Forbes, MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 12 August 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many homes in the Highlands and Islands are powered by renewable energy.

The information requested is not held centrally. However, the following information may be useful. The reply refers to electricity and heat, each of which can be generated from renewable sources.

It is estimated that in 2015, Scotland generated enough renewable electricity to power the equivalent of around 4.6 million households, which is close to double the number of households in Scotland. Provisionally, 56.9% of Scotland’s gross electricity consumption came from renewables in 2015.

Figures published by the Energy Saving Trust in October 2015, on behalf of the Scottish Government, estimate over 1 gigawatt of renewable heat capacity in operation in Scotland in 2014. This accounts for an estimated 3.8% of the total non-electrical heat demand.

The Scottish Government does not hold a complete dataset of the number of homes heated from renewable sources. The latest data on the number of domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) accreditations shows that the Highland local authority area has the largest proportion of accredited domestic RHI installation in Scotland totalling 1,751 installations. This equates to 17% of all Scottish installations as at end of June 2016.

It should be noted that renewable-generated energy will be used both domestically and non-domestically.

Question reference: S5W-01621

Asked by: Kate Forbes, MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 25 July 2016
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 11 August 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made in compiling the Land Register of Scotland.

Registration of the Scottish Governments’ land and property in the Land Register of Scotland is underway. Currently 21% of the Scottish Governments’ eligible land and property has been registered; applications for a further 12% have been submitted to Registers of Scotland. The Scottish Government aims to have 70% of its land and property registered by the end of 2016 with all of its relevant property registered by the end of 2018, within the five year target for registration of public land.

Question reference: S5O-00087

Asked by: Kate Forbes, MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 30 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it is making in developing schemes to harness wave and tidal energy.

The Scottish Government continues to provide strong support to developers of schemes to harness wave and tidal energy.

In 2014, we established Wave Energy Scotland (WES), which brings together experts to accelerate wave technology further. With a new budget of £10 million for 2016-17, WES is the biggest technology development programme the wave sector has ever seen, attracting global interest.

We have also invested in first-of-a-kind tidal schemes that will be a catalyst for the global tidal power market. The Scottish public sector’s £23 million investment in phase 1A of the MeyGen tidal array in the Pentland Firth is a clear signal of our belief in this sector.

On top of this, we have provided £1.9 million to help Nova Innovation develop the Shetland Tidal array and £4.2 million to enable Scotrenewables develop the world’s largest floating tidal turbine.

Question reference: S5O-00052

Asked by: Kate Forbes, MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 June 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what progress is being made to reintroduce passenger flights from Ashaig Airfield on Skye.

Question reference: S5W-00292

Asked by: Kate Forbes, MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 7 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many children have access to dedicated Gaelic-medium language classes and how this compares with (a) 1999 and (b) 2007.

In 1999 there was a total of 2051 children throughout Scotland receiving Gaelic-medium education and in 2007, this had risen to 2486. The current figures show that this has risen to 4197. As shown in the following table, this covers primary and secondary but not early learning and childcare. This is a 68% increase since 2007 and a 104% increase since 1999.

	1998-99	2007-08	2015-16
Primary	1816	2164	3004
Secondary	235	322	1193
Total	2051	2486	4197