- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 September 2016
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 14 September 2016
To ask the Scottish Government whether its climate change plan will contain sectoral targets for waste, buildings, heat and transport.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 14 September 2016
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 01 August 2016
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Current Status:
Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 24 August 2016
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with universities and colleges in the north east regarding flexibility in entrance requirements for unemployed oil workers and what its position is on measures to allow these workers such flexibility for certain courses via the Transition Training Fund.
Answer
The Scottish Government has not directly held such discussions with academic institutions in the North East but I understand that Skills Development Scotland has met with its academic partners to discuss the Transition Training Fund (TTF).
The TTF was set up to help those at risk of redundancy from the oil and gas sector to transition into alternative employment through retraining. This can be done either through individuals applying directly for funding to support their training requirements to help secure alternative employment, or through one of a number of procured training packages being delivered by training partners.
The TTF is also supporting innovative projects such as the development of a new Initial Teacher Education programme that allows for suitably qualified individuals from the oil and gas sector to be employed while they undertake teacher training. While this is a new route to teaching, all successful applicants must meet the nationally agreed entry requirements for teaching courses. This programme has been developed by the Scottish Government in conjunction with University of Aberdeen, Skills Development Scotland, the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) and both Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire Councils.
More broadly we are committed to working with the GTCS to explore options to bring further flexibility into teacher registration while ensuring that our high level of teacher professional standards are maintained.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 04 August 2016
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 24 August 2016
To ask the Scottish Government whether it considers that the involvement of a representative on its Joint Housing Policy and Delivery Group in asking for the Scottish Government to assist in relation to the planning application by Sandlaw Farming for a housing development in Banchory represented a conflict of interest.
Answer
The Joint Housing Policy and Delivery Group includes representatives from 28 national housing related organisations. The Group offers Ministers advice on national strategic policy and delivery issues relating to housing. Members of the Joint Housing Policy and Delivery Group are expected to declare any conflicts of interest with respect to any topic being discussed by the Group. Specific housing developments are not discussed in the Group.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 04 August 2016
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 24 August 2016
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider publishing a register of cases in which ministers make contact, offer assistance or intervene in planning applications.
Answer
In the few cases where ministers intervene by recommending call-in of planning applications the reasons are publicly available. It is part of the day to day operation of the planning service that stakeholders, including government, communicate and it would not be practical to record and publish every case where there is discussion with government or its agencies. It would be for the planning authority in reporting to its Planning Committee to reflect any brokerage discussion relevant to the progress of any particular planning application and that would be both a proportionate and transparent reflection open to planning authorities.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 04 August 2016
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 24 August 2016
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it made contact with Aberdeenshire Council in relation to the non-strategic/non-infrastructure planning application by Sandlaw Farming for a housing development in Banchory and whether it considers that this action was appropriate.
Answer
<>Contact between the Scottish Government and planning authorities is commonplace. In this instance contact was made in connection with a major housing proposal for private rented accommodation to request an update on the planning application and to enquire whether facilitated discussion had any role in the process. In the event, the planning authority were content to progress the application to planning committee and no further discussion took place.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 04 August 2016
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 24 August 2016
To ask the Scottish Government what policy position determines its use of powers to become involved in non-strategic/non-infrastructure planning applications that have not become stalled in the planning process.
Answer
Scottish Planning Policy provides the policy context for Ministers’ expectations for the planning system. This underlines the importance of all those involved working together constructively and proportionately to achieve quality places. Whilst Scottish Ministers and planning authorities have respective formal roles which need to be respected, clear communication between all parties, including statutory agencies and Government can facilitate discussion and support efficient operation of the planning service. The Chief Planner’s brokerage role was reflected in the Government’s Economic Strategy (2011). However, any brokerage or discussion on individual cases is only progressed with the agreement of the principal parties and respecting the statutory role of both Ministers and planning authorities in the planning process.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 04 August 2016
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 24 August 2016
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on reported concerns that there has been an increase in ministers intervening in local authority decisions regarding planning applications.
Answer
Scottish Ministers have a general power to intervene in the determination of a planning application but only where it appears there may be some matter of genuine national interest at stake. In practice, Ministers will exercise this power very sparingly, recognising and respecting the important role of local authorities in making decisions on the future development of their areas. As at 31 March 2016 there were approximately 788 live cases over one year old in the planning system, creating uncertainty for not only developers but the communities in which they are proposed. In year 2015-2016, planning authorities in Scotland determined 29,766 applications for planning permission. Through their power of call-in, Scottish Ministers intervened in 5 (0.02%) of those.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 07 July 2016
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 3 August 2016
To ask the Scottish Government what the total cost was of the First Minister's visit to Brussels following the EU referendum result, including the costs for her team, and from what budget these costs will be met.
Answer
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon travelled to Brussels for a series of meetings with senior figures to set out Scotland's position following the result of the EU referendum, and to ensure Scotland's voice is heard in the negotiation process. During a full day of engagements, the First Minister met the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, as well as the President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, and the leaders of a number of political groups in the European Parliament. The First Minister also held a press conference for a group of international journalists. More details on the First Minister’s visit can be found on the Scottish Government website at: http://news.scotland.gov.uk/News/Protecting-Scotland-s-EU-interests-25d1.aspx
The total costs of this engagement are still being processed and finalised and the costs of this engagement are being met by the Scottish Government’s administration budget. The Scottish Government proactively publishes the travel and subsistence costs for Ministers undertaking official international engagements on its website at:http://www.gov.scot/About/People/14944/travel/visitsoverseas/visitsoverseas
The Scottish Government also publishes the travel and subsistence costs of Strategic Board members, including Director Generals, at the following link:http://www.gov.scot/About/People/strategic-board/business-expenses
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 July 2016
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Current Status:
Answered by Annabelle Ewing on 2 August 2016
To ask the Scottish Government what funding it has provided in (a) 2014-15, (b) 2015-16 and (c) 2016-17 toward the provision of cars for road traffic collision training and how many cars this funding has helped provide, broken down by local authority.
Answer
This information is not held centrally. The allocation of resources is for the Boards of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, the Scottish Ambulance Service and the Scottish Police Authority, according to their assessment of needs and priorities.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 04 July 2016
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Current Status:
Answered by Fergus Ewing on 27 July 2016
To ask the Scottish Government what funding provision it has made for rural homes that have exchange only broadband cables and would therefore not be upgraded to Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) in order to receive superfast broadband, broken down by parliamentary constituency.
Answer
The Scottish Government and our partners are investing over £410 million in the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) Programme, which will extend access to fibre broadband to at least 95% of premises in Scotland by the end of 2017.
The DSSB programme deploys a range of technology solutions to meet these targets. Although more technically challenging and time consuming than standard Fibre-To-The-Cabinet deployments, the DSSB programme is delivering fibre broadband solutions at scale to premises on exchange only (EO) lines. Over 200,000 such premises have been connected across Scotland to date and we anticipate that more than 320,000 EO lines will have been upgraded by the end of the DSSB programme.
As the DSSB programme is a national programme, the budget is not segmented or allocated by parliamentary constituency. In addition, the programme has not made specific budget provision for individual technology solutions, rather it assesses and funds the most appropriate solution as the roll-out progresses.
The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring 100% superfast broadband access across Scotland by 2021.
