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: S3W-40187

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 14 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has undertaken an assessment of the geographical area likely to be affected by any damage to the BP Forties pipeline system during construction of the Forth Replacement Crossing.

Question reference: S3W-39831

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 10 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how much it has spent on research and development, broken down by portfolio, in each of the last five years.

Government spend on research and development (R&D) is collected through the Office for National Statistics Annual Government Research and Development Survey. The latest published figures are for the financial year 2008-09.

Scottish Government spend on research and development, 2004-05 to 2008-09

Year	R&D spend by Portfolio (£ thousands)					Total
Year	Education & Lifelong Learning	Finance & Sustainable Growth	Health & Wellbeing	Justice	Rural Affairs & Environment	Total
2004-2005	2,480	8,943	54,992	2,651	61,753	130,819
2005-2006	3,074	9,997	57,109	2,710	63,965	136,855
2006-2007	3,309	8,313	63,362	2,661	54,439	132,084
2007-2008	2,778	8,218	61,187	4,300	60,595	137,078
2008-2009	3,163	8,728	63,371	5,044	59,291	139,597

Source: Government Research and Development Survey, Office for National Statistics.

The table includes R&D spending by Scottish Government directorates, associated agencies and non-departmental public bodies.

However the table excludes:

Scottish Funding Council grants to universities for Research and Knowledge Transfer.

One-off funding mechanisms e.g. the £10 million Saltire Prize, £13 million WATERS scheme.

Question reference: S3W-38354

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 December 2010
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 14 February 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it funds work in Scotland in the fields of conflict resolution, non-violence and cooperation; whether it has received proposals regarding a role for Scottish Churches House in this respect, and, if so, what its response is to such proposals.

Whilst recognising the merits of the proposal and the potential role that Scotland could play in promoting conflict resolution, non-violence and cooperation, the Scottish Government is not in a position to fund activity of the kind proposed at the current time. As a result the Scottish Government has, with regret, been unable to lend its support to the proposal relating to Scottish Churches House.

Question reference: S3W-39198

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 January 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 8 February 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-36630 by Kenny MacAskill on 21 October 2010, whether it considers that police officers are not bound by the prohibition in section 3 of the Firearms Act 1968 on making guns without being registered as a firearms dealer.

Question reference: S3W-39199

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 January 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 7 February 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-36630 by Kenny MacAskill on 21 October 2010, whether it considers that police officers are not bound by the prohibition in section 24 of the Firearms Act 1968 on the supply of firearms to minors.

Question reference: S3W-39197

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 January 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 7 February 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether its position on the entitlement of chief constables to deploy Taser weapons to frontline officers extends to the other weapons with the same legal classification under section 5 of the Firearms Act 1968.

Question reference: S3W-39200

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 January 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 7 February 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-36630 by Kenny MacAskill on 21 October 2010, whether it considers that police officers are not bound by the prohibition in section 4 of the Firearms Act 1968 on conversion of weapons.

Question reference: S3W-39201

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 January 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 7 February 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-36630 by Kenny MacAskill on 21 October 2010, whether it considers that police officers are not bound by the prohibition in section 25 of the Firearms Act 1968 on the supply of firearms to anyone who is drunk or insane.

Question reference: S3W-38946

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 21 January 2011
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 3 February 2011

There is no specific budget for tackling poverty. The majority of the social inclusion budget is for tackling poverty. Information on that is set out below, However, a range of other budgets across Scottish Government, including the Fairer Scotland Fund which allocated £435 million from 2008-11 and funding for policy areas such as early years, housing and health inequalities also contribute to tackling poverty. The budgets of local authorities and other delivery partners provide the main funding. As with Scottish Government spend, impact will be made through a wide range of mainstream as well as dedicated services.

Social Inclusion Budget (Spring Revision)

2007-08 £7.3 Million

2008-09 £6.8 million

2009-10 £6.7 million

2010-11 £5.2 million.

The Social Inclusion budget for 2011-12 in our draft budget is the same as for 2010-11.

Question reference: S3W-38943

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 21 January 2011
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 3 February 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how much additional CO2 has arisen from the increase in journeys across the Forth Road Bridge since the removal of tolls.