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: S5O-00660

Asked by: Gail Ross, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 February 2017
Current Status: Awaiting answer

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the report by the Royal Bank of Scotland, Harvesting the future for young farmers.

Question reference: S5O-00581

Asked by: Gail Ross, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2017
Current Status: Awaiting answer

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to recruit physicians and surgeons for rural general hospitals.

Question reference: S5O-00540

Asked by: Gail Ross, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 December 2016
Current Status: Awaiting answer

To ask the Scottish Government whether it encourages the enterprise agencies to consider alternative routes to superfast broadband in rural areas.

Question reference: S5O-00456

Asked by: Gail Ross, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 8 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what the timetable is for its strategic environmental and habitats regulations assessments of the beaver population.

We are required to carry out a Habitats Regulations Assessment of our proposed plan to allow beavers to remain in Scotland. Work is already underway on this Assessment and I expect it to be completed early in 2017. We are also required to consider whether a Strategic Environmental Assessment is required. The approach to the SEA and its timing depends on what issues are highlighted by the HRA. I am hopeful that the processes required before we can bring forward secondary legislation to add beavers to Schedule 2 of the 1994 Conservation (Natural Habitats, &c.) Regulations will be completed by spring 2017.

Question reference: S5W-05380

Asked by: Gail Ross, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 December 2016
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Fergus Ewing on 7 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking in response to the highly-pathogenic strain of avian influenza that is affecting wild birds and poultry in Europe.

Scottish Ministers declared an Avian Influenza Prevention Zone on 6 December 2016 to help prevent potential infection from wild birds into captive birds and poultry. This precautionary step has been taken in response to multiple reports of a strain of highly pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) H5N8 causing high mortality in wild birds and poultry in mainland Europe, mostly affecting waterfowl. There have been no cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N8 detected in the UK since November 2014. The zone covers all of Scotland and will be kept under review. The zone will remain in place initially for 30 days. Poultry and captive bird keepers are now required to keep their birds indoors or take appropriate steps to keep them separate from wild birds. Bird keepers must also apply heightened biosecurity measures where practical.

The Highly pathogenic H5N8 is a strain of avian influenza that can cause severe disease in poultry. The risk to public health is very low.

Question reference: S5W-04625

Asked by: Gail Ross, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government which services on the (a) Far North and (b) Kyle of Lochalsh Line will be considered as "golden trains" following the implementation of the ScotRail improvement plan, and when this status will come into force.

Question reference: S5W-04554

Asked by: Gail Ross, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 07 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Annabelle Ewing on 18 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to tackle the incidence of dog attacks on farm livestock.

The Scottish Government is supportive of responsible dog ownership and there are a range of measures in place in relation to protection of farm livestock from dogs.

Section 1 of The Dogs (Protection of Livestock) Act 1953 provides specific protection for livestock from dogs. The Control of Dogs (Scotland) Act 2010 places general responsibilities on dog owners to keep their dogs under control including on agricultural land. The Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 restricts access to land where someone is not exercising proper control of their dogs (and any other animals). The Scottish Outdoor Access Code includes provision advising how best to approach control of dogs when near livestock.

Data on the number of convictions under the Dogs (Protection of Livestock) Act 1953 is as follows.

Number of people convicted under section 1 of the Dogs (Protection of Livestock) Act 1953 ¹

Year	Number of convictions
2010-11	10
2011-12	10
2012-13	11
2013-14	10
2014-15	10

1. Where main charge

Source – Scottish Government criminal proceedings database

Question reference: S5O-00373

Asked by: Gail Ross, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 November 2016
Current Status: Awaiting answer

To ask the Scottish Government whether the EU referendum has led to an increase in hate speech in schools and, if so, what action its education directorate is taking to tackle this.

Question reference: S5W-04721

Asked by: Gail Ross, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 November 2016
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Humza Yousaf on 16 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide details of how interested parties can inform Scotland’s future rail infrastructure strategy.

Scotland’s railways are a national asset, providing a vital public service to people and communities across the country, and enabling businesses to move goods and materials to markets.

The recent refresh of our National Transport Strategy confirmed our key strategic outcomes: to improve journey times and connection, reduce emissions and improve the quality, accessibility and affordability of the transport network in Scotland. These aims have been embedded in the ScotRail and Caledonian Sleeper franchise contracts and will continue to drive our approach.

However we realise that our work doesn’t stop there, and that’s why Transport Scotland is now consulting on our general approach to the way we specify and fund our overall requirements for Scotland’s railways from 2019.

I can confirm that tomorrow we will launch the Consultation on Transport Scotland’s rail infrastructure strategy from 2019 on the Citizen Space website at: https://consult.scotland.gov.uk/rail-policy/rail-infrastructure-strategy-from-2019

The results from this consultation will help to inform the Scottish Ministers’ High Level Output Specification (HLOS) for Control Period 6, covering the five-year period to March 2024. The HLOS, due to be submitted to the Office of Rail and Road by June 2017, will set out the Scottish Government’s commitment to improving performance, reducing journey times and increasing the capacity and capability of the Scottish rail network.

This consultation is a real opportunity for interested parties to help shape our approach to the specification and funding of future rail investment priorities, outputs, targets and key performance indicators, and I welcome views on our proposed approach.

Question reference: S5W-03382

Asked by: Gail Ross, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 September 2016
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Fergus Ewing on 3 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made in delivering the national CAP loan scheme.

The National Basic Payment Support Scheme 2016 was announced to Parliament on 13 September 2016. Delivery of the scheme has proceeded on the timescale set out in the announcement. Loan letters were posted to 17,324 farmers and crofters, the vast majority of potential applicants, on 27 September 2016. These letters offered a loan of 80 per cent of each individual’s estimated 2016 Basic and Greening payments up to a maximum of 150,000 euros. Recipients of these letters are invited to respond by 12 October 2016, in order to receive their loan in the first half of November 2016.

Regrettably, after the letters were sent, the Scottish Government uncovered a miscalculation affecting a small percentage of businesses which had not been picked up during the sample checking carried out in advance. In these cases, the loan calculation did not take full account of their Region three land, resulting in them being offered a smaller loan amount than they were entitled to.

Swift action has been taken to ensure this does not affect the timetable for getting the correct loan payments to those farmers. Area offices began phoning affected businesses on 28 September 2016 to explain and apologise for the situation. Revised loan letters will be issued to the affected farmers and crofters during the week beginning 3 October 2016, with a new return deadline. As long as they respond to the second letter by the new deadline of 19 October 2016, there will be no impact on the timing of their loan and they will receive a payment for the correct loan amount in the first half of November. If any affected farmer or crofter is unable to respond by the new deadline, the Government will still honour the correct loan amount but the timing of the payment will depend on the time taken to respond.

The Government has also checked that for other businesses with Region three land, and for all region one and Region two land, the calculation has been carried out correctly.

As set out in the initial announcement, the small number of businesses for whom it was not possible to make a loan offer at this stage, because the complexity of their case required further work to be carried out, will receive their offer at a later date, and the Government will also write to any Basic Payment applicants who are not eligible for CAP payments and are therefore also not eligible for a loan.