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-03868

Asked by: Peter Chapman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 November 2019
Current Status: Awaiting answer

To ask the Scottish Government when it expects to announce the preferred bidder to deliver the R100 scheme in the North area.

Question reference: S5O-03837

Asked by: Peter Chapman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 November 2019
Current Status: Awaiting answer

To ask the Scottish Government what the level of investment in the north east has been as part of the Scottish Growth Scheme.

Question reference: S5O-03790

Asked by: Peter Chapman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 November 2019
Current Status: Awaiting answer

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking in response to warnings from NHS Grampian regarding its ageing workforce.

Question reference: S5O-03720

Asked by: Peter Chapman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 October 2019
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Awaiting answer

To ask the Scottish Government how it proposes to spend the £160 million in convergence money to support agriculture.

Question reference: S5W-25602

Asked by: Peter Chapman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 18 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has received from the UK Government in Barnett consequentials arising from Brexit preparations, and how it plans to allocate this.

The Scottish Government has been allocated £139.4 million from the UK Government as a consequential of EU Exit preparation funding over 18-19 and 19-20. £98.7 million of this has been received and of this, £98.25 million has been spent on a raft of preparatory measures. This includes but is not limited to activities such as negotiations, legislative preparations and supporting stakeholders, including businesses, cultural bodies, higher education institutes, local governments and the third sector. The Scottish Government has also funded the Prepare for Brexit campaign at a cost of £2.2 million and provided an additional £1.5 million in funding to FareShare to deal with food insecurity. A full breakdown of money allocated to EU Exit preparation is contained within the Scottish Government’s overview of no deal preparations published on 8 October.

On 1 August UKG announced further funding of £2.1 billion for No Deal exit preparations for 2019-20. The Scottish Government will receive £40.7 million in consequentials from the circa £900 million already allocated to individual UK departments. In the event of No Deal on 31 October, £7.0 million of this has been confirmed for establishing a Rapid Poverty Mitigation Fund, to scale up current poverty mitigation measures including the Scottish Welfare Fund, Discretionary Housing Payments, and responses to food insecurity and fuel poverty.

Scottish Ministers will continue to prioritise funding to those areas most in need. The costs of EU Exit are expected to far exceed the consequentials we have received from the UK Government. This would require the Scottish Government to divert resources from other services.

Question reference: S5W-25470

Asked by: Peter Chapman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 September 2019
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 3 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government when it (a) plans to introduce compulsory electronic tagging for new born calves and (b) envisages whole cattle herds being electronically tagged.

The EU legislation that enables the introduction of electronic identification (EID) for bovine animals will come into force on April 2021. In preparation for this a voluntary industry led pilot for the adoption of electronic identification of cattle is underway. The aim is to trial electronic tags and electronic data transfer (EDT) systems through the supply chain.

Following consultation with industry, the timeline of the roll out of EID in Scotland will see all new-born calves EID as a first step, with discussions continuing about the roll out of the system to the whole of the national herd. Input from stakeholders in the farming industry is an important part of preparing to move to cattle EID and a series of roadshows is being planned during the autumn and winter months across Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-24924

Asked by: Peter Chapman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 August 2019
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 17 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many farm businesses in (a) the Highlands, (b) Aberdeenshire and (c) each parliamentary region are waiting to receive 2017-18 CAP basic payments.

Information regarding the payments for scheme year 2017 has been provided in the response to S5W-24923 on 17 September 2029. Nationally, for 2018 we have paid 98.65%.

A) There are 4 businesses waiting to receive a payment for scheme year 2018 in the Highlands and a further 50 farm businesses are currently under assessment for 2018 and could become eligible for a payment in future.

B) There are 3 businesses waiting to receive payment for scheme year 2018 in Aberdeenshire and a further 8 farm businesses are currently under assessment for 2018 and could become eligible for a payment in future.

C) The total across all parliamentary regions awaiting to receive Basic Payment for scheme year 2018 is 46 businesses. This represents 0.261% of all eligible recipients:

Parliamentary Region	Number of Farm Businesses due 2018 BPS	% of Farm Businesses due 2018 BPS
Central Scotland	1	0.006
Highlands and Islands	16	0.090
Mid Scotland and Fife	4	0.023
North East Scotland	11	0.062
South Scotland	13	0.074
West Scotland	1	0.006

There are a further 183 businesses under assessment for scheme year 2018. This represents 1.036% of all eligible recipients:

Parliamentary Region	Number of Farm Businesses due 2018 BPS	% of Farm Businesses due 2018 BPS
Central Scotland	3	0.017
Highlands and Islands	104	0.590
Lothians	6	0.034
Mid Scotland and Fife	19	0.110
North East Scotland	15	0.085
South Scotland	34	0.190
West Scotland	2	0.010

As always there are a small number of complex cases to resolve and we are continuing to work with customers to pay out the remaining claims in line with the scheme regulations.

Question reference: S5W-24923

Asked by: Peter Chapman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 August 2019
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 17 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-21629 by Fergus Ewing on 12 March 2019, whether it will provide an update on how many farm businesses in (a) the Highlands, (b) Aberdeenshire and (c) each parliamentary region are waiting to receive 2016-17 CAP basic payments.

The updated position is as follows:

There are now no payments due for scheme year 2016.

A) There is 1 business waiting to receive payment in the Highlands for scheme year 2017 and a further 1 is currently under assessment.

B) There are 6 businesses waiting to receive payments in Aberdeenshire for scheme year 2017.

C) The total across all parliamentary regions awaiting to receive Basic payment for scheme year 2017 is 11 businesses. This represents 0.062% of all eligible recipients:

Parliamentary Region	Number of Farm Businesses due 2017 BPS	% of Farm Business due 2017 BPS
Highlands and Islands	1	0.006
South Scotland	3	0.017
North East Scotland	7	0.039

As always there are a small number of complex cases to resolve and we are continuing to work with customers to pay out the remaining claims in line with the scheme regulations.

Question reference: S5W-23782

Asked by: Peter Chapman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 June 2019
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 27 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding its consultation, Stability and Simplicity, what plans it has to expand capital support for Scottish agriculture.

Question reference: S5W-23779

Asked by: Peter Chapman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 June 2019
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 27 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding its consultation, Stability and Simplicity, what analysis it has carried out of the social and environmental impact of capping agricultural payments.