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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-27797

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 26 October 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many properties it has disposed of in the last two years to which section 68 of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 could have been applied.

Question reference: S3W-27791

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 26 October 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to bring forward electricity grid reinforcements in the Pentland Firth strategic growth area for marine renewables.

Creating the appropriate grid infrastructure to support future renewable energy developments in the Pentland Firth and throughout Scotland is a priority for the Scottish Government. It is also a key recommendation of the Marine Energy Roadmap, published by the Forum for Renewable Energy Development in Scotland''s Marine Energy Group in August 2009.

In response to this recommendation, the Scottish Government is working closely with National Grid and transmission companies through both the Marine Energy Group and the Pentland Firth Coordination Committee to help synchronise developer activity and deliver grid capacity for the projects emerging from the Pentland Firth leasing round.

Question reference: S3W-27796

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 22 October 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will issue guidance to local authorities and others on the application of section 68 of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009.

We are currently considering what guidance can be provided on this. There is existing guidance available on improving the environmental performance of buildings. This includes the Net Waste Tool, by the Waste and Resources Action Programme, www.wrap.org.uk/nwtool, which enables project teams to estimate the carbon savings associated with implementing the top opportunities for waste reduction and recovery on a construction project; information from the Carbon Trust, on low carbon buildings, www.carbontrust.co.uk/technology/technologyaccelerator/lcba.htm, and information from SUST on sustainable design in architecture and the built environment, www.sust.org/.

Question reference: S3W-27795

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 22 October 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what its implementation plan is for section 68 of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009.

Question reference: S3W-27799

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 22 October 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether section 68 of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 would be applied to the disposal of property in Scotland owned by the UK Government.

Section 68 of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 inserts section 46A into the Title Conditions (Scotland) Act 2003. Section 46A lays down that on and after the day on which this section comes into force, it shall be competent to create a real burden in relation to climate change. Section 6(1)(a) of the 2003 act lays down that a real burden is created by registering against the land which is to be the burdened property a deed which is granted by or on behalf of the owner of that land. Therefore, once section 68 is commenced, any owner of land, including the UK Government, may create a climate change burden. However, it is not mandatory for them to do so.

Question reference: S3W-27781

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 21 October 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Scottish Prison Service has stipulated the need for interpreting qualifications for those it employs to provide such services.

Question reference: S3W-27780

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 21 October 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive on how many occasions interpreters without specific interpreting qualifications have been provided by (a) the Scottish Prison Service or (b) its contractors.

Question reference: S3W-27793

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 6 October 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has made to National Grid Plc on its policy on transmission charging considered to place generators in the north of Scotland at a competitive disadvantage.

The existing transmission charging model applied by National Grid and Ofgem for electricity grid access and use results in energy generators in Scotland paying higher transmission charges than elsewhere in Britain.

In November of 2008, the Scottish Government submitted detailed proposals to National Grid for an alternative transmission charging methodology based on a flat-rate charge, not based on location of generators connecting to the grid. Since then, we have made detailed and ongoing representations to support alternative charging models to National Grid, Ofgem, and UK ministers.

National Grid has consulted on the initial proposal from Scotland and, despite strong support from consultation respondents, recently announced its intention not change the existing locational based approach.

We will continue to press National Grid, Ofgem and UK Government, in the context of the UK Government''s wider review of grid access, to deliver access and charging methodologies for generators in Scotland that are equitable, compliant with EU law, and encourage, rather than discourage, energy from renewable sources.

Question reference: S3W-27792

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 6 October 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what measures it has considered to enable Scottish Hydro-Electric Transmission Ltd to commence building a new 132 kv line from the (a) north Caithness coast to Dounreay and (b) Orkney islands to Dounreay.

Question reference: S3W-27794

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 6 October 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has made to the European Union regarding transmission charges, given that the Renewables Directive states that “Member States shall ensure that the charging of transmission and distribution tariffs does not discriminate against electricity from renewable energy sources, including in particular electricity from renewable energy sources produced in peripheral regions, such as island regions, and in regions of low population density.”

We have made a number of representations to National Grid, Ofgem and the UK Government on Article 16 of the EU Renewable Energy Directive 2009/28/EC. We are challenging how the existing locational charging approach for electricity grid access and use, which results in energy generators in Scotland paying higher transmission charges than elsewhere in Britain, fits with the requirement to comply with Article 16. We will continue to make those representations with the aim of delivering a charging methodology for generators in Scotland that is equitable, compliant with EU law and encourages, rather than discriminates against energy from renewable sources.