- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 02 June 2016
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Current Status:
Answered by Maureen Watt on 14 June 2016
To ask the Scottish Government on what dates since January 2016 it has met officials of NHS Forth Valley to discuss waiting times for child and adolescent mental health services.
Answer
Scottish Government officials, Health Improvement Scotland and NHS Education for Scotland met with NHS territorial boards, including NHS Forth valley, to discuss current performance and provide information on the mental health improvement programme in May 2016. The improvement programme will work in collaboration with NHS Boards to deliver sustained improvements in access to child and adolescent mental health services and psychological therapies services.
Health Improvement Scotland met individually with NHS Forth Valley on 20 May 2016 to discuss the tailored support which they will provide to the board through the improvement programme.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 06 June 2016
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 8 June 2016
To ask the Scottish Government whether it remains the case that the Queensferry Crossing is due to open to the public in 2016.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-00533 on 8 June 2016. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 06 June 2016
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 8 June 2016
To ask the Scottish Government whether construction of the Queensferry Crossing is on schedule.
Answer
The contractor, Forth Crossing Bridge Constructors’, has advised Transport Scotland that due to adverse weather conditions in April and May 2016 exceeding expectations and resulting in an increase in days lost to weather, they are unable to achieve the target opening date of December 2016 – which is six months ahead of the contractual completion date. The contractors remain on schedule to complete the project ahead of the contractual completion date. The contractors have taken additional steps to mitigate on-going weather impacts and have provided a revised timetable for completion to Transport Scotland and Scottish Ministers. Subject to the agreement of the Parliamentary Bureau, it would be my intention to provide a statement to Parliament on 8 June 2016.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 06 June 2016
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 9 June 2016
To ask the First Minister, in light of the findings of the latest Bank of Scotland research series report on oil and gas, what support the Scottish Government will offer the industry.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 9 June 2016
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 26 May 2016
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 6 June 2016
To ask the Scottish Government what work it has undertaken to introduce an independent appeals service, similar to that which exists in England, for the private parking industry in Scotland.
Answer
The Scottish Government is currently reviewing the progress of the Independent Parking Committee's (IPC) Independent Appeals Service, which was extended to Scotland in April 2015, without the need for keeper liability following the publication of Citizens Advice Scotlands' 2014 report.
In October 2015, the Independent Advisors Scotland (IAS) obtained 'Alternative Dispute Resolution' (ADR) accreditation under the UK Government's Alternative Dispute Resolution for Consumer Disputes (Competent Authorities and Information) Regulations 2015’. These regulations enable motorists who have disputes with other parking operators other than IPC members to appeal to the IAS. As part of our considerations we will determine whether an appeals service without keeper liability should be rolled out across Scotland.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 26 May 2016
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 6 June 2016
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with partners in the private parking industry in relation to those not following the voluntary code of conduct.
Answer
The Stakeholder Working Group on private parking, which includes representatives from the parking industry, Citizens Advice Scotland and the Trading Standards Scotland met in November 2015. The discussion at this meeting focused on how we can improve private parking practices, including non-compliance of the British Parking Association and Independent Parking Committee's codes of practice.
Discussions have been constructive and we are currently working with the stakeholders to develop an action plan, which will form the basis of the Scottish Government’s approach to delivering improvements to private parking practices across Scotland. A further meeting of the working group to discuss progress of the action plan will be arranged later in summer 2016.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 26 May 2016
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 6 June 2016
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to regulate the private parking industry during the current parliamentary session.
Answer
The Scottish Government is working with the private parking industry, Citizens Advice Scotland and Trading Standards Scotland on how to improve industry practices in Scotland. As part of this work, we are looking at the standardising of signage, improving transparency of the industry through the development of a single code of practice and exploring the potential creation of an independent appeals service for Scotland.
The government will continue to keep under review whether further action, including primary legislation is required to ensure that best practice is adopted and maintained throughout the industry in Scotland.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 March 2016
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Current Status:
Answered by Fergus Ewing on 23 March 2016
To ask the Scottish Government what it will do to ensure that wind turbines do not endanger the safe operation of major and minor airports, particularly with regard to emergency landings.
Answer
The Scottish Government will continue to administer pre-application and post submission consultation processes on all proposals/applications submitted to Scottish Ministers to ensure that the views of all relevant aviation stakeholders are secured and taken into account. Similar processes exist within planning processes.
Whilst the Scottish Government will continue to work with relevant aviation stakeholders to identify and overcome aviation/radar barriers to deployment, it will never endanger the safe operation of major and minor airports, with regard to emergency landings or other flight operations. All consents and permissions for wind farms/turbines will be subject to adequate radar mitigation as necessary. Otherwise consent/planning permission will not be granted.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 March 2016
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Current Status:
Answered by Fergus Ewing on 23 March 2016
To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it gave to turbulence issues arising from industrial wind turbines and their effects on air traffic safety prior to the approval of Whitelee Windfarm.
Answer
Aviation stakeholders were consulted in the original consent for Whitelee Windfarm and subsequent applications to extend Whitelee.
There is no evidence that aviation stakeholders objected on the grounds of turbulence arising from individual wind turbines affecting air traffic safety.
Accordingly this was not considered in the reports prepared for ministers.
Research work in 2015 undertaken by the University of Liverpool, relating to turbulence wake effects from turbines, post-dated these consents. This also related to a different scale of turbines, up to 30m. It showed for this smaller turbine size the wake is not strong to cause any significant upset to the aircraft at distances of five wind turbine diameters and longer, and did not allow for extrapolation to larger wind turbines.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 March 2016
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Current Status:
Answered by Fergus Ewing on 23 March 2016
To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to ensure that windfarms will not diminish the armed forces’ ability to detect hostile aircraft over and around Scotland using radar.
Answer
The Scottish Government will continue to administer pre-application and post submission consultation processes on all proposals/applications submitted to Scottish Ministers to ensure that the views of the MOD are secured in relation to air defence radar and taken into account. Similar processes exist within planning processes.
Whilst the Scottish Government will continue to work with the MOD to identify viable mitigation solutions to air defence radar problems, it will never seek to diminish the air defence radar capability. All consents and permissions for wind farms or wind turbines will be subject to adequate radar mitigation where this has been deemed to be necessary. Otherwise consent/planning permission will not be granted.
