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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-39022

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 January 2011
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 3 February 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how much investment is forecast for improving the Cumbernauld line as part of the Edinburgh-Glasgow Improvements Programme.

Question reference: S3W-38905

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 January 2011
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 1 February 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what the peak demand for electricity consumption (a) has been in each of the last 10 years and (b) is forecast to be in each of the next 10 years

Regular monitoring and forecasting of peak electricity demand is the responsibility of the National Grid and annual (historical) figures for the UK are published by the Department for Energy and Climate Change. But forecast information is not held centrally.

From 2005, following the introduction of the British Electricity Trading and Transmission Arrangements, official figures for Scotland are not available separately. Information before then is listed in the following table:

Year	Simultaneous Maximum Load Met (MW)		Date
Year	UK	Scotland	Date
2009	60,231	-	7 January 2010
2008	60,289	-	January 2009 (no specific date)
2007	61,527	-	17 December 2007
2006	59,071	-	23 January 2007
2005	61,697	-	29 November 2005
2004	61,013	5,579	13 December 2004
2003	60,501	5,909	8 December 2003
2002	61,717	5,688	10 December 2002
2001	58,589	5,504	January 2001 (no specific date)
2000	58,452	5,861	December 1999 (no specific date)
1999	57,849	5,847	-

Source: Digest of United Kingdom Energy Statistics (Department for Energy and Climate Change).

Data covers the period ending March of the following year, for example, data for 2009 are for the year ending March 2010.

Question reference: S3W-38975

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 24 January 2011
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 1 February 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what average domestic fuel prices (a) have been in each of the last five years and (b) are forecast to be in each of the next five years and what comparable information it has for (i) each of the other component parts of the United Kingdom, (ii) each EU member state and (iii) each OECD country that is not an EU member state.

Information specifically on fuel prices and comparisons with other countries is not held centrally. However, some of the information requested is available from the following sources:

Chapter 6 of the Scottish Government Energy in Scotland Report provides an overview of domestic energy price statistics, including average annual domestic electricity and gas bills for Scotland and England and Wales. The report is available at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Business/Energy.

The underlying energy price statistics within the Energy in Scotland Report are sourced from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), and are available on their website at:

http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/statistics/prices/prices.aspx.

The DECC website also publishes forecast fuel prices but acknowledges that they are not intended to be detailed forecasts or predictions and should not be released as forecast retail prices since government does not take a view of what prices will be set in competitive global markets. The report is available at:

http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/statistics/projections/projections.aspx.

Comparisons of fuel prices in EU countries are also published by DECC and are available on their website at:

http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/statistics/publications/prices/prices.aspx.

OECD estimates of Energy End Use Prices in OECD countries'' are available at:

http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/energy/energy-prices-and-taxes_16096835.

Question reference: S3W-38902

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 January 2011
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 27 January 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide figures for the Scottish share of UK (a) crude oil, (b) gas and (c) coal production, as set out in figures 3.1, 3.2 and 3.4 of Energy in Scotland: A Compendium of Scottish Energy Statistics and Information, December 2010

Official statistics on the Scottish share of UK (a) crude oil and (b) gas are not available. However, research carried out by Alex Kemp and Linda Stephen from the University of Aberdeen provides estimates of a hypothetic Scottish share of production, expenditure and revenues from the UK Continental Shelf based on a detailed financial model of the North Sea oil and gas industry. This research has been used in Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland and is available at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/06/UKContinentalShelfRevenue.

A full disaggregation of annual coal production is available from the Coal Authority website at:

http://www.coal.gov.uk/publications/miningtechnology/index.cfm.

For ease of reference a Scottish disaggregation of the coal production statistics provided in Figure 2.4 of the Energy in Scotland report is as follows;

In the period from April 1999 to March 2000 Scotland''s share of total UK coal production was 23.8%;

In the period from January 2009 to December 2009 Scotland''s share of total UK coal production was 34.9%.

Question reference: S3W-38901

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 January 2011
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 27 January 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide a breakdown by local authority area of sales of low-carbon and environmental goods and services, as set out in figure 2.4 of Energy in Scotland: A Compendium of Scottish Energy Statistics and Information, December 2010

The low carbon environmental goods and services data in figure 2.4 of the Energy in Scotland report provides an estimate of low carbon sales by sector at a national level or by local authority at an aggregated level. The methodology that underpins the data in figure 2.4 is, however, not designed for sectoral interrogation at a local authority level.

More detail on the methodology and content of the data in figure 2.4 of the Energy in Scotland report will be available from the Scottish low carbon environmental goods and services sector study, which is currently being finalised and will be published prior to the dissolution of the Parliament.

Question reference: S3W-38903

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 January 2011
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 27 January 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of (a) UK and (b) Scottish coal production, as set out in figure 3.4 of Energy in Scotland: A Compendium of Scottish Energy Statistics and Information, December 2010, was related to (i) underground and (ii) opencast mining

A full disaggregation of annual coal production is available from the Coal Authority website at:

http://www.coal.gov.uk/publications/miningtechnology/index.cfm.

For ease of reference the relevant proportion of UK and Scottish coal production attributable to both surface and underground mining is reported below.

(a) The UK (April 1999 to March 2000):

(i) Surface mining accounted for 43.2% of UK coal production.

(ii) Underground mining accounted for 56.8% of UK coal production.

(a) The UK (January 2009 to December 2009):

(i) Surface mining accounted for 56.4% of UK coal production.

(ii) Underground mining accounted for 43.6% of UK coal production.

(b) Scotland (April 1999 to March 2000):

(i) Surface mining accounted for 87.8% of Scottish coal production.

(ii) Underground mining accounted for 12.2% of Scottish coal production.

(b) Scotland (January 2009 to December 2009):

(i) Surface mining accounted for 100% of Scottish coal production.

(ii) Underground mining accounted for 0% of Scottish coal production.

Question reference: S3W-38904

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 January 2011
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 27 January 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what the value of coal production (a) has been in each of the last 10 years and (b) is forecast to be in each of the next 10 years

Question reference: S3W-38900

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 January 2011
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 27 January 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide a breakdown by local authority area of the number of jobs associated with each of the categories set out in figure 2.2 of Energy in Scotland: A Compendium of Scottish Energy Statistics and Information, December 2010

The low carbon environmental goods and services data in figure 2.2 of the Energy in Scotland report provides an estimate of low carbon jobs by sector at a national level or by local authority at an aggregated level. The methodology that underpins the data in figure 2.2 is, however, not designed for sectoral interrogation at a local authority level.

More detail on the methodology and content of the data in figure 2.2 of the Energy in Scotland report will be available from the Scottish low carbon environmental goods and services sector study, which is currently being finalised and will be published prior to the dissolution of the Parliament.

Question reference: S3W-38372

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 December 2010
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 20 January 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the rail network has operated (a) at, (b) above or (c) below its passenger-carrying capacity in each year since 1999, showing the (i) number of passengers and (ii) proportion of passenger-carrying capacity that this represents.

ScotRail provides more seating capacity on the network in any year than the number of passengers travelling.

ScotRail''s obligation in the Franchise Agreement with Scottish Ministers is to allocate its train fleet and resources in the most effective way to provide passengers with a reasonable expectation of a seat within 10 minutes of boarding a train, with the exception of non-stop trains operating between Glasgow Central and Paisley Gilmour Street.

ScotRail passenger numbers for each year since 1999 are published in the Scottish Transport Statistics No. 29 2010 edition (Table 7.1). A copy of which is available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 52250).

For passenger carrying capacity I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-38371 on 20 January 2011. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

Question reference: S3W-38371

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 December 2010
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 20 January 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what the passenger-carrying capacity of the rail network has been in each year since 1999.

We do not hold annual data for the passenger-carrying capacity of the rail network. We do hold the agreed weekday seating capacity for ScotRail services for each of the main timetable changes since 2005 and this is provided below. This information is not held prior to 2005 as rail powers transferred to Scottish Ministers from 2005.

The following table shows the ScotRail agreed weekday seating capacity for each of the main timetable changes from December 2005.

Timetable Change Date	Seating Weekday
December 2005	444,577
December 2006	458,219
December 2007	447,973
December 2008	457,366
December 2009	458,557