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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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S5W-10301

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 July 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 8 August 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether the SQA plans to remove the skills test element from 4-year Apprentice SVQ level 3 training.

Question reference: S5W-10303

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 July 2017
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 27 July 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what the cost of insurance is for the Crown Estate in the current financial year.

Question reference: S5W-10302

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 July 2017
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 27 July 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what the timescale is for the further devolution of the Crown Estate to local authorities.

Our recent consultation on the long-term arrangements for management of Crown Estate assets in Scotland outlined our proposals on how Crown Estate assets in Scotland can be managed differently in future.

We are currently considering the consultation responses and will take these into account as we develop proposals for future legislation, including arrangements for further devolution of management within Scotland. We are working to introduce a Bill on management of Crown Estate assets as soon as possible and a further announcement on timing will be made in due course. In the consultation paper, Scottish Ministers promoted taking a phased approach to further devolution and the nature and timescale for actual implementation of any arrangements for further devolution will be determined by whatever legislation is agreed by the Parliament.

Crown Estate Scotland (Interim Management) will ensure continuity while the framework for managing the assets in the longer term is developed and discussions are continuing with island councils on a possible pilot on local management of assets.

Question reference: S5W-10304

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 July 2017
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 27 July 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of it receiving income from the Crown Estate, what the annual capital investment will be.

Question reference: S5W-09174

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 May 2017
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 14 July 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how it will distribute income from the Crown Estate, and how often it will do this.

Question reference: S5W-09642

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 June 2017
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 21 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the railway network has fibre optic cabling along existing rail tracks.

Question reference: S5O-01125

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 June 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether all farmers will receive their 2015 and 2016 subsidy payments by the end of June 2017.

Question reference: S5T-00577

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 June 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what the impact will be of the planned closure of the police control room in Inverness and its move to Dundee.

Question reference: S5W-09300

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 May 2017
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 31 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what book value of Glasgow Prestwick Airport was recorded in its 2016-17 accounts, and how this compares with the open market value as defined by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors' (RICS) valuations and appraisals manual.

The annual accounts of TS Prestwick Holdco Limited for financial year 2016-17 are presently in the process of being audited. The published annual accounts for financial year 2015-16 record a book value of £3.670 million in respect of non-current assets with appropriate disclosure on the basis of valuation recorded in the Notes to the audited accounts.

For appropriate business reasons Glasgow Prestwick Airport has obtained an open market valuation as defined by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors professional standards. This information is considered to be commercially sensitive.

Question reference: S5W-09171

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 May 2017
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 23 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what the cost is of the transfer of the powers over the management of the Crown Estate; how these costs will be met, and what additional costs the Crown Estate has to meet.

Scottish Ministers secured external consultancy support to work on transferring the management of Scottish Crown Estate assets. Expenditure on the two relevant contracts totalled £201,767.88 in 2016-2017.

The transfer costs borne by The Crown Estate, as a separate entity from Crown Estate Scotland (Interim Management), are not currently held by the Scottish Government or Crown Estate Scotland (Interim Management). The Crown Estate is finalising its accounts for 2016-17 and these will published in due course. It is not yet known what level of detail on transfer costs The Crown Estate will include in these accounts.

The UK and Scottish Governments have agreed through the fiscal framework the methodology for calculating the baseline deduction to account for the transfer of management of Scottish Crown Estate assets to the Scottish Government. The UK and Scottish Governments have subsequently agreed a provisional block grant deduction through the Joint Exchequer Committee based on this methodology, which will be updated once outturn data for 2016-17 is available in the summer of 2017.

New costs borne by Crown Estate Scotland (Interim Management) arise largely from the requirements of operating as a standalone business, and include costs associated with Information Technology and other support services, insurance and tax costs, additional staff costs, and Board member fees and costs. The first set of published annual accounts for Crown Estate Scotland (Interim Management) will be available in 2018.