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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: S2W-28448

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 September 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 6 October 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) Executive staff and (b) staff hours were involved in the delivery of functions now carried out by Transport Scotland in the year prior to its establishment.

There were 110 Scottish Executivestaff working for 178,860 hours on Transport Scotland functions in the year beforeit opened for business in January 2006. There are currently 287 permanent postswithin the agency. Staffing levels have increased because Transport Scotland is dischargingthe new rail responsibilities devolved to Scottish ministers in 2005, dealing withrail delivery, regulation and freight. It is overseeing seven major new public transportprojects. It is also managing the National Concessionary Travel Schemes. Approximately40 staff moved from Strathclyde Partnership for Transport to Transport Scotland to dealwith the implementation of the concessionary fares schemes and SQUIRE Inspection.

Question reference: S2W-28447

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 September 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 6 October 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what the remit is of Transport Scotland.

Question reference: S2W-28451

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 September 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 6 October 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive when it last met the senior management of Transport Scotland.

Question reference: S2W-28445

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 September 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 6 October 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what the total cost was of setting up Transport Scotland.

As part of the last spendingreview (SR04) settlement, funding was allocated to Transport Portfolio to take forwardour Partnership Commitment to bring forward proposals for a Strategic TransportAuthority, as an agency within the Executive directly accountable to ministers.

Funding of £1.2 million - £2.8million - £3.3 million for years 2004-05, 2005-06 and 2006-07 was ring-fenced atSR04 to take forward the establishment of Transport Scotland the new Executive Agency.

Transport Scotland is stillin its infancy with the building fit-out and relocation of staff being approachedin two phases. This started in May 2006, but the final move of staff has only justbeen undertaken.

The Transport Scotland 2006-07Annual Report will reflect the total actual expenditure of one-off costs relatedto the set-up and establishment of Transport Scotland.

Question reference: S2W-28444

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 September 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 6 October 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what Transport Scotland’s projected running costs are in total and broken down into (a) accommodation, (b) salary and (c) other staff costs for (i) 2006-07, (ii) 2007-08, (iii) 2008-09 and (iv) 2009-10.

Question reference: S2W-28560

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 September 2006
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 3 October 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide a breakdown of Scottish Forestry Grants Scheme payments from April to July 2006, showing the total grant paid for (a) productive forest, (b) native woodland, (c) riparian habitat, (d) urban improvment and (e) farmed landscapes.

A full breakdown of grants approvedand paid under the Scottish Forestry Grant Scheme (SFGS) detailing the individualschemes, locations, SFGS objectives and the grant recipients is available on ForestryCommission Scotland’s website at www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/infd-6t5ffx. The informationrequested is given in the following tables.

SFGS Payments made from 1 April 2006 to 31 July 2006

	Establishment
	£ Million	Hectares
Productive forest	1.1	855
Native woodland	3.3	1,203
Riparian Habitat	2.1	539
Urban Improvement	0.6	87
Farmed Landscape	0.9	422
Total	8	3,106

	Restocking
	£ Million	Hectares
Productive forest	2.2	2,822
Native woodland	0.4	216
Riparian Habitat	0.1	66
Urban Improvement	0.02	13
Farmed Landscape	0.2	123
Total	2.92	3,240

Stewardship
	£ Million
Improving Timber Quality	0.1
Reducing Deer Numbers	0.06
Native Woodlands	0.3
Improving Woodland Biodiversity	0.4
Landscape Improvement	0.3
Developing Alternative Systems to Clearfell	0.06
Woodland Recreation	1.6
Developing Community Involvement	0.03
Total	2.85

Question reference: S2W-28561

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 September 2006
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 3 October 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive on what total hectarage of combined native woodland and riparian habitat Scottish Forestry Grants Scheme payments were made from April to July 2006 and what the average payment was in the period for (a) native woodland and (b) riperian habitat.

A full breakdown of grants approvedand paid under the Scottish Forestry Grant Scheme (SFGS) detailing the individualschemes, locations, SFGS objectives and thegrant recipients is available on Forestry Commission Scotland’s website at www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/infd-6t5ffx. The information requested is given in the following tables.

SFGS Payments made from 1 April 2006 to 31 July 2006

Establishment
	£ Million	Hectares	Average payment
Native Woodland	3.3	1,203	£2,743/ha
Riparian Habitat	2.1	539	£3,896/ha
Totals	5.4	1,742	£3,100/ha

Restocking
	£ Million	Hectares	Average payment
Native Woodland	0.4	216	£1,852/ha
Riparian Habitat	0.1	66	£1,515/ha
Totals	0.5	282	£1,773/ha

Stewardship
	£ Million
Native / Riparian Woodlands	0.7
Total	0.7

Question reference: S2W-28562

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 September 2006
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 3 October 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the total hectarage of combined native woodland and riparian habitat on which Scottish Forestry Grants Scheme payments were made from April to July 2006 amounted to 397 hectares; whether the average payments in the period were nearly £10,000 for native woodland and nearly £16,000 for riperian habitat and, if so, whether it considers that these payments represent value for money.

The total hectarage of nativewoodland and riparian habitat grant-aided under the Scottish Forestry Grant Scheme(SFGS) between April and July 2006 amounted to 1,742 hectares of new planting and282 hectares of restocking. The average payments are given in the following tables.

SFGS PaymentsMade from 1 April 2006 to 31 July 2006

Establishment
	£ Million	Hectares	Average payment
Native Woodland	3.3	1,203	£2,743/ha
Riparian Habitat	2.1	539	£3,896/ha
Total	5.4	1,742	£3,100/ha

Restocking
	£ Million	Hectares	Average payment
Native Woodland	0.4	216	£1,852/ha
Riparian Habitat	0.1	66	£1,515/ha
Total	0.5	282	£1,773/ha

Stewardship
	£ Million
Native/Riparian Woodlands	0.7
Total	0.7

Question reference: S2W-28346

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 September 2006
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 28 September 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how much modulated money has been (a) raised and (b) spent, also showing how it was spent, broken down by year since the inception of single farm payment modulation.

The Single Farm Payment Scheme(SFPS) was introduced in 2005. The 2006 SFPS payments will not be made (and,therefore, modulated) before 1 December 2006.

The modulation receipts fromSFPS in 2005-2006 are based on EC compulsory modulation and additionalvoluntary modulation applied in Scotland, and were as follows:

EC Compulsory Modulation: £10,971,222

Voluntary Modulation: £12,791,100

Total: £23,770,322.

Compulsory modulation is currentlyused to fund the Land Management Contract Menu Scheme, which is part of the2000-06 (Scottish Rural Development Programme) SRDP. The first expenditureunder the menu scheme was in the current financial year. So far in thisfinancial year, £6.6 million has been allocated.

Voluntary modulation iscurrently used to fund agri-environment and afforestation measures within theSRDP.

The expenditure of fundsfrom voluntary modulation in 2005-06 was as follows:

Countryside Premium Scheme: £433,651

Environmentally SensitiveAreas: £422,996

Organic Aid Scheme: £1,045,353

Rural Stewardship Scheme: £7,889,134

Scottish Forestry GrantsScheme: £903,969

Woodland Grants Scheme: £121,236

Total: £10,816,339.

The rules governing thespending of modulation receipts allow for some carry over of receipts intofuture years to fund on-going commitments. The currently unspent compulsory andvoluntary modulation receipts raised in 2005-06 will all be used to fund suchon-going commitments.

Question reference: S2W-28046

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 August 2006
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 26 September 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress is being made to enable clinical dental technicians to have an opportunity to acquire the required qualification in the United Kingdom (UK) and whether the satellite course in the has been made available to such technicians in Scotland from August 2006, as indicated by the Regulatory Unit of the Executive’s Health Department in a letter to the Association for the Promotion of Denturism dated 4 July 2006.

Work is continuing with NHSEducation for Scotland on establishing a course to start as early aspossible in 2007. This is to enable dental technicians to gain the clinicalskills they need to register with the General Dental Council in order to practiseas clinical dental technicians. The course will require to be approved by theGeneral Dental Council, and its viability will have to be demonstrated for the Scottish education sector. Interest to date is low.

The Scottish satellite wasto be of the course being run by the Royal College of Surgeons of England forthose with a qualification from the George Brown University in Canada. However, only a single candidate has beenidentified in Scotland, and discussions are currently being held with him witha view to agreeing the best way of ensuring that individual can pursue thecourse.