Seòmar agus comataidhean

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

Criathragan Hide all filters

Displaying 1943 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S4W-28266

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 November 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 19 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-27864 by Fergus Ewing on 2 November 2015, for what reason the answer quotes statistics that do not support the minister's statement on 17 September 2015 that the cost of providing sufficient electricity storage to deal with the intermittency issue arising from onshore wind power “will be far less than the enormous cost of the Hinkley Point nuclear power station” (Official Report c. 62), but demonstrate that the levelised cost estimates for new nuclear projects are lower than those for onshore wind (Tables 4 and 5).

The Department of Energy and Climate Change highlights that levelised costs are subject to a number of uncertainties and are not the sole basis for setting the support given to low carbon generators. The first Contract for Difference allocation round highlighted that the bulk of onshore wind projects will deliver at £82.50 per megawatt hour in 2018-19 – and some onshore wind projects will deliver at £79.23. Contrast this with the strike price being given to Hinkley C of £92.50 per megawatt hour, with a contract length of 35 years in comparison to 15 years for onshore wind.

Question reference: S4W-28267

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 November 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 19 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-27864 by Fergus Ewing on 2 November 2015, as the minister has not produced evidence to support his statement on 17 September 2015 that the cost of providing sufficient electricity storage to deal with the intermittency issue arising from onshore wind power “will be far less than the enormous cost of the Hinkley Point nuclear power station” (Official Report c. 62), whether he will seek (a) to have the record corrected or (b) time in the Chamber to apologise for providing what appears to be incorrect information.

The deployment of energy storage technologies – both established and emerging – is among the options available for delivering a more flexible and sustainable energy system. As indicated in the reply to S4W-27864, an increase in large scale hydro pumped storage is one such option, the costs of which compare favourably with those of new nuclear capacity according to the Electricity Generation Costs (2013) report from the Department of Energy and Climate Change, provided in the answer to question S4W-27627 on 1 October 2015. We therefore see no reason to either amend the Official Report or issue an apology for issuing incorrect information.

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/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

Question reference: S4W-28096

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 11 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide alternative support services for the reported 167 patients on the Sandyford gender identity clinic waiting list and, if so, what these will be.

Question reference: S4W-28097

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 11 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports that patients are being expected to wait 12 months for a first appointment, when it expects the Sandyford gender identity clinic to meet the referral to treatment target of 18 weeks.

Gender reassignment services are not covered by the 18 weeks referral to treatment standard. This is because patients accessing these services are likely to undertake psychological therapy and significant counselling as part of their treatment and clearly it would not be possible for all of this treatment to be completed within the 18 weeks referral to treatment standard. The gender reassignment protocol sets out the patient pathway from the patient attending their GP right through to gender reassignment genital surgery treatment a copy of which can be found at the following link: http://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/mels/CEL2012_26.pdf. We expect boards to ensure that patients accessing gender reassignment services are seen as quickly as possible. In the case of the Sandyford clinic in Glasgow they are currently recruiting an additional consultant to address capacity issues.

Question reference: S4F-03034

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 November 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 November 2015

To ask the First Minister at what level the Scottish rate of income tax will be set.

Question reference: S4W-27864

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 2 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-27627 by Fergus Ewing on 1 October 2015, what Department of Energy and Climate Change electricity generation statistics it is referring to that demonstrate that the cost of providing sufficient electricity storage to deal with the intermittency issue arising from onshore wind power will be "far lower than nuclear".

Question reference: S4O-04732

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 October 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has collected in Land and Buildings Transaction Tax.

Question reference: S4W-27865

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 28 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-27627 by Fergus Ewing on 1 October 2015, what capacity of hydro-storage projects it believes would be necessary in order to accommodate the intermittency issues arising from onshore wind power in order to equate to the baseload output from the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station.

Question reference: S4W-27889

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 27 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of funds distributed by the Community Broadband Scotland Initiative for projects in (a) each local authority area and (b) each year since its inception in 2012.

Community Broadband Scotland has awarded grants totalling £2,423,820 to 13 local authorities across Scotland, as of 23 October 2015. The breakdown is as follows:

2013
Local Authority	Grant Awarded
Argyll and Bute	£9,000
Highland	£234,259
Moray	£14,908
Shetland	£15,000
Aberdeenshire	£15,000
Dumfries and Galloway
East Lothian	£17,000
Midlothian
Fife
Perth and Kinross	£15,000
Scottish Borders	£23,300
South Lanarkshire	£19,620
Stirling	£21,000
Total	£384,087
2014
Local Authority	Grant Awarded
Argyll and Bute	£59,000
Highland	£130,649
Moray	£5,000
Shetland
Aberdeenshire	£21,000
Dumfries and Galloway	£5,000
East Lothian	£152,000
Midlothian	£5,000
Fife	£400
Perth and Kinross	£66,000
Scottish Borders	£5,866
South Lanarkshire	£13,387
Stirling	£7,500
Total	£470,802
2015 to date
Local Authority	Grant Awarded
Argyll and Bute	£1,037,479
Highland	£345,930
Moray
Shetland
Aberdeenshire	£1,000
Dumfries and Galloway
East Lothian
Midlothian
Fife
Perth and Kinross	£110,078
Scottish Borders	£67,444
South Lanarkshire	£7,000
Stirling
Total	£1,568,931

Question reference: S4F-03000

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 October 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 October 2015

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to reports from the Auditor General that it underspent its budget by almost £350 million in 2014-15.