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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: S4W-16474

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 August 2013
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 5 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether an independent Scotland would have the technical capability to protect internet traffic from surveillance by UK intelligence agencies.

Question reference: S4W-16476

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 August 2013
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 5 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many high-capacity cables taking internet traffic in and out of Scotland do so without passing through other parts of the UK.

Question reference: S4W-16700

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 August 2013
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 2 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its target to eradicate fuel poverty, what assessment it has made of the measures called for by the Energy Bill Revolution campaign and what information it has on how many properties in Scotland could be made more energy efficient if the UK Government used the estimated £4 billion collected from carbon taxes over the next 15 years to fund the measures called for by the campaign.

Fuel poverty is a devolved issue and the Scottish Government is already committing funding to support the installation of measures to make homes in Scotland more energy efficient, as called for by the Energy Bill Revolution. Unlike England, where the only funding to improve household energy efficiency and tackle fuel poverty comes from obligations placed on energy companies in the Energy Bill and private funding through the Green Deal, the Scottish Government is doing all it can to improve the energy efficiency of homes in Scotland.

The new Home Energy Efficiency Programmes for Scotland were launched on 1 April 2013 and offer a package of support to help all those who are struggling to pay their energy bills and keep themselves warm. The Scottish Government is providing £79 million in the current year to support these area-based and national schemes and lever in energy company investment to create the £200 million fund. Over time all households should see positive benefits from improvements in energy efficiency as a result of these schemes and may help them reduce their fuel bills.

It is estimated funding allocated in the first funding round of the area based scheme will see 25,000 to 30,000 households receive around 40,000 measures to improve the energy efficiency of their home and help tackle fuel poverty. And it is estimated that around 300,000 poorer households in total are eligible for insulation and/or heating measures under the Affordable Warmth Scheme and Energy Assistance Scheme.

Question reference: S4W-16471

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 August 2013
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 30 August 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether Scotland’s access to the internet is dependent on internet exchange points in London and Manchester and whether there are plans to establish (a) an internet exchange point in Scotland and (b) direct connections to internet exchange points in other European countries.

Most internet traffic to, from and within Scotland currently goes through one of three internet exchange points in London, Manchester or Leeds.

As part of our work to improve Scotland’s digital infrastructure and achieve world class connectivity by 2020, the Scottish Government is facilitating discussions with industry aimed at establishing an internet exchange point in Scotland.

This work is being taken forward by LINX (London Internet Exchange Ltd), a not-forprofit member led organisation that operates exchanges in London and Manchester. Excellent progress is being made and we anticipate that an internet exchange, called IXScotland, will be installed in Edinburgh in October this year.

It will be for LINX to determine what connections are required to equivalent exchange points in Europe. These are negotiated and delivered depending on the needs of exchange members.

Question reference: S4W-16573

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 August 2013
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 28 August 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what bus operators applied for monies through each of the Scottish Green Bus Funds.

Details of successful bidders under the Scottish Green Bus Fund are published annually and results for the three rounds to date can be found on the Transport Scotland Website at:

http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/public-transport/Buses.

In addition to the published information on successful bidders, bids were also received from MacEwans Coach Services in rounds one and two; Secure Airparks Ltd in rounds two and three and Stagecoach East in round three. These bids were subsequently withdrawn by the operators concerned and no funding was awarded.

Question reference: S4T-00416

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 24 June 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 June 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the affordability and public reporting concerns raised in Audit Scotland's report, Scotland's key transport infrastructure projects.

Question reference: S4O-02282

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 June 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 June 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether it considers that the prohibition of convicted prisoners from voting in elections is compatible with its commitment to incorporate the European Convention on Human Rights into an independent Scotland's written constitution.

Question reference: S4W-14668

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 May 2013
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 7 June 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-14226 by Roseanna Cunningham on 3 May 2013, whether it will provide the information that was requested and confirm whether it will bring forward a report before the completion of the review period; whether the legislation forbids it from producing such a report, and what its position is on how offences under section (a) 1 and (b) 6 of the Act are being dealt with.

Section 11 of the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act 2012 contained an express provision requiring the Government to report to Parliament on the operation of the legislation after two full football seasons. Work on the evidence necessary to inform the report to Parliament has already begun.

The legislation does not prevent the production of an earlier report but the Government remains of the view that the original legislative provision as agreed by Parliament is the most appropriate review mechanism.

The way in which the offences under sections 1 and 6 are being dealt with is primarily an operational matter for the police, but the Government will publish this month the first annual statistics and analysis of the offences committed under the Act over the first year of its operation.

Question reference: S4O-02259

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 June 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 June 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Scottish greenhouse gas inventory will show that the emission target for 2011 has been reached, and whether the shortfall resulting from the missed target in 2010 has been compensated for.

Question reference: S4W-14667

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 May 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 4 June 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions ministers have had with Hargreaves Services Plc about the formation of the Scottish Mines Restoration Trust.

The Scottish Government has talked with a range of stakeholders across the coal industry in the development stages of the Scottish Mines Restoration Trust (SMRT) including local authority planning officials, landowners, Scottish Environmental Protection Agency and representatives of the coal industry including Hargreaves who were involved in the initial formation of the SMRT and but no longer play a part in the body going forward.

Options for funding the trust are possible from a variety of sources including coal operators and the coal industry itself, and Hargreaves have been the first coal operator to contribute to the funding of the trust providing £1.1 million. The SMRT is an independent body and not part of the Scottish Government.

It is not the responsibility of the SMRT to restore open cast mines. Coal operators will still be responsible for the restoration of their respective open cast sites. However these tasks are often complex and the trust will work with coal operators, local councils, landowners, communities, and environmental bodies to facilitate the responsible restoration of open cast sites.