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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: S4W-01748

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 July 2011
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 11 August 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether private home owners might be liable for the entire cost of work taken forward as part of a housing renewal area, including the demolition of homes.

Question reference: S4W-01868

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 25 July 2011
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 11 August 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how much aluminium was recovered by recycling in each of the last five years.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) data indicates that local authorities in Scotland recycled approximately 5,113 tonnes of aluminium cans between 2005-06 and 2009-10. This breaks down as follows:

Year	Tonnes
2005-06	336
2006-07	706
2007-08	929
2008-09	1206
2009-10	1936

The Scotland-wide figure for all aluminium recycled is likely to be higher, however, for non local authority managed waste SEPA only record the tonnage of metal recycled. It is therefore not possible at this time to identify the tonnage of aluminium included in the overall metals total.

Work is ongoing at SEPA to improve both the quantity and quality of waste data captured from the commercial and industrial sectors, and this should ensure that such information is available in future.

Question reference: S4W-01749

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 July 2011
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 11 August 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive under what circumstances can a registered social landlord (RSL) take forward a scheme of demolishing mixed tenure housing because the RSL considers it to be uneconomic to repair the homes that it owns.

The Scottish Government would expect an RSL to consult extensively with residents on proposals that affect their homes and that a high level of support is demonstrated. We would also expect the RSL to work closely with the local authority and ensure that any proposals being brought forward are subject to a detailed options appraisal and value for money assessment. Ultimately, however, an RSL cannot demolish a scheme of mixed tenure housing without the agreement of the other owners or unless it can secure full ownership of all the properties involved and gain the necessary statutory consents from the local authority.

Question reference: S4W-01866

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 25 July 2011
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 11 August 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how much aluminium has been produced in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S4W-02078

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S4W-01565

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 July 2011
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 4 August 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what primary energy consumption was as a percentage of overall UK consumption for (a) oil, (b) natural gas, (c) coal, (d) nuclear energy, (e) hydro-electricity and (f) other renewable energy sources in each of the last 10 years.

Question reference: S4W-01564

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 July 2011
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 4 August 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what the primary energy consumption was for (a) oil, (b) natural gas, (c) coal, (d) nuclear energy, (e) hydro-electricity and (f) other renewable energy sources in each of the last 10 years.

Question reference: S4W-01558

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 July 2011
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 3 August 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-36681 by John Swinney on 26 October 2010, whether it will provide an update on what savings (a) are projected or (b) have been achieved for each local authority and public body as a result of the new public sector electricity contracts announced in its news release of 30 April 2009, Public sector power goes greener.

The Scottish Government’s national electricity contracts now cover over 99% public sector demand, some 25,000 buildings. Most public bodies migrated to these contracts on an incremental basis between October 2009 and April 2010, the first full financial year of operation for the contracts is, therefore, 2010-11. In that year, the actual delivered benefits are £10.6 million. Given that both the cost of electricity on the wholesale market and distribution charges have continued to increase significantly over the past year these benefits take the form of cost avoidance.

While it is for individual public bodies to calculate the benefits they have derived and will continue to derive from the contracts, we estimate that the £10.6 million annual benefits for the year April 2010 to March 2011 accrued to the participating sectors as follows:

Central Government: 6%

Local Authority, Fire and Police: 58%

NHS Scotland: 19%

Higher and Further Education: 16%

Third Sector: 1%.

Importantly, the contracts also allow increased budgetary certainty for public bodies, as the flexible procurement model adopted involves multiple purchases on the wholesale market, which “smooths out” the volatility inherent in large, one-off transactions in commodity markets. Significant process savings have also been achieved for through going to the market once, rather than many times, for the same commodity.

Question reference: S4W-01415

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 27 July 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average number of passengers travelling directly from (a) Helensburgh Central, (b) Glasgow Queen Street, (c) High Street and (d) Bellgrove to Edinburgh via the Airdrie to Bathgate rail link has been since the service started and how this compares with the estimated figure for the service.

Question reference: S4W-01417

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 27 July 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to monitor the number of passengers using the Airdrie to Bathgate rail link in comparison with the estimated figure for the service.