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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-20024

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 March 2014
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 18 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with Post Office Ltd regarding the future of the post office network in an independent Scotland.

Question reference: S4W-20025

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 March 2014
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 18 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of how the post office network would operate in an independent Scotland.

As the white paper, Scotland’s Future makes clear, independence will allow post office services to focus on what is best for the communities and businesses across Scotland. On independence, Scotland will inherit our share of the state-owned Post Office Ltd, which provides a range of services through crown offices and sub-postmasters. The Scottish Government is in contact with a range of stakeholders over how the post office network would operate in an independent Scotland.

Question reference: S4W-19693

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 10 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 17 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what its budget will be for the 2014 Ryder Cup.

Question reference: S4W-19726

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 12 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the suspension of (a) council tax for households and (b) non-domestic rates for businesses affected by flooding.

The Scottish Government has fully funded the council tax freeze for the last six years to provide much-needed financial relief to vulnerable groups and hard pressed families, and we are committed to continuing this freeze for the lifetime of this Parliament. As responsibility for the administration and collection of council tax sits with Scottish local authorities, it would be for local authorities to determine their approach in circumstances where local communities have been affected by flooding.

The Scottish Government is also committed to offering the most competitive business rates package in the UK and, should the need arise, will consider the need to offer business rate relief for affected businesses.

My officials have been in touch with a number of local authorities following the recent flooding relating to the Bellwin Scheme. I triggered the Bellwin Scheme on
31 December 2013 and as a result the Scottish Borders, Orkney Islands and South Lanarkshire councils have notified the Scottish Government of possible claims for additional revenue funding under the scheme.

Dumfries and Galloway council is also seeking additional financial support outwith the Bellwin Scheme and I am currently considering that request.

In addition, the Scottish Government is working with local authorities, Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) and Scottish Water to deliver our first ever round of strategic flood risk management plans. Building on the national flood risk assessment and SEPA’s recently published flood risk and hazard maps, these set out objectives for reducing flood risk in potentially vulnerable areas across Scotland, and the best combination of measures to achieve this.

Question reference: S4W-19916

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 10 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many property owners under its help to buy scheme have expressed a wish to be bought out of the agreement and how many have been rejected.

Question reference: S4W-19915

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 10 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many property owners under its help to buy scheme it has bought out of the agreement.

Under the scheme a buyer can purchase a new-build property, up to the value of £400,000, with the Scottish Government purchasing an equity share of up to 20% of the property.

There is no set deadline by which purchasers must repay to Scottish Government the equity support which they receive through the Help to Buy (Scotland) Scheme. The Scottish scheme runs on indefinitely and purchasers can decide to acquire all or some of Scottish Government's retained equity stake in their home at a time of their own choosing. Alternatively, the equity support will be repaid upon the occurrence of certain events, the most common one being when the purchaser decides to sell their home. Currently no-one has repaid their equity share.

Question reference: S4W-19583

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Lesley Thomson on 4 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many cases of flytipping have been reported to procurators fiscal in each year since 1999, and how many (a) prosecutions and (b) convictions there were.

Fly-tipping is covered by section 33(1)(a) and (6) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 which makes it an offence to deposit “controlled waste” unless the deposit is authorised by a waste management licence. The following table contains the information requested in relation to that offence:

Year	Charges reported To Procurator Fiscal	Charges dealt with by Direct Measures	Prosecutions * (where main charge) Source: Scottish Government (Charges reported to COPFS prosecuted in court in brackets Source: COPFS)	Convictions * (where main charge) Source: Scottish Government
2002-03	26	13	(9) 3	3
2003-04	9	2	(5) 8	8
2004-05	39	7	(29) 6	6
2005-06	128	33	(73) 20	16
2006-07	112	17	(45) 14	10
2007-08	101	24	(40) 21	19
2008-09	111	24	(45) 8	8
2009-10	113	17	(48) 15	9
2010-11	198	94	(36) 9	7
2011-12	253	77	(9) 5	4
2012-13	277	60	(16) 3	2

* Based on people at date of disposal

Notes:

1. COPFS does not hold complete statistical data prior to the year 2002-03 and therefore cannot provide data for the years 1999-00 and 2000-01. COPFS records the number of individual charges reported to it, not the numbers of cases containing a particular type of crime. A reported case can contain multiple charges of the same type against one or more offenders

2. Instances of fly-tipping can also be prosecuted under sections 33(1)(b) and 87 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. However, other types of criminal act are also prosecuted under these sections. Accordingly, statistics in relation to these offences do not exclusively relate to fly-tipping and cannot be provided as part of this Written Answer.

3. In the majority of cases where no action was taken it was because there was insufficient admissible evidence in law to raise criminal proceedings.

4. Figures for prosecutions and convictions which are based on people at date of disposal come from the Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings Database.

Question reference: S4F-01928

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 March 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 March 2014

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's position is on the calls from Transform Scotland to upgrade the rail network.

Question reference: S4W-19690

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 10 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 3 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the need to dredge rivers and burns to reduce the risk of flooding.

In December 2011, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) published Scotland’s first National Flood Risk Assessment. For the first time, we have a national picture of flood risk across Scotland, which helps us to target future efforts to plan and invest in reducing impacts in areas most vulnerable to flooding.

We are now working with local authorities, SEPA and Scottish Water to deliver our strategic flood risk management plans. Building on the national flood risk assessment and SEPA’s recently published flood risk and hazard maps, these will set out objectives for reducing flood risk in potentially vulnerable areas across Scotland, and the best combination of measures to achieve this. These measures may include dredging where it is appropriate and is part of a sustainable, long-term catchment solution to sediment management issues.

We believe this is the best approach to managing flood risk across the whole of Scotland, rather than focussing on one single issue which is certainly not a "cure all" for flooding. Dredging can have a role to play in flood risk management, but carried out in the wrong way and in the wrong place can result in significant environmental damage, and increased flooding and erosion downstream.

Question reference: S4W-19689

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 10 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 3 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many local authorities have applied to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency for licences to dredge rivers in each year since 1999.

Authorisation to carry out dredging was required from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency from 2006 onwards, with the introduction of the Water Environment (Controlled Activities) (Scotland) Regulations 2005.

Authorisations can be granted in two forms depending on the scale and likely environmental impact of the proposed dredging activity, by licences and by registration.

Table 1 provides the relevant breakdown of both licence and registration applications each year. Some local authorities applied for more than one authorisation.

Table 1:

Year	No of local authorities that applied for dredging Licences each year.	Total Licences granted to local authorities	No of local authorities that applied for dredging registrations each year.	Total registrations granted to local authorities
Pre 2007	0	0	0	0
2007	2	2	1	1
2008	0	0	2	3
2009	1	2	4	13
2010	0	0	4	10
2011	0	0	5	12
2012	0	0	3	11
2013	2	2	6	12