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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: S4F-01265

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 March 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 March 2013

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's position is on whether whistleblowing arrangements for NHS staff are adequate.

Question reference: S4W-13383

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 February 2013
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 14 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what the average cost per kilometre has been for the construction of new roads in each year since 1999.

Schemes vary considerably in terms of their nature, location, complexity of design and the environmental constraints that governs that design. The average cost per kilometre for the construction of new roads in each year since 1999 is contained in the following table.

The 2008 figure reflects the cost of the M74 Completion which was a particularly complex project, largely comprising of elevated structures located in a geometrically constrained brownfield site. Despite these challenges, the M74 Project was completed ahead of schedule and under budget.

The year noted is the year in which construction commenced on a scheme.

Year	Average cost per Km/Lane	Number of Km's
	£M
1999	0.29	3.00
2000	*
2001	0.48	9.26
2002	1.44	27.30
2003	2.29	9.80
2004	*
2005	*
2006	1.26	22.90
2007	1.50	18.10
2008	18.54	8.00
2009	1.94	20.40
2010	2.85	11.20
2011	*
2012	*

Note*: No schemes commenced in these years.

Costs for schemes which were predominantly junctions or interchanges have been excluded as these are not considered representative.

Question reference: S4W-13382

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 February 2013
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 14 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how much (a) West Lothian and (b) Fife Council will pay toward the cost of the Forth Replacement Crossing.

Question reference: S4W-13401

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 01 March 2013
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 8 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on developing a super-fast rail link between Perth and the central belt.

The Scottish Government has no plans to develop a new rail link between Perth and the central belt.

Transport Scotland is working closely with Network Rail to develop phase two of the Highland Main Line Improvements Project and phase one of the Aberdeen to Central Belt Rail Enhancements Scheme. Both schemes will consider potential infrastructure enhancements south of Perth which could support improved journey times.

Question reference: S4W-12938

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 February 2013
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 6 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the resolution of the European Parliament on protecting wilderness, INI/2008/2210, and whether it will adhere to this as part of the Year of Natural Scotland, 2013.

The Scottish Government has noted the 2009 European Parliament resolution “Wilderness in Europe” which was adopted by that Parliament on the basis that no new legislation would be required to achieve its aims. The Scottish Government is also aware that wilderness in the true sense of the word is found in continental Europe e.g. forests of Eastern Europe.

The Year of Natural Scotland 2013 is a celebration of Scotland’s biodiversity and landscapes. It is for both people in Scotland and our visitors to discover or rediscover the natural attractions of the country.

Question reference: S4W-13219

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 February 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 6 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many buildings are at risk, broken down by local authority.

The table breaks down buildings on the register of Buildings at Risk by Category of Listing and Local Authority Area as at December 2012.

Local Authority	A-Listed	B-Listed	C-Listed	Unlisted in CA	Unlisted	Total
Aberdeen City	20	4	0	0	1	25
Aberdeenshire	22	120	61	34	45	282
Angus	12	28	25	9	15	89
Argyll and Bute	29	93	42	49	38	251
Ayrshire (East)	6	19	13	20	9	67
Ayrshire (North)	3	19	10	14	0	46
Ayrshire (South)	13	20	15	16	7	71
City of Edinburgh	42	36	20	14	0	112
Clackmannanshire	0	8	5	1	3	17
Dumfries and Galloway	30	34	5	8	7	84
Dunbartonshire (East)	3	10	0	0	1	14
Dunbartonshire (West)	7	6	2	0	0	15
Dundee City	15	33	4	7	3	62
Falkirk	3	13	5	3	2	26
Fife	17	111	54	30	14	226
Glasgow City	44	76	22	5	5	152
Highland	19	62	28	14	37	160
Inverclyde	4	11	0	2	3	20
Lanarkshire (North)	2	16	11	3	7	39
Lanarkshire (South)	18	36	12	29	10	105
Loch Lomond & TTNP	4	2	11	1	6	24
Lothian (East)	20	41	14	16	0	91
Lothian (Mid)	11	10	9	8	5	43
Lothian (West)	3	10	13	7	5	38
Moray	19	29	14	10	16	88
Orkney Islands	3	41	23	0	14	81
Perth and Kinross	16	53	16	10	8	103
Renfrewshire	4	27	5	3	3	42
Renfrewshire (East)	5	4	0	0	6	15
Scottish Borders	25	69	45	42	11	192
Shetland Islands	4	14	9	0	1	28
Stirling	8	20	7	6	4	45
Western Isles	13	29	12	12	8	74
Total	444	1104	512	373	294	2727

The Buildings at Risk Register for Scotland records only properties of architectural or historic merit throughout the country that are considered to be at risk or under threat. It was established in 1990 and is funded and managed by Historic Scotland. A Building at Risk (BAR) refers to a listed building, or an unlisted building within a conservation area, that meets one or several of the following criteria:

Vacant with no identified new use

Suffering from neglect and/or poor maintenance

Suffering from structural problems

Fire-damaged

Unsecured

Open to the elements

Threatened with demolition

Individual building entries are available online and can be viewed by the public at www.buildingsatrisk.org.uk. The aggregate data in the table are not available online. Interpreting the BAR data is not straightforward as it serves a variety of purposes for a variety of audiences. Specifically, for these purposes, there is a difference between a list entry and a listed building: list entries can include more than one building. For example, Great King Street in Edinburgh is covered by four list entries, but comprises many more listed buildings.

The Buildings at Risk Register is also used to derive the calculation of the National performance Indicator Number 42, the percentage of A-listed buildings on the Buildings at Risk Register, based on “entries”. As judged by this indicator, analysis over the period 2008 to 2013 shows a general improvement in the state of Scotland's Historic sites with 8.0% of A-list entries included in the register in 2013, compared to 8.2% in 2011 and 8.7% in 2009.

Question reference: S4W-13217

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 February 2013
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 5 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many serious disrepair notices have been placed on buildings in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority.

This is a matter for local authorities. Buildings in a state of disrepair could have defective or dangerous building notices issued by individual local authorities, and limited information should be available on each authority’s online Building Standards Register.

We do not hold records going back to 1999. However, in the year 2010-11 the Building Standards Annual Return shows 96 notices were served on owners of defective buildings, and in 2011-12 there were 206 notices served.

The Annual Return also shows there were 187 dangerous buildings notices served on owners in 2010-11 and 212 notices were served in 2011-12.

A breakdown by local authority is given in the following table.

Local Authority	No of defective notices issued 2010-11	No of defective notices issued 2011-12	No of dangerous notices issued 2010-11	No of dangerous notices issued 2011-12
Aberdeen City	4	3	6	7
Aberdeenshire	0	0	15	9
Angus	0	1	2	2
Argyll and Bute	0	0	0	2
City of Edinburgh	0	0	0	0
Clackmannanshire	0	0	5	14
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	0	1	2	5
Dumfries and Galloway	0	0	2	1
Dundee City	0	0	0	7
East Ayrshire	0	0	6	15
East Dunbartonshire	0	0	0	3
East Lothian	0	0	3	2
East Renfrewshire	0	157	6	0
Falkirk	0	2	5	8
Fife	0	0	8	0
Glasgow City	0	0	3	4
Highland	13	3	18	2
Inverclyde	2	1	4	7
Midlothian	7	3	21	10
Moray	0	0	2	6
North Ayrshire	0	0	6	10
North Lanarkshire	24	14	17	29
Orkney	0	0	0	0
Perth and Kinross	3	3	5	0
Renfrewshire	25	0	10	18
Scottish Borders	17	12	9	10
Shetland Islands	0	0	2	1
South Ayrshire	0	0	1	4
South Lanarkshire	0	1	8	14
Stirling	0	1	3	7
West Dunbartonshire	0	2	0	2
West Lothian	1	2	18	20
Scotland	96	206	187	212

Question reference: S4W-13218

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 February 2013
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 5 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many compulsory purchase orders have been issued for buildings in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority.

The Scottish Government holds information on those compulsory purchase orders submitted to Scottish Ministers as the confirming authority. We do not hold information on those orders instigated by a local authority but not submitted for confirmation or on the outcome of the order following confirmation by ministers.

The following table shows all compulsory purchase orders confirmed by the Scottish Ministers from 1999 to 2013 where the local authority was the acquiring authority.

Local authority	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
Aberdeen	1			3	1	1		1
Aberdeenshire								1
Angus
Argyll and Bute
Clackmannanshire
Dumfries and Galloway
Dundee		2
East Ayrshire					1				1
East Dunbartonshire
East Lothian
East Renfrewshire				2
Edinburgh	1	2	1	1
Eilean Siar
Falkirk
Fife	1	2				1	1
Glasgow					1
Highland	2
Inverclyde		1		3
Midlothian		1
Moray
North Ayrshire			1
North Lanarkshire			1
Orkney
Perth and Kinross						1
Renfrewshire			1	1					1
Scottish Borders
Shetland
South Ayrshire
South Lanarkshire				1		2	1	1
Stirling
West Dunbartonshire
West Lothian								1

Local authority	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
Aberdeen
Aberdeenshire
Angus
Argyll and Bute			1
Clackmannanshire	1
Dumfries and Galloway
Dundee	1			1
East Ayrshire
East Dunbartonshire
East Lothian
East Renfrewshire
Edinburgh			2		1
Eilean Siar
Falkirk	2				1
Fife					1
Glasgow		1	2
Highland
Inverclyde
Midlothian
Moray
North Ayrshire
North Lanarkshire		1
Orkney
Perth and Kinross
Renfrewshire
Scottish Borders				1	2
Shetland
South Ayrshire
South Lanarkshire	1	1
Stirling				1
West Dunbartonshire
West Lothian				1

Question reference: S4W-13197

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 February 2013
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 5 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many reports of antisocial behaviour there have been in each year since 1999, broken down by constituency.

Question reference: S4T-00264

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 March 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with the Scottish Qualifications Authority regarding contracts that the body has signed with foreign governments.