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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: S5W-08445

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 13 April 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what the costs are of the collection of sporting rates.

Question reference: S5W-08447

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 13 April 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many shooting and deer forest subjects will be on the valuation roll, and whether this is the same as the number of holdings it has registered.

Question reference: S5W-08375

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 10 April 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-07527 by Fergus Ewing on 14 March 2017, on what date it received the information from the UK Government regarding the Digital Economy Bill.

Question reference: S5O-00800

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 March 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how it encourages volunteering in communities.

Question reference: S5W-07527

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 14 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government when it received information relating to the Digital Economy Bill from the UK Government to allow it to bring forward a legislative consent memorandum.

As I said in the debate on the Legislative Consent Motion in Parliament on 22 February 2017, the Digital Economy Bill is complex and there have been a range of amendments to it.

The Scottish Government considered that there were a number of issues in relation to the Bill at introduction which stopped us from lodging a Legislative Consent Memorandum at that time.

First of all, chapters three and four of part five of the Bill contain powers on the disclosure of information to reduce debt owed to the public sector and to combat fraud against the public sector. The Bill also imposes a duty on UK Ministers to review the operation of these provisions and gives UK Ministers powers to amend or repeal the provisions by regulations.

In the Bill as introduced, there was no requirement for UK Ministers to obtain the consent of the Scottish Ministers if any such regulations should impact on devolved matters. As a result, we considered that we could not lodge a Legislative Consent Memorandum. The UK Government agreed to amend the Bill accordingly. The first set of such amendments were withdrawn by the UK Government as having “technical flaws” at Commons Committee stage on 27 October 2016:

https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2016-10-27/debates/7cc7d1c3-866b-4685-907f-c4c51fa73ec7/DigitalEconomyBill(NinthSitting) [see column 361]. The amendments were eventually agreed at Commons report stage on 28 November 2016 https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2016-11-28/debates/CF0A21DE-0B55-4A02-8B9F-824ADFDE7C02/DigitalEconomyBill [see column 1358].

Secondly, chapter five of part five of the Bill contains powers on public authorities disclosing information for the purposes of research. The Bill provides that this power does not extend to the disclosure of information held by public authorities with health or adult social care functions in connection with those functions. This exclusion follows a report by Dame Fiona Caldicott on information governance in the health and social care sector in England. The Scottish Government discussed with the UK Government whether it was appropriate for Scottish health and care bodies to be excluded in this way. The UK Government confirmed on 9 December 2016 that the exclusion for health and social care bodies would remain in the Bill.

Thirdly, paragraph 44 of the Legislative Consent Memorandum refers to planned amendments in relation to Revenue Scotland. What is now clause 65 of the Bill (information disclosed by Revenue Scotland) was added by amendment at Lords Committee stage on 6 February 2017: https://hansard.parliament.uk/lords/2017-02-06/debates/A615B47A-7186-4518-BA56-DC2D834F3ED9/DigitalEconomyBill [see column 1581]. We understand the UK Government plan to table a further amendment to the Bill, in line with paragraph 44 of the Legislative Consent Memorandum, to provide an equivalent for Revenue Scotland of clause 70 of the Bill (disclosure of non-identifying information by HMRC).

The Scottish Government also had to consider whether any other aspects of the Bill needed to be covered by the Legislative Consent Memorandum. In particular, we considered whether part three of the Bill, on online pornography, needed to be included in the Legislative Consent Memorandum but concluded that this is reserved.

We also had to consider the implications for Scotland of some of the amendments tabled to the Bill after introduction. For example, clause 92 of the Bill (prevention or restriction of use of communication devices for drug dealing) was added following an amendment at Lords Committee on 8 February 2017:

https://hansard.parliament.uk/lords/2017-02-08/debates/6EFC892A-F1A8-4156-B838-E8952E0908BA/DigitalEconomyBill [see column 1788]. The Scottish Government concluded that this is a reserved matter, and so did not need to be covered by the Legislative Consent Memorandum, and that it would be useful for the clause to extend to Scotland.

In another area, clause 34 (disclosure of information to water and sewerage undertakers) and clause 35 (disclosure of information by water and sewerage undertakers) were added to the Bill following an amendment at Lords Committee on 6 February 2017:

https://hansard.parliament.uk/lords/2017-02-06/debates/1233BC9A-AA77-423F-B263-FE551F9B9A2A/DigitalEconomyBill [see column 1537]. In this case, the Scottish Government said to the UK Government that these clauses should not extend to Scotland, given the very different nature of the water sector in Scotland. As a result, clauses 34 and 35 extend to England and Wales only.

Finally, the Legislative Consent Motion covers the Scottish Ministers laying down fees and rules for the Lands Tribunal for Scotland in cases concerning the Electronic Communications Code and provisions in part five of the Bill, on data sharing. The Scottish Government has received representations about the level of consideration payable to land-owners by mobile network operators under the new Electronic Communications Code contained in the Bill. This is, though, a reserved matter and not covered by the Legislative Consent Motion.

Question reference: S5W-07167

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 22 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what the cost of wild fisheries review process has been, also broken down by (a) staffing, (b) meeting, (c) publication and publicity, (d) travel and (e) other costs each year.

The Wild Fisheries Review commenced in March 2014 and concluded in October 2014 when the Review Panel submitted its findings to Scottish Ministers. From October 2014 the Wild Fisheries Reform Programme has been supported by the Wild Fisheries Reform Team. In total, from March 2014 until the end of February 2017, the cost of the wild fisheries review process has been circa £446,000. This figure includes an estimate of some costs that the Scottish Government does not yet have or hold, as detailed in the notes associated with the following table.

The breakdown of this overall cost is:

Period	(a) Staffing costs*	(b) Meeting costs**	(c) Publication and Publicity costs	(d) Travel costs***	(e) Other costs
1-03-2014 – 31-12-2014	£142,583	£1,987	Nil	£4,891	£17,292
2015	£129,449	£614	Nil	Nil	Nil
2016	£126,532	Nil	£900	£1,746	Nil
1-01-2017 to 28-02-2017	£13,608	Nil	Nil	£313	£1,050

Notes:

* Average salary costs for the financial years 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16 have been used to calculate staffing costs. Average salary costs for the financial year 2016-17 have not been produced yet. The 2016 and 2017 year to date staffing costs therefore use 2015/16 average salary costs.

** Meeting costs are for external venues. The Scottish Government does not hold a formal record of the cost of all meetings held.

*** Travel costs are for the Review Panel, staff travel to the associated external venue meetings and some stakeholder travel costs to attend subsequent Wild Fisheries Reform Programme meetings. The Scottish Government does not hold a record of other staff travel expenses associated with the wild fisheries review process.

Question reference: S5O-00598

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 25 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will build a new hospital in Aviemore if the St Vincent's and Ian Charles hospitals are closed.

In February 2015 I approved NHS Highland’s proposals for the modernisation of its community and hospital services in Badenoch and Strathspey.

The go-ahead will mean development of community and adult social care services as well as the construction of a new community hospital and resource centre in Aviemore. Aviemore Health Centre will be relocated to the new facility. It will also mean the eventual closure of the Ian Charles Hospital in Grantown-on-Spey and the St Vincent’s Hospital in Kingussie once the new arrangements are in place. The detailed arrangements will be confirmed as part of developing the business case.

Question reference: S5T-00313

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Scottish Ambulance Service is meeting its response time targets in rural areas.

Question reference: S5O-00529

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 December 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how important it considers superfast broadband is to tourism in the Highlands.

Question reference: S5F-00691

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 December 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 December 2016

To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government is taking to support the Christmas tree industry.