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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-20190

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 14 March 2014
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 27 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the experience of the opencast coal industry, what its position is on the risks associated with other types of development using bonds to secure funding for long-term (a) environmental maintenance, (b) decommissioning, (c) restoration, (d) aftercare and (e) other work, and what assessment it (i) has made or (ii) plans of these risks.

Bonds are but one form of a financial guarantee set out in Scottish Planning Policy in relation to renewables, minerals and surface coal mining designed to safeguard against a range of matters including the routine security against the risk of actions not being undertaken, default on undertakings set out in planning conditions or insolvency.

Finance can also be secured by industry guarantee schemes, insurance policies, ring-fenced cash accounts or parent company guarantees.

The matter of restoration bonds has been discussed with planning authorities and parliamentarians represented on the Scottish Opencast Coal Task Force. A sub group to the task force: the Restoration Bonds Working Group is well established and its work will be taken forward by task force working parties to consider the suite of financial instruments and models available to suit the sequential phases of a development from preparatory works through to restoration and aftercare.

To address the situation experienced in the coal sector the Scottish Government’s recent consultation, Opencast Coal Restoration: Effective Regulation invited views on revisions to planning policy and advice including Planning Advice Note 64: Reclamation of Surface Mineral Workings. Responses received are currently being analysed. The output of the consultation will be considered by the task force; the principles of which may inform consideration in developments other than opencast coal.

Question reference: S4W-20237

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 March 2014
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 27 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government, further to its news release of 13 February 2014, Pound is best option for independent Scotland and rest of UK, what advice it received from the Fiscal Commission Working Group on the duration of a currency union.

The first report of the Fiscal Commission Working Group and technical annex provided a detailed assessment of the currency options of an independent Scotland, and concluded that retaining sterling was in the economic interests of both Scotland and the rest of the UK.

Paragraph 2.7, page 19, included the following recommendation:

“Recommendation: the Scottish Government should refine the detail of the proposition set out for a macroeconomic framework which can operate from day one of independence and through any period of transition and indefinitely if required. The framework should ensure monetary and price stability, financial stability and fiscal sustainability.”

The full published report can be found via:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2013/02/3017.

Question reference: S4W-20188

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 14 March 2014
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 27 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what the projected demand for coal is from Scotland’s power stations for each of the next 10 years, and what percentage of this will be sourced indigenously.

Longannet is Scotland’s only coal power station and consumed 4.1 million tonnes of coal in 2012 and 4.3million tonnes in 2013.

Longannet obtained 47% of its coal from Scottish suppliers in 2012. Due to the disruption in supply caused by the liquidation of Scottish Coal and ATH, the percentage of coal from Scottish suppliers dropped to around 15% in 2013.

Scottish Power has a number of long-standing coal-supply agreements in place with suppliers who operate opencast mines in Fife, Lothian’s, Lanarkshire and Ayrshire.

The exact details of those agreements and quantum of coal supplies are commercial matters between Scottish Power and its suppliers.

Question reference: S4W-20189

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 14 March 2014
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 27 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government, other than those associated with opencast coal, what types of developments use bonds to secure funding for long-term (a) environmental maintenance, (b) decommissioning, (c) restoration, (d) aftercare and (e) other work.

Question reference: S4W-20191

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 14 March 2014
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 27 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government which opencast mines ministers were made aware of before they were granted planning consent for restoration, and which of these (a) were called in by ministers and (b) are predicted to have a shortfall in funding to deliver restoration.

Applications for opencast coal developments are determined by the relevant planning authority as part of the normal planning process. Scottish Ministers are notified of opencast coal mines where development consisting of works connected with the extraction of coal by opencast methods, and other minerals extracted in association with works to extract opencast coal, where the site boundary falls within 500 metres from the edge of an existing community or sensitive establishment.

Since 1997 Scottish Ministers have been notified of some 46 applications for extraction of coal by opencast methods or related applications; of these a total of 20 have been notified since 2007.

Two such applications were ‘called in’ by Scottish Ministers in 2000: Boglea and Cameron Farms, Greengairs North Lanarkshire, and Heatherywood near Thornton, Fife. Both called-in cases were granted planning permission.

Regarding appeals, since 1997 the Directorate for Planning and Environmental Appeals reporters have been involved in five appeal decisions on open cast coal applications: one of these in 2008 the others between 1997 and 2003. All appeals were upheld.

Question reference: S4W-20206

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 17 March 2014
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 26 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether the reported statement by a Scottish Government source in The Daily Telegraph of 14 March 2014 concerning an independent Scotland’s security services that “we will take no lessons on this issue from a Westminster establishment whose security services produced the most flawed intelligence of recent times” (a) represents the Scottish Government's position and (b) reflects a change of policy from that in the white paper on independence that “the Scottish Government will work closely with the current UK security and intelligence agencies both to ensure that there is a seamless, secure transition and for the continuing security of both countries”.

The Scottish Government policy on security and intelligence in an independent Scotland is set out in Scotland's Future, Chapter 7, pages 261-267. It will be in the interests both of Scotland and the rest of the UK to work closely to ensure the security of both countries. The controls put in place over that work in Scotland will be wide-ranging and comprehensive, ensuring intelligence gathering is proper, legal, efficient and effective, in line with international principles for intelligence service oversight.

Question reference: S4W-20228

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 March 2014
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 26 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the upper estimate for the capital value of the Aberdeen-Inverness rail improvements project in the Infrastructure Investment Plan 2011: Updated Programme Pipeline (January 2014) has risen to £600 million compared with the previous update.

Question reference: S4W-20226

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 March 2014
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 26 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the start date for the A96 dual-carriageway Inverness-Aberdeen project does not appear in the Infrastructure Investment Plan 2011: Updated Programme Pipeline (January 2014) compared with the previous update and whether this represents a change in phasing.

There has been no change in the timetable for delivering the A96 Inverness to Aberdeen dualling programme. The dualling of the A96 between Inverness and Aberdeen is to be completed by 2030 through a phased programme of schemes from 2017 onwards. The timetable in the Infrastructure Investment Plan 2011: Updated Programme Pipeline (January 2014) reflects the commitment in the Infrastructure Investment Plan 2011 to dual the A96 between Inverness and Aberdeen by 2030.

Question reference: S4W-20229

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 March 2014
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 25 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the Scotland’s Schools for the Future programme does not appear in the Infrastructure Investment Plan 2011: Updated Programme Pipeline (January 2014).

Information relating to the Schools for the Future programme is included within the Infrastructure Investment Plan 2011: Progress Report for 2013 which was published on 17 March 2013. Generic information relating to the schools programme was not included within the accompanying updated programme pipeline as details relating to the delivery of each individual school are now included within the updated project pipeline instead.

In addition, the progress report includes progress details on all those individual schools with a capital value of £20 million or more which are currently at outline business case or beyond, and refers within the foreword to those schools which became operational in 2013.

Question reference: S4F-01989

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 24 March 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 March 2014

To ask the First Minister what issues will be discussed at the next meeting of the Cabinet