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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-03984

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 21 November 2011
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 6 December 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether work with the UK Government to assess Scottish projects that have bid for the EU New Entrants Reserve in 2011-12 has (a) progressed or (b) been completed and what conclusions have been reached.

Yes, progress has been made. All the Scottish based projects under the CCS and Renewables themes of the EU New Entrants Reserve have progressed through an initial assessment stage led by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and are currently being assessed by the European Investment Bank (EIB). The EIB is performing “due diligence” on the applications and the European Commission will verify the eligibility criteria assessment and re-confirm with member states the public funding contribution for recommended projects, before making its award decisions in the second half of 2012.

Question reference: S4W-03980

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 21 November 2011
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 1 December 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on whether future carbon capture and storage demonstration projects will be funded (a) entirely via general taxation or (b) by consumer levy and whether the Department of Energy and Climate Change has clarified the role of the Scottish Government in determining future financial support for any demonstration projects in Scotland.

Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) have confirmed that the allocation of £1 billion set aside for Longannet would now be applied to the following projects as a capital grant, in tandem with EU funding under the New Entrants Reserve and the proposals under Electricity Market Reform. Scottish ministers will work with DECC Ministers on how this package will work in practice, including the detailed design of the contract for difference proposals for carbon capture and storage.

Question reference: S4W-03388

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 October 2011
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 1 December 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what the impact on domestic electricity prices will be of 100% demand being met from renewable sources and how it calculates this.

The proposed introduction of a new market mechanism for renewable electricity from 2014, whose details and support levels are yet to be established, means that it isn’t possible yet to estimate the costs of meeting our 2020 renewable electricity target. However, support for renewable energy through the Renewables Obligation is estimated to add between £15 and £20 to the average household electricity bill in 2011.

Ofgem’s Project Discovery has suggested that a greater reliance on renewable sources than on fossil fuels can help minimise the chances of future rises in energy bills. Our aim remains that the support available should be used to help drive down the costs of renewable generation, and that the long term costs to consumers will be kept under control. We also consider that those extra costs are worth paying, as they will help protect consumers in the longer term from the volatility and uncertainty associated with a continued reliance on fossil fuelled generation.

Question reference: S4W-03389

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 October 2011
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 1 December 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what the impact would be on electricity prices for consumers in Scotland of paying the subsidy to meet the additional costs associated with Renewables Obligation Certificates.

The costs associated with Renewables Obligation Certificates are passed on to consumers by electricity suppliers. The method and extent to which they pass those costs on to their industrial, business and domestic consumers is a matter for the suppliers in question. However, the effect of the three separate but complementary Renewables Obligations, which came into effect in April 2002, and the fact that most supply businesses have customers in more than one country, means that the costs are shared equally by consumers across the UK.

The Renewables Obligation is estimated to add between £15 and £20 to the average household electricity bill in 2011. Ofgem’s Project Discovery has suggested that a greater reliance on renewable sources than on fossil fuels can help minimise the chances of future rises in energy bills.

Question reference: S4W-03308

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 October 2011
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 29 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what provision it has made in the draft budget to extend the road equivalent tariff ferry fares pilot in the Western Isles to the Clyde and in what timescale.

The budget for RET in 2012 to 2013 is £4.5 million. This will allow Road Equivalent Tariff (RET) to continue on the Western Isles, Coll and Tiree for all passengers and traffic other than larger commercial vehicles. It will also allow RET to be rolled out to Islay, Colonsay and Gigha for all passengers and traffic other than larger commercial vehicles from October 2012. We will further roll out RET to Arran on the same basis from October 2014. RET will then be rolled out to the remaining West Coast and Clyde islands within the term of this parliament.

Question reference: S4W-03979

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 21 November 2011
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 28 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how much extra is being allocated to the International Development Fund in the 2012-13 budget to allow targeted support for people in developing countries.

Question reference: S4O-00427

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 November 2011
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 December 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many fewer nurses and midwives are working in the NHS than in 2009.

Question reference: S4W-03806

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 November 2011
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 21 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S4W-03387 by Fergus Ewing on 3 November 2011, what proportion of the 2020 renewables target it expects will be delivered by (a) tidal, (b) wave and (c) offshore wind energy, expressed in megawatts of projected demand; what percentage of (i) domestic and (ii) total demand it would consider major in this context and how it calculates these figures; when generation will start, and what the expected growth rate will be to 2020.

The Renewables Routemap estimates that we will need some 16 GigaWatts (GW) of capacity from across a wide range of renewable sources, but we have not published nor have we forecast targets for individual technologies.

As things stand, however, lease awards and agreements have been established which amount to over 11.5 GW of wave, tidal stream and offshore wind capacity in waters around Scotland. Our focus now is on working with the sector to address the technological, financial and infrastructural hurdles facing those projects – including the transition to a new support mechanism proposed as part of the UK Electricity Market Reforms – and to support the development of as much capacity as possible by 2020.

Question reference: S4W-03396

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 October 2011
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 16 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on inshore fisheries controls on the River Clyde and the extension of no-catch zones.

The Clyde Inshore Fisheries Group is nearing completion of its draft fisheries management plan and will soon submit it to Ministers for approval. The Scottish Government will consider the priorities and management measures proposed in the plan with a view to implementing them as appropriate in due course.

We will shortly be undertaking stakeholder engagement on the outputs from the Clyde Project, which was initiated last autumn in the first instance to review the evidence on the state of the Clyde.

Question reference: S4W-03392

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 October 2011
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 16 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will review the national planning framework to remove support for a new coal-fired power plant at Hunterston.