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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: S5O-02367

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 19 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the recommendations regarding the A1 in the Jacobs report, Borders Transport Corridors.

The Scottish Government recognises the important role the A1 plays in providing access to key markets, jobs and services between the south east of Scotland and north east England and beyond. The recommendation in respect of the A1, one of 21 emerging options from the study, is welcomed and will be considered within the second Strategic Transport Projects Review. STPR2 is the opportunity to consider at a national level the important contribution that transport infrastructure projects will play in enabling and sustaining Scotland’s economic growth.

Question reference: S5W-18551

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 19 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how much it estimates has been lost from the economy as a result of sea lice infestation.

Question reference: S5W-18546

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 19 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many recorded fish deaths due to sea lice there have been in each of the last 10 years.

Question reference: S5W-18544

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 19 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many cases of chronic lice infestation on fish farms have been reported in each of the last 10 years.

Fish farms report average adult female sea lice numbers above reporting and intervention levels to Scottish Government’s Fish Health Inspectorate (FHI). These reports are used to assess whether satisfactory measures are in place to prevent, control and reduce parasites. Industry average adult female sea lice figures are published by site for the first five months of 2018 and are available here: http://scottishsalmon.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Industry-averages-May-2018.pdf

Question reference: S5W-18549

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 19 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of salmon is rejected due to exceeding the lice infestation threshold.

Question reference: S5W-18553

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 19 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what quantity of (a) antibacterials, (b) sea lice treatments, (c) anthelmintics, (d) fungicides and (e) anaesthetics has been used in the salmon farming industry in each year since 2007.

Sales of veterinary fish antibiotics are recorded by the UK Veterinary Medicine Directorate. Data is not broken down at the national level. Sales do not necessarily equate to use. The most recent sales report can be found here; https://www.southampton.ac.uk/assets/imported/transforms/content-block/UsefulDownloads_Download/8328A3DDCCF94C05B6DF0BC62245F85B/scottish%20govt-salmonid%20aquacultures.pdf

Information on use of chemicals and medicines which require a discharge consent from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency can be accessed on Scotland’s environment website; https://www.environment.gov.scot/data/data-analysis/marine-fish-farm/

Question reference: S5W-18545

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 13 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how it (a) monitors and (b) manages effluent from fish farms.

SEPA as Scotland's environmental regulator:

(a) monitors the impact of operational fish farms on the sea bed through a combination of monitoring provided by the operators and the results of its own monitoring and investigative surveys to check that relevant environmental standards are being met; and

(b) manages effluent through setting licence conditions which include limits on the quantity of fish that can be farmed and on medicine usage. These limits are calculated with the aim of tightly controlling the impact on the sea bed in the permitted zone of impact around cages, ensuring that concentrations of pollutants beyond this do not exceed levels at which damage to biodiversity could result.

Question reference: S5W-18111

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 August 2018
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 4 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce stop-skipping on the Borders Railway; how it is monitoring the effectiveness of this approach, and what information it has regarding how many services on the line have skipped stations each year.

Following engagement by the Scottish Government, ScotRail will now only deploy the practice of “skip-stopping” in exceptional circumstances. The effectiveness of this process is monitored by Transport Scotland.

On the Borders Railway: there were 27 reported instances of stations on the Borders Line being affected by skip-stopping since the start of this calendar year. However, since the change in policy from the end of March, there has been no skip-stopping of stations on the Borders Line.

Question reference: S5W-18112

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 August 2018
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 4 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce overcrowding on trains (a) on commuter services between Waverley and Tweedbank and (b) overall.

Since the opening of the Borders railway we have gradually increased the number of peak services which have more carriages than the normal two. The following table shows the number of seats provided in the morning and evening peaks.

		August 16	May 17	Dec 17
Edinburgh Arrival	0730-0930	816	922	984
Tweedbank Arrival	1700-1900	680	733	733

The Scottish Governent announced a ‘Revolution in Rail’ in March 2016. As part of these major improvements, more Class 170 units will be deployed on the Borders Railway. These 3 carriage trains with more seats will largely replace the 2 carriage class 158s units which currently operate on the Borders route and provide an additional 1,500 seats per day. The changeover of train fleets will take place during 2019.

The number of passenger carriages operated by ScotRail increases from 796 at the start of the franchise to 1,043 by the end of 2019 – an increase of over 30%. We will also operate more than 250 additional services compared to now, meaning that the number of seats provided each weekday will increase from just over 500,000 at the start of the franchise to more than 620,000 at the end of 2019.

Question reference: S5W-18345

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 August 2018
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Ash Denham on 31 August 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on publishing a register of licensed premises that offer full access for disabled people.

Legislation on equalities is largely reserved to the UK Government at Westminster.

However since 30 March 2018, individuals applying to their local Licensing Board for a new liquor premises licence have been required to provide a disability access and facilities statement along with their application. The statement is to contain information about disabled access to the premises and the facilities and any other provision available to aid the use of the premises by disabled people.

Scottish Ministers expect to lay regulations in September to amend the Licensing Register (Scotland) Regulations 2007. The amendment will require the statement accompanying an application for a premises or provisional premises licence to be contained in the public licensing register kept by every Licensing Board. This will provide access to some information held by local authorities.

This provision does not interfere with the existing duty under equality law to make reasonable adjustments to make sure that a person can use a service as close as it is reasonably possible to get to the standard that is usually offered to non-disabled people.

There are no current plans for further legislation or work in this area.