Parliamentary questions

Alex Johnstone

582 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.

13 Jun 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when home buyers will be able to access the national mortgage indemnity scheme and, in light of a similar scheme being launched in England in March 2012, for what reason the scheme is not yet available.

Answer · Keith Brown: The Scottish Government’s guarantee and other key legal agreements for the scheme, which is led by Homes for Scotland, have now been agreed by the relevant parties and a number of housebuilders and lenders are committed to supporting it. The scheme has not ye…

28 May 2012 · First Minister's Question

To ask the First Minister how many 18 to 24-year-olds started their own businesses in Scotland last year and how this compares with England and Wales.

2 May 2012 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what it is doing to raise awareness of the early symptoms of lung cancer in risk groups.

7 Mar 2012 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when the process of consulting on ferry services to island communities will be completed.

Answer · Alex Neil: The closing date for responses to the Draft Ferries Plan consultation is 30 March 2012.

18 Jan 2012 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the reasons are for the loss of 30,000 construction jobs in the year to September 2011.

11 Jan 2012 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many homes will be constructed under phase one of the National Housing Trust initiative.

11 Jan 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that the system of recognising coaching qualifications protects individual participants from unsafe and potentially dangerous methods.

Answer · Shona Robison: This government believes that modern governing body coaching qualifications offer the best method of providing coaches with the appropriate training, instruction and knowledge required to deliver coaching in their sport. Ensuring coaches have up to date qual…

11 Jan 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on whether individual users of unregulated sports facilities are being treated as a source of revenue and are not receiving assistance with sports development.

Answer · Shona Robison: All owners and operators of sports facilities have a duty of care to their users and will as a minimum be subject to health and safety legislation. Thereafter it is for the owners and operators to determine the level of charges to be applied and these would i…

11 Jan 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that the system to regulate sport through recognised governing bodies protects individuals who may unwittingly be involved in a sport of which the governing body is not recognised by sportscotland.

Answer · Shona Robison: Sportscotland is responsible jointly with the other home nation Sports Councils and with UK Sport for the recognition of National Governing Bodies. The recognition process operates to identify a single lead governing body having achieved a position of pre-emi…

1 Dec 2011 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive for what reason it has not set an earlier target date than October 2014 for delivery of its objective to roll out a further road equivalent tariff pilot for passengers and cars including small commercial vehicles and coaches to Arran.

Answer · Keith Brown: Ardrossan-Brodick, the main route to Arran, is an exceptionally busy route. We anticipate that the introduction of RET could result in an increase in carryings on the route of up to 40%. In order to ensure that we are able to deal with this additional pressur…

30 Nov 2011 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will provide strategic guidance on the siting of wind farms.

2 Jun 2011 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is aware of any proposals to relocate 45 Royal Marine Commando from RM Condor in Arbroath, in light of the potential impact on jobs in the local community.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: The Ministry of Defence has been undertaking a UK basing review covering all of the armed services and considering what the basing needs of the military will be in the future following the UK Strategic Defence and Security Review. We understand that all milit…

23 Feb 2011 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how much of the Town Centre Regeneration Fund was unspent, broken down by local authority.

Answer · Alex Neil: Of their respective total TCRF awards from the Scottish Government, Aberdeenshire Council did not draw down £88,342 and Angus Council did not draw down £812,620. The following table shows a breakdown by local authority area of the amount of TCRF comm…

1 Jul 2010 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when it estimates work will start on the construction of the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route and in what year it now expects the project to be completed.

Answer · Stewart Stevenson: I anticipate that the legal challenges submitted to the Court of Session will cause significant delay to the construction of the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route. Until the challenges are heard in Court and resolved we cannot be precise about the impact on t…

4 Dec 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive for what reason heat-resistant bags to protect children from injury from hair straighteners are being provided free of charge by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde but must be paid for across the rest of Scotland.

Answer · Shona Robison: Heat-resistant bags are being provided as part of a campaign funded from a local resource allocation decision made by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, and Strathclyde Fire and Rescue. NHS boards are responsible for investing their resources in a range …

4 Nov 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the total cost to date is of the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route, including the cost of the public consultation.

Answer · Stewart Stevenson: The cost of preparatory work undertaken, up to the end of October 2009, is approximately £91 million. Similar to other trunk road projects, this has included scheme development, environmental impact assessment, consultation with statutory and non-sta…

4 Nov 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the cost to date is of the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route public consultation.

Answer · Stewart Stevenson: No separate figures for the total costs associated with the public consultation process have been recorded. However, the cost of the two exhibitions held in January 2007 and October 2007 are detailed as follows, and include the cost of venues and publicity ma…

24 Sep 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the latest estimates are for the (a) total cost and (b) completion date of the (i) Edinburgh to Glasgow Rail Improvement Programme, (ii) Airdrie Bathgate Rail Link Project, (iii) Waverley Railway Project, (iv) planned Edinburgh Airport rail station, (v) Edinburgh Trams project, (vi) …

Answer · Stewart Stevenson: The figures as requested are shown in the following table: <table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 > <thead> <tr > <td width=264 valign=top > Project </td> <td width=156 valign=top > (a) …

9 Sep 2009 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to provide a mechanism to facilitate the funding of replacement buildings for the secondary schools at Laurencekirk and Kemnay in the Aberdeenshire Council area.

Answer · Keith Brown: Version:1.0 StartHTML:0000000179 EndHTML:0000008392 StartFragment:0000003396 EndFragment:0000008352 SourceURL:file:///\\cc02fd\writtenanswers$\To_Be_Processed\S3O-07794.doc <html xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsof…

3 Sep 2009 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many police officers were required to guard Kafeel Ahmed in a Glasgow hospital from 30 June to 2 August 2007.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill : This question was answered in the Chamber. The answer can be viewed in the Official Report using the following link: <a href="http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/or-09/sor0903-01.htm">http://www.scot…

26 Jun 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what meetings it has had with the UK Government regarding high speed rail links, setting out the date and location of meetings and the topics discussed.

Answer · Stewart Stevenson: There have been two meetings with the UK Government on high speed rail. The first was in Edinburgh on 28 May 2008, to discuss cross border rail links, including opportunities for high speed rail. The second meeting also took place in Edinburgh on 23 …

11 May 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what actions it takes to monitor the export of horses to countries outside the United Kingdom.

Answer · Richard Lochhead: When horses are exported from the UK their export health certificates are recorded on the TRACES (Trade Control and Expert System) database. TRACES is an integrated web-based system maintained by the European Commission which assists in the management of intr…

15 Apr 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executivehow many speeding offences were detected by speed cameras in each of the last 24 months.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: The information available relates to the audited number of Conditional Offer of Fixed Penalty Notices (COFPN) paid for each of the eight safety camera partnerships which operate under the Scottish Safety Camera Programme. Audited data for 2008-09 is not yet a…

6 Apr 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with Network Rail about providing gauge enhancement measures on the railway between Edinburgh and Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Answer · Stewart Stevenson: Transport Scotland officials recently met with Network Rail representatives concerning proposed gauge enhancements on the East Coast Main Line from the border to Mossend/Coatbridge, including the section between Edinburgh and Berwick-Upon-Tweed. When the resu…

26 Mar 2009 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive which road upgrades it has prioritised for the remainder of the parliamentary session.

Answer · Stewart Stevenson: The road upgrades prioritised for the remainder of the parliamentary session remain those set out in our statement of 27 June 2007. An updated programme is due to be published on the Transport Scotland website before the Easter recess.

17 Mar 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what funding it provides to support the Scottish women’s international squash team.

Answer · Shona Robison: The information requested is a matter for the delivery body - sportscotland. As such this information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. Funding for squash is routed through the relevant governing body via sportscotland and I refer the…

5 Feb 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to introduce legislation to enforce the tagging of all commercially caught salmon carcasses.

Answer · Richard Lochhead: There are currently no plans to legislate to introduce carcass tagging of commercially caught salmon.

2 Feb 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when it expects phase 2 of the Waverley station upgrade to begin.

Answer · Stewart Stevenson: The Waverley Project Board (consisting of Network Rail, City of Edinburgh Council and Scottish Enterprise Edinburgh and Lothians) decided in August 2006 not to proceed with earlier proposals for Phase 2. This government is continuing to work with Net…

2 Feb 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive which projects contained in the Strategic Transport Projects Review are not designated national developments in the National Planning Framework for Scotland 2 and for what reasons they were not given this designation.

Answer · Stewart Stevenson: I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-20443 on 24 February 2009. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at <a href="http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/App…

2 Feb 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive which projects contained in the Strategic Transport Projects Review are designated national developments in the National Planning Framework for Scotland 2 and for what reasons they were given this designation.

Answer · Stewart Stevenson: The two projects identified in the Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR) which are also designated as national developments in the Proposed National Planning Framework 2 are: The Forth Replacement Crossing and the West of Scotland Strategic Rail Enhancem…