Murdo Fraser

30 Apr 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government when it will introduce an age restriction of 18 on e-cigarettes.

Answer · Maureen Watt: An age restriction for electronic cigarettes will be included in the forthcoming Public Health Bill. We aim to introduce the Bill before summer recess.

27 Apr 2015 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made on reducing journey times on the Highland mainline between Inverness and Edinburgh.

20 Apr 2015 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to raise the speed limit on A roads for HGVs over 7.5 tonnes.

30 Mar 2015 · First Minister's Question

To ask the First Minister whether the Scottish Government respects the right of broadcasters such as the BBC to be free from political interference.

23 Mar 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many times mobile speed camera teams were deployed on dual carriageway sections of the A9 between Perth and Inverness from (a) October 2014 to March 2015 and (b) October 2013 to March 2014.

Answer · Derek Mackay: The requested information is not held by the Scottish Government. This is a matter for Police Scotland.

23 Mar 2015 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to increase the provision of PE in schools.

20 Mar 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what the budget for the Directorate for Planning and Environmental Appeals has been in each year since 2007-08.

Answer · Alex Neil: The Planning and Environmental Appeals Division (DPEA) of the Scottish Governments budget in the years 2007-2008 to date was as set out in the following table: Year 2007-08 2008- 09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 Budget (£ 000) 2…

20 Mar 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many staff have been employed by the Directorate for Planning and Environmental Appeals in each year since 2007-08.

Answer · Alex Neil: The number of staff within the Directorate for Planning and Environmental Appeals of the Scottish Government in the year 2007-08 to date is as follows: Year 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 Number of staff 35 50 51 …

20 Mar 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many appeals have been submitted to the Directorate for Planning and Environmental Appeals in each year since 2007-08.

Answer · Alex Neil: The number of Appeals dealt with by the Planning and Environmental Appeals Division (DPEA) of the Scottish Government is set out in the following table: Year 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 Total number of Appeals …

20 Mar 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many language support assistants have been employed in primary schools in each of the last five years.

Answer · Alasdair Allan: There are several kinds of language support assistants managed by local authorities and the details of these are not held centrally. The British Council Language Assistant Programme is a nationally available form of language support. The number of British co…

20 Mar 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many primary school teachers have received training for teaching modern languages in each of the last five years.

Answer · Alasdair Allan: This information is not held centrally. There is a growing established expectation that all teachers identify and undertake career long professional learning in a planned and strategic manner. To support implementation of our 1+2 languages policy and deliver…

20 Mar 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many primary school teachers have an undergraduate degree in a modern foreign language.

Answer · Alasdair Allan: This information is not held centrally.

16 Mar 2015 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Government when the rules on eligibility of blood donors were last reviewed.

13 Mar 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to monitor the long-term implication of noise pollution from wind turbines.

Answer · Aileen McLeod: I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-24893 on 25 March 2015. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentary…

13 Mar 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the report on turbine noise that was compiled by Professor Ursula Walsh on behalf of the Northern Ireland Assembly's Committee for the Environment as part of its wind energy inquiry.

Answer · Aileen McLeod: I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-24893 on 25 March 2015. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentary…

13 Mar 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on reviewing the guidelines regarding noise pollution from onshore wind developments.

Answer · Aileen McLeod: Responsibility for dealing with any complaints about noise and nuisance, including from onshore wind developments rests with local authorities, who have a duty to investigate such complaints under the provisions of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. In su…

13 Mar 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to prevent the loss of the grass species, or landrace, Scots’ Timothy (phleum pratense).

Answer · Richard Lochhead: The Scottish Government operates the Scottish Landrace Protection Scheme (SLPS). This scheme is designed to prevent the genetic loss of Scottish landraces by providing a safety net in the event of harvest failure or other loss of seed. The Scots Timothy Seed …

9 Mar 2015 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to expand the range of foreign language courses available in schools.

6 Mar 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many times stocks of O negative blood dropped below six days in the last 12 months.

Answer · Maureen Watt: There were 48 days in the last 12 months (March 2014 to February 2015) where O negative stock was below six days in the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service processing sites. However, it should be noted that normally a similar amount of stock is held b…

6 Mar 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many days' stock of blood there are, broken down by type.

Answer · Maureen Watt: Blood stock levels are provided in the following table for the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS) processing sites and represent number of units stock and work in progress (units being processed), expressed as a ratio of average daily issues.…

17 Feb 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that biomass energy plants do not inflate the price of timber for other sectors, in light of its Electricity Generation Policy Statement - 2013.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: Timber production in Scotland is increasing and the Forestry Commission’s long term forecasts for the availability of future potential softwood indicate increased wood availability up to the 2030s with likely increased availability of small roundwood and sawm…

17 Feb 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-24165 by John Swinney on 5 February 2015, how many hard copies of the Scottish Government's white paper have been ordered in each month since September 2014.

Answer · John Swinney: The number of hard copies of Scotland’s Future ordered in each month since September 2014 is: Month Copies Ordered September (19-09 to 30-09 2014) 78 October 41 November 21 December 20 January 23 February (01-02 to 10-02 2015) 15

9 Feb 2015 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Government how it assists farmers who wish to remove silt from river beds.

5 Feb 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-24165 by John Swinney on 5 February 2015, what it means by "managed in line with usual practice".

Answer · John Swinney: “Managed in line with usual practice” means that a stock is retained for as long as the Scottish Government believes a document has continued significance or there remains demand for copies. Scotland’s Future is a landmark document, is of importance in outli…

3 Feb 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding how many cases of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) have been recorded in Scotland in each year since 1980.

Answer · Maureen Watt: Definite or probable variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) cases in Scotland, where Scotland was the last residence before death, from 1 May 1995 - 31 December 2014, are shown in the following table. No deaths were recorded for vCJD in the UK prior to 199…

3 Feb 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding how many people in Scotland have received a blood transfusion in each year since 1980.

Answer · Maureen Watt: Please refer to the following table that shows the number of patients who received a blood transfusion in Scotland per calendar year. Data was obtained from the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service’s (SNBTS) Account for Blood (established in 2009). Thi…

3 Feb 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to review the regulations regarding people's eligibility to be blood donors.

Answer · Maureen Watt: When assessing a donor’s eligibility the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS) have to take into consideration more than 300 deferral criteria. The guidelines are constantly evolving, for example in calendar year 2014 SNBTS revised 13 of their d…

26 Jan 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-23717 by John Swinney on 18 December 2014, what happened to the 4,614 hard copies of the white paper that were reportedly not distributed.

Answer · John Swinney: Scotland’s Future: Your Guide to an independent Scotland has been available to order at no cost to individuals in hard copy or digital formats since its launch in November 2013. A total of 80,000 hard copies were produced in response to unprecedented demand,…

26 Jan 2015 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to incentivise businesses to pay the living wage.

Answer · Roseanna Cunningham: The Scottish Government fully supports the Living Wage Campaign and recognises the real difference the living wage can make to the people of Scotland. Although the Scottish Government is not able to set pay levels in the private sector, or indeed the private …

12 Jan 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what it considers to be a reasonable timescale for the determination of applications to the Energy Consents Unit for wind turbine developments.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: The Energy Consents and Deployment Unit have an aspirational target of nine months from the point of application for ministers’ determination of wind farm applications where there is no public inquiry or the need for submission of further environmental inform…