John Finnie

13 May 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Police Scotland helicopter will be deployed to the G8 summit in Northern Ireland.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: This is an operational matter for the Chief Constable.

13 May 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what assurances it can give that (a) efficient policing and (b) the safety of communities will not be compromised as a result of Police Scotland officers and staff being deployed at the G8 summit in Northern Ireland.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: This is an operational matter for the Chief Constable.

13 May 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether the costs of back-filling for the Police Scotland (a) officers and (b) staff deployed at the G8 summit in Northern Ireland will be met in full and, if so, by whom.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: Arrangements will be put in place for the Scottish Police Authority to be reimbursed for the cost of officers and staff deployed at the G8 summit.

13 May 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what types of specialist Police Scotland (a) officers and (b) staff will be deployed at the G8 summit in Northern Ireland.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: This is an operational matter for the Chief Constable.

13 May 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many Police Scotland (a) officers and (b) staff will be deployed at the G8 summit in Northern Ireland and who will pay the cost of their deployment.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: The number of Police Scotland officers and staff to be deployed at the G8 summit is an operational matter for the Chief Constable and the Scottish Government does not hold this information. Arrangements will be put in place for the Scottish Police Authority t…

29 Apr 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason arable land at Knocknagael is being sold for housing development rather than agricultural purposes.

Answer · Paul Wheelhouse: Under the Scottish Public Finance Manual Guidelines on the Disposal of Property, Plant and Equipment the Scottish Government is required to dispose of assets which are surplus to requirements as soon as possible, usually within three years and for the best pr…

24 Apr 2013 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to increase the routine use of Gaelic across all its services.

23 Apr 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many freedom of information requests regarding its engagement with the Royal Family it has received in each year since 2007 and how many times the information was (a) released without objection, (b) released on review, (c) released following a decision by the Scottish Information Com…

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The information requested is not held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

27 Mar 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many employees at its farm at (a) Beechwood and (b) Knocknagael have (i) retired, (ii) resigned or (iii) been made redundant in each year since 2007.

Answer · Paul Wheelhouse: Due to the sensitive nature of the information involved it may be possible to identify individuals, even if the information were grouping by directorate/division, because of the very small numbers. The information is therefore withheld under paragraph 38 1 (b…

27 Mar 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many people it has employed at its farm at Beechwood in Inverness; how many dwelling houses there have been at the farm; how many dwelling houses it owned at the farm; how many dwelling houses have been owned and occupied by its employees, and what the nature of the occupancy was, in…

Answer · Paul Wheelhouse: We are unable to provide information relating to staff or their occupation of dwelling houses at Beechwood. Due to the sensitive nature of the information involved it may be possible to identify individuals, even if the information was grouped by directorate/…

27 Mar 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many hectares of its farm at Beechwood in Inverness it has disposed of.

Answer · Paul Wheelhouse: All of the land was sold (86.773ha or thereby) in 2008-2009.

27 Mar 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many hectares were there at its farm at Beechwood in Inverness and to what agricultural use the land was put.

Answer · Paul Wheelhouse: The total area of Beechwood was 86.773 ha or thereby. 83.57has of this was in agricultural use, utilised for arable cropping, winter fodder production and grazing.

27 Mar 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many people it has employed at its farm at Knocknagael; how many dwelling houses there have been at the farm; how many dwelling houses it owned at the farm; how many dwelling houses have been owned and occupied by its employees, and what the nature of the occupancy was, in each year …

Answer · Paul Wheelhouse: We are unable to provide information relating to staff or information relating to the occupation of dwelling houses at Knocknagael and Balrobert. Due to the sensitive nature of the information involved it may be possible to identify individuals, even if the i…

27 Mar 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many hectares of its farm at Knocknagael it plans to dispose of; for what reason, and to what agricultural use the remaining land will be put.

Answer · Paul Wheelhouse: As part of the modernisation of the Stud Farm, 20.3ha (50.15acres) of agricultural land has been identified as surplus to requirements of the modernised Scottish Government Stud Farm Knocknagael. Although this land is currently being used for agriculture prod…

27 Mar 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many hectares of land there are at its farm at Knocknagael and to what agricultural use the land is put.

Answer · Paul Wheelhouse: The Scottish Government Stud Farm Knocknagael (which includes Balrobert) is 259.55Ha, used for arable cropping, production of winter fodder and grazing.

26 Mar 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on companies benefiting from public contracts when they are subject to legal action regarding the use of tax avoidance schemes.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2012 requires public bodies to exclude a company from bidding where it has been convicted of one of the criminal offences laid out in the Regulations. The Regulations also permit exclusion, where it is reasonable an…

26 Mar 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Scottish Public Finance Manual stating that “aggressive tax management in the public sector would be inconsistent with attempts to discourage tax avoidance and evasion in the private sector.  Public sector organisations should therefore, as a general rule, avoid tax mana…

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2012 permits public bodies to exclude bidders who have a relevant criminal conviction or have failed to fulfil obligations relating to the payment of taxes. Companies are asked to disclose this information when com…

19 Mar 2013 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to ensure that fares on public transport do not become so expensive that people are priced back into their cars.

15 Mar 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what regard it has had to Gaelic in relation to the provision of additional pre-school hours. 

Answer · Alasdair Allan: The Children and Young People Bill, currently being developed, includes provisions to increase the current entitlement to 475 hours per year of funded pre-school education for 3 and 4 year olds, to a minimum of 600 hours per year of funded early learning and …

15 Mar 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the recruitment of teachers for Gaelic-medium education.

Answer · Alasdair Allan: There are currently 343 teachers teaching through the medium of Gaelic in all levels from Nursery through to Secondary. In 2012 we saw 24 probationers graduate which was the largest number of Gaelic Medium Teachers ever to come through training in a single ye…

15 Mar 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it compares progress in the (a) use and (b) active promotion of Gaelic with that achieved by Welsh and Irish language authorities.

Answer · Alasdair Allan: The Scottish Government does not directly compare progress made with Gaelic against any other language. All indigenous languages have unique circumstances and face unique challenges which need to be addressed in a manner that suits the specific language. How…

15 Mar 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how it will (a) use and (b) actively promote Gaelic in the forthcoming independence referendum.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: In line with standard practice for elections and referendums, the referendum ballot paper will be provided in English. Counting officers may choose to display a translation of the ballot paper at polling stations if they consider this appropriate and this cou…

15 Mar 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what (a) support and (b) advice it gives to local authorities on facilitating travel for pupils who want to attend primary and secondary Gaelic-medium school.

Answer · Alasdair Allan: Transportation to schools for pupils is a matter for the local authorities, and the Scottish Government has no locus to intervene. However, some local authorities do include an element for transportation in their bids from the Gaelic Specific Grant Scheme un…

15 Mar 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to assess MSPs' satisfaction with its answers to parliamentary questions.

Answer · Joe FitzPatrick: In the event of a member being dissatisfied with an answer received from the Scottish Government, it is open to the member concerned to pursue the matter by lodging a further question, via correspondence or by lodging a motion for debate. The Scottish Minist…

13 Mar 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S4W-13242 and S4W-13243 by Kenny MacAskill on 6 March 2013, whether it will publish information on any final measures required to transpose the obligations of the EU directives into domestic legislation and, if so, when.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: The Scottish Government regularly provides to the Justice Committee a high level update on EU directives. This generally includes an assessment of actions that the Scottish Government might be required to take in order to comply with individual directives. We…

12 Mar 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many operations were cancelled in each NHS board in the Highlands and Islands in each of the last five years due to equipment not being sterilised properly, broken down by specialism; what the cost was to each board, and how much of the cost was for reimbursement of travel and accomm…

Answer · Alex Neil: The specific information requested is not held centrally.

1 Mar 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the levels of (a) oral and (b) written Gaelic proficiency among its staff, broken down by (i) directorate, (ii) department and (iii) location, and what plans it has to increase these levels.

Answer · Alasdair Allan: The Scottish Government completed a Gaelic Language Skills Audit of staff in 2010. Due to the personal data collected we are unable to supply full details of the information gathered however the audit concentrated on skills levels of staff rather than localit…

1 Mar 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what subjects are taught in both Gaelic and English at (a) S1, (b) S2 and (c) from S3 to S6, broken down by (i) local authority and (ii) school.

Answer · Alasdair Allan: The Scottish Government would like to see an expansion of Gaelic medium education in secondary schools. In 2012-13 there were a total of twelve subjects taught through the medium of Gaelic in Scottish schools in both S1 and S2. In S3 and S4 there were eight s…

1 Mar 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what the most recent figure is for the number of pupils discontinuing Gaelic bi-lingual education (a) in the transition to secondary school, (b) at S2 and (c) from S3 to S6; what analysis it has made of the reasons for this, and whether it plans to take steps to reduce these numbers.

Answer · Alasdair Allan: The Scottish Government wants to see an increase in the number of young people in Gaelic medium education and recognises that maintaining pupil continuity at key stages of schooling is a vital part of this. The table below shows the most recent figures from …

1 Mar 2013 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what sanctions there are to deal with public (a) bodies and (b) service providers that do not pursue the terms of their Gaelic language plans. 

Answer · Alasdair Allan: I refer the member to the answer to the question S4W-13423 on 15 March 2013. 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/parliament…