Finlay Carson

29 Nov 2016 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many jobs have been supported (a) directly and (b) indirectly by fishing for (i) shellfish and (ii) whitefish in Scottish inshore waters in each of the last 10 years.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: The Scottish Government publishes annually the total number of fishermen employed on Scottish registered vessels in the Scottish Sea Fisheries Statistics report. Data is also reported for each Scottish district and region. The 2016 report includes data from 2…

29 Nov 2016 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what the total (a) tonnage and (b) value of whitefish catches was from within the Scottish inshore waters area in each of the last 10 years.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: The Scottish Government publishes annually the quantity and value of fish landings for individual International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) statistical rectangles on its website. This follows the annual publication of each Scottish Sea Fishe…

29 Nov 2016 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) briefing, SB 16-94 The Living Wage: Facts and Figures, which shows that Dumfries and Galloway as the highest proportion of employees earning below the living wage.

Answer · Keith Brown: The SPICe publication showed that Scotland remained the best performing of all four UK countries with the highest proportion of employees paid the Living Wage or more (79.9%). Whilst this is welcome news, there remains more to do and the figure for Dumfries a…

29 Nov 2016 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will conduct a review of potentially vulnerable areas (PVAs), in light of floods in 2016 when areas not currently designated as PVAs were severely flooded.

Answer · Roseanna Cunningham: The Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009 requires SEPA to carry out a National Flood Risk Assessment (NFRA) every 6 years, and from this identify Potentially Vulnerable Areas (PVAs) where a significant flood risk exists. SEPA is now starting the process …

29 Nov 2016 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how it engages with local communities when implementing the Scottish Safety Camera Programme.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: Local governance and scrutiny of Scottish Safety Camera Programme activity and operations is realised through existing Community Planning structures, associated Community Safety Partnerships, or other relevant bodies (e.g. Local Authority-led Road Safety Foru…

23 Nov 2016 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many GPs have been recruited in Dumfries and Galloway through the bursary incentive, and how many posts remain vacant.

21 Nov 2016 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the economic impact of agriculture in Dumfries and Galloway.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: The economic impact of agriculture in Dumfries and Galloway is assessed annually in the Economic Report on Scottish Agriculture. This publication includes information for Dumfries and Galloway on agricultural labour, agricultural holdings, standard labour req…

21 Nov 2016 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many planning appeals in respect of wind turbine applications in Dumfries and Galloway have been received in the last three years, and how many were successful.

Answer · Kevin Stewart: The number of planning appeals received in respect of wind turbine applications in Dumfries and Galloway in the last three years* are set out in the following table: Appeals Received Appeals Allowed (planning permission granted) Appeals Dismissed (Planni…

21 Nov 2016 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to encourage tourism from Northern Ireland.

Answer · Fiona Hyslop: VisitScotland is actively engaged in promoting Scotland to visitors from Northern Ireland and undertakes a range of marketing activities. In April and May 2016, VisitScotland ran a destination campaign encouraging Northern Irish visitors to come to Scotland …

21 Nov 2016 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to reduce illegal puppy trafficking from taking place at Cairnryan.

Answer · Roseanna Cunningham: Unfortunately the movement of puppies originating from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland via Cairnyan is only part of a wider long-running issue of national concern including the illegal or irresponsible breeding and sale of puppies and other pet a…

18 Nov 2016 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many children have been removed from school education in the last two years, broken down by (a) local authority area and (b) age.

Answer · John Swinney: This information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

18 Nov 2016 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government which organisation is responsible for the health and safety of walkers on core paths.

Answer · Roseanna Cunningham: Health and safety is a complex area of law and is not the responsibility of any one organisation alone. Land managers owe a duty of care to people entering onto their land whether or not this is a core path and may, for example, restrict access when machinery…

18 Nov 2016 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what responsibility local authorities have for the upkeep of core paths.

Answer · Roseanna Cunningham: Local authorities have no statutory obligation for the upkeep of core paths but under Section 19 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 they have the power to do anything that they consider appropriate for the purpose of maintaining a core path or keeping a c…

18 Nov 2016 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what mechanism is in place to report safety concerns on core paths, and to whom these concerns should be reported.

Answer · Roseanna Cunningham: Safety concerns should be reported to the relevant local authority or national park authority.

16 Nov 2016 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many FoI requests have been made to Transport Scotland in the last 12 months and, of that number, how many have been fully answered on time.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: From 1 October 2015 through 31 October 2016, Transport Scotland has received 469 Freedom of Information requests. 90% of the cases responded to were answered on time.

3 Nov 2016 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to encourage fish farms to report incidences of amoebic gill disease.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: Fish farmers are required, under the Aquatic Animal Health (Scotland) Regulations 2009 to report increased fish mortality to either the Competent Authority (the Fish Health Inspectorate acting on behalf of Scottish Ministers) or to a veterinarian. In addition…

3 Nov 2016 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the culling of farmed fish stocks that are affected by amoebic gill disease.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: AGD is not a notifiable disease under EU fish health legislation. Statutory powers available under aquatic animal health legislation in relation to notifiable diseases are therefore not applicable to the culling of fish farm stocks affected by Amoebic Gill Di…

3 Nov 2016 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what economic modelling it is aware of on the impact of amoebic gill disease on farmed salmon stocks.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: Scottish Government is not aware of any economic modelling associated with farmed salmon stocks in Scotland in relation to impacts of Amoebic Gill Disease.

3 Nov 2016 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to stop the spread of amoebic gill disease from farmed salmon to wild fish.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: Scottish Government, through Marine Scotland’s Fish Health Inspectorate, encourages best practice and ensures regulatory conformity with respect to biosecurity measures within aquaculture in order to prevent or minimise the spread of any diseases and to reduc…

2 Nov 2016 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to protect employment in the agricultural sector.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: We are acting decisively to protect employment in the agricultural sector. We have put in place the 2016 CAP Basic Payment loan scheme to pump up to £300 million into farm businesses and indirectly, the wider rural economy this winter. When I launched this sc…

25 Oct 2016 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what the Scottish Ambulance Service’s position is on supporting the development of additional first response teams in communities.

Answer · Shona Robison: The Scottish Ambulance Service, in partnership with communities across the country and the wider NHS, continuously reviews opportunities to develop new Community First Responder (CFR) schemes to help improve community resilience across Scotland. The SAS Comm…

19 Oct 2016 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Government how it empowers communities to have more of a say in matters that affect them.

7 Oct 2016 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many residential properties in the (a) Dumfries and Galloway Council area and (b) Galloway and West Dumfries parliamentary constituency have the broadband infrastructure capacity to receive speeds in excess of 24mbps.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: The following table lists the numbers and percentages of superfast (24Mbps+) coverage in (a) the Dumfries and Galloway Council area and (b) Galloway and West Dumfries parliamentary constituency, in relation to the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband roll-out…

4 Oct 2016 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many NHS locum consultants (a) have and (b) have not passed their consultant exams, also broken down by NHS board.

Answer · Shona Robison: There is no such thing as a consultant exam, or any exam specifically linked to Locums. The end point for all UK medical specialty training in the UK is called the Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT), and all training programme are approved by the GMC…

4 Oct 2016 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many claims Transport Scotland has received in each of the last three years for damage to cars arising from potholes on each trunk road, broken down by how many claims (a) were approved and the annual amount of compensation paid, (b) were rejected and (c) are to be resolved.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: No such claims have been approved or rejected by Transport Scotland. Under the terms of the contracts between Transport Scotland and the Trunk Road Operating Companies, the relevant Operating Company is required to indemnify the Scottish Ministers’ against al…

20 Sep 2016 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the work of the Stranraer taskforce, including when it will next meet.

Answer · Kevin Stewart: Scottish Government established the Stranraer Taskforce to work with Dumfries and Galloway Council and a number of other local partners, to explore the potential for the future of the Stranraer Waterfront, following the relocation of ferry services from the t…

6 Sep 2016 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what suitable sites it has identified for new hydro-electric schemes.

Answer · Paul Wheelhouse: It is the role of developers, rather than the Scottish Government, to identify suitable sites for new hydro-electric schemes in Scotland. However, the Scottish Government is committed to encouraging and promoting hydro-electric power and creating a supportiv…

5 Sep 2016 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will introduce a scheme similar to the UK Government initiative, Flood Re, and, if so, whether this will offer support to businesses.

Answer · Roseanna Cunningham: Flood Re already covers the whole of the UK, including Scotland. It was designed for home insurance purposes as the UK Government felt that there was insufficient evidence to justify government intervention in the provision of insurance cover for small busine…

31 Aug 2016 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made on the creation of new national parks and what consideration it has given to creating one in Galloway.

29 Aug 2016 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many kill licences for fishing have been issued in Dumfries and Galloway since January 2016.

Answer · Roseanna Cunningham: None. The Scottish Government has not introduced kill licences for salmon fishing. Marine Scotland consulted on such a proposal in 2015 but following extensive stakeholder engagement elected to introduce conservation limits instead. This was introduced thro…