Questions and answers

Question reference: S5O-00376

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 November 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will issue guidance to schools regarding how the money raised through its council tax reforms can be spent to raise attainment levels.

Question reference: S5W-04464

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 16 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is classifying solar cell and panels as plant and machinery to allow them to be exempt from business rates on a permanent basis in order to support growth in the sector, and what discussions it has had or plans with the UK Government regarding this.

Question reference: S5W-04463

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 16 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on exempting microgeneration from business rates on a permanent basis in order to support the development of small-scale renewables.

Question reference: S5W-03349

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 16 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding keeping protected food names for Scottish products in the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).

Question reference: S5W-03347

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 16 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what the legal impact would be of it introducing a complete ban on fracking if the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) is agreed.

Question reference: S5W-03348

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 16 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S5W-00972 and S5W-00973 by Keith Brown on 12 July 2016, whether it will publish its assessment of the possible impact on Scotland of the Section D provisions of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).

The Scottish Government believes in free and open trade and we welcome the benefits that trade agreements can bring, in CETA, particularly the elimination of nearly all import duties and strengthened cooperation between European and Canadian standard setting bodies. However we must take the greatest care to ensure that issues about which the public are rightly concerned are dealt with.

NHS Scotland has not been specifically listed as exempt from the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).

As indicated in response to S5W-00972, the Scottish Government carried out an initial assessment of the Section D provisions of CETA and considered it unlikely that these would to any appreciable extent restrict the legislation which the Scottish Parliament can pass in the interests of the public and the environment. Since then, it was announced on 29 February 2016 that the European Commission and the Canadian Government have agreed to include a new approach on investment protection and investment dispute settlement, the investor Court System in CETA.

Whilst this goes some way to addressing concerns about ISDS, the Scottish Government remains of the view that, given the established legal systems and strong rule of law in the EU and Canada, disputes between investors and states should be settled in domestic courts. Furthermore, the Scottish Ministers have emphasised that Governments must be free to act and regulate in the public interest and that CETA must not include anything which enables companies to sue because they disagree with democratic public policy. We understand that the Commission will work with Canada to further elaborate some of the parameters of this new system and look forward to seeing the outcome of that work.

Our initial assessment constituted legal advice and, as such, we would not publish that advice.

In September 2016, the former Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Food and the Environment wrote to the UK Government's Secretary of State for Agriculture, Rural Affairs and the Environment seeking an explanation as to why, when other countries have sought protection, the UK Government does not appear to have put forward any Protected Food Names for inclusion in CETA to give Scottish producers protection in Canada. However we welcome the fact that the agreement means the EU can add other products' names to the list in the future.

Now that Canada and the EU have signed the agreement it will be laid before the UK Parliament for ratification. Now is an opportune time to re emphasise to the UK Government that our ability to regulate and our ability to determine how the national health service should operate in our country should in no way be compromised by trade agreements and I have written today to Secretary of State for International Trade in those terms.

Question reference: S5W-04423

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 14 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what guidelines it produces for local authorities when they are assessing individuals for the Blue Badge scheme.

Question reference: S5W-04424

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 14 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will review allowing local authorities to charge people a fee for Blue Badge scheme applications.

Question reference: S5W-04342

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 31 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 8 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government when the Scottish Natural Heritage review of gamebird licensing systems in other European countries will be published.

Question reference: S5W-04341

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 31 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 8 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on inviting the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee to consider the Scottish Natural Heritage review of gamebird hunting and its implications for helping to develop more sustainable and better regulated systems of gamebird hunting and reduce wildlife crime, and to consider conducting an inquiry into how such a system might operate.

The report of the desk-based review of game bird hunting in selected other countries will be considered by the Scottish Government when it is formally submitted by Scottish Natural Heritage. Any decisions on next steps will be taken in the light of that consideration. It is a matter for the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee to decide whether to consider the report of the review as part of its programme of work.

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