Questions and answers

Question reference: S4W-11034

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 November 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 22 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it will take to ensure that the recall of certain batches of Infanrix Hexa has no impact on children in Scotland.

Question reference: S4W-11037

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 November 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 22 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what arrangements there are for the independent monitoring of (a) quality control and (b) hygiene regulation in vaccine manufacturing establishments.

There is a legal requirement for National Competent Authorities (NCAs) to supervise all manufacturers of pharmaceutical products, which includes vaccines, for human and veterinary use. This supervision is achieved by the initial and periodic re-inspection (and where necessary, unannounced inspections) of all manufacturing sites to determine whether they meet the required standards (good manufacturing practice.

Where this standard is met an authorisation to manufacture is granted. For human medicinal products manufactured in the UK, the NCA is the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency which has put in place robust procedures to ensure that it discharges its responsibilities in an independent manner.

Question reference: S4W-11074

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 November 2012
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 21 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will review the ETSU-R-97 spatial regulation on wind farm deployments and housing, in light of recently published studies on the effects of wind farms on health.

Question reference: S4W-11058

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 November 2012
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 20 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what companies received funding from the Scottish Investment Bank in 2011-12, broken down by (a) region and (b) amount provided.

Question reference: S4W-11057

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 November 2012
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 20 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what the criteria are for receiving funding from the Scottish Investment Bank.

Question reference: S4F-01003

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 November 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 November 2012

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government is doing to ensure that the 2014 Year of Homecoming is a success.

Question reference: S4W-10858

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 November 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 15 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what capital investment projects, that it has funded, are underway in Mid Scotland and Fife and what the (a) completion date and (b) cost is of each project.

An outline of capital investment projects currently underway in the Mid Scotland and Fife region which, are funded or part funded by the Scottish Government is included in the following table.

Project Name	Capital Value (£m)	Estimated Completion
Forth Replacement Crossing	1450-1600	December 2016
A9 Dualling Perth to Inverness	1500-3000	December 2025
Halbeath Park & Ride, Fife	10	October 2013
Auchmuty High School, Fife ¹	30	August 2013
St. John's / Claremont Primary School, Clackmannanshire ¹	8.5	August 2014
Invergowrie Primary, Perth & Kinross ¹	6.5	September 2013
Riverside Primary, Stirling ¹	3.5	August 2013
Craigbank Primary School, Clackmannanshire ²	To be confirmed	To be confirmed
New Secondary School to replace Buckhaven and Kirkland High Schools, Fife ²	To be confirmed	To be confirmed
New Secondary School, Perth & Kinross ²	To be confirmed	To be confirmed
St Ninian’s Primary School, Stirling ²	To be confirmed	To be confirmed
Glenwood Health Centre, Fife	6	January 2014
Tayside Child and Adolescent Mental Health Unit, Perth	9	April 2014
Affordable Housing Provision ³	15	2013-14

Notes

1. These schools form part of Phase 1 and 2 of the Scottish Government’s
£1.25 billion ‘Scotland’s Schools for the Future School Building Programme’.

2. These schools form part of Phase 3 of the Scottish Government’s £1.25 billion ‘Scotland’s Schools for the Future School Building Programme’ which was announced on 26 September 2012. Detailed planning and design is still to be undertaken for each school and the capital value and completion dates are still subject to confirmation.

3. The £15m relates to current Scottish Government investment in affordable housing through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP) within the Mid Scotland and Fife area which has been approved and which is underway.

Note also that the Scottish Government has given Fife Council approval to develop proposals for its Energy Park Project (£17m) by way of Tax Incremental Financing and the council is currently working with the Scottish Futures Trust to develop a full business case for Ministers’ consideration.

Question reference: S4W-10874

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 November 2012
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 15 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how many homes were considered to be in fuel poverty in (a) Perth and Kinross, (b) Stirling and (c) Fife in each of the last five years.

Local Authority level fuel poverty analysis is performed on three years of data to include enough cases to be statistically robust. As such fuel poverty figures are not available for each calendar year. These figures represent the mid point of the data collection period based on calendar years.

Year

Local Authority

Fuel Poor Households

		Number	Percent of LA	Sample
2008-2010	Perth and Kinross	24,000	36	245
	Stirling	11,000	29	229
	Fife	49,000	31	426
2007-2009	Perth and Kinross	24,000	37	254
	Stirling	9,000	25	239
	Fife	50,000	32	408

Full details are available from the Scottish House Condition Survey website.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/SHCS/keyanalyses

Question reference: S4W-10691

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 October 2012
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 14 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what the incidence rate is of squirrel pox virus.

Question reference: S4W-10690

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 October 2012
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 14 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to protect the red squirrel in 2013, one of the 10 iconic species selected in the Year of Natural Scotland.

The Scottish Government works with Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), NGOs and landowners to protect red squirrels in Scotland. The Scottish Rural Development Programme (SRDP) provides funding for red squirrel conservation such as habitat management and grey squirrel control. The value of the 5 year SRDP contracts, which run from 2009-2014, is expected to exceed £1.5 million.

SNH is contributing £1 million to the Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels (SSRS) project, which now incorporates the Red Squirrels in South Scotland (RSSS) project.

The SSRS project includes raising awareness and encouraging appropriate habitat management in Grampian, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs and Tayside.

The RSSS is focused on the containment of the squirrel pox virus through the control of grey squirrels in the south of Scotland. Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS) is contributing £100,000 and also provides three full time grey squirrel control officers in the south of Scotland.

A further area of current conservation action is to promote forest management for red squirrels. FCS has identified red squirrel stronghold areas and is working with forest managers to make red squirrel conservation a high priority in these forests.

Recognising the importance of red squirrels to the Scottish public, they are one of the species to be highlighted as part of the Year of Natural Scotland in 2013. This will help raise further public awareness of this native species and of what is being done to protect them and, in particular, will advertise where there are opportunities to view red squirrels.

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