Questions and answers

Question reference: S4W-25723

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2015
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 3 June 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has undertaken or commissioned, or plans to undertake or commission, a review of the operation of the planning regime to assess whether the reforms introduced by the Planning etc. (Scotland) Act 2006 and related legislation and guidance have created a planning service that is (a) fit for purpose, (b) more efficient, (c) more inclusive and (d) sustainable.

Scottish Ministers undertook a review one year after the introduction of the development management regulations which showed that the system was bedding down well but identified some issues. Legislation was subsequently amended to alleviate some of these. We have no plans at present to commission or undertake further general research on the operation of the planning system in Scotland but we will maintain an open dialogue with stakeholders who are involved in the planning process to identify where further improvements could provide the most benefit.

Question reference: S4W-25722

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 3 June 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how much its Directorate for Planning and Environmental Appeals has invoiced each planning authority for examinations into (a) strategic and (b) local development plans, broken down by (i) administrative costs, (ii) staff costs and (iii) overheads.

<>Planning authorities have been invoiced by the Planning and Environmental Appeals Division of the Scottish Government as follows in respect of local and strategic development plan examinations in the period 1 April 2011 to the current date.

Planning Authority	Reporter Costs £	Administration Costs £	Overheads £	Final Cost (including VAT) £
Local Development plans
Aberdeen	83,200	1,280	1,888.88	103,642.66
Aberdeenshire	142,400	2,520	12,161.98	188,498.38
Fife (St Andrews and East Fife)	95,900	1,800	2,116.40	119,779.68
Fife (Dunfermline and West Fife)	110,000	2320	1926.47	137,095.76
Western Isles	11,100	160	714.45	14,369.34
Perth and Kinross	104,600	1248.40	1,154	128,402.86
Dundee	17,500	336	295	21,757.68
Orkney Islands	20,600	756	708	26,476.98
North Ayrshire	43,400	2,568	506	55,769.10
Stirling	83,980	1,008	359	102,416.16
Renfrewshire	59,200	1,425.52	0	72,750.62
South Ayrshire	57,000	1,145.60	477.90	70,348.20
Dumfries and Galloway	59,500	1,246.80	1,838.36	75,102.19
Inverclyde	29,200	432	199.10	35,797.32
Shetland Isles	21,400	345.60	1807.61	28,263.85
Cairngorms	45,700	756.68	703.63	56,592.37
South Lanarkshire	63,700	932.13	322.89	77,946.02
South Lanarkshire (Minerals)	10,800	640	2,534.66	16,769.59
Argyll and Bute	45,500	1,183.40	1,120.70	57,364.92
West Dunbartonshire	28,840	1,608	176.64	36,749.57
East Renfrewshire	62,960	2,126.40	243.75	78,396.18
Falkirk	68,800	1,048.87	524.70	84,448.28
Clackmannan	19,500	580.80	97.65	24,214.14
Clackmannan (Alteration)	8,400	400	71.21	10,645.45
Highland	87,100	2,280	2,262.53	109,971.04
Highland (Inner Moray Firth)	61,000	1,224	365.30	75,107.16
Moray	50,200	259.20	0	60,915.84
Scottish Borders (on-going)	26,040	543	0	31,899.84
Strategic Development Plan
Glasgow and Clyde Valley	11,050	400	0	13,740
TAYplan	13,050	400	173.60	16,348.32
SESplan	19,300	2,046	3147.59	29,392.31
Aberdeen City and Shire	14,300	308	701.80	18,371.76

Question reference: S4W-25721

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2015
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 3 June 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how it discharges its responsibility for overseeing the effective functioning of land-use planning with reference to local review bodies.

Responsibility for the delivery of the planning service in Scotland lies with individual planning authorities. Where a case comes before a local review body for consideration, that review must be undertaken in accordance with The Town and Country Planning (Schemes of Delegation and Local Review Bodies) (Scotland) 2013 and all decisions must be in accordance with the relevant development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise.

Question reference: S4W-25725

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 3 June 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how much it forecasts will be raised by the Landfill Tax in 2015-16, broken down by month.

Question reference: S4W-25730

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 3 June 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what contingency arrangements are in place in the event of a shortfall in revenue from the (a) Landfill Tax and (b) Land and Buildings Transaction Tax.

The Scottish Government has taken a prudent approach to the preparation of forecasts for the devolved taxes. These forecasts have been endorsed as reasonable by the independent Scottish Fiscal Commission.

The Scotland Act 2012 sets out provisions for managing the inevitable increase in forecasting risk which comes with tax devolution. In addition, I confirmed to Parliament at Stage 3 of the Budget Bill, on 4 February 2015, that I had decided to hold £15 million in 2015-16 to provide insurance against such risk.

Question reference: S4W-25736

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 2 June 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-25018 by Fergus Ewing on 2 April 2015, when it will complete its analysis and publish a revised oil and gas bulletin.

Question reference: S4F-02821

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 May 2015

To ask the First Minister how much revenue has been raised by the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax and the Landfill Tax since April 2015.

Question reference: S4O-04340

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 May 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact on disabled people in Scotland of the Department for Work and Pensions' proposal to cap the Access to Work scheme.

Question reference: S4W-25271

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 12 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has taken account of spending on extra welfare and pensions costs in its proposals to boost UK spending by £165 billion and, if not, how these would be paid for.

The Scottish Government will make it a priority to press the incoming UK Government for an end to the current austerity agenda. Our proposal is to increase spending on public services by 0.5% a year in real terms from 2016-17 to 2019-20. This is estimated to provide at least an additional £140 billion of resources in real terms over the period 2016-17 to 2019-20 compared to the spending plans published in the March 2015 UK Budget. These plans are fiscally sustainable as both the deficit and national debt would be falling as a share of GDP by the end of this Parliament.

Question reference: S4W-25272

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 12 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish an assessment of the cost of its proposals for (a) freezing the retirement age, (b) scrapping the so-called bedroom tax, (c) fully retaining child benefit and (d) increasing universal credit.

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