Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S4W-27808

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 20 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on microchipping cats.

Question reference: S4W-27467

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 25 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of paragraphs 61 to 63 of the National Accommodation Strategy for Sex Offenders in Scotland, which deal with out-of-area placements and exceptional circumstances, on how many occasions in each of the last four years sex offenders have been relocated outwith their local area.

The Scottish Government does not collect this information. The National Accommodation Strategy for Sex Offenders (NASSO) explains that the responsibility for making the necessary arrangements for an out of area placement lies with the placing local authority. The NASSO also places the responsibility on local authorities for ensuring that monitoring arrangements are in place to track the incidence of out-of-area placements.

Question reference: S4T-01103

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 07 September 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what benefits it considers there will be for Midlothian and the Borders from the Borders Railway.

Question reference: S4W-26991

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 August 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 27 August 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider amending Regulation 7 (2) (d) of the Public Services Reform (Social Services Inspections) (Scotland) Regulations 2011 (SSI 2011/185) regarding interviewing employees to include former employees who were employed at the premises during the period to which a complaint applies.

Regulation seven of SSI 2011/185 does not prevent former employees from being interviewed as part of an investigation into the provision of care standards, should they consent to doing so. Regulation seven (1) confers broad powers in relation to interviews while Regulation 7 (2) provides examples of the use of that power. As I explained in earlier correspondence, there is no provision on former employees to participate in an investigation against their will, however they often do so at their own choosing. I am aware that in a few cases this may have resulted in some employees choosing not to participate in an investigation into a care service they were employed in at the time of a complaint. It is important that scrutiny organisations such as the Care Inspectorate are empowered to fully investigate all aspects of complaints against care service providers.

The Care Inspectorate’s view is that this is not a significant barrier to allowing them to investigate complaints. However in order to ensure complaints can be suitably investigated I have asked them to keep this under review.

Question reference: S4W-26149

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 June 2015
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 10 July 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-20420 by Kenny MacAskill on 10 June 2014, what the most recent information is that it has on how many dog wardens there are, also broken down by local authority.

The most recent figures provided by local authorities are contained in the following table:

Local Authority	Number of Dog Wardens
Aberdeen City	2
Aberdeenshire	3
Angus	1
Argyll and Bute	8
Clackmannanshire	2
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	0
Dumfries and Galloway	3
Dundee City	2
East Ayrshire	1
East Dunbartonshire	2
East Lothian	2
East Renfrewshire	18 Full Time 2 Part Time
City of Edinburgh	1
Falkirk	2
Fife	3
Glasgow City	2
Highland	7
Inverclyde	1
Midlothian	2
Moray	2
North Ayrshire	1
North Lanarkshire	3
Orkney	n/a
Perth and Kinross	3
Renfrewshire	2
Scottish Borders	0
Shetland Islands	2
South Ayrshire	1
South Lanarkshire	1
Stirling	2
West Dunbartonshire	1
West Lothian	2

*Orkney Council have not provided up-to-date figures.

It should be noted that not all of the figures provided by local authorities are for dedicated dog wardens. In some local authorities, dog warden duties are carried out by officers together with a range of other duties such as pest control and fly tipping enforcement in their capacity as community wardens or animal welfare and pest control officers. It is also the case that some authorised officers in terms of the Control of Dogs (Scotland) Act 2010 carry out general dog warden duties within their role of authorised officer.

Question reference: S4W-26324

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 June 2015
Current Status: Answered by Aileen McLeod on 1 July 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to review the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002.

Question reference: S4W-26237

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 June 2015
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 1 July 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on expanding the use of the “Solitaire” stent in people who have had an ischaemic stroke.

New treatments which may increase positive outcomes for people who have suffered an ischaemic stroke are to be welcomed. Trials in clot retrieval are important in order to build a strong evidence base to ascertain whether this treatment is safe and effective.

We remain committed to exploring the options for this treatment, starting with looking at the trial evidence and the outcome of the assessment which we recently funded.

Question reference: S4F-02883

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 June 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 June 2015

To ask the First Minister whether the Scottish Government will introduce cervical screening for women over 60.

Question reference: S4F-02756

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 April 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 April 2015

To ask the First Minister what recent communications there have been between the Scottish Government and the Home Office regarding an independent inspection of Dungavel detention centre.

Question reference: S4W-25001

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Lesley Thomson on 1 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has had discussions with the Lord Advocate with a view to prosecuting the sale of new psychoactive substances, or so-called legal highs, following the precedent of Khaliq and Anor v HMA 1983 SCCR 483 (CCA); 1984 JC 23; 1984 SLT 137, in which the High Court on appeal refused to accept that there was any distinction between supply with knowledge of likely abuse and actual administration of a dangerous substance to a child.

In a previous answer to Parliament (S4O-04048) on 25 February 2015, I referred to the work that had already been undertaken by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) in this area. I attach a link to the Official Report: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28862.aspx?r=9797

COPFS issued guidance to Police Scotland in August 2014 prior to their national day of action on 22 August 2014 under Operation Redwall. The guidance specifically covered the use of the offence of culpable and reckless conduct and the type of evidence that would be required. COPFS continues to work with the police, local authorities and trading standards to ensure that, in this difficult area of law, the offence of culpable and reckless behaviour and other types of offences, in particular those under the product safety regulations are used when they are appropriate.

The Scottish Government thereafter on the 26 February 2015 published the review of the current legal framework available to govern the sale and supply of new psychoactive substances (NPS) which was carried out by the New Psychoactive Substances Expert Review Group. COPFS were represented on that group. The report is available at the following link:

http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2015/02/3802/0

The group considered the use of the common law offence of culpable and reckless conduct and looked at the case of Khaliq v HMA. They concluded that the offence of culpable and reckless conduct could be relevant to the sale and supply of NPS in certain circumstances.