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: S4F-00420

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 January 2012

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions' statement that the UK Government's proposed benefit reforms will not lead to an increase in child poverty in Scotland.

Question reference: S4W-04332

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 November 2011
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 8 December 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what actions it is taking regarding the operation of the Scottish Greenbelt Company Limited and the maintenance of common parts in various developments in the Scottish Borders.

The Scottish Government is taking forward two main areas of work to raise the standard of services provided by land maintenance companies.

Earlier this year the Scottish Government issued this consultation http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2011/03/04104005/17.

It asked for views on whether any changes should be made to legislation, such as the Title Conditions (Scotland) Act 2003, in relation to dismissing and replacing bodies carrying out land maintenance on private housing estates. We are currently considering the responses to this consultation.

We are also working on implementing the Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011, which will come fully into force on 1 October 2012. Its main aim is to create a statutory framework which will provide protection for homeowners in Scotland who use the services of property and land managers.

One of the elements of the act is the introduction of a statutory Code of Conduct setting out minimum standards of practice which all registered property factors, including land maintenance companies, will have to comply with. We are currently consulting on a draft of this Code of Conduct: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2011/09/23151014/0. This consultation closes on 16 December 2011.

Question reference: S4F-00313

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 November 2011
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 December 2011

To ask the First Minister how many cases the Scottish Government considers might be affected retrospectively by the Double Jeopardy (Scotland) Act 2011.

Question reference: S4W-04021

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 November 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 23 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the (a) Cabinet Secretary for Justice or (b) Lord Advocate had received any communication from the (i) US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, (ii) Home Office or (iii) interim Libyan government concerning proposals to extradite Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi to the USA.

Question reference: S4W-03742

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 November 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 9 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) investigations have been carried out and (b) dog control notices have been issued since the commencement of the Control of Dogs (Scotland) Act 2010, broken down by local authority.

Individual local authorities have provided information in the following table that provides a breakdown of the number of investigations carried out and Dog Control Notices served by each local authority since the Control of Dogs (Scotland) Act 2010 came into force on 26 February 2011. The information is current up to 4 November 2011.

Local Authority	Number of Dog Control Notices Served	Number of Investigations
Aberdeen City Council	2	159
Aberdeenshire Council	2	51
Angus Council	0	25
Argyll and Bute Council	4	11
Clackmannanshire Council	0	25
Dumfries and Galloway Council	1	12
Dundee City Council	0	2
East Ayrshire Council	8	17
East Dunbartonshire Council	6	17
East Lothian Council	10	11
East Renfrewshire Council	0	1
Edinburgh City Council	0	2
Falkirk Council	0	3
Fife Council	5	25
Glasgow City Council	0	7
Highland Council	2	6
Inverclyde Council	0	0
Midlothian Council	0	8
Moray Council	0	20
North Ayrshire Council	1	15
North Lanarkshire Council	0	11
Orkney Council	0	2
Perth and Kinross Council	0	36
Renfrewshire Council	0	26
Scottish Borders Council	2	12
Shetland Islands Council	3	4
South Ayrshire Council	0	1
South Lanarkshire Council	0	25
Stirling Council	1	18
West Dunbartonshire Council	0	23
West Lothian Council	20	117
Western Isles Council	0	1
Total	67	693

Question reference: S4W-03077

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 18 October 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S4W-02834 by Nicola Sturgeon on 29 September 2011, whether it will introduce legislation to regulate the charging of fees by private care homes.

Question reference: S4W-02834

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 29 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will review the regulations relating to the charging regime of private care homes.

Question reference: S4W-02383

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 29 August 2011
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 12 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S4W-01679 by Roseanna Cunningham on 11 August 2011, what the timetable is for its proposed legislation on high hedges.

Question reference: S4W-02245

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 August 2011
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 8 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how much VAT it has paid since 2007, broken down by year.

The total VAT paid by the Scottish Executive in each of the financial years from 2007, is shown in the following table.

FY	VAT Paid	VAT Recovered
	£000	£000
2007-08	107,178	53,805
2008-09	110,165	65,757
2009-10	106,765	65,159
2010-11	107,229	65,180
Total	431,337	249,901

The figures relate to the Core Scottish Executive and executive agencies that are part of the Scottish Executive VAT registration.

Question reference: S4F-00101

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 September 2011
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 September 2011

To ask the First Minister, in light of the reported discovery of documents relating to the Gaddafi regime's connections with the US and UK intelligence services, whether the Scottish Government has requested access to any such documents that might be relevant to the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie.