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-23705

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 December 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 13 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what support it offers to people who experience difficulties in meeting funeral costs.

Question reference: S4W-23698

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 December 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 13 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how it will use its proposed new power regarding funeral payment benefit to help support people who experience difficulties in meeting funeral costs.

Question reference: S4W-23758

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 19 December 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 13 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-23268 by Alex Neil on 5 December 2014, how many of the listed public authorities with more than 150 employees have not published an equal pay statement since the public sector equality duty was established.

The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2012 came into force on 27May 2012. Listed authorities with more than 150 employees were required to publish statements on equal pay etc. by 30 April 2013 and every fourth year after that.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission is the enforcement body for the public sector equality duties. During 2013 it undertook monitoring of the regulations including the requirement to publish equal pay statements. Its reports can be accessed at:

http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/about-us/devolved-authorities/commission-scotland/public-sector-equality-duty-scotland/monitoring-and-enforcement.

Reports published in November 2013 by the commission indicate that, overall, 95 per cent of relevant listed authorities published an equal pay policy. Eight out of 160 listed authorities with more than 150 employees did not publish an equal pay statement.

Question reference: S4F-02525

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 12 January 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 January 2015

To ask the First Minister for what reason the Scottish Government’s budget underspends have increased over the last few years when its budgets have been reduced.

Question reference: S4W-23699

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 December 2014
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 8 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will review the charges set by (a) local authorities and (b) private crematoria for (i) burial plots or cremations and (ii) the interment of remains, and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.

Question reference: S4W-23697

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 December 2014
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 8 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the report in the Daily Record on 8 December 2014 that, in the last five years, almost 2,500 people in Scotland have been buried in unmarked local authority graves.

Question reference: S4W-23706

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 December 2014
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 8 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it considers that the charges set by (a) local authorities and (b) private crematoria for (i) burial plots or cremations and (ii) interment of remains can lead to a so-called postcode lottery for people who have to meet funeral costs, and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.

Question reference: S4W-23691

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 15 December 2014
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 7 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will investigate staffing levels in NHS Lanarkshire's chronic pain services and a reported shortage of nurses trained to administer lignocaine infusions.

It is a matter for NHS Lanarkshire to plan and deliver services to meet the needs of their resident population, including their workforce requirements.

I am advised that the lignocaine infusion service in NHS Lanarkshire is normally provided by two consultants and one nurse. In addition, two physician assistants have been engaged to help provide the service.

The training of nursing staff to support the service in the day unit (and the existing specialist chronic pain nurse) is currently taking place. The Scottish Government has also been assured that staffing requirements will be considered as part of the board’s full chronic pain service review.

Question reference: S4W-23801

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S4W-23724

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 December 2014
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 6 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-23546 by Fiona Hyslop on 17 December 2014, how much financial support it will provide for the establishment of a film/TV studio.