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-22662

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 28 October 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what its position on whether activity at the medical assessment unit at the Vale of Leven Hospital should be (a) reduced or (b) removed before April 2017 and whether it is aware of any plans to do so.

Question reference: S4W-22650

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 28 October 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to help reduce the gender pay gap.

One of the strategic aims of the Scottish Government’s public sector pay policy is to ensure that pay is fair and non-discriminatory and to protect jobs and services. All public bodies covered by this policy are expected to review their pay systems annually and carry out an equality impact assessment of their reward policies and practices every three years.

To ensure the implementation of the public sector equality duty in the Equality Act 2010 is as effective as possible, the Scottish Government introduced a specific duty that places a requirement on relevant public authorities to publish gender pay gap information and a duty to publish statements on equal pay.

The Scottish Government’s submission to the Smith Commission calls for the devolution of employment and employability policy, including responsibility for setting the minimum wage; all employability programmes; and equal opportunities and equality policy. This would allow the Scottish Government to take more action to tackle the gender pay gap, including undertaking a review of the costs and benefits of mandatory gender pay audits.

Question reference: S4W-22663

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 28 October 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have attended the (a) minor injuries and (b) medical assessment unit at the Vale of Leven Hospital in each year since 2007.

a) The numbers of new and unplanned return attendances to the minor injuries unit at the Vale of Leven Hospital for financial years from June 2007 to June 2014 are shown in the following table:

Financial Year	Number of Attendances at Vale of Leven Minor Injuries Unit
June 2007 to March 2008	12112
2008-09	14786
2009-10	15783
2010-11	15197
2011-12	14602
2012-13	14492
2013-14	15073
April 2014 to June 2014	4151

Source: A&E data mart, ISD Scotland.

b) Information on the number of attendances at the medical assessment unit at the Vale of Leven Hospital is not available centrally.

Question reference: S4W-22664

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 28 October 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has cost to run the medical assessment unit at the Vale of Leven Hospital in each year since 2007.

Question reference: S4W-22666

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 28 October 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing's comments in the Lennox Herald on 19 September 2014 regarding the medical assessment unit at the Vale of Leven Hospital in which he is reported to have said, “I give you a guarantee now that services in the Vale will continue and we are actually looking at improvements we can make north of the river in terms of accident and emergency services. I can assure your readers that this is not going to affect the Vale hospital. It will have absolutely no impact on the Vale whatsoever” are accurate and, if so, reflect Scottish Government policy.

Question reference: S4W-22649

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 28 October 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what the gender pay gap has been for (a) full-time and (b) part-time employees in each year since 2007-08.

The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) provides information about the levels, distribution and make-up of earnings and hours worked for employees in all industries and occupations. The latest data provides a snapshot of earnings as at 17 April 2013. The gender pay gap is calculated using median hourly earnings excluding overtime.

Gender pay gap for full-time and part-time employees:

Year	Gender pay gap: full-time employees	Gender pay gap: part-time employees
2007	11.9%	-2.2%
2008	10.8%	-10.9%
2009	8.5%	-7.2%
2010	7.4%	-8.3%
2011^a	5.8%	-10.4%
2011^b	6.6%	-10.3%
2012	8.4%	-10.3%
2013	7.6%	-10.9%

Source: ASHE, April 2007–April 2013, Office for National Statistics

Notes:

1. Covers employees aged 16+ on the PAYE system on adult rates whose pay was not affected by absence

2. There are two sets of results for 2011. Estimates for 2007-2011^a are based on Standard Occupational Classification 2000 and are directly comparable. Estimates for 2011^b-2013 are based on Standard Occupational Classification 2010 and are directly comparable. The results for 2007-2011^a and 2011^b-2013 should not be directly compared.

3. The gender pay gap of 7.6% in 2013 for full-time employees can be interpreted as, for those working full-time, women earning 7.6% less than men. The gender pay gap of -10.9% in 2013 for part-time employees can be interpreted as, for those working
part-time, women earning 10.9% more than men.

Question reference: S4W-22651

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 28 October 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on tackling the gender pay gap in each year since 2007-08.

Since 2007-08 the Scottish Government has committed £3,912,003 to fund projects aimed at tackling the gender pay gap and occupational segregation which is a cause of the gender pay gap. Funding is provided to a range of organisations including: Close the Gap, Equate Scotland (formerly the Scottish Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology), Women@work, Women onto Work and the Career Wise Initiative.

Funding provided to each organisation in each of the years from 2007 to 2015 is contained in the following table.

	2007-2008	2008-2009	2009-2010	2010-2011	2011-2012	2012-2015	Total
Close the Gap	£110,000	£183,206	£203,182	£208,342	£205,000	£615,000	£1,524,730
Women @work	£64,500	£89,164	£95,455	£95,456	£95,405	£292,295	£732,275
Women onto Work	£130,000	£159,204	£129,948	£132,848		£225,000	£777,000
Equate Scotland					£26,000	£601,998	£627,998
Career Wise Initiative						£250,000	£250,000
							£3,912,003

Question reference: S4W-22809

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 28 October 2014

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-22577 by Margaret Burgess on 3 October 2014, whether it will issue guidance to local authorities on cancelling arrears of the so-called bedroom tax arising in 2013/14.

The Scottish Government has no plans to issue guidance to local authorities on cancelling arrears arising due to the so-called bedroom tax in 2013-14 or arrears as a result of any other aspect of welfare reform. The management of arrears remains a matter for landlords.

The Scottish Government provided local authorities with £20 million to compensate tenants affected by the bedroom tax through Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) in 2013-14 and £35 million in 2014-15. Local authorities may top up their DHP accounts in the current year to make payments in line with local priorities, including payments in respect of legacy arrears, if they choose to do so. The Department for Work and Pensions are responsible for producing the guidance manual on DHPs.

Question reference: S4F-02338

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 27 October 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 October 2014

To ask the First Minister what engagements he has planned for the rest of the day

Question reference: S4W-22641

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 14 October 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what funding is available for first time connections to the water main.