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-17293

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 23 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 7 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what budget will be allocated for Home Energy Efficiency Programmes for Scotland in the (a) 2014-15 draft budget and (b) 2015-16 budget plans and whether this will be sufficient to eradicate fuel poverty by 2016.

The Scottish Government spending plans of 11 September announced funding allocations of £79 million to tackle fuel poverty for each of the next two years ,2014-15 and 2015-16.

The Scottish Government is committed to eradicating fuel poverty and is doing everything within its limited powers to achieve this. We will continue to use this funding for the Home Energy Efficiency Programmes for Scotland to lever in private sector funding from the energy companies seeking to meet their obligations under ECO, to ensure the future of our £200 million fund to tackle fuel poverty.

Question reference: S4W-17283

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 23 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 7 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-16534 by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 August 2013, whether it is on target to eradicate fuel poverty by 2016.

The Scottish Government has a statutory duty, “to ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, that people are not living in fuel poverty in Scotland by November 2016”.

The Scottish Government is committed to eradicating fuel poverty and is doing everything within its limited powers to achieve this. As fuel poverty statistics published in December 2012 show, Scottish Government action is mitigating swingeing fuel price increases. Despite 14% fuel price increases in Autumn 2011, Scottish Government action to improve household energy efficiency prevented a further 35,000 households falling into fuel poverty.

Question reference: S4W-17294

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 23 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 7 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-16532 by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 August 2013, what action energy companies have taken to protect vulnerable customers as a result of the meeting with the cabinet secretary.

Question reference: S4W-17440

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 3 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many children with (a) formal, (b) informal and (c) other kinship care arrangements have been placed on the child protection register in each of the last three years.

The Scottish Government does not hold data centrally on (b) informal or (c) other kinship care arrangements. Individual-level child protection data is only held centrally as at 31 July 2012, so data for (a) formal care is not available over time.

On 31 July 2012 there were 149 children with formal kinship care arrangements who were also on the child protection register.

Source: Scottish Government Looked after children and child protection data 2011-12.

Question reference: S4W-17446

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 3 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many children in kinship care have siblings in (a) residential and (b) foster care.

Question reference: S4W-17159

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 3 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether levels of poverty and deprivation are greater in black and minority ethnic communities and, if so, what action it is taking to address them.

People from minority ethnic (non-white) groups are more likely to be in relative poverty (before housing costs) compared to those from the “White” groups (28% and 15% respectively).

Table 1 - Percentage of people in relative poverty (before housing costs) by ethnic group: Scotland 2009-10 to 2011-12

Ethnic Group	Percentage
White - British	15
White - Other	19
Asian / Asian British	24
Mixed, Black / Black British, Chinese & Other	32

Total White	15
Total Minority Ethnic	28

Source: Family Resources Survey, Households Below Average Income datasets - figures aggregated from three years of data from 2009-10 to 2011-12 inclusive.

We are committed to promoting race equality in Scotland and working with others to do so. We are providing £5.3 million of funding in 2012-15 to address issues around race equality in Scotland. In April we published our current thinking on how race equality should develop over the next three years, and in Spring 2014 we intend to publish an updated Race Equality Statement, providing more detail on how we intend to take forward our plans in practice.

Alongside this, the Child Poverty Strategy for Scotland expresses our commitment to tackle the long term drivers of poverty through early intervention and prevention. That commitment includes a range of actions such as harnessing over £125 million across government and our agencies to support young people towards and into work across Scotland.

Question reference: S4F-01596

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 30 September 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 October 2013

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's position is on the decision taken at the COSLA leaders meeting to back the petition from the No2Bedroom Tax campaign calling for £50 million to mitigate the impact of the so-called bedroom tax.

Question reference: S4W-17282

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 27 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is aware of the circumstances and nature of people using foodbanks.

Question reference: S4W-17281

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 27 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is aware of the location of foodbanks.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-15751 on 27 June 2013. The member may wish to note that the Scottish Government recently commissioned a study exploring the provision of emergency food-aid in Scotland. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

Question reference: S4W-17280

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 27 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what support it provides to foodbanks.