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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 2507 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S5O-00030

Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for East Kilbride, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 9 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what the status is of the Glasgow City Deal Project.

The Scottish Government remains absolutely committed to working with all our cities to unlock investment and is a partner in the Glasgow City Region City Deal Project, contributing £500 million over 20 years to the Infrastructure Investment Fund. The Glasgow City Region Cabinet, comprising the eight Glasgow Clyde Valley local authorities, is responsible for project selection and delivery and has already approved a number of project business cases. As our largest city, Glasgow forms a key part of Scotland's economy and we are fully committed to making this deal a success.

Question reference: S4W-30764

Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for East Kilbride, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 March 2016
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Shona Robison on 22 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made in implementing the findings in the National Review of Primary Care Out-of- Hours Services being led by Professor Lewis Ritchie.

I welcomed the publication of the independent report of the National Review of Primary Care Out-of-Hours Services, Pulling together: transforming urgent care for the people of Scotland in November 2015. I announced initial financial support from the Primary Care Transformation Fund, towards testing the recommended model of urgent care and an initial testing programme worth £1.4 million designed to support the development of a network of Urgent Care Resource Hubs throughout Scotland, is now underway.

The initial testing programme aims to not only test aspects of the new model of urgent care, but also to reap immediate benefits by improving the application and use of technology systems used in managing episodes of care during the out of hours period.

The output of evidence from this initial testing programme will inform the design of the national delivery plan for transformation of urgent care which we aim to publish in the summer.

In addition, work is progressing across other aspects of our primary care transformation programme. NHS Lanarkshire will test a new model of primary care, thanks to investment from the Scottish Government’s Primary Care Transformation Fund.

Test sites within East Kilbride and Coatbridge will utilise community assets from practice nursing, district nursing, mental health disciplines and pharmacy and will join allied health professionals like physiotherapists and occupational therapists as well as third sector workers to manage patient care.

The aim is also to ensure patients will be directed to the right service for their first appointment, whether face to face, telephone consultations or web services; placing more emphasis on same-day services and developing urgent care 24/7 services.

Question reference: S4O-05696

Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for East Kilbride, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 March 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how it will increase affordable housing supply in East Kilbride.

Question reference: S4O-05670

Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for East Kilbride, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 March 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what recent representations it has made to the UK Government regarding international students and further education colleges.

Question reference: S4W-30132

Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for East Kilbride, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 9 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding the monthly average number of people in each year since 2006-07 who reported that they had slept rough the night before they applied to be registered as homeless.

The following table shows the monthly average number of homelessness applications in Scotland where a household member slept rough on the night immediately preceding the date of application.

Financial year of application	The monthly average number of homelessness applications where a household member slept rough on the night immediately preceding the date of application
2006-07	323
2007-08	286
2008-09	275
2009-10	229
2010-11	210
2011-12	163
2012-13	147
2013-14	125
2014-15	118

Source: Scottish Government HL1 Dataset as at 25 November 2015.

A further breakdown of the number of people within each application who slept rough on the night before making the application is not held centrally.

Further statistics on homelessness can be found at: www.gov.scot/homelessstats.

Question reference: S4O-05638

Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for East Kilbride, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 March 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how its procurement processes encourage the use of local small and medium-sized enterprises.

Question reference: S4W-29630

Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for East Kilbride, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 26 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what increase there has been in nursing staff in (a) Lanarkshire and (b) Scotland since 2007.

Question reference: S4W-29629

Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for East Kilbride, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 26 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact on Barnett consequentials of the removal of nursing bursary funding in England for student support and tuition.

The changes to nursing and midwifery student funding announced by the UK Government in November 2015 will take effect from September 2017; any impact of that announcement on Scottish Government consequentials will therefore be considered as part of the Scottish Government’s next Spending Review.

On 10 February 2016, the First Minister announced that the Scottish Government will retain a nursing and midwifery student bursary. The on-going review of the bursary continues and will be important in ensuring that future support remains fit for purpose. The review will report to ministers in June 2016.

Question reference: S4F-03262

Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for East Kilbride, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 February 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 February 2016

To ask the First Minister what progress there has been on the fiscal framework negotiations.

Question reference: S4W-29673

Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for East Kilbride, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 22 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government following the latest impact assessment of the smart meter roll-out.

The UK Government’s latest impact assessment of the smart meter roll-out was published in January 2014. The Scottish Government has engaged and continues to engage extensively with not only the UK Government but the wide range of stakeholders involved in the roll-out programme.

Although supportive of the aims of the smart meter programme, the Scottish Government continues to have concerns in relation to the costs and anticipated benefits of the programme. We have called for and continue to call for the outdated impact assessment to be re-run and updated projections to be published.

In December 2015 I wrote to the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee to highlight my concerns.

On 21 January 2016 I wrote to the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change seeking reassurance that the programme will not be subject to further delay or technical limitation.

I will continue to press the UK Government to ensure the programme is delivered to the greatest number of Scottish consumers, at the lowest possible cost, whilst enhancing the benefits to the most vulnerable in our society and those at risk of fuel poverty.

I refer the member to the set of questions S4W-26359 to S4W-26369 answered on 4 August 2015. 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.