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-30174

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 29 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 10 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government on what date it will announce how it will allocate funding for the (a) Equality Fund, (b) Violence Against Women and Girls Fund, (c) Children’s Services Women's Aid Fund and (d) the Rape Crisis Specific Fund for 2016-17.

There is no set date for announcing the successful recipients of funding for the (a) Equality Fund, (b) Violence Against Women and Girls Fund, (c) Children’s Services Women's Aid Fund and (d) the Rape Crisis Specific Fund in 2016-17 as there are a number of factors to take into consideration which could affect this date. Applicants will be notified some weeks in advance of the start of the funding period (1 July 2016).

Question reference: S4W-30115

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 10 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made on increasing freight on the Far North Line, in particular from distillers, timber operators and retailers, and encouraging gas traffic bound for Caithness and domestic waste being taken from the Highlands to use rail instead of road.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of the rail freight sector in moving vital goods and materials across the country in a safe and sustainable way. A transformative programme of investment in the railway infrastructure to 2019, including the dedicated £30 million Scottish Strategic Rail Freight Investment Fund will support significant improvements in the capacity and capability of the railway infrastructure for freight services.

Freight traffic on the Far North Line has remained broadly stable in the last 10 years, largely based around the movement of fuel and pipes. Since 2002, the Scottish Government Freight Facilities Grant has supported the movement of 113,500 tonnes of fuel from Grangemouth to Lairg by rail rather than by road.

Following an extensive consultation period we expect to publish Scotland's Rail Freight Strategy later this month. This will set out a number of measures to support the rail freight sector to better exploit key market opportunities across Scotland, including forestry products, fuels, waste products, whisky and broader retail traffic.

Question reference: S4W-29975

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 February 2016
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 8 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government on what days since April 2015 rail services to Wick have been subject to delay at Helmsdale, broken down by length of delay.

Question reference: S4F-03274

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 29 February 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 March 2016

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government is doing to ensure that young people with neurological conditions receive appropriate care.

Question reference: S4W-29462

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 22 January 2016
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 1 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-29164 by Derek Mackay on 20 January 2016, how many times over the same period did services achieve 100% punctuality.

Question reference: S4W-29295

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 January 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 27 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what guidelines are provided to GPs when charging patients for letters.

Question reference: S4W-29296

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 January 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 27 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on (a) how many claimants were charged by their GP for a letter explaining their impairments while being moved from disability living allowance to personal independence payment and (b) what the charges were.

Question reference: S4W-29286

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 January 2016
Current Status: Answered by Aileen McLeod on 26 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what progress there has been in establishing a management committee for the Sound of Barra Special Area of Conservation; whether the committee is in place, and, if so, (a) what the membership is, (b) what decisions it has made and (c) how much funding it has received.

Question reference: S4W-29331

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 January 2016
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 26 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what the maintenance budget has been for each vessel in the CalMac fleet in each year since 2006.

Question reference: S4W-29311

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 January 2016
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 22 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on setting up the computer system that is being used to deal with the new common agricultural policy payment scheme and how long it took to (a) devise and (b) implement the system.

The new IT system was a requirement from the European Union as part of the new common agricultural policy (CAP) reform. The cost of the IT system and the associated aspects, including staff training and communications, has been estimated at £178 million over the lifetime of the 2015-19 CAP programme and will process payments worth around £4 billion. The cost of the system equates to around 4% of the value of payments processed through the system.