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 1617 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S3W-04778

Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 16 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether land that has been held in local authority road accounts and subsequently becomes surplus to requirements must undergo reclassification before being sold to developers.

Land which is no longerrequired for operational purposes must be reclassified by local authorities as surplusto requirements and revalued, usually at market value. Any disposal at less thanthe best consideration that can reasonably be obtained currently requires the priorconsent of Scottish ministers.

Any application tobuild on such land would be determined in accordance with the local developmentplan, unless material considerations indicated otherwise.

Question reference: S3W-04780

Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 16 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what consideration must be given to local residents’ views before adjacent land is sold by local authorities for development purposes.

Question reference: S3W-04779

Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 16 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether any limit is applied to the length of time that disused land may be held in local authority road accounts.

Local authoritiesare required constantly to review assets that are used in the course of deliveringpublic services. Assets which are no longer required for operational purposes mustbe reclassified by local authorities as surplus to requirements and revalued. However,local authorities are not required to dispose of land at this stage, as they maywish to take a strategic view and consider future alternative uses for these assets.

Question reference: S3W-04782

Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 16 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what schemes, grants or funding are in place to enable local residents to buy land that is earmarked for sale from local authorities.

Question reference: S3O-00840

Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 4 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many good neighbour agreements have been entered into by developers, councils and communities since the Planning etc. (Scotland) Act 2006 came into force and how compliance with this provision is being monitored.

Question reference: S3O-00738

Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 27 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to ensure that healthy living centres throughout Scotland receive the necessary funding to continue to operate when funding received from the Big Lottery Fund comes to an end in 2008.

Healthy Living Centresare organisations embedded in the communities they serve and meeting local needs.Decisions on maintaining funding are therefore made by local funding partners suchas local authorities and health boards, based on relevant local criteria.

We are raising theprofile of all community-led health services with funders through implementing therecommendations of the community-led task group which reported in December 2006.

Question reference: S3W-03241

Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 August 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 3 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has acted on its support for EOC Scotland’s 2005 action plan to end pregnancy discrimination in Scotland through the provision of a written statement of maternity rights and employer responsibilities to every pregnant woman, with a tear-off section to give to her employer and, if so, whether pregnant women are receiving this information between the twelfth and twentieth week of pregnancy or at their booking appointment, the time considered appropriate by EOC Scotland.

The Scottish Governmentliaised closely with the then Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) - now the Departmentfor Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (DBERR) - over the draftingof the “written statement”, which took the form of a leaflet, entitled Pregnancyand Work, summarising the rights of both pregnant employees and their employersand their responsibilities towards each other.

From 1 October 2006, the leaflet couldbe downloaded from the then DTI website in 2 parts – one part for the employee andthe other for the employer. The Scottish Government provided a link on its websiteto the relevant webpage (now on the DBERR website) and encouraged its stakeholdersto do the same.

The hard copy of theleaflet has been available from January 2007 – to order from the then DTI (now DBERR)website and also as an insert in the Royal College of Midwives publication TogetherWe Care which is given to women between the 12th and 20th week of pregnancy.However, we recognise that distribution is not as wide as it could be in Scotland.

DTI’s (now DBERR’s)contract for the current method of distribution only runs to end December 2007.DBERR has plans to evaluate themethod of distribution and usefulness of the leaflet to pregnant women and theiremployers within the next two months. We will be liaising closely with DBERR aboutthe outcome of the evaluation, which will form the basis of decisions about howwe might improve the leaflet’s distribution in future.

Continuing to helptake forward the EOC Scotland’s three-step action plan to end pregnancy discriminationat work in Scotland is one of the high-level objectives in the Scottish Government’sGender Equality Scheme, published in March 2007.

Question reference: S3W-02858

Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 August 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 29 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive when the proposed housing supply task force will be set up.

Question reference: S3W-03127

Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 August 2007
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 29 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance it has issued on best practice regarding the employment of supply teachers.

Question reference: S3W-03129

Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 August 2007
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 29 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how it plans to address the situation of supply teachers who cannot have their situation reviewed as they have not had the necessary one year’s continual service.

This is a matter forthe local authority. Under the terms of the Agreement, A Teaching Professionfor the 21st Century, procedures for the recruitment and deployment of teachingstaff are devolved to local authority responsibility.

The Scottish NegotiatingCommittee for Teachers (SNCT) has produced a Code of Practice on the Use of TemporaryContracts. The code aims to assist councils in managing their staffing requirementsin a co-ordinated and structured way and ensure that employees on temporary contractsare not treated less favourably than permanent staff.

There is no automaticright to permanent status and movement to a permanent post is normally through anapplication process. Under the Fixed Term Employees Regulations 2002, any temporarycontract extended beyond four years will be made permanent unless the authoritycan objectively justify not doing so.