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 2251 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S4W-06863

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 23 April 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 2 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will seek an update from NHS Lothian on the performance of Consort in relation to the delivery of facilities management services at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.

Question reference: S4W-06860

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 23 April 2012
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 26 April 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress is being made on implementing the recommendations in Review of Fatal Accident Inquiry Legislation: The Report.

The Government intends to bring forward legislative proposals to implement those recommendations which require primary legislation made by Lord Cullen of Whitekirk in the Review of Fatal Accident Inquiry Legislation when an opportunity arises in the legislative programme, but within the lifetime of this Parliament.

Many of Lord Cullen’s recommendations were addressed to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) and these have been largely been implemented already. In particular, COPFS has set up the Scottish Fatalities Investigation Unit (SFIU) which now investigates all non criminal deaths which are reported to COPFS, liaises with Crown Counsel and conducts Fatal Accident Inquiries. The SFIU has also assumed responsibility for COPFS policy on deaths and for liaison with external agencies. SFIU is designed to be a discrete and specialist unit within COPFS.

Question reference: S4O-00931

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 April 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 April 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress is being made in delivering reductions in class sizes in early years.

Question reference: S4W-06285

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 19 March 2012
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 4 April 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to introduce a land remediation grant to help release brownfield sites for development.

The responsibility for the remediation of brownfield sites for development sits with local authorities. The Scottish Government currently provides grant to selected local authorities through its Vacant and Derelict Land Fund (VDLF). As set out in our regeneration strategy, Achieving a Sustainable Future, we will work with COSLA to revisit the focus of the VDLF in the future. We have also established SPRUCE, Scotland’s £50 million JESSICA Fund, which is available to support a wide range of regeneration activity, including the remediation of brownfield land, in the thirteen eligible local authority areas. In addition, there are grants available for this purpose via the EU approved Land Remediation Scheme.

Question reference: S4W-05607

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2012
Current Status: Answered by Bruce Crawford on 13 March 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what additional (a) administrative, (b) regulatory, (c) legislative, (d) emergency and (e) other powers have been devolved to the Parliament since May 1999.

A variety of additional powers have been devolved to the Parliament since May 1999. The details are contained in orders made under section 30 of the Scotland Act and in primary legislation passed by the UK Parliament.

The Scottish Parliament website lists Sewel Motions and Legislative Consent Motions arising in connection with UK primary legislation. The text of relevant Scotland Act Orders and UK Acts of Parliament can be found at www.legislation.gov.uk.

Question reference: S4W-05402

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 03 February 2012
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 8 March 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it met the Sustainable Procurement Action Plan objective that every public body should have a strategy for awarding at least one contract to a supported business or factory by 30 November 2010.

Implementation of the Sustainable Procurement Action Plan is a matter for individual public bodies. The Scottish Government has a number of contracts which assist supported businesses. Capability St Judes was awarded a contract for laundry services 1 April 2009. Remploy are working as a sub-contractor on refurbishment of the Scottish Fire College premises and three business are engaged as sub-contractors on the Scottish Government’s Design Print Printing and Associated Services contract.

Question reference: S4W-05403

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 February 2012
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 8 March 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how many jobs have been secured for disabled people through contracts awarded using Article 19 of the EU procurement directive following the publication of the Sustainable Procurement Action Plan.

Question reference: S4W-05443

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 03 February 2012
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 8 March 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress is being made in relation to the implementation of strategies by all public bodies to award at least one contract to a supported business or factory, as outlined in the Sustainable Procurement Action Plan.

This is a matter for individual public bodies. To help make it easier for Scottish public bodies to award contracts to supported businesses the Scottish Government has worked with the British Association for Supported Employment (BASE) to publish guidance for buyers on working with Scottish supported businesses. We have also developed new functionality on the Public Contracts Scotland (PCS) portal which alerts public sector buyers to the possibility of buying from supported businesses whenever they create a notice on PCS for goods or services that a supported business could provide. We are also working with BASE to establish national framework agreements reserved for supported businesses, providing public bodies in Scotland with easy access to the wide range of high quality goods and services that supported businesses provide.

We intend to consider what further measures might be appropriate to assist supported businesses in Scotland as part of the Sustainable Procurement Bill which we have committed to introducing during the lifetime of this Parliament.

Question reference: S4O-00737

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 February 2012
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 1 March 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what support it is providing to local authorities to ensure sufficient availability of supply teachers.

The government conducts an annual teacher workforce planning exercise to determine how many teachers to train to ensure sufficient availability of teachers, including supply teachers.

The recruitment and deployment of teachers is a matter for local authorities.

Despite UK funding cuts, local government’s share of the 2011-12 Scottish Budget was preserved at 2010-11 levels following year on year increases since 2007-08.

Question reference: S4W-05580

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 February 2012
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 29 February 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive whether a reduction in the size of its estate will be sufficient to meet its energy consumption target of 12.6% by March 2012.