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-25319

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 13 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many businesses have used its Rural Payments and Services website to register for support.

Question reference: S4W-25323

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 13 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many complaints it has received regarding (a) its Rural Payments and Services website and (b) the single application form process.

We recognise that the new Rural Payments and Services (RPS) system has not been operating at the performance level we desire and have been working hard to resolve the issues raised by our customers, including making a number of changes to fix known defects. Customer issues and enquiries are a normal feature in the launch of a new IT system and new Common Agricultural Policy programme. We have received one formal complaint; in addition, we are in constant dialogue with all of our customers on matters related to the RPS system and the single application form process and shall continue to keep in regular contact with them.

Question reference: S4W-25320

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 13 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the report in The Press and Journal on 18 April 2015 that contractors working on the development of its Rural Payments and Services website were threatened with being dismissed if they reported defects.

Question reference: S4W-25354

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 24 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 6 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how hospitals monitor the number of patient falls and what best practice they are expected to follow to minimise the number of incidents.

NHS boards use incident management systems to record the details of any fall occurring within their estate and these details include the time, location and the extent of any harm suffered. Each board will have a different way of then collating and managing these data.

The Scottish Patient Safety Programme (SPSP) includes falls as one of the four harms it is seeking to improve within the Scottish Patient Safety Index. The SPSP has a bundle approach which covers a range of interventions to minimise/prevent a fall from occurring and which is being tested within pilot wards across NHS boards. Process and outcome measures are currently collected and reported through SPSP as part of this pilot project.

Question reference: S4W-25356

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 24 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 6 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many inpatients there have been at the Edinburgh Western General Hospital's Royal Victoria Building in each year since 2012; how many were recorded as having fell while in the hospital; how many fell more than once, and how many subsequent complaints were made.

All patient falls are reported on our adverse event reporting system Datix.

Table 1 reports all falls reported by severity and year for Royal Victoria Building (wards 70-75):

	No known adverse effect at this time	Harm to a person – minor	Harm to a person – moderate	Harm to a person – major	Total
2012	632	140	12	11	795
2013	528	158	18	21	725
2014	626	198	22	18	864
2015	142	50	3	3	198
Total	1,928	546	55	53	2,582

496 patients had more than one fall.

One complaint by a relative was made regarding a patient fall.

Question reference: S4W-25008

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 20 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 21 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-23847 by Fergus Ewing on 20 January 2015, what discussions it has had with (a) Scottish Power Energy Networks and (b) Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission regarding seeking Ofgem funding to help reduce the visual impact of existing transmission lines in national scenic areas.

The Scottish Government met with Scottish Power Energy Networks (SPEN) and Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission (SHE Transmission) on 23 March 2015 to discuss progress on plans regarding seeking Ofgem funding to reduce the visual impact of existing transmission lines in national scenic areas.

SPEN are currently setting up a stakeholder group – Visual Impact of Existing Wirescape (VIEW). It is intended that this group will provide independent advice to facilitate a proposed project around Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park (encompassing the Loch Lomond national scenic area and Trossachs national scenic area).

Invitations to join the stakeholder group have been issued to a number of organisations, including: Loch Lomond and The Trossachs Community Partnership, Historic Scotland, The John Muir Trust, Scottish Borders Council, Scottish Natural Heritage, The Scottish Campaign for National Parks, SHE Transmission and the Scottish Government.

The first meeting of VIEW is due to be held in the coming weeks.

SHE Transmission is continuing to develop proposals and identify projects.

Question reference: S4W-25005

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 2 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many dog thefts have been reported in each year since 2011, broken down by region, and how many resulted in the dog being returned to its owner.

Question reference: S4W-25007

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 1 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what actions it is taking to reduce the number of dog thefts across the country.

Action to tackle crime is the responsibility of Police Scotland; however, the Scottish Government can and will help to ensure that stolen dogs can be more easily returned to their rightful owners.

We have long recommended in our Code of Practice for the Welfare of Dogs that microchipping is an effective method of identifying animals that can help re-unite dogs with owners where the dogs have been lost or stolen.

On 4 March 2015 I announced that microchipping of all dogs will be made mandatory in Scotland from April 2016, after it was overwhelmingly backed in a public consultation.

Question reference: S4W-24962

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 30 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how much it plans to invest in broadband each year in Lothian, broken down by local authority.

The Scottish Government and its public and private sector partners are investing over £410 million in our Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband programme (DSSB) which, alongside commercial deployment by BT and other operators, will deliver fibre broadband access to 95% of premises in Scotland by 2017-18.

Most of the funding for this programme is not allocated to specific local authority areas, but to the national programme as a whole. In addition to the national funding, 14 local authorities provided supplementary funding to maximise coverage in their own areas. In Lothian, these local authorities are Midlothian, which contributed an additional £0.5 million, and West Lothian which contributed an additional £2.5 million.

All local authorities will be upgraded within the life of the DSSB programme. This table shows the percentage of premises in the three Lothian local authorities expected to have access to fibre broadband at the conclusion of the DSSB programme, compared with commercial deployment alone.

Local authority	Commercial deployment	DSSB programme combined with existing commercial plans
Midlothian	78.5%	98.1%
West Lothian	72.9%	99.3%
East Lothian	66.7%	95.3%

We have also established Community Broadband Scotland (CBS) – a £7.5 million initiative that is supporting the development of community-led schemes in those areas that are unlikely to have a superfast solution delivered commercially, or by the DSSB programme.

CBS is engaged with communities in East Lothian (Humbie, Lammermuir, East and West Salton, Bolton and Haddington), and has awarded a total of £169,000 to date. CBS is also working with the community of Cousland in Midlothian and has awarded £5,000 to date.

Question reference: S4O-04191

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 March 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Committee on Climate Change's expert statement that further actions are required if the 2020 renewable heat target is to be met.