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: S5O-02246

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 June 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that GP appointments are being made available in a timely manner.

Question reference: S5W-16895

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 May 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 7 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has (a) raised from non-domestic rates and (b) provided in non-domestic rates relief in each of the last 10 financial years, and since 6 April 2018.

The following table sets out the amount of Non-domestic rates income raised and the amount awarded through Non-domestic rates reliefs from 2008-09 to 2018-19. Forecasts for the 2017-18 and 2018-19 years have been used in the absence of the finalised figures. These are published in the February after each financial year.

The numbers have been sourced from the Scottish Local Government Financial Statistics for years 2008-09 to 2016-17, and the most recent forecast by the Scottish Fiscal Commission for the year 2017-18 and 2018-19:

Table: Non-domestic rates income and reliefs for 2008-09 to 2017-18

	Non-domestic rates income (£million)	Non-domestic rates reliefs (£million)
2008-09	1,924	389
2009-10	2,010	465
2010-11	2,138	501
2011-12	2,251	542
2012-13	2,347	588
2013-14	2,367	590
2014-15	2,511	607
2015-16	2,579	626
2016-17	2,731	591
2017-18	2,774*	662*
2018-19	2,788*	717*

*Note – the 17-18 and 18-19 numbers are forecasts.

Question reference: S5O-02203

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 May 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 7 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many times rail services between Cambuslang and Glasgow Central have been delayed by more than five minutes in 2018.

Question reference: S5O-02220

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 June 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the number of students from disadvantaged backgrounds going to university.

Question reference: S5W-16258

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 30 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 5 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government on what date (a) Air Departure Tax will be introduced and (b) Air Passenger Duty will cease to apply.

Question reference: S5W-16641

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 May 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 29 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how much the (a) Scottish Public Pensions Agency IT system, (b) farm subsidy payments IT system, (c) Police Scotland i6 system and (d) NHS 24 IT system cost to install, and what the annual operating cost has been each year, also broken down by how much has been spent annually in rectifying system failures.

(a) The Scottish Public Pensions Agency IT system has been in place since 2007, and annual operating costs are available in the agency's accounts. In February 2018 SPPA ended a contract to develop a new IT system prior to its installation. Between 2015 and 2018, expenditure associated with the project was £3.79 million.

(b) Between the start of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Futures Programme in 2012 and 31 March 2017 the Scottish Government invested £166 million (of the £178 million identified in the final business case) in the design and delivery of the Rural Payments and Services IT Platform. This amount includes work to put the CAP payment system on a stable footing and bring in new features such as the Land Parcel Information System that increase the effectiveness of the system and improve services for customers. Some features identified in the April 2015 CAP Futures Programme Business Case have still to be completed. Following the closure of the CAP Futures Programme on 31 March 2017, to date, the Scottish Government has specifically invested £860K in addressing the sub-optimal code within the Rural Payments and Services IT Platform and re-testing. Following the closure of the Futures Programme the new Rural Payments and Services IT Platform became part of business as usual and costs associated with operating it are not separately identified.

(c) The Scottish Police Authority took the decision to terminate the i6 project in June 2016. In its report, i6: a review , published in March 2017, Audit Scotland noted: "The contract enabled the SPA to secure a settlement agreement of £24.65 million. This meant that Accenture agreed to refund the £11.09 million that the SPA had paid, and to make an additional payment of £13.56 million. This reflects estimated staff costs and capital costs such as hardware maintenance and software licenses associated with i6." The agreement reached ensured that there was no financial detriment to Police Scotland.

(d) The new NHS 24 IT system cost £38.971m to develop and install. The annual operating cost for the new system in the latest financial year, 2018-19 is £7.249m (this represents the first full year of implementation of the new system). The total spend on system redesign, spread over a three year period, is £5.719m.

Question reference: S5W-16642

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 May 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 29 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government when it was made aware of the reported failures with the Scottish Public Pensions Agency IT system, and what action it is taking to address these.

Question reference: S5O-02132

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 May 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the statement by the First Minister in June 2017, whether it plans to hold a second independence referendum in the Autumn.

Question reference: S5W-16242

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 27 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Annabelle Ewing on 11 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the £500,000 of funding announced in 2017-18 for anti-sectarianism projects was spent.

Since 2012 the Scottish Government has invested a total of £13.5 million to support work to tackle sectarianism. In 2017-18 the Scottish Government invested the full £500,000 of funding to tackle sectarianism in communities. This work had a particular focus on delivering educational initiatives. We are building on this work in 2018-19 by providing a real terms increase of 3% so that our total investment in 2018-19 will be the £515,000.

The following table sets out the final funding allocation for 2017-18:

Organisation	Funding	Project focus
Sense Over Sectarianism	£70,000	Work in schools to build the capacity of teachers and practitioners in the field of education to enable increased delivery of the new national anti-sectarian education resource in schools across Scotland.
Nil by Mouth	£85,000	Embedding anti-sectarian workplace education within local authorities and other employers, ensuring that anti-sectarian policies and practices are recognised within these organisation’s work and policies.
Supporters Direct Scotland	£60,000	Working with and providing educational input to participants and coaches in the Scottish Football Associations Schools of Football; sport/coaching students at colleges across Scotland; and working with Supporter Liaison Officers to deliver positive messaging to supporters to tackle unacceptable conduct.
Youth Scotland	£60,000	Building the capacity of young people and youth workers to deliver community-based education and action to tackle sectarianism across Scotland. Increasing the number of young people who are capable of delivering peer-led education and activities to tackle sectarianism.
Bridging the Gap	£22,408	Developing work between high school pupils and primary pupils in the South side of Glasgow. Building knowledge and experience of secondary pupils who then work with primary pupils in peer-led education and transiation. Knowledge, expertise and development of the programme and young people is also built through close links the Corrymeela Community in Northern Ireland.
North Kelvin Sports Development	£22,592	Bringing pupils from local schools together through afterschool sessions, closely working with active school coordinators to educate and challenge young people about sectarianism in West Central Scotland in a sport based environment.
Sacro	£65,000	Delivering a national service providing diversion from prosecution across Scotland for those involved in sectarian and hate behaviour. Complimenting this work in prisons to tackle the root cause of discrimination while challenging the attitudes and behaviours that contribute to offending.
WESREC	£29,687	Joint project developing a toolkit for mainstreaming anti-sectarian policies and practices within the broader equalities practice of organisations. The toolkit can be used by any organisation which have a key role in ensuring they are exemplars of good equality practice.
Glasgow Women’s Library	£25,313
YouthLink Scotland	£60,000	Development of the Action on Sectarianism Website increasing digital participation and activity by extending the promotion and use of the educational resources available on the site – the wide range of resources available means that there is a resource that can be adapted to every educational environment.
Total:	£500,000

Question reference: S5O-02114

Current Status: Withdrawn