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: S4O-04007

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 February 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 February 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how it allocates money from the budget to capital grant funding for projects.

Question reference: S4O-03883

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 January 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many acute hospitals were on red alert in the last week of 2014 and first week of 2015.

Question reference: S4W-23532

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 December 2014
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 18 December 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding how many people in each of the lowest three Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation deciles are in receipt of a council tax reduction.

Information is collected on how many ‘households’ in each of the lowest three Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation deciles are in receipt of a council tax reduction.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-23533 on 15 December 2014. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

Question reference: S4W-23498

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 December 2014
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 16 December 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will review the methodology used to predict oil prices in its white paper on independence.

Question reference: S4W-23497

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 December 2014
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 16 December 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has carried out of the effect of a falling oil price on (a) jobs and (b) the economy in (i) the north east and (ii) Scotland.

The Scottish Government is carefully monitoring the oil price given the importance of the oil and gas sector in Scotland. The fall in oil prices will be beneficial in terms of reduced transport costs – helping individuals and businesses. We are aware that the falling oil price has the potential to impact on levels of investment in the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) and that is why we have repeatedly pressed the UK Government to ensure a competitive and stable fiscal regime. The steps announced last week are a step in the right direction but more needs to be done to secure the long term investment in the UKCS that we need to recover the potential 24 billion barrel of oil equivalent.

Nevertheless, a range of forecasters estimate that prices are to rebound in 2015. In this line, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, in their 2014 World Oil Outlook (published on 6 November 2014) assume a nominal price of $110 in the period up to 2020.

Question reference: S4W-23496

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 December 2014
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 16 December 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what estimate it has made of oil prices for the next five years.

A range of institutions have published forecasts for oil prices in recent months. The recent dip in prices has been driven by a number of factors, many of which are anticipated to be temporary, and the majority of forecasters expect prices to start rising again next year. For example, in their 2014 World Oil Outlook report published last month, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries assumes a nominal oil price of $110 over the period to 2020. This is in line with the price assumption used in Scotland’s Future.

Question reference: S4W-23533

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 December 2014
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 15 December 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding how many households in each of the lowest three Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation deciles have at least one inhabitant who is in receipt of a council tax reduction, also expressed as a percentage of the households.

The following table shows the number of chargeable dwellings in each of the lowest three Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation deciles, the number of council tax reduction (CTR) recipients, and the number of CTR recipients as a % of chargeable dwellings.

	Decile 1	Decile 2	Decile 3
Number of chargeable dwellings	253,864	245,281	244,841
Number of council tax reduction recipients	127,740	95,450	77,710
Council tax reduction recipients as a % of chargeable dwellings	50.3%	38.9%	31.7%

Notes:

1. Decile 1 refers to the 10 per cent most deprived areas in Scotland; Decile 2 the next 10 per cent most deprived areas; and so on, as measured by the SIMD.

2. Number of chargeable dwellings refers to dwellings that are on the valuation list and are not exempt from council tax liability, as at September 2013.

3. Number of CTR recipients is as at March 2014; the most recent statistics where a breakdown by SIMD decile has been published.

4. Council tax is payable in respect of any dwelling which is not an exempt dwelling. CTR reduces the liability on a dwelling, depending on the circumstances of people inhabiting the dwelling. The CTR caseload statistics count ‘recipients’ in terms of the number of dwellings that benefited from a CTR. This means that a CTR recipient can be a single person or a couple, with or without children.

Question reference: S4W-23491

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S4O-03781

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 November 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 December 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it is making on the payment of the living wage in public contracts.

Question reference: S4W-22932

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 19 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding the impact on ferry services in Scotland of the regulations due to come into effect on 1 January 2015 regarding the sulphur dioxide content of marine fuel.