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-02600

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 November 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how it is monitoring the regionalisation of colleges.

Question reference: S4W-18052

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 31 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 12 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what the target is and current waiting times are for angioplasty procedures, broken down by (a) NHS board and (b) hospital.

Angioplasty procedures are covered by the 12 weeks legal treatment time guarantee set out in The Patient Rights (Scotland) Act 2011. Current waiting time for angioplasty is not available centrally.

Information on the treatment time guarantee is currently being collected from a local statistical return from boards and not through the new ways warehouse, this information does not go down to specialty level. This is to allow boards to make the necessary changes to their IT systems. It is planned that statistics will be reported on the treatment time guarantee through the new ways warehouse early in 2014. This will provide waiting time information at specialty level.

Latest information from the local statistical returns showed that during the quarter ending 30 June 2013, 98.4% of patients were treated within the 12 weeks legal treatment time guarantee.

Question reference: S4W-17774

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 11 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 8 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the merger of Langside, Anniesland and Cardonald colleges, whether the Woodburn House site will be put up for sale on the open market and, if so, when, and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.

Question reference: S4W-17775

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 11 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 8 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the merger of Langside, Anniesland and Cardonald colleges, what consideration it has made of the community benefits that might arise from selling the Woodburn House site.

Question reference: S4W-17747

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 1 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how much Infratil owes to HM Revenue and Customs for (a) value added tax, (b) airport passenger duty and (c) national insurance in relation to Glasgow Prestwick Airport and whether this will be written off if the airport is taken into public ownership.

Question reference: S4W-17708

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 1 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what the process is for the selling of land purchased for the Edinburgh Airport Rail Link project.

Question reference: S4W-17707

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 1 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on the Edinburgh Airport Rail Link project.

The Scottish Government has provided Transport Initiative Edinburgh (tie) with circa £28 million of funding to support costs that it incurred on the Edinburgh Airport Rail Link (EARL) project which is broken down as follows:

Cost Heading	Cost
Parliamentary and feasibility costs (from Financial year 03-04 to FY 06-07)	£9.84m
Preparatory and Site Investigation works (from FY 05-06 to FY 07-08)	£3.92m
Design works (includes environmental, safety and stakeholder) (from FY 05-06 to FY 07-08)	£9.63m
Tie project management costs (includes legal & land assembly packages) (from FY 03-04 to FY 07-08)	£4.43m
EARL Authorised Undertaker costs (after FY 09-10)	£0.14m
Sub total	£27.96m

Question reference: S4W-17705

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 1 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what compensation it paid for plots of land bought for the Edinburgh Airport Rail Link project, and to whom.

Question reference: S4W-17703

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 1 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what plots of land it bought for the Edinburgh Airport Rail Link project; who it bought these from, and how much each cost.

The Scottish Government did not purchase any land for EARL.

Transport Initiative Edinburgh (tie) are the Authorised Undertaker for the Edinburgh Airport Rail Link (EARL) project and it had the compulsory purchase powers to obtain land required for EARL.

Two properties were purchased by tie for EARL, namely:

Wheatlands, Kirkliston, West Lothian, EH29 9EW. Agreement to purchase January 2007 from Mr Peter McGowan for the sum of £550k.

This property currently has a sitting tenant.

Myreside, Beatlie Road, Winchburgh, Broxburn, EH52 6QS. Agreement to purchase October 2006 from Mr and Mrs William Pollock for the sum of £450k.

This property was destroyed by fire in 2010.

Tie retain the title deeds to both properties and continue to manage the maintenance, insurance and rental issues.

It is intended, once tie have completed its obligations as Authorised Undertaker and formally terminated all agreements and third party agreements, that the title deeds for both properties would transfer to Transport Scotland.

On completion of the transfer both properties would be sold fully adhering to the rules and regulations outlined within Critchel Downs regulations and the Scottish Government “Scottish Public Finance Manual” (SPFM) regulations.

Question reference: S4W-17709

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 1 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what land that it purchased for the Edinburgh Airport Rail Link project has been sold, and who authorised each sale.