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-03903

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 January 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will review the impact of employment tribunal fees prior to their proposed devolution.

Question reference: S4O-03866

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 December 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it is making toward implementing the Clyde 2020 proposals.

Question reference: S4F-02464

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 December 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 December 2014

To ask the First Minister what impact the Scottish Government anticipates the lower drink-driving limit will have on driver behaviour this festive season.

Question reference: S4F-02455

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 01 December 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 December 2014

To ask the First Minister what assessment the Scottish Government has made of the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement and its impact on the Scottish budget.

Question reference: S4O-03774

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 November 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 December 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to making school inspections without giving prior notice.

Question reference: S4W-22920

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 13 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government when it plans to make an announcement on the findings of the consultation, Promoting responsible dog ownership in Scotland: microchipping and other measures.

Question reference: S4F-02379

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 10 November 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 November 2014

To ask the First Minister whether the Scottish Government considers that the devolution of health and safety legislation would lead to more prosecutions where serious injury or death has occurred.

Question reference: S4O-03647

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 5 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the chief economist of the Bank of England's comment that the fall in real wages since their pre-recession peak is “unprecedented since at least the mid-1800s.”

The Scottish Government welcomes the continued economic recovery in Scotland, with employment now at a record high level. However, the impact of the recession is still being felt, particularly through the continued pressure on real pay growth. In fact, forecasts suggest that it may be at least 2016 before wages recover to their pre-recession levels.

This is why in the Scottish Government Draft Budget 2015-16 we continued to prioritise the pay of the lowest earners in Scotland’s public sector, ensuring all workers covered by our pay policy receive at least the living wage. Our continued commitment to a no compulsory redundancy policy provides employees with economic stability and job security.

It is also why initiatives such as the core elements of our social wage – the council tax freeze, abolition of tuition fees, free prescription charges and eye examinations and extension of our investment in early learning and childcare provisions – are vital in helping support household budgets at a time of wage and income pressure.

It is also why it is important that this Parliament gains greater access to key economic powers – including the minimum wage – to allow us to do more to create high value jobs and boost prosperity across Scotland.

Question reference: S4O-03471

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 August 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 August 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the latest figures from the Scottish Index of Manufactured Exports, which show that there has been strong growth in Scottish-manufactured exports over the last year.

Question reference: S4O-03429

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 July 2014
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 6 August 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what steps are being taken to encourage more employers in North Ayrshire to offer modern apprenticeships to young women.

The Scottish Government has exceeded its ambitious target to deliver over 25,000 modern apprenticeships (MAs) in each year of session four of the Scottish Parliament, with 77,402 new opportunities delivered over the past three years. Building on this, the First Minister announced on 15 April 2014 that the target for new MAs starts would increase year on year to 30,000 by 2020.

We will use the findings of the final report from the Commission for Developing Scotland’s Young Workforce to develop a way forward for the MA programme which will continue to meet our aims and ambitions for Scotland.

A significant focus of this will be improving the participation of women and engaging with employers to drive progress in North Ayrshire and across the country. I understand that participation by female MAs in North Ayrshire is already higher than average.