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-01168

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 June 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what message the Scottish Government has for the public and competitors from Scotland for the forthcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Question reference: S4W-07532

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 8 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive where Scotland would rank on the table, Regional GDP per capita in the EU27 in 2009, published by eurostat on 13 March 2012, had account been taken of Scotland's economic share of the UK's national air-space, territorial waters and the continental shelf lying in international waters over which the UK enjoys exclusive rights, territorial exclaves including deposits of oil and natural gas.

An illustrative estimate of Scottish GDP with a geographic share of Extra Regio output (GDP), suggests that Scotland would have been ranked 5th in terms of GDP per capita against the 27 EU countries in 2009.

This estimate has been produced using data from Eurostat, the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the National Records of Scotland (NRS), and the Scottish National Accounts Project (SNAP). The methodology used to produce these estimates is the same as set out in the note Scotland’s International GDP Per Capita Ranking, which was published on the Scottish Government website in March 2012 and can be found at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/0039/00390896.pdf.

Table: Illustrative estimate of Scotland’s GDP per Capita Ranking against EU27 countries in 2009 with the inclusion of a geographic share of Extra Regio GDP:

Rank	Country	2009 GDP per capita (EU27=100)
1	Luxembourg (Grand-Duchy)	266.3
2	Netherlands	131.9
3	Ireland	127.6
4	Austria	124.6
5	Scotland (with geographic share of Extra Regio GDP)	123.7
6	Denmark	122.9
7	Sweden	119.4
8	Belgium	117.8
9	Germany	115.7
10	Finland	114.5
11	United Kingdom	110.7
12	France	108.2
13	Italy	104.0
14	Spain	103.2
15	Cyprus	99.9
16	Greece	94.3
17	Slovenia	87.1
18	Czech Republic	82.2
19	Malta	81.9
20	Portugal	80.0
21	Slovakia	72.6
22	Hungary	64.7
23	Estonia	63.5
24	Poland	60.7
25	Lithuania	54.5
26	Latvia	51.2
27	Romania	47.0
28	Bulgaria	44.0

Source: Scottish Government estimates based on data from Eurostat, ONS, NRS and SNAP.

Question reference: S4W-07526

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 31 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how many permanent unpromoted teaching posts were advertised by North Ayrshire Council in the (a) primary and (b) secondary sectors in each of the last five years for which figures are available.

Question reference: S4O-01081

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 May 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 31 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what degrees it considers will be in greatest demand by employers by 2020 and how will it encourage more people to study for them.

Question reference: S4F-00690

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 21 May 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 May 2012

To ask the First Minister what impact the continuing uncertainty in the eurozone is having on the Scottish economy.

Question reference: S4O-01034

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 May 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what it considers the most significant improvements have been to patient care in the Ayrshire and Arran NHS board area since 2007.

Question reference: S4W-07075

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 16 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how much relief has been given to small businesses in North Ayrshire under the small business bonus scheme in each year since its inception.

Question reference: S4W-07067

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 16 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what its plans are to reduce the incidence of cannabis farming.

The Scottish Government takes the issue of illegal drugs and the damage caused to communities and individuals extremely seriously and is committed to tackling the problem at all levels.

The Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland is committed to gathering, collating and analysing all intelligence relating to cultivation of cannabis in Scotland. Project LEAGUE provides an overall assessment of the scale and extent of the cannabis cultivation problem in Scotland and links in with the UK ACPO Drugs Committee on the Commercial Cultivation of Cannabis and contributes to the national problem profile around the subject.

ACPOS also have strong links with Europol and contribute to the analytical work files held at Europol where the European picture is assessed and disseminated to member countries. Data is also collected as part of Serious Organised Crime Group Mapping data sweeps, and as of March 2012 the data indicated seventeen Serious Organised Crime Groups were involved in the cultivation of cannabis. This accounts for around 6% of the total number of groups operating in Scotland.

In the course of 2011, cannabis cultivations valued at approximately £4.4 million were recovered by Scotland’s police forces as a result of project league.

Question reference: S4W-07068

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 14 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to reduce the incidence of skin cancer.

The Scottish Government has led the way in the UK by being the first country to introduce legislation for sunbed use. The Public Health etc. (Scotland) Act 2008 (Sunbed) Regulations 2009 were brought into force on 1 December 2009. The Act bans operators from allowing the use of sunbeds by under 18s in commercial premises; prohibits the sale or hire of sunbeds to under 18s; requires operators to supervise the use of sunbeds; places a duty upon the operator of a sunbed premise to display a public information notice; and requires operators to provide customers with information on the health risks associated with sunbed use.

Scotland also benefits from Cancer Research UK’s SunSmart campaign which provides education on the dangers associated with the sun and sunbed exposure to a UK wide audience.

Question reference: S4W-07069

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 14 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what its (a) position is on and (b) plans are to develop research into the link between epigenetic changes and the development of breast cancer.

There are well-established environmental and genetic risk factors for breast cancer, and it is likely that a proportion of breast cancer risk is explained by their interaction.

The Chief Scientist Office (CSO) within the Scottish Government has responsibility for encouraging and supporting research into health and healthcare needs in Scotland. CSO does not ring fence funds for specific areas of research but supports projects of a sufficiently high standard initiated by the research community in Scotland. This role is well known and advertised throughout the healthcare and academic community.

There is already research in progress in Scotland on the epigenetics of breast cancer susceptibility. CSO would welcome further proposals for research that will help to understand and prevent breast cancer, which would be subject to the usual peer and committee review.