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-02882

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 February 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what it considers the role of British embassies should be in promoting Scotland's interests.

Question reference: S4O-02713

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 December 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 December 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what support is available for small rural communities to market themselves.

Question reference: S4W-18045

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 31 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 14 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many reports of attacks on guide dogs have been made to the police in each of the last three years for which information is available, and what estimate it has of how many attacks were not reported.

The police recorded crime data collected centrally is based on an aggregate return from each of the eight legacy police forces in Scotland.

Attacks on guide dogs would be recorded under the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006, Section 19 - Cause a protected animal unnecessary suffering. It is not possible to separate attacks on guide dogs from the aggregated crime code “Cruelty to dogs”.

Crimes of Cruelty to dogs recorded by the police, 2010-11 to 2012-13

2010-11	29
2011-12	56
2012-13	44

Source: Justice Analytical Services, Scottish Government.

Most attacks on dogs by other dogs are now dealt with directly by local authorities following the introduction of Control of Dogs (Scotland) Act 2010, where the authority will consider issuing a dog control notice when a dog has been out of control. I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-17160 on 25 September 2013, which related to the number of dog control notices served by local authorities. 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-18081

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 November 2013
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by John Swinney on 5 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what approach it will take to the UK Government policy to increase employee contributions to public sector pensions from April 2014.

The Scottish Government remains committed to public service pensions that are affordable, sustainable, and fair and has repeatedly set out its opposition to the UK Government’s policy of increasing employee contributions in this way and at this time.

However, unless there is a change in UK Government policy, the Scottish Government will move to apply the third increment of employee contribution rate increases across the NHS, Teachers’, Police and Firefighters’ pension schemes in Scotland from April 2014.

The Scottish Government has taken this decision as a result of the clear financial sanctions that will be imposed if it does not. In a letter to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth dated 14 October 2013, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury confirmed that, as in previous years, if the Scottish Government does not apply the increases, or applies them later than April 2014, the UK Government will impose matching reductions in the Scottish budget.

Question reference: S4W-18075

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 01 November 2013
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by John Swinney on 4 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government when the next reports of the Fiscal Commission Working Group will be published.

Question reference: S4O-02503

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 October 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what benefits HMP Grampian will bring to the north east.

Question reference: S4O-02490

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 9 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government when it will set out the 2014-15 funding allocation for local government.

Question reference: S4F-01587

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 September 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 September 2013

To ask the First Minister whether the Prime Minister has responded to his letter calling for a moratorium on the privatisation of the Royal Mail.

Question reference: S4O-02423

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 September 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how the draft budget supports people affected by fuel poverty.

Question reference: S4W-15699

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 June 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 25 June 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of (a) male and (b) female births were registered with (i) a single forename, (ii) two forenames, (iii) three forenames, (iv) four forenames, (v) more than four forenames and (vi) no forename in each of the last five years for which information is available.

Statistical information about babies' names is published annually by the National Records of Scotland. It is available via:

http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/theme/vital-events/births/popular-names/index.html, and includes a chart (which is called "Figure A" in the latest edition) on the percentages of babies of each sex who were given one, two, three and four or more forenames.

However, that chart does not provide the precise figures that were requested, so they are given in the following table.

Babies whose births were registered in Scotland from 2008 to 2012, by the number of forenames that they were given.

	None	1	2	3	4	5+	All
Boys
2008	0.0%	16.9%	64.9%	16.9%	1.1%	0.1%	100%
2009	0.0%	16.3%	64.7%	17.6%	1.2%	0.2%	100%
2010	0.0%	16.1%	65.4%	17.3%	1.1%	0.2%	100%
2011	0.0%	15.4%	64.6%	18.6%	1.2%	0.1%	100%
2012	0.0%	15.6%	64.4%	18.7%	1.2%	0.1%	100%
Girls
2008	0.0%	23.8%	63.0%	12.2%	0.9%	0.1%	100%
2009	0.0%	23.1%	63.1%	12.8%	1.0%	0.1%	100%
2010	0.0%	23.4%	62.5%	13.1%	0.9%	0.1%	100%
2011	0.0%	22.7%	62.9%	13.3%	1.0%	0.1%	100%
2012	0.0%	22.3%	62.5%	13.9%	1.1%	0.1%	100%