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: S4W-11778

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 December 2012
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 18 December 2012

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-08584 by Richard Lochhead on 1 August 2012, how many local authorities provide a food waste recycling service and how many are preparing to do so in 2013.

Currently, 17 local authorities provide a household food waste collection service. Six of these local authorities offer a service covering all households, whilst the remainder offer a partial service. Six of the councils currently operating a partial service have plans to extend coverage in 2013.

At this time a further seven local authorities plan to introduce household food waste collections in 2013.

Question reference: S4O-01623

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 December 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 December 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether its policies and priorities for the health service are being undermined by UK Government policies.

Question reference: S4O-01615

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 December 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 December 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what impact the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement will have on the Scottish budget.

Question reference: S4W-10718

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 October 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 14 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how much it paid to hire (a) consultants and (b) contractors in (i) 2009-10, (ii) 2010-11 and (iii) 2011-12.

(A) The Core Scottish Government consultancy spend recorded on the accountancy system in accordance with internal procedures was:

1.£14,048,084 in 2009 -10

2.£5,240,237 in 2010 -11 and

3.£3,747,396 in 2011 -12

This means consultancy spending between 2009 and 2012 has reduced by more than 73%.

(B) Within these total figures for consultancy spend are included, the Core Scottish Government spend on contractors recorded on the accountancy system in accordance with internal procedures, excluding any contractor with whom the Scottish Government spend was less than £1000 within the financial year, was as follows:

1.£230,874,210 in 2009 -10

2.£180,657,639 in 2010 -11 and

3.£204,025,713 in 2011 -12

This means contractor spending between 2009 and 2012 has reduced by more than 11%.

Question reference: S4O-01409

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 October 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 31 October 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what benefits arise from investment in entrepreneurial businesses.

Question reference: S4O-01378

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 October 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 October 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how it assesses school pupils' mental arithmetic skills.

Question reference: S3W-40319

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 07 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 8 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made by the Inland Water Rescue Stakeholder Group in its consideration of the recommendations in Paddy Tomkins’ report of the findings of his independent review of Scotland’s open water and flood rescue capability and when ministers will issue a formal response to the recommendations.

The group has met four times since it was established in May 2010 and has submitted its report to me, a copy of which is available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib number 52551).

I am grateful to the group for its constructive advice and pragmatic assessment of the value of each of the 15 recommendations in Paddy Tomkins'' report and Scotland is safer because of the work already underway as a result of the report. This work will help inform future decisions about fire and rescue capability in Scotland. The Scottish Government supports the conclusions of the group that the majority of the recommendations be accepted and should be progressed by the relevant agency; which will help strengthen Scotland''s inland water rescue capability.

The recommendations which have been identified for further work include:

Exploration of the implications for Scottish stakeholders of the adoption of the Water Accidents and Incidents Database.

Discussion with relevant stakeholders about the development of inland water rescue asset registers.

Designated strategic lead for delivery of inland water safety messages across Scotland.

Implementation of these recommendations will help build on the work which has already been undertaken in the past year to promote safety messages - such as the Ready Winter pages of the Scottish Government website - and the provision of financial support to projects to improve Scotland''s resilience to flooding events, such as the development of the Scottish Flood Forecasting Service.

The full text of the Scottish Government''s response to the recommendations in Paddy Tomkins'' report is available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 52550).

Question reference: S3W-40153

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 4 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will take forward the review of the cost and funding of litigation recommended by the Lord Justice Clerk, Lord Gill, in The Report of the Scottish Civil Courts Review.

A review of the costs and funding of litigation in Scotland is to be undertaken very shortly and will be led by Sheriff Principal James Taylor when he retires from the bench in April.

The terms of reference for the review are:

To review the costs and funding of civil litigation in the Court of Session and Sheriff Court in the context of the recommendations of the Scottish Civil Courts Review, and the response of the Scottish Government to that review.

In undertaking this review, to:

Consult widely, gather evidence, compare our expenses regime with those of other jurisdictions and have regard to research and previous enquiries into costs and funding, including the Civil Litigation Costs Review of Lord Justice Jackson;

Consider issues in relation to the affordability of litigation; the recoverability and assessment of expenses, and different models of funding litigation (including contingency, speculative and conditional fees, before and after the event insurance, referral fees and claims management);

Consider the extent to which alternatives to public funding may secure appropriate access to justice, and pay particular attention to the potential impact of any recommendations on publically funded legal assistance;

Have regard to the principles of civil justice outlined in Chapter 1, paragraph 5 of the Civil Courts Review;

Consider other factors and reasons why parties may not litigate in Scotland; and

Report with recommendations to Scottish ministers, together with supporting evidence within 18 months of the work commencing.

Question reference: S2W-32192

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 28 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how much severance pay was provided to political advisers who left the civil service in each year since 1999.

Combined information on the net amount of severance pay provided to special advisersover four periods is provided in thefollowing table. Information cannot be provided on an annual basis to preserveconfidentiality as the number of Special Advisers receiving severance in someyears is low.

Year	1999-2003	2003-07
Net Amount	£154,754	£122,813

The criteria for thecalculation of severance pay are set out in paragraph 14d of the ModelContract for Special Advisers which is available in the Scottish ParliamentInformation Centre (Bib. number 37226).

Question reference: S2W-32294

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 28 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of police time was spent on frontline duties in each police force area in each year since 2003-04.