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-22207

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 July 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 21 August 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many applications it received for the Welfare Reform Resilience Fund 2014-15.

The Welfare Reform Resilience Fund received 33 applications from 29 local authorities. These applications were considered by a panel of representatives from the Scottish Government, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and the Improvement Service, with 11 projects selected for funding in 2014-15. A list of the successful projects can be found at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/People/welfarereform/WRRF2014-15Update

Question reference: S4T-00779

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 August 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 August 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the Bank of England in relation to a currency union.

Question reference: S4W-21776

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 13 June 2014
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 24 June 2014

To ask the Scottish Government which of the books recommended by Stonewall Scotland for use in primary schools (a) it and (b) Education Scotland has approved since the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2014 came into force.

Question reference: S4W-21775

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 13 June 2014
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 24 June 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what materials and publications (a) it and (b) Education Scotland has approved or recommended to teach about same-sex marriage in primary schools since the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2014 came into force.

Question reference: S4F-02222

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 June 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 June 2014

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to remarks made by the chief executive of the NHS regarding the movement of emergency patients.

Question reference: S4W-21646

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 June 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 19 June 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to review the home report system.

<>Prior to the introduction of the home report, Scottish Ministers gave a commitment to carry out a full policy review after five years of its operation. This review began with a public consultation on 5 December 2013. This consultation, which formed the first stage of the review, closed on 27 February 2014. All responses have now been analysed and the report published on the Scottish Government website on 7 May 2014. The report can be found at the following link: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2014/05/2311

The second stage of the review will take the form of a research study and focus groups. A research company has been appointed and this phase is now under way. The review is due to be completed by the end of 2014.

Question reference: S4W-21473

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 May 2014
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 17 June 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what estimate it has made of the volume of oil that is recoverable from Scottish territorial waters up until 2015.

Oil and Gas UK estimate that there are up to 24 billion barrels of oil and gas reserves remaining under the North Sea. Recent research by Professor Alex Kemp of the University of Aberdeen has suggested that around 98.8 per cent of North Sea oil production and around 60 per cent of gas production in the 30 years from 2011 will come from Scotland's geographical share of the current UK continental shelf.

The Oil and Gas UK Economic Report 2013 is available at:

https://publ.com/N6D1Taa#8

The Scottish Government published the third Oil and Gas Analytical Bulletin on
28 May 2014; this focuses on the outlook for the industry over the next five years.

It is available at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/0045/00451335.pdf

Question reference: S4W-21577

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 June 2014
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 16 June 2014

To ask the Scottish Government when the transport plan for the Armed Forces Day National Event in Stirling will be signed-off at ministerial level.

The Scottish Government has been working closely with Stirling Council to support their preparation of the transport plan and other aspects of the various events across Stirling's 'Big Weekend'. The most recent draft of this transport plan, as prepared by Stirling Council, was received by officials on 6 June 2014.

The Armed Forces Day National Event is an event bid for and organised by Stirling Council. As such, signing-off a robust transport plan is a matter for Stirling Council rather than Scottish Ministers.

Question reference: S4W-21354

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 May 2014
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 12 June 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been spent on (a) repairing and (b) maintaining speed cameras in each of the last five years, broken down by local authority.

The eight Safety Camera Partnerships across Scotland provide the Scottish Safety Camera Programme Office with a projection of costs associated with maintenance for the following financial year. The partnerships are then allocated funding based on this projection, which may not reflect the actual cost of maintenance in that year. If the partnership does not spend its full allocation, funding can be recovered by the Scottish Government and reinvested in other safety camera activity.

The following table sets out the financial projections for maintenance costs for the eight Safety Camera Partnerships over the last five years:

Safety Camera Partnership	2009-10 (£)	2010-11 (£)	2011-12 (£)	2012-13 (£)	2013-14 (£)
Central	500	500	750	1,000	3,000
Dumfries and Galloway	14,700	7,500	775	2,400	2,400
Fife	6,600	5,000	2,325	1,580	2,080
Lothian and Borders	92,000	81,000	97,172	98,866	70,340
North East	18,551	18,332	20,740	22,912	12,744
Northern	5,000	5,000	5,631	5,981	3,700
Strathclyde	179,836	171,550	82,100	90,744	57,140
Tayside	20,000	20,000	20,800	16,750	8,500

Question reference: S4W-21355

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 May 2014
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 12 June 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many speed cameras have been (a) replaced and (b) repaired due to vandalism, and at what cost, in each of the last five years, broken down by local authority.

In the last five years, three of the eight Safety Camera Partnerships across Scotland have recorded incidents of vandalism to speed cameras. These are logged with the Safety Camera Programme Office on a partnership rather than a local authority basis. The number of incidents and associated costs are set out in the following table.

Safety Camera Partnership	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14
Lothian and Borders	1 incident £2,633	1 incident £2,200	5 incidents £12,668	1 incident £1,444	4 incidents £9,381
North East	-	-	-	4 incidents £20,395	1 incident £3,965
Tayside	-	-	-	1 incident £4,064	-