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-17642

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 1 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with drinks companies regarding the potential for a wider deposit return scheme to encourage recycling of drink containers.

Question reference: S4O-02533

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 October 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing has had with the Minister for Housing and Welfare on food bank provision.

Question reference: S4W-17333

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 23 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 29 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of patients has been seen within the (a) four-hour and (b) 12-hour waiting time target at Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy, in each of the last 10 years and how this compares with the national average.

Table 1 presents the percentage of attendances (new and unplanned returns) that were seen within four hours and within twelve hours at Victoria Hospital and in NHSScotland for 2005 to 2013. There is no HEAT Standard for patients to wait less than twelve hours from arrival to admission, discharge or transfer for accident and emergency treatment.

Table 1 - Percentage of attendances (new and unplanned returns) seen within four and twelve hours at Victoria Hospital and NHS Scotland; April 2005 and April 2006; July 2007 to March 2013.

NHS Board

Survey

A&E datamart

2005**

2006**

2007-08*

2008-09*

2009-10*

2010-11*

2011-12*

2012-13*

Victoria Hospital

Seen within 4 hours	89.0%	87.5%	96.0%	96.0%	97.0%	95.0%	92.0%	93.7%
Seen within 12 hours	-	-	99.9%	99.9%	100.0%	99.8%	99.4%	99.7%

NHS Scotland

seen within 4 hours	93.8%	93.0%	97.2%	97.7%	97.4%	96.3%	95.7%	93.6%
Seen within 12 hours	-	-	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	99.9%	99.9%

Source: Survey April 2005 and April 2006, SMR30C, ISD Scotland; July 2007 onwards A&E data mart, ISD Scotland.

Notes:

*A&E data mart was established in June 2007 to monitor compliance against waiting times targets, with data collected from July 2007 onwards. As such, figures cannot be provided for the full twelve months for 2007-08.

**Statistics relate to snapshot surveys at core A&E sites in a seven day period April 2005 and April 2006, ISD Scotland.

Question reference: S4W-17714

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 07 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 29 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to consult on the tied model for pubs and, if so, when.

Question reference: S4W-17711

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 07 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 29 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many pubs have closed in each year since 2005 and how many of these were (a) free houses and (b) run under the tied pub model.

Question reference: S4W-17713

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 07 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 29 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is regarding the tied pub model.

Question reference: S4W-17712

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 07 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 29 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what meetings it has had with pub (a) tenants and (b) companies regarding the tied pub model since 2007.

The Minister for Energy, Enterprise and Tourism has met with a delegation from the Fair Deal for your Local.Com Campaign Group (the group consisted of members of the Scottish Licenced Trade Association (SLTA), UNISON, CAMRA and the Federation of Small Businesses.

Scottish Government officials have also met with the Scottish Licenced Trade Association, the Scottish Beer and Pub Association, Punch and Heineken (2 of the 3 Pub Co’s who operate in Scotland), who may be affected by the introduction of a Statutory Code and Ombudsman, asking that they provide us with any empirical evidence to support their position.

All these meetings have taken place in the last six months.

Question reference: S4W-17710

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 07 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 29 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many pubs there are; how many are free houses, and how many are run under the tied pub model.

The Scottish Government collects figures on premises licensed to sell alcohol each year from local authorities, and these are published at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/Datasets/DatasetsLiquor

The most recent set of figures is for 2011-12 shows a total number of premises licensed for on-sales was 11,511. This covers pubs, as well as hotels and restaurants. We do not collate information on whether pubs are tied or free houses, nor do we collate information on pub closures. It is not possible to meaningfully compare totals over a longer period of time due to changes in the way licences are administered.

Information from the Scottish Beer and Pub Association suggests that approximately 35% of the estimated 5000 pubs in Scotland are leased. Of these, fewer than half, around 630 (or around 13% of all pubs in Scotland), are leased from PubCos owning above 500 premises.

Question reference: S4O-02526

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 October 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 31 October 2013

To ask to the Scottish Government when it will respond to the Audit Scotland report, NHS financial performance 2012/13.

Question reference: S4W-16783

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 August 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 23 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what the regulatory regime is for (a) offshore and (b) onshore underground coal gasification; what the licensing arrangements are; which body issues licences and how many have been issued, broken down by region.

The UK Coal Authority is the licensing authority for Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) in Scotland and the UK. The Coal Authority can grant conditional licences to companies which enable prospective operators to secure rights to the coal while projects are developed. There have been six licences granted for UCG in Scotland in the Kincardine and Largo Bay, Firth of Forth and the Solway Firth areas.

Potential UCG operators who have been granted a licence from the UK Coal Authority cannot commence activities in Scotland until all other rights and permissions covering the various elements involved, such as drilling activities where there are robust licensing, permissions, permit regimes and monitoring arrangements which involve approvals from the Department of Energy and Climate Change, the Health and Safety Executive and the Scottish Environmental protection Agency (SEPA).

Any development proposal onshore, concerning onshore or offshore underground coal gasification would require planning permission along with the relevant SEPA licences and permits before activities can begin in Scotland.