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: S5O-00935

Asked by: Colin Beattie, MSP for Midlothian North and Musselburgh, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 3 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to support adults who wish to return to education.

Question reference: S5O-00843

Asked by: Colin Beattie, MSP for Midlothian North and Musselburgh, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 29 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to promote apprenticeship schemes.

The Scottish Government's skills agency Skills Development Scotland promotes Modern Apprenticeships in a number of ways including its Apprenticeship.scot website and My World of Work. Through the Developing the Young Workforce agenda we are taking forward the promotion of all options for young people, including apprenticeships.

Earlier this month the Scottish Government supported Scottish Apprenticeship Week 2017. This was the most comprehensive Scottish Apprenticeship Week to date with all Scottish Government Ministers undertaking an event to promote the benefits of apprenticeships to employers and to participants. Also involved in the Scottish Apprenticeship Week activities were schools, employers, apprentices, colleges, councils and training providers.

Question reference: S5W-07313

Asked by: Colin Beattie, MSP for Midlothian North and Musselburgh, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 17 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what role it considers that the Open University can play in widening access to education in Scotland.

The Open University’s open access policy, combined with its flexibility and support has always provided an opportunity for learners from a range of backgrounds to access and study higher education courses in Scotland. In particular, the flexibility of part-time distance learning can remove barriers faced by some learners for whom full-time study at university would prove difficult e.g. those with caring responsibilities, in employment or living in remote locations.

Question reference: S5W-07382

Asked by: Colin Beattie, MSP for Midlothian North and Musselburgh, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 1 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many schools in each local authority have been (a) rebuilt and (b) refurbished in each year since 2007.

2. Information specifying whether a school was built or refurbished is not available until 2009-10

Table 2: Number of schools which have been built or substantially refurbished¹ in the financial year 2009-10 by local authority


	Built	Substantially refurbished	Not specified²
Aberdeen City	6	0	0
Aberdeenshire	0	0	0
Angus	2	0	0
Argyll and Bute	0	0	0
Clackmannanshire	1	0	0
Dumfries and Galloway	10	1	0
Dundee City	2	0	0
East Ayrshire	0	0	0
East Dunbartonshire	6	1	0
East Lothian	0	1	0
East Renfrewshire	0	1	0
Edinburgh, City of	6	0	1
Eilean Siar	0	0	0
Falkirk	2	2	0
Fife	0	2	0
Glasgow City	4	2	1
Highland	1	6	1
Inverclyde	2	0	0
Midlothian	3	0	0
Moray	0	0	0
North Ayrshire	0	0	0
North Lanarkshire	0	0	0
Orkney Islands	0	1	0
Perth and Kinross	6	2	1
Renfrewshire	0	3	0
Scottish Borders	2	1	0
Shetland Islands	0	0	0
	Built	Substantially refurbished	Not specified²
South Ayrshire	0	0	0
South Lanarkshire	9	4	0
Stirling	0	1	0
West Dunbartonshire	1	0	2
West Lothian	2	3	1
Total	65	31	7

1. Only builds or refurbishments with a cost of £500,000 or more for primary and £1 million or more for secondary and special schools are included

2. The data collected did not distinguish whether it was a new build or a refurbishment

Table 3: Number of schools which have been built¹ in the financial years 2010-11 to 2015-16 by local authority

Built

	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16
Aberdeen City	2	1	0	0	0	1
Aberdeenshire	0	0	0	0	1	3
Angus	1	0	0	0	0	1
Argyll and Bute	0	0	0	0	0	0
Clackmannanshire	0	0	0	0	1	0
Dumfries and Galloway	3	0	1	1	1	0
Dundee City	1	1	1	2	0	0
East Ayrshire	0	0	5	1	0	0
East Dunbartonshire	0	0	0	0	0	1
East Lothian	0	1	0	0	0	0
East Renfrewshire	0	1	0	1	0	0
Edinburgh, City of	0	0	0	0	0	1
Eilean Siar	0	3	4	0	0	0
Falkirk	0	0	0	0	0	0
Fife	0	1	1	1	1	0
Glasgow City	2	2	2	0	1	0
Highland	0	0	3	0	0	5
Inverclyde	0	2	0	3	0	0
Midlothian	0	0	1	1	0	0
Moray	0	1	1	0	0	0
North Ayrshire	0	0	1	0	1	0
North Lanarkshire	0	5	4	0	0	1
Orkney Islands	0	0	1	1	0	0
Perth and Kinross	2	1	0	0	1	2
Renfrewshire	0	0	1	0	1	0
Scottish Borders	0	0	1	1	0	0
Shetland Islands	2	0	0	0	0	0
South Ayrshire	1	0	0	1	0	0
South Lanarkshire	14	11	11	16	14	4
Stirling	0	0	1	0	0	0
West Dunbartonshire	3	2	0	1	0	0
				Built
	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16
West Lothian	0	1	0	1	0	0
Total	31	33	39	31	22	19

1. Only builds with a cost of £500,000 or more for primary and £1 million or more for secondary and special schools are included

Table 4: Number of schools which have been substantially refurbished¹ in the financial years 2010-11 to 2015-16 by local authority

Substantially refurbished

	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16
Aberdeen City	1	0	0	1	0	0
Aberdeenshire	1	0	0	0	4	3
Angus	1	0	0	0	0	0
Argyll & Bute	0	0	0	0	0	0
Clackmannanshire	0	0	0	0	0	0
Dumfries & Galloway	2	0	3	5	1	2
Dundee City	0	1	0	0	0	0
East Ayrshire	0	0	3	0	1	0
East Dunbartonshire	0	0	0	0	0	0
East Lothian	2	0	0	2	0	1
East Renfrewshire	0	0	0	0	0	1
Edinburgh, City of	0	0	0	6	4	8
Eilean Siar	0	0	0	0	0	0
Falkirk	0	0	1	0	0	2
Fife	5	1	2	1	0	1
Glasgow City	1	1	0	2	43	0
Highland	0	0	1	2	2	0
Inverclyde	0	1	3	2	0	2
Midlothian	0	0	0	1	0	0
Moray	0	0	0	0	1	1
North Ayrshire	3	2	0	2	0	1
North Lanarkshire	0	0	4	0	0	1
Orkney Islands	0	0	0	0	0	0
Perth & Kinross	0	0	1	3	1	0
Renfrewshire	0	1	2	0	0	0
Scottish Borders	2	1	0	0	0	0
Shetland Islands	0	0	0	1	0	0
South Ayrshire	1	1	0	3	2	0
South Lanarkshire	1	0	1	0	0	1
Stirling	1	1	0	1	0	0
West Dunbartonshire	0	0	0	0	0	1
West Lothian	3	3	0	0	0	0
Total	24	13	21	32	59	25

1. Only refurbishments with a cost of £500,000 or more for primary and £1 million or more for secondary and special schools are included

Question reference: S5O-00545

Asked by: Colin Beattie, MSP for Midlothian North and Musselburgh, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 12 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the steps that it is taking to tackle diabetes.

Our Diabetes Improvement Plan published in November 2014 sets out our vision to improve the lives of people living with diabetes in Scotland.

The Plan focuses on eight priority areas for action, through which considerable progress is being made, for example:

a pregnancy workstream has been established to address the challenges of diabetes during pregnancy;
our Type1 diabetes group have developed a national glycaemic guidance for people newly diagnosed, and launched the second diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) campaign;
the inpatient project has been successfully completed with work being planned for 2017 to spread the learning across Scotland;
we have developed and implemented a new reporting system with improvement in the numbers of people receiving essential healthcare checks;
insulin pump provision has exceeded the numbers set and new investment of £10m will support further increase in life changing technologies;
a new group has been established to lead the development of a prevention framework, looking at both the prevention of type 2 diabetes and the prevention of complications for people living with all types of diabetes.

Question reference: S5W-05443

Asked by: Colin Beattie, MSP for Midlothian North and Musselburgh, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 15 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will review the standards set out in its (a) Domestic Handbook 2016 and (b) Non-domestic Handbook 2016 regarding the design of tapered staircase treads.

Question reference: S5W-04586

Asked by: Colin Beattie, MSP for Midlothian North and Musselburgh, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 21 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of concerns about antisocial behaviour, what discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding introducing a ban on fireworks unless used by a professional licensed company, and what action it can take to control the supply of fireworks.

Question reference: S5O-00286

Asked by: Colin Beattie, MSP for Midlothian North and Musselburgh, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 October 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what savings it expects the Scottish Futures Trust to achieve in delivering projects.

Question reference: S5O-00264

Asked by: Colin Beattie, MSP for Midlothian North and Musselburgh, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 October 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what the outcome was of the recent ministerial visit to Munich to discuss future trade with the EU.

Question reference: S5O-00063

Asked by: Colin Beattie, MSP for Midlothian North and Musselburgh, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 June 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the meeting of the Joint Ministerial Working Group on Welfare on 16 June 2016.