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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 351 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S5O-02196

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 May 2018
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 6 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how much money has been returned to communities through the CashBack for Communities scheme since 2008.

This Government introduced the Cashback for Communities programme in 2008 as a way to reinvest monies attributed to proceeds of crime directly back into our young people living in areas most affected by crime. Since 2008, £92 million seized from criminals has been committed to a wide range of sporting, cultural, youth work and community opportunities, delivering over 2 million activities and opportunities to some of Scotland’s most disadvantaged young people.

Phase 4 of CashBack started on 1 April 2017. We are investing £17 million across 17 exciting new programmes that are even more focussed on disadvantaged young people in every Local Authority across Scotland. This will build on the success of the CashBack programme.

Question reference: S5T-01135

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 June 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what proposals it is considering to tackle child obesity.

Question reference: S5O-02079

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 May 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how centres that provide a supervised contact facility for absent parents to spend time with their children are inspected and regulated.

Question reference: S5O-02010

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 April 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how it supports built heritage in the Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn constituency.

Question reference: S5O-01869

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 7 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how it is monitoring the use of the Pupil Equity Fund in schools in the Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn constituency.

Pupil Equity Funding is additional funding to be spent at the discretion of Headteachers to close the poverty-related attainment gap. Working with our partners, the Scottish Government has developed clear national guidance for schools on planning and monitoring Pupil Equity Funding. This includes explaining how they are using the funding in existing planning and reporting processes to their authority and Parent Council, including in their annual School Improvement Plans and Standards and Quality reports. These plans and reports should be made publicly available so that parents and others can understand what is happening in their school.

School inspection and other review processes will be used to ensure schools use their funding appropriately. In addition, the operation, use and effectiveness of the Pupil Equity Funding on closing the poverty related attainment gap will feed into other existing quality assurance processes, such as Audit Scotland’s Shared Risk Assessment.

At a national level, progress towards closing the poverty-related attainment gap will be monitored and reported through the National Improvement Framework.

Question reference: S5O-01792

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 22 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met the chief executive of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and what matters were discussed.

Question reference: S5O-01834

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 February 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what work it is carrying out in partnership with the Law Society of Scotland to support putting Scottish law firms on the global map.

Question reference: S5O-01780

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 8 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what resilience plans are in place to help mitigate the effects of severe weather conditions.

The Scottish Government’s dedicated Resilience operation actively monitors all weather and flood alerts and can be activated at any time, any day of the year to support the national response to an emergency.

The Scottish Government also works closely with Scotland’s network of Resilience Partnerships, which bring together emergency services, local authorities, health boards, power companies and other relevant partners, to ensure that there is a full understanding of any challenges happening on the ground across Scotland and that organisations can respond and co-ordinate appropriately at a local level when any kind of emergency occurs.

Transport Scotland also has detailed plans and arrangements to ensure the transport network remains open so far as possible during severe weather, and recovers as quickly as possible when disruption is unavoidable. It has also recently brought in additional equipment, greater use of technology and more ways of getting information to more people on the move wherever they are.

Energy companies also recognise that rural and remote areas can be cut off during severe weather and so routinely deploy their staff to these areas in advance of a storm to ensure they can respond quickly to any outages.

Question reference: S5O-01701

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 25 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on progress with the proposed Transport Bill.

The Transport Bill was announced as part of the Year 2 legislative programme in September’s Programme for Government and the intention remains to introduce the Bill before summer recess 2018. The consultations associated with our proposals are now closed and we are carefully considering responses whilst we continue to engage with stakeholders, including local transport authorities, operators and business, to inform the Bill development.

Question reference: S5W-12721

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 November 2017
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Maree Todd on 14 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it is making toward providing a national kinship care advice service.

I am pleased to advise Parliament that the contract for the new National Kinship Care Advice Service has been awarded following a tender process to Citizens Advice Scotland. The new national service will be delivered across Scotland, with advice and information available from every Citizens Advice Bureau, supported by four Regional Officers delivering specialist advice, to address more complex circumstances. Advice and information will also be available from the Kinship Care Helpline, the Citizens Advice Scotland website and the dedicated Kinship Care Service website.

Citizens Advice Scotland will work in partnership with Mentor UK in the delivery of the service, supporting the Mentor UK Kinship Care Guide and Website, and with Child Poverty Action Group Scotland which will continue to provide expert help, training and reference materials.