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-07276

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 23 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to review the law in relation to the licensing of private hire cars.

Question reference: S4W-07277

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 23 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on local authorities having the power to limit the number of private hire car licences in their area.

Question reference: S4W-06978

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 27 April 2012
Current Status: Answered by Bruce Crawford on 15 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S4W-06349 by Bruce Crawford on 26 April 2012, what changes have been made as a result.

Question reference: S4W-06575

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 02 April 2012
Current Status: Answered by Bruce Crawford on 4 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive for what reason the Respondent Information Form for the Your Scotland, Your Referendum consultation asks respondents to state their country of residence; whether this is standard in all of its consultations, and, if not, what its reasons are for its position on this in this instance.

The Respondent Information Form is revised on a case-by-case basis for individual consultations. Respondents are asked to return the form to ensure that the government handles the response appropriately for publication purposes and to help with analysis of responses. The question on residence in the form for the Your Scotland, Your Referendum consultation was designed simply to aid the analysis. It is common for consultation analyses to break down responses by specific categories of respondent. The location requirement came about following the Same Sex Marriage consultation, which revealed that many respondents were from beyond the Scottish Parliament’s jurisdiction. This feature is likely to be repeated on future consultations where appropriate.

Question reference: S4O-00981

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 May 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how it ensures that cyberbullying incidents are recorded accurately.

Question reference: S4O-00967

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 April 2012
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 2 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of the recently reported comments by the Minister for Energy, Enterprise and Tourism, whether it will regulate so-called pay-day loans.

Question reference: S4W-06636

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 April 2012
Current Status: Answered by Liam McArthur on 26 April 2012

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body, further to the answer to question S4W-05706 by Liam McArthur on 5 March 2012, what its position is on the adequacy of the (a) current powers, (b) remit and (c) appeals process available to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman.

The functions of the Ombudsman are set out in legislation as agreed by Parliament. The SPCB does not have a view on the adequacy of the legislative provisions.

During the last parliamentary session the Parliament established the Review of SPCB Supported Bodies Committee which held an inquiry on the arrangements of the SPCB supported bodies which included the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman. The committee, at that time, recommended some changes to the functions of the SPSO which were enacted in the Scottish Parliamentary Commissions, Commissioners etc. Act 2010.

Question reference: S4W-06349

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Current Status: Answered by Bruce Crawford on 26 April 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive when it last reviewed its comment moderation policy for websites carrying the Scottish Government logo.

Question reference: S4W-06574

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 02 April 2012
Current Status: Answered by Bruce Crawford on 25 April 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive which of its consultations have been externally verified since 2007, broken down by (a) who carried out, (b) the reason for and (c) the cost of the verification.

<>A list of the consultation analyses that have been externally commissioned since 2002-03 is available on the Scottish Government’s website: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Research/About/Social-Research/SR-Contracts.

This includes the organisation that carried out the analysis and the cost. The decision whether to undertake consultation analysis internally or externally is made on a case by case basis and is not centrally recorded.

Question reference: S4W-06573

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 02 April 2012
Current Status: Answered by Bruce Crawford on 25 April 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has specifically targeted the respondents to the National Conversation and encouraged them to participate in the Your Scotland, Your Referendum consultation.