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

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Question reference: S5W-19495

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 19 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 7 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) returns have been submitted following the three-year review return date that were (a) within one to three and (b) over three months late.

Question reference: S5W-19497

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 19 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 7 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance it provides to businesses that are tenants and are being served with Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) return reminders after their solicitors filed their initial returns.

Question reference: S5W-19696

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 7 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether its proposed homicide service will be available to the families of all people who have been unlawfully killed and not only victims of homicide.

The new Homicide Service will initially be available to families bereaved by murder or culpable homicide.

We recognise that there are other victims that might benefit from the type of support that the new service will provide and we will work with Victim Support Scotland to ensure that lessons learned from the development of the Homicide Service will inform any possible change to its scope in the future.

The Homicide Service will also inform the development of a wider victim centred approach, which will streamline points of contact, improve information flow and ensure victims of crime feel supported through the criminal justice system.

Question reference: S5W-19705

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 November 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 7 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been (a) reported for, (b) charged with, (c) prosecuted for and (d) convicted of blasphemy in each of the last five years.

(a) There were no charges of blasphemy reported to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service in the last five years.

(b) The number of people charged for blasphemy may be obtained from Police Scotland. Scottish Government does not hold this information.

(d) There were no convictions for blasphemy in the Scottish Courts in the last five years.

Question reference: S5W-19346

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 6 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the accessibility of the National Records of Scotland in terms of (a) affordability and (b) distance from local family history centres.

National Records of Scotland does not believe that its charges or the locations of Local Family History Centres create a significant barrier to customer access. A multi-channel approach with different price points offers choice to customers wishing to use the service. The service is available on-line, in person at National Records of Scotland and in person at five Local Family History Centres located throughout Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-19606

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 2 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action it takes to encourage radiotherapy graduates who are trained in Scotland to find employment in Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-19607

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 2 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many training places for radiotherapists there have been in each year since 2012-13, broken down by NHS board.

Radiography education is not commissioned or controlled by the Scottish Government. The following table sets out the number of Scottish entrants to radiography courses at Scottish Higher Education Institutions in each year since 2012-13. This information is not available by NHS Board area.

Scottish Domiciled Entrants to Radiography Courses at Scottish Providers

Subject	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17
Radiography, diagnostic	90	100	85	90	100
Radiography, therapeutic	30	30	35	30	35

Source: HESA Student data,

SG analysis

Figures have been rounded to the nearest 5.

Based on full person equivalent

Question reference: S5W-19608

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 2 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many graduate radiotherapists have joined the NHS in each year since 2012-13, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S5W-19547

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 22 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 1 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on national and local public bodies in the health and social care sector in Scotland using exceptions under the Equality Act 2010; what its position is on issuing guidance to these bodies regarding such use; what information it has regarding how often exceptions are used and their impact, and what discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding this.

Question reference: S5W-19342

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 26 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many unique users the website, scotlandspeople.gov.uk, has; what the average spend is per user, and what percentage of users have more than £15 in credits on their account.