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-03012

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 18 October 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how it will enhance the role of Audit Scotland in line with the recommendations of the Commission on the Future Delivery of Public Services.

We are considering recommendation 7.18 of the Christie Commission. However, I am particularly concerned that external scrutiny should be able to provide a clearer picture of how public service organisations are working together and using resources efficiently to support shared outcomes. With this in mind I have asked the Accounts Commission to lead work to test how external scrutiny can contribute to our public service reform agenda, and in particular assess how effectively local authorities and their partner bodies in community planning partnerships work together to deliver better outcomes.

Question reference: S4W-03014

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 18 October 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will "provide all public services with forward revenue and capital budget projections on the same multi-year planning cycle", as recommended by the Commission on the Future Delivery of Public Services.

Question reference: S4W-03016

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 18 October 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide details of its plans for scrutiny reform as highlighted in its response to the Commission on the Future Delivery of Public Services.

Question reference: S4W-03013

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 18 October 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on the view of the Commission on the Future Delivery of Public Services that “effective challenge and external scrutiny is frustrated by poor data” and what plans the Scottish Government has to encourage more consistent and comparable benchmarking across Scotland.

The Scottish Government agrees that there is considerable scope to improve the quality, transparency and comparability of performance data for key public services.

At a local level, I understand that the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (SOLACE) and the Improvement Service are working to improve the quality of performance information for local authorities and their community planning partners through the development of a menu of local outcome indicators for use in their single outcome agreements. They are also working to support benchmarking by local authorities, recognising that local government is responsible for its own performance management. The Scottish Government is supporting the work in a number of ways, for example, providing professional advice for the menu of local outcome indicators. Audit Scotland have also been kept advised of the work being done and have expressed their support for this initiative.

Question reference: S4W-03015

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 18 October 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to replicate the Office for Budget Responsibility’s independent fiscal sustainability analysis in Scotland providing annual statistics, as recommended by the Commission on the Future Delivery of Public Services.

The Scottish Government routinely publishes analysis relating to the long term outlook for public finances. For example, the Scottish Government published the report Outlook for Scottish Government Expenditure in July 2010 which set out the long term funding outlook for Scottish public expenditure over the next 15 years. This analysis was updated in the Scottish Draft Budget 2010 to illustrate the implications of the UK Comprehensive Spending Review.

The Outlook for Scottish Government Expenditure report is available on the Scottish Government website at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Economy/17858/ScotGovExp

Question reference: S4W-02855

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Brian Adam on 17 October 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what (a) standards and (b) response times it has set for its directorates for responding to (i) correspondence from members and (ii) parliamentary questions and what the (A) top performing and (B) least well performing directorates have been in each of the last three years.

Ministerial Correspondence

The Scottish Government aims to respond as quickly as possible and within 20 working days from the date correspondence is received in the Ministerial Correspondence Unit and logged on the Ministerial and Corporate Correspondence System. If we are unable to send a final reply within 20 working days we will send an interim reply explaining the reason for any delay and indicating when the correspondent can expect to receive a full reply. We have recently established a new cross-Scottish Government group to consider ways of improving on both target times and quality of ministerial replies.

The volume of correspondence dealt with by each directorate has varied considerably from only one case received per year to over 700.

The following table provides the information requested on performance by directorate for the last three years, including the percentage of final replies issued within the 20 working day target, for those directorates handling a minimum of 300 cases per year.

1 April 2008 - 31 March 2009	%	1 April 2009 - 31 March 2010	%	1 April 2010 - 31 March 2011	%
Health and Social Care Integration	98	Health and Social Care Integration	98	Justice	97
Employability Skills and Lifelong Learning	97	Safer Communities	98	Learning	97
Health and Health Care Improvement	97	Justice	97	Housing Regeneration and Commonwealth Games	96
Chief Medical Officer, Public Health and Sport	96	Employability Skills and Lifelong Learning	97	Energy and Climate Change	96
Housing Regeneration and Commonwealth Games	96	Health and Health Care Improvement	97	Health and Health Care Improvement	96
Safer Communities	95	Housing Regeneration and Commonwealth Games	97	Rural and Environment	95
Business	94	Energy and Climate Change	97	Employability Skills and Lifelong Learning	94
Learning	92	Business	97
Justice	92	Transport Scotland	95
Transport Scotland	92	Learning	93
Rural and Environment	86	Rural and Environment	91

Parliamentary Questions

The Scottish Government aims to answer all parliamentary questions on time within the deadlines set in Rule 13.5.2 of Standing Orders. However, there are occasions when this may not be possible, for example, when clusters of questions are received which deal with more complex and sensitive issues. In these cases, more detailed research is required in order to provide a full and comprehensive answer.

Audits of parliamentary questions are published quarterly. It is up to directorates to monitor performance in answering questions and to take the appropriate measures to improve it where necessary.

The volume of parliamentary questions dealt with by each directorate has varied considerably from nil questions received per year to over 700.

The following table provides the information requested on performance by directorate for each of the last three years, including the percentage of questions answered within the deadlines specified in Rule 13.5.2 of Standing Orders, for those directorates handling a minimum of 200 questions per year.

1 April 2008 - 31 March 2009	%	1 April 2009 - 31 March 2010	%	1 April 2010 – 31 March 2011	%
Chief Nursing Officer	100	Housing and Regeneration	99	Housing and Regeneration	100
Healthcare, Policy and Strategy	100	Health Finance	99	Safer Communities	99
Criminal Justice	99	Primary and Community Care	99	Healthcare, Policy and Strategy	98
Health Finance	99	Healthcare Policy and Strategy	98	Primary and Community Care	98
Primary and Community Care	99	Justice and Communities co-ordination – (agencies)	98	Lifelong Learning	97
Children, Young People and Social Care	99	Public Service reform	96	Learning	97
Housing and Regeneration	97	Criminal Justice	95	Public Service Reform	97
Police and Community Safety	96	Chief Medical Officer and Public Health	95	Rural and Environment	97
Schools	95	Police and Community Safety	94	Transport Scotland *	90
General Group	94	Rural	93	Health Workforce	88
Public Health and Wellbeing	94	Schools	91	Energy	76
Lifelong Learning	92	Marine Scotland	91
Public Service Reform	92	Lifelong Learning	89
Equalities, Social Inclusion and Sport	91	Transport Scotland	87
Europe, External Affairs and Culture	91	Equalities, Social Inclusion and Sport	87
Finance	90	Business, Enterprise and Energy	85
Rural	90	Finance	85
Enterprise, Energy and Tourism	89	Transport	73
Built Environment	88
Transport	87
Transport Scotland	84
Marine	80

Note: * Transport Directorate and Transport Scotland merged in August 2010

Question reference: S4W-02893

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 23 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Bruce Crawford on 6 October 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S4W-00282 by John Swinney on 1 July 2011, whether there have been changes to its appointment of special advisers or their (a) job titles, (b) responsibilities and (c) salary bandings.

Since 1 July 2011 there have been two changes to the special adviser team. Malcolm Fleming was appointed on 25 July 2011 as Communications and political spokesperson. Jennifer Erickson resigned on 2 August 2011.

The current Special Adviser Pay Bands and Ranges and the number of Special Advisers within each Pay Band are:

Pay Band	Pay Range	Number in Pay Band
1	£39,445 – £52,904	5
2	£51,041 - £67,709	2
3	£65,017 - £83,963	4
3 (premium)	£83,549 - £100,942	0
4	£86,965 - £104,462	0

Question reference: S4W-02890

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Bruce Crawford on 6 October 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what expenses claims special advisers have made since May 2011.

The total amount claimed in expenses by all special advisers since May 2011 is £2,302.46. This includes accommodation and meals as well as travel and personal incidental expenses. The expenditure was incurred by the advisers and claimed back through the Scottish Government Travel and Subsistence system, booked through the official travel agency or paid directly to suppliers via the Travel and Subsistence charge card.

Special Adviser expenses are incurred in the course of carrying out official business on behalf of the Scottish Government.

Question reference: S4W-02889

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Bruce Crawford on 6 October 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many overnight stays in hotels special advisers have charged for since May 2011.

The total number of overnights stays in hotels claimed by all special advisers since May 2011 is six. The costs were either incurred by the adviser and claimed back through the Scottish Government Travel and Subsistence system or the rooms were booked through the Scottish Government’s official travel agency and paid via a large consolidated invoice.

Overnight stays by Special Adviser are incurred in the course of carrying out official business on behalf of the Scottish Government.

Question reference: S4W-02891

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Bruce Crawford on 6 October 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive which special advisers provide legal advice to ministers.