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-01827

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 February 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of Scotland's potential as a destination for LGBT tourists.

Question reference: S5W-14305

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 21 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government by what date the eight-car electric trains on the Edinburgh-Falkirk-Glasgow service will be operational, and what impact the liquidation of Carillion will have on this.

Question reference: S5W-14320

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 21 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to make public appointments to the Scottish Police Authority board open and accessible.

Ministerial public appointments to the board of the Scottish Police Authority are made under a system regulated and monitored by the Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland. A key purpose of that system is to achieve a fair, open and accessible appointment process.

In the current round to appoint Members to the Board of the Scottish Police Authority, the person specification listed required skills and experience, explained what these meant, the level they would be required at and how they would be tested. Care was taken, for example, not to use terms or descriptors that might inadvertently rule out people with the appropriate skills and experience to apply.

A ‘teaser’ campaign was run to alert people that an advertisement was forthcoming. The Chair did a video clip to encourage applications and the advertisement was publicised widely. Candidates selected for interview were able to request adjustments to enable them to attend interview.

Question reference: S5W-14289

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 21 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of how it will allocate the proposed £161.1 million increase in rail infrastructure, which was announced in the Budget.

Question reference: S5W-14323

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 20 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what monitoring it undertakes to ensure that those taking up public appointments are from as diverse a background as possible.

The demographic profile of Scotland from the 2011 census is used as the basis to measure whether regulated public appointments are representative of the people of Scotland. All applicants for a regulated public appointment are asked to complete a diversity monitoring form. Data is anonymised and collated and used to inform work on subsequent appointment rounds with the annual collated anonymised data published as part of the independent regulator’s Annual Report (Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland).

Question reference: S5W-14321

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 20 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to increase applications and access to public appointments.

The Scottish Government is undertaking a range of steps, as described in the Equality Outcomes and Mainstreaming Report 2017, to increase applications and access to regulated public appointments, such as regular, free, ‘Come on Board’ events; a programme of outreach including targeted work with equalities organisations; new approaches to advertising and the use of social media, and support to new board members through induction workshops. The Scottish Government also encourages public bodies themselves to undertake outreach events and to consider how they support new board members. The Scottish Government continuously tests, evaluates and refines the processes used in regulated public appointments, recycling learning, sharing good practice, and using the data generated within rounds to track and measure progress. For example, in drafting person specifications for each regulated public appointment round, care is taken to describe the skills required for the appointment in ways that do not inadvertently exclude people for reasons that are irrelevant to the needs of the role.

Question reference: S5W-14322

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 20 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government when it last reviewed the criteria and person specification for public appointments.

The criteria and person specification for each regulated public appointment is reviewed for every appointment round in line with the Code of Practice for Ministerial Appointments to Public Bodies in Scotland. The Code requires that selection panel members will agree a clear and accurate description of the role to be performed (the role description), and a clear and accurate description of the skills, knowledge and experience envisaged to be effective in the role (the person specification). The Code further requires that the skills, knowledge and experience will be described in a way that is readily understandable, is capable of assessment and reflects the requirements of the role. They will not be unnecessarily restrictive.

Question reference: S5W-14366

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 05 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 20 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to IPPR Scotland's reported suggestion that those set to benefit from a tax cut in the 2018-19 Budget proposals will only see 63p in every £1 because of the tax system's relationship with universal credit.

Question reference: S5W-14367

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 05 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 20 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether the "no detriment" principle applies to its income tax plans, and whether people due to receive a tax cut in the 2018-19 Budget proposals will see their incomes rise.

As set out in the Income Tax fact sheet, individuals earning less than £33,000 will pay less income tax next year than they do this year, for a given income. The income tax fact sheet can be found at: http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0053/00530863.pdf.

No detriment is a principle in the Fiscal Framework derived from the Smith Commission’s report. It provides that neither the Scottish Government nor the UK Government should be better or worse off as a result of the devolution of tax and social security powers to Scottish Parliament.

Question reference: S5W-14306

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 12 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what the locations are of the Intercity Express Programme Gauging Priority (a) 1 and (b) 2 site work; by what date the work will be completed, and what impact the liquidation of Carillion will have on this work.