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: S5W-21864

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Ash Denham on 14 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to the second supplementary to question S5T-01518 by Ash Denham on 26 February 2019 (Official Report, c. 8), whether the review will consider (a) the whole fatal accident inquiry process, including the protracted timescales, structural barriers and public confidence in it and (b) removing fatal accident inquiries from the remit of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.

As previously stated, the commitment given was that the issue of legal aid for families involved in fatal accident inquiries will be considered as part of wider planned reforms to legal aid legislation arising from the Independent Review of Legal Aid. The Scottish Government intends to consult on these reforms prior to the summer recess.

A comprehensive independent review of the legislation on fatal accident inquiries was undertaken by Lord Cullen, the former Lord President, and reported in November 2009. The Inquiries into Fatal Accidents and Sudden Deaths etc. (Scotland) Act 2016 was passed unanimously by Parliament. The main provisions were implemented in June 2017, less than 2 years ago.

There is no proposal to remove fatal accident inquiries from the remit of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service. The position of the Lord Advocate as head of the system of prosecution and investigation of deaths is enshrined in the Scotland Act 1998. All sudden, unexpected and suspicious deaths in Scotland are reported to the procurator fiscal, who carries out such investigation as the circumstances require, subject to the direction of the Lord Advocate. Some death investigations result in criminal proceedings. A small minority result in a fatal accident inquiry. In some cases, there may be both a criminal prosecution and a fatal accident inquiry. The investigation of all deaths by the procurator fiscal, within the system for which the Lord Advocate is responsible, avoids duplication and ensures that all aspects of each death can be considered.

In August 2016 the independent Inspector of Prosecutions published a thematic inspection of fatal accident inquiries. The Inspector has confirmed that she will undertake and publish during the first half of 2019 a follow-up on her review of fatal accident inquiries. It will be for the Lord Advocate to consider that report when it is published.

Question reference: S5W-21949

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 14 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5T-01532 by Humza Yousaf on 5 March 2019 (Official Report, c. 3), what monitoring it carries out to assess the extent of sectarian and violent behaviour associated with football.

Question reference: S5W-21910

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 04 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 12 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it is making in providing all primary school pupils with an opportunity to visit a farm to increase awareness about how food is produced; what resources it will allocate over each of the next three years to meet this objective, and what milestones have been set.

Question reference: S5W-21625

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 7 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the home page of the Saltire Prize website continues to state that “the competition guidelines are currently under review”.

Question reference: S5W-21627

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 7 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government on what date funds from the Saltire Fund will be distributed.

The Saltire Tidal Energy Challenge Fund is open for applications until 06 December 2019 or until the fund is exhausted. A total of up to £10 million is available through the fund.

Individual applications are invited for funding of up to £5 million which must be match funded and successful projects must be deployed in Scottish Waters and funding drawn down no later than March 2020.

Further information on the fund is available at https://www.gov.scot/news/saltire-tidal-energy-challenge-fund/

Question reference: S5W-21626

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 7 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how much the Scottish Government has spent on the Saltire Prize in each year since it was launched, broken down by the costs for its (a) launch, (b) events, (c) administration, (d) rebranding, (e) rescoping, (f) staffing, (g) expenses and (h) other functions.

Whilst our aim is to provide the information requested whenever possible, unfortunately in this instance the Scottish Government does not have all of the information you have requested. This is because the Scottish Government Enterprise Accounting System (SEAS) only has details of payments from 2012/13 onwards.

I refer the member to the Freedom of Information request FoI/18/01056 from last year. This provides a breakdown of all payments from 12 April 2012 until 15 March 2018. https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-18-01056/

There have been no staff working exclusively on the Saltire Prize and Scottish Government resourcing of the prize has been done alongside our work across the marine energy sector.

Since the 15 March 2018 the Scottish Government have spent a further £56 on the Saltire prize in relation to the domain renewal for the Saltire Prize Website.

Question reference: S5T-01532

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 04 March 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what new measures it is considering to address sectarianism and violent behaviour associated with football.

Question reference: S5W-21705

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 18 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 4 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether (a) cholesterol and (b) prostate checks are publicly available, and what programmes are in place to encourage people to undertake these.

The Scottish Government, along with the rest of the UK is advised on all aspects of screening by the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) an independent expert advisory group. The UK NSC does not currently recommend screening for prostate or cholesterol as it has not been established from the evidence that the benefits of screening outweigh the harms.

Patients attending a GP or other relevant healthcare professional (e.g. community pharmacist) can be offered checks for cholesterol or prostate where it is clinically relevant to do so. This may be due to individual risk factors, or patient symptoms.

Question reference: S5W-21527

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 1 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5T-01479 by Humza Yousaf on 5 February 2019 (Official Report, c 7), how many complaints it has received regarding the reported allegations of mismanagement and a cover-up at the former Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency.

The Scottish Government has found no record of any historic complaint on this issue, but this would have been a matter for SCDEA at that time, which was accountable to the board of the Scottish Police Services Authority (SPSA). Complaints against the Police are rightly handled independently of Scottish Ministers.

No complaints have been received by the Scottish Government since the matter was reported in the press. The functions and duties of the SCDEA and the SPSA Board have transferred to the Chief Constable and the SPA, both of which have statutory responsibilities for maintaining complaints systems and their oversight. Were a complaint to be received, the complainant would be advised to direct the complaint to Police Scotland in the first instance.

Question reference: S5W-21528

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 1 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5T-01479 by Humza Yousaf on 5 February 2019 (Official Report, c 7), whether it will provide an update on its scrutiny of the reported allegations of mismanagement and a cover-up at the former Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency after the relevant legal decisions have been made.

This is an operational policing matter and it is important to let Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority determine their response before considering any further options around the scrutiny or investigation of these allegations.

The Chief Constable has asked DCC Fiona Taylor to lead a review of the chronology, previous investigations and what steps were taken at the relevant time. He will report her findings to the Scottish Police Authority by the end of March 2019, including a consideration of what further steps, if any, are required.