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

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 3409 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S5W-27144

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 27 January 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 25 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what role it will have in the summit that is to be held in Glasgow regarding methods to tackle drug-related deaths.

Despite the UK Government announcing their Summit without any prior consultation with the Scottish Government or Glasgow, we recognise that what really matters is saving lives, and we sought to work collaboratively with the UK Government on the detail of the agenda to ensure it met Scotland’s needs.

The UK Summit does not have the voices of people with lived experience in Scotland at its heart. We pressed the UK Government to extend their event to accommodate this, but this has not happened. We are clear that the views and insights of people with lived experience must help shape how we tackle drug deaths. As a result, we are working with Glasgow City Council to host a Scottish conference on the eve of the UK event to try and better highlight the problem in Scotland and to inform input into the UK Government’s Summit.

Question reference: S5O-04162

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with Destination Orkney and Orkney Islands Council regarding the future needs of the tourism sector.

Question reference: S5W-27073

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2020
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 6 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many new masts have been located in Orkney under the Scottish 4G Infill programme since April 2019.

Question reference: S5W-27071

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2020
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 6 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what progress has been made on installing new mobile phone masts in the vicinity of Burray, Hoy and Stromness.

Despite regular engagement with the four mobile network operators, to date no operator has shown interest or committed to using any of the candidate mobile mast sites in the vicinity of Burray, Hoy and Stromness. Since the outset of the programme, we have been clear that no mast can progress to build phase unless a mobile operator is willing to commit to using the infrastructure. Furthermore, our delivery partner, WHP Telecoms, informs us that landowners have been reluctant to conclude deals for sites where there is, as yet, no operator identified.

At present a total of nine masts have been, or are being, constructed after having identified a mobile operator.

Question reference: S5W-27072

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2020
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 6 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on whether any mobile phone operators have committed to using the new mast locations in the vicinity of Burray, Hoy and Stromness.

Question reference: S5W-27092

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 31 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to review the progress being made towards achieving the priorities set out in the Scottish Strategy for Autism.

Question reference: S5W-27091

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 31 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to publish an update the 2014 mapping report for local autism services.

Question reference: S5W-27090

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 31 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what autism strategies and action plans received support from the £35,000 that it allocated to each local authority in 2014 as part of the Scottish Strategy for Autism.

Question reference: S5W-27088

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 31 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what projects and services received support from the £4.5 million that it set aside for autism development funds as part of the Scottish Strategy for Autism, also broken down by how much of this money was allocated to (a) local authorities and (b) stakeholder organisations.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving the lives of autistic people through the Scottish Strategy for Autism.

I refer the member to Annex 4 of the 'Scottish Strategy for Autism Progress Report - Foundation Stage (2 years)' which details the allocation of the Autism Development Fund. This is available at:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-strategy-autism-progress-report-foundation-stage-2-years/pages/18/

Question reference: S5W-27070

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2020
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 30 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with mobile operators since April 2019 to encourage greater participation in the Scottish 4G Infill programme in Orkney.

I met with representatives from the four mobile network operators in October 2019 to discuss these matters and the development of the Shared Rural Network. There has also been regular engagement at official level, and through our Scottish 4G Infill (S4GI) delivery partner, WHP Telecoms Ltd, with the aim of securing greater participation in the programme and we are seeing encouraging levels of interest in S4GI sites and the first 9 masts are in the process of being constructed.