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-29627

Asked by: Joan McAlpine, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 16 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many young people in Dumfries and Galloway are receiving the education maintenance allowance and how many more people it expects will receive it following the extension of eligibility.

A total of 1,180 young people in Dumfries and Galloway received education maintenance allowance (EMA) payments in academic year 2013-14. Of this total, 751 were school pupils and 429 were college students. The school pupils also include a small percentage of young people on activity agreements. These figures are taken from the EMA Statistical Publication Notice of 25 March 2015 which is available at the following link: http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2015/03/8891/0. The EMA Statistical Publication Notice for academic year 2014-15 will publish in March 2016.

On 1 January 2016, the EMA programme was extended and it is estimated that an additional 22,000 young people across Scotland will benefit from EMA entitlement.

Question reference: S4O-05512

Asked by: Joan McAlpine, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 January 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what assurances it can provide on the future of attendance allowance in Scotland in light of concerns in England regarding its proposed transfer to local authorities.

Question reference: S4O-05281

Asked by: Joan McAlpine, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 January 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government when the Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Europe and External Affairs will next visit Dumfries and Galloway.

Question reference: S4O-05186

Asked by: Joan McAlpine, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 December 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 December 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding how many single parents in Scotland have been subject to benefit sanctions in the last year.

Question reference: S4T-01209

Asked by: Joan McAlpine, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 07 December 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 December 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to help communities affected by storms and flooding.

Question reference: S4W-28517

Asked by: Joan McAlpine, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 November 2015
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 3 December 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how much it spent on welfare mitigation in each local authority area in 2014-15.

Scottish Government welfare reform mitigation funding is comprised of four categories:

Scottish Welfare Fund (SWF);

Council Tax Reduction (CTR) Scheme;

Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) (mitigation of the ‘bedroom tax’); and

Other mitigation funding (advice and support services and other measures to address poverty).

Statistics for the allocation and spend for the SWF, CTR Scheme and Discretionary Housing Payments in 2014-15 broken down by local authority area are published on the Scottish Government website at:

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Social-Welfare/swf/SWF31Mar2015 (SWF)

http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2015/06/2028/downloads (CTR)

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Social-Welfare/dhp/DHP31March2015 (DHP)

The following table sets out the 2014-15 general mitigation funding according to local authority area insofar as it has been possible to break it down to this level.

Allocation of other welfare mitigation by local authority 2014-15

Local Authority	Total Funding
Aberdeen City	£227,547.77
Aberdeenshire	£116,814.00
Angus	£134,528.75
Argyll and Bute	£73,386.48
City of Edinburgh	£366,793.92
Clackmannanshire	£91,560.51
Dumfries and Galloway	£56,726.20
Dundee City	£223,871.26
East Ayrshire	£82,151.93
East Dunbartonshire	£94,176.33
East Lothian	£138,095.48
East Renfrewshire	£75,578.10
Eilean Siar	£50,498.00
Falkirk	£158,166.06
Fife	£281,664.52
Glasgow City	£1,051,188.87
Highland	£324,568.27
Inverclyde	£150,891.30
Midlothian	£189,627.56
Moray	£92,274.79
North Ayrshire	£165,569.59
North Lanarkshire	£460,320.37
Orkney Islands	£7,328.00
Perth and Kinross	£123,668.06
Renfrewshire	£226,414.20
Scottish Borders	£114,154.68
Shetland Islands	£60,807.30
South Ayrshire	£43,869.73
South Lanarkshire	£180,385.55
Stirling	£37,404.41
West Dunbartonshire	£120,508.94
West Lothian	£185,936.02
Total	£5,706,476.95

Notes:

1. The table does not include funding for pan-Scotland projects where it is not possible to assign to project activity to particular local authority areas. When these are included, the total funding allocated to the general welfare reform mitigation budget in 2014-15 was £8.2 million.

2. Where a project operates in more than one local authority area, the total cost of the project has been divided equally amongst the number of authorities supported by the project.

Question reference: S4O-04906

Asked by: Joan McAlpine, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 December 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 December 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government on its plans to reduce the Renewable Heat Incentive by 40%.

Question reference: S4W-28336

Asked by: Joan McAlpine, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 November 2015
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 19 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what work it is carrying out to improve transport connectivity (a) in Dumfries and Galloway and (b) between Dumfries and (i) Glasgow and (ii) Edinburgh.

Since coming to Government in 2007, we have completed a number of improvements on the A75 and the A77. Work is also currently underway on the M8/M73/M74 Motorway Improvements Project which will improve connectivity between Dumfries and central belt conurbations.

The Scottish Government also continues to invest in the rail network and from December 2015, the Glasgow to Stranraer service will be improved offering enhanced journey opportunities and connectivity and from December 2017, the Glasgow/Dumfries service will benefit from additional services.

Question reference: S4W-28337

Asked by: Joan McAlpine, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 November 2015
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 19 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what work it is carrying out to improve the frequency of rail passenger services between Glasgow and Carlisle via Dumfries on the Glasgow south-western line.

ScotRail is committed to deliver an enhanced timetable on the Glasgow to Kilmarnock/Dumfries/Carlisle route from December 2017 when diesel rolling stock becomes available from within its existing fleet.

This is planned to deliver three additional through services, better connectivity, a more consistent service pattern, a reduction in the longest and average interval between trains plus a greater number of daytime connections at Kilmarnock and a more frequent Sunday service.

Question reference: S4W-28338

Asked by: Joan McAlpine, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 November 2015
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 17 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will include Langholm in any feasibility study to extend the Borders Railway to Carlisle.

The Scottish Government remains committed to supporting the development of a feasibility study to extend the Borders Railway line towards Carlisle and is working with the local councils, the Regional Transport Partnership (SEStran) and Network Rail to make that initial feasibility work as meaningful as possible by highlighting the work that will be required post feasibility, to prepare an appraisal/strategic business case to satisfy current transport appraisal guidance. Current plans are that SEStran will appoint a contractor to undertake this study early in 2016 looking at high level connectivity to the network which will include Langholm.