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: S4O-05668

Asked by: Mark McDonald, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 March 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what it considers the benefits of the named person provision will be for children and families.

Question reference: S4O-05597

Asked by: Mark McDonald, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 February 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what training is available for health professionals to provide healthcare to people on the autistic spectrum.

Question reference: S4W-29422

Asked by: Mark McDonald, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 January 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 9 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many companies in each local authority area have signed up to the Scottish Business Pledge.

Question reference: S4O-05535

Asked by: Mark McDonald, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 February 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to support the Aberdeen economy.

Question reference: S4W-29423

Asked by: Mark McDonald, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 January 2016
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 3 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many accredited living wage employers there have been in each local authority area in each year since accreditation was introduced.

The Scottish Government has provided over £280,000 in funding to the Poverty Alliance to administer the Scottish Living Wage Accreditation Initiative. As a result of this work there are now (as at 28 January 2016) 460 Scots-based living wage accredited employers.

A breakdown of accredited employers by local authority area (based on where each employer is headquartered) and year of accreditation is provided in the following table:

Local Authority	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	Total
Aberdeen City	0	1	1	3	5	0	10
Aberdeenshire	0	0	0	1	7	2	10
Angus	0	0	0	1	7	1	8
Argyll and Bute	0	0	0	0	8	2	10
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Clackmannanshire	0	0	0	0	2	0	2
Dumfries and Galloway	0	0	0	3	9	0	12
Dundee	0	0	0	1	6	1	8
East Ayrshire	0	0	0	1	1	0	2
East Dunbartonshire	0	0	0	0	4	0	4
Edinburgh	0	3	4	24	75	2	108
East Lothian	0	0	0	1	2	0	3
East Renfrewshire	0	0	1	1	0	0	2
Falkirk	0	0	0	1	0	0	1
Fife	0	1	2	2	17	1	23
Glasgow	0	2	9	25	69	3	106
Highland	0	1	0	3	15	0	19
Inverclyde	0	0	3	1	4	0	8
Midlothian	0	0	0	3	12	0	15
Moray	0	0	0	0	2	0	2
North Ayrshire	0	0	0	0	3	0	3
North Lanarkshire	0	0	0	0	11	0	11
Orkney	0	0	0	0	2	1	3
Perth and Kinross	0	0	0	2	13	0	15
Renfrewshire	0	0	0	0	11	0	11
Scottish Borders	0	0	0	0	6	0	5
Shetland Islands	0	0	0	0	3	0	3
South Ayrshire	0	0	0	1	4	0	5
South Lanarkshire	0	0	1	5	17	0	23
Stirling	0	0	0	0	9	2	11
West Dunbartonshire	0	0	1	0	3	0	4
West Lothian	0	0	0	3	10	0	13
Total	0	7	22	82	337	12	460

Question reference: S4O-05530

Asked by: Mark McDonald, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 January 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to review the progress of the Scottish Strategy for Autism.

Question reference: S4T-01294

Asked by: Mark McDonald, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 25 January 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the recent research by Pinsent Masons regarding the North Sea oil and gas industry.

Question reference: S4O-05274

Asked by: Mark McDonald, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 January 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to improve cultural opportunities for people from deprived areas.

Question reference: S4F-03171

Asked by: Mark McDonald, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 January 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 January 2016

To ask the First Minister what recent discussions the Scottish Government has had with the UK Government regarding the future of renewables.

Question reference: S4O-05254

Asked by: Mark McDonald, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 January 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the presumption of mainstream education.