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-09484

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 September 2012
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 2 October 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how much it is paying the James Hutton Institute to carry out research into wind energy developments.

Question reference: S4W-09487

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 September 2012
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 2 October 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how it will use the findings of the James Hutton Institute's research into how people feel about local wind energy developments.

Question reference: S4W-09485

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 September 2012
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 2 October 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how many questionnaires the James Hutton Institute has distributed and to (a) whom and (b) what communities.

Question reference: S4W-09486

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 September 2012
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 2 October 2012

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has asked the James Hutton Institute to focus its research on community benefit schemes.

Question reference: S4W-09482

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 September 2012
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 2 October 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what terms of reference it set for the James Hutton Institute for the research that it is carrying out into how people feel about local wind energy developments.

Question reference: S4W-09496

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 September 2012
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 25 September 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been spent by each NHS board on sub-contracting work to the private sector in each year since 2004.

Information on NHS boards spend on the use independent sector activity is only available from 2008-09. I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-07376 on 3 August 2012. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

Information obtained from NHS boards on the spend on the use of the independent healthcare sector in 2011-12 is provided in the following table.

NHS Board	2011-12 £000
Ayrshire and Arran	7
Borders	49
Dumfries and Galloway	0
Fife	605
Forth Valley	718
Grampian	2,328
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	1,308
Highland	0
Lanarkshire	2,992
Lothian	3,046
Orkney	0
Shetland	0
Tayside	498
Western Isles	0
NHSScotland	11,551

The Scottish Government’s policy is that NHS boards should use NHS Funding to build sustainable capacity. The use of the independent healthcare sector should only be used in the margins to deal with short-term capacity issues. This is reflected in the significant reduction in NHS spend to the independent sector from £23.9 million in 2008-09 to £11.6 million in 2011-12.

Question reference: S4F-00879

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 24 September 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 September 2012

To ask the First Minister what support the Scottish Government provides to colleges that merge.

Question reference: S4W-09113

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 August 2012
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 4 September 2012

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-08701 by John Swinney on 31 July 2012, what assessment it has made of the outcomes of the grants.

The grants referred to in S4W-08701, provided by Scottish Enterprise, are evaluated by the extent to which they achieved their intended aims.

The grants awarded and their impact is summarised below:

Lean and CPM (£131,600) and Management Development (£30,650) both 2010-11

The object of these programs was to train the staff in the methods needed to embed a culture of lean manufacturing at the site. The training, while not certification driven, was carried out by an external consultant, verified through normal account management monitoring and meetings and then checked against the supplier documentation and discussions with the management team.

Developing a Graduate Scheme (£11,000) 2009-10

The purpose of this project was to reintroduce the recruitment of graduates into the organisation. The target for the first year, to recruit eight graduates, was achieved. Thereafter, the company evaluated the programme. It continues to be a regular feature of the group’s employment strategy.

Strategy (£50,625) 2009-10

This was provided to allow VION in Broxburn to carry out a feasibility study before proceeding with a project to invest in plant, equipment and buildings.

The feasibility study was completed and the £18 million investment was made by the company, allowing it to increase volumes from 200 to 400 tonnes of sausage products per week.

Question reference: S4W-08701

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 13 July 2012
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 31 July 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has awarded in grants to Vion since 2007.

Question reference: S4W-08698

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 13 July 2012
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 31 July 2012

To ask the Scottish Government who approved the offer of grants to Vion in 2011.