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: S4F-02311

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 29 September 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 October 2014

To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government is taking to support people affected by UK Government welfare reforms.

Question reference: S4O-03512

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 September 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 September 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many consultants work in NHS Scotland.

Question reference: S4O-03486

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 August 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 August 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to recent reports that the North Sea could hold more than £40 billion worth of unforeseen oil reserves.

Question reference: S4O-03479

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 August 2014
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 13 August 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has undertaken of the potential effect of the UK Government’s bareboat charter tax on the oil and gas industry.

The Scottish Government shares the view and analysis expressed by industry figures that the loss of just one field could outweigh the notional additional revenue that the UK Treasury expect the bareboat charter tax changes to generate.

This tax change is the precise opposite of the stable and predictable fiscal regime the industry needs and deserves, but has not enjoyed from successive UK Governments.

Question reference: S4W-22165

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 July 2014
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 11 August 2014

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-22030 by Nicola Sturgeon on 15 July 2014, whether it has information regarding the length of sanction imposed for people in each category in each year.

<>As mentioned in response to question S4W-22030, the Scottish Government does not collect information on the number of individuals who have been sanctioned as benefits are reserved to the UK Government. The Scottish Government does not have any further information on sanctions other than what is publicly available on the Department for Work and Pensions Stat-Xplore tool, available at the following link: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk.

Due to the complexity of this request, as sanction length varies depending on the type of sanction and the number of failures at that level, we would recommend requesting this information from the Department for Work and Pensions.

Question reference: S4W-22031

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 July 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 16 July 2014

To ask the Scottish Government which projects have been funded by the Welfare Reform Resilience Fund in 2014-15.

The Welfare Reform Resilience Fund is supporting 11 projects across Scotland which will assist in mitigating the worst impacts of the UK Government’s welfare reform policies and build resilience into Scottish public services regardless of any future changes to the welfare system imposed by the UK Government.

The following table gives a brief overview of each of the projects. Further details can be found on the Scottish Government website at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/People/welfarereform/WRRF2014-15Update.

Local Authority	Project Description
Aberdeen City	Improving the coordination of local support services for clients with mental health issues.
Aberdeenshire	Providing holistic housing and money advice service for new social sector tenants.
Dundee City	Providing enhanced access to ICT and creating innovative digital tools to improve the accessibility and clarity of information on welfare reform.
Falkirk	Improving support for customers with complex/multiple mental health needs to access welfare benefits/advice services.
Fife	Adding consistency to local welfare reform action plans and supporting people in their communities through improved triage, digital and financial inclusion.
Inverclyde	Tackling the issues of high cost lending and developing a robust case management system.
Midlothian	Creating a digital access point in a local library for vulnerable people affected by welfare reform.
Moray	Creating a welfare benefits 'portal' giving information on, and access to, support services.
Renfrewshire	Providing fuel advocacy services to vulnerable families and families experiencing financial hardship.
Shetland Islands	Developing the ICT skills of individuals and their access to the internet throughout rural Shetland.
West Dunbartonshire	Providing financial wellbeing advice and support for families with additional support needs relating to parenting challenges (via local family support centre).

Question reference: S4W-22030

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 July 2014
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 15 July 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the number of (a) disabled people, (b) lone parents, (c) women and (d) young people who received a jobseekers allowance sanction in Scotland in each year from 2009 to 2013.

As benefits are reserved to the UK Government the Scottish Government does not collect information on the number of individuals who have been sanctioned. However, the Department for Work and Pensions publishes data on the number of individuals in receipt of an adverse sanction decision on their Stat-Xplore tool. The following table shows the number of individuals in Scotland who received an adverse sanction for Jobseekers Allowance each year from 2009 to 2013.

Number of individuals in in Scotland receipt of an adverse sanction for Jobseekers Allowance, 2009 to 2013

	2009	2010	2011	2012*	2013
Disabled people	8,026	10,239	9,677	11,616	13,128
Lone Parents	476	1,042	1,635	2,576	3,157
Women	7,914	9,832	10,034	13,276	13,993
Young People**	16,857	19,797	18,622	22,290	20,699

Source: DWP Stat-Xplore tool [Accessed 7 July 2014] https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/

Notes: * The UK Government introduced a new sanction regime from 22 October 2012. Data for 2012 therefore includes both the old and new regime.

**Young people are defined as those aged 16 to 24

Question reference: S4W-21916

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 June 2014
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Fergus Ewing on 26 June 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update of the action it is taking to implement the Renewable Heat Action Plan in order to deliver its target to meet 11% of heat demand from renewable sources by 2020.

I am pleased to announce that I laid a report in Parliament on 26 June 2014 which updates the actions the Scottish Government is taking to implement the Renewable Heat Action Plan. Copies of the report are available on the Scottish Government website at:

http://scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Business-Industry/Energy/Energy-sources/19185/Heat/RHUpdate2014

In addition the Energy Saving Trust published their report on Renewable Heat in Scotland for 2013 on 26 June 2014. The report shows that in 2013 renewable heat capacity increased by 18% and heat generated from renewable sources by 17% compared with 2012, indicating that Scotland is making good progress towards meeting the renewable heat target by 2020. A copy of the Energy Saving Trust report is available at the following link: http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/About-us/About-us/Recent-reports.

Question reference: S4O-03411

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 June 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 June 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how it monitors the application in schools of Getting it Right for Every Child for children who require additional support.

Question reference: S4W-20805

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 April 2014
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 7 May 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken to increase the availability of adult changing places since 2011.

The Scottish Government is committed to increasing the availability of changing places in buildings with public access. The Scottish Government’s new strategy for learning disability The keys to life recommends that 100 Changing Places be available by June 2015 and PAMIS has been commissioned to help make this happen. Since The Keys to life was published in June 2013 the number of changing places has increased from 85 to 92 in Scotland and there are a number waiting to be registered.