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-02479

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 October 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with Aberdeen City Council regarding economic development.

Question reference: S4O-02434

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 September 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what support it provides to universities to attract students from overseas.

Question reference: S4W-16706

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 August 2013
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 10 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to review the protection offered to gulls by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

All wild birds are protected by law in Scotland. The Scottish Government has no plans to review the protection offered to gulls.

Scottish Natural Heritage General Licence 03/2013, which allows local authorities and authorised persons to control or manage certain birds, including herring gulls, greater black-backed gulls, and lesser black-backed gulls, for the protection of public health, public safety and to prevent the spread of disease, is reviewed on an annual basis by Scottish Natural Heritage.

In recognition of the scale of the difficulties that can arise where gulls interact in urban environments, the Scottish Government has funded a study on control of gulls in Dumfries which provided a number of recommendations which should be of use to local authorities in their efforts to tackle similar difficulties regarding urban gull populations.

Question reference: S4W-16695

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 August 2013
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 10 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with local authorities regarding the impact of the so-called bedroom tax on discretionary housing payments (DHP), and what information it has on how many DHP (a) applications have been made and (b) awards have been granted by each local authority since April 2013, broken down by tenants in (i) council house, (ii) registered social landlord and (iii) privately-rented accommodation.

Social security payments, including Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs), are a reserved matter.

However the Scottish Government has been working closely with local authority representatives since the UK Government announced its welfare reforms in autumn 2010 to help understand, influence and, as far as reasonably possible, mitigate the impact of changes to housing benefit. A questionnaire was developed jointly between the Scottish Government and COSLA and was sent by COSLA to all local authorities on 24 May 2012. A summary of findings, which includes information on DHPs, is available at:

http://www.cosla.gov.uk/sites/default/files/documents/briefing_-_bedroom_tax_main_findings.pdf.

The available information from the survey on the number of DHP applications received by individual councils and the number of awards made by end May or nearest available date is contained in the following table (rounded to the nearest 10). The survey did not gather information on the tenure of households applying for or receiving DHPs.

The number of awards only provides a snapshot between 1 April and the end of May 2013 (or nearest available date) and takes no account of the number of applications that were received and still being processed.

In October 2013 the Department for Work and Pensions is gathering data from councils on the numbers and total amounts of DHPs granted in the period April – September 2013. This will provide a more reliable indication of the scale and nature of DHPs being awarded by councils, set against their DHP allocation. The survey will not gather information on applications which were refused, nor on the tenure of the households being awarded DHPs.

Local Authority	Number of DHP Applications	Number of DHP Awards
Aberdeen City	530	250
Aberdeenshire	170	100
Angus	230	30
Argyll and Bute	260	30
Clackmannanshire	No data supplied	No data supplied
Dumfries and Galloway	480	260
Dundee City	830	60
East Ayrshire	530	270
East Dunbartonshire	150	50
East Lothian	150	120
East Renfrewshire	160	10
Edinburgh, City of	1,830	900
Eilean Siar	Incomplete data	Incomplete data
Falkirk	400	10
Fife	1,490	910
Glasgow City	7,020	3,430
Highland	Incomplete data	Incomplete data
Inverclyde	480	190
Midlothian	260	190
Moray	No data supplied	No data supplied
North Ayrshire	880	330
North Lanarkshire	2,100	120
Orkney Islands	70	70
Perth and Kinross	230	140
Renfrewshire	880	440
Scottish Borders	180	120
Shetland Islands	20	20
South Ayrshire	No data supplied	No data supplied
South Lanarkshire	700	300
Stirling	300	160
West Dunbartonshire	1,400	1,120
West Lothian	430	140
Total	22,000	9,850

Source – COSLA/Scottish Government Survey of Councils – 24 May 2013.

Question reference: S4W-16705

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 August 2013
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 10 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many complaints have been received by each local authority regarding nuisance gulls in each of the last 10 years.

Question reference: S4W-16704

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 August 2013
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 9 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many breeding pairs of gull there have been in each of the last 10 years, broken down by species.

<>Seabird 2000 which took place between 1998 and 2002 was the last national census of seabird populations. Further details of Seabird 2000 can be found at: http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/page-3120

Between national censuses, the Seabird Monitoring Programme (SMP) collects data on breeding numbers and breeding success of 26 species of seabirds which enables populations to be estimated, where there is sufficient data to do so. Further details of the SMP and the data held can be found at: http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/page-1550

For the gull species the following estimates can be derived;

Gull Species	Seabird 2000 population estimate of breeding pairs for Scotland	% Population change between Seabird 2000 population estimate and 2012	Estimated 2012 population of breeding pairs for Scotland
Black-headed gull	43,191	n/a	n/a
Common gull	20,467	-36	c. 13,000
Lesser black-backed gull	25,057	n/a	n/a
Herring gull	72,130	-20	c. 58,000
Great black-backed gull	14,776	-60	c. 6,000
Black-legged kittiwake	282,213	-59	c. 116,000

Notes:

All figures refer to the number of breeding pairs.

Figures quoted for 2012 are derived estimates, not actual population counts.

The data for common gull refers to coastal populations only (which held only 42% of the total population during Seabird 2000).

Question reference: S4W-16539

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 29 July 2013
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 26 August 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact of increases to VAT and national insurance since 2010 on families from low income households.

Question reference: S4W-16480

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 July 2013
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 14 August 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether an analysis has been undertaken of whether there has been any additional workload for GPs arising from the implementation of welfare reform policies.

It is very difficult to obtain an accurate analysis of this because GPs are often providing information for patients for benefits appeals in their own time, and this is not part of their contractual arrangements. GPs have reported that they are seeing a significant rise in requests from patients for medical information to support appeals against welfare benefit assessment findings. This is creating a workload problem, particularly for practices that serve communities with larger numbers of benefit claimants. We have asked the Department for Work and Pensions to urgently undertake research on the demands that welfare reform is placing on primary care.

The Health Impact Delivery Group, which comprises representatives from the Scottish Government policy directorates, local government, the NHS, the voluntary sector and the Glasgow Centre for Population Health has been established. This is a forum which will consider the impact of the introduction of reforms to the welfare benefits system in Scotland both on population health and the demand for healthcare services. As well as identifying areas of good practice, it will highlight where further discussion is required, or where action might be taken.

Question reference: S4W-16479

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 July 2013
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 14 August 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-15020 by Alex Neil on 30 May 2013, whether it has had discussions with the UK Government regarding increased funding in relation to any increase in the number of requests to GPs for letters and other information in support of benefit applications and appeals.

The Deputy First Minister and the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing wrote to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in April 2013 with the full support of the British Medical Association in Scotland, to raise a number of points of concern about the demands that benefit reform is placing on GPs. Welfare benefit reform is placing intolerable demands on primary care and we have recommended that The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) undertakes urgent research on these demands. GPs are trying to do their best for their patients while coping with a growing demand for evidence for appeals.

The Secretary of State wrote back to say that his department’s Chief Medical Adviser had been actively engaging with GPs in Scotland and that progress was being made in reviewing the Work Capability Assessments through Professor Harrington’s three reviews.

The Deputy First Minister wrote again on 3 June 2013 in response to the Secretary of State’s reply highlighting that we remained concerned by the apparent inequities arising from variable behaviours of GPs in providing medical evidence, an activity which is outside of their contractual terms.

The DWP is currently carrying out its fourth independent review of the Work Capability Assessment, and we understand that Dr Paul Litchfield who is leading the review will be making a visit to Scotland in the near future to gather evidence.

Question reference: S4W-16478

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 July 2013
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 14 August 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what recent contact it has had with GPs and their representative bodies regarding any increase in the number of patients seeking letters and other information in support of benefit applications and appeals.

Scottish Government officials regularly meet with the Scottish General Practitioners Committee of the British Medical Association to discuss a range of issues, and we are aware the workload associated with patient requests for assistance with benefits appeals is of concern to GPs. The Scottish Government shares the profession’s concerns that the established contractual and agreed methods for GPs to directly provide medical information to the Department for Work and Pensions are not being used effectively by the department. These issues were discussed at a meeting on 13 March 2013 between Scottish Government officials and the Chair of the British Medical Association’s Scottish General Practitioners’ Committee.

I also refer the member to the answer to question S4W-16479 and SW4-16480 on 14 August 2013. 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.