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-16477

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 July 2013
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 2 August 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what impact its decision to protect funding for the council tax benefit successor scheme for 2013-14 will have on the incomes of households containing an adult receiving a disability-related benefit.

Working in partnership with local government, we responded quickly to put in place transitional arrangements to plug the estimated £40 million gap in funding from the UK Government following their abolition of council tax benefit. This ensures that around 560,000 people in Scotland who were receiving council tax benefit are protected from the UK Government’s 10% cut in successor arrangement funding. This means that vulnerable people have the same net liability for council tax as if council tax benefit were still in place, provided their circumstances remain the same. This includes around 70,100 people who are receiving employment and support allowance, indicating that they have an illness or disability that affects their ability to work.

Question reference: S4W-16481

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 July 2013
Current Status: Answered by David Stewart on 26 July 2013

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether it will consider looking at establishing a parliamentary internship scheme to commemorate the life and work of Brian Adam.

Question reference: S4W-16018

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 June 2013
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 25 July 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what actions it plans to take to protect Scotland's agricultural produce if restrictions are eased on the cultivation of genetically modified crops.

The Scottish Government is watching these developments closely. However, there are a number of Member States in the EU who share our concerns about growing GM crops and there is no indication that they will change their views in light of the UK Government’s recent proposal.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-16016 on 18 July 2013 regarding constraints on the Scottish Government under current constitutional arrangements. 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.

Question reference: S4W-16016

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 June 2013
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 18 July 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding its proposal to ask the European Commission to ease restrictions on the cultivation of genetically modified crops.

The Scottish Government is in regular contact with the UK Government at both official and Ministerial level and discusses a wide range of GM issues. The UK Government is well aware of our distinct views on GM crop cultivation.

Under the correct constitutional arrangement, in the event of any move by Scottish Government to invoke the safeguard clause, to allow temporary restriction or a ban on a GM crop, on the basis of new scientific evidence that it may harm human or animal health or the environment, the Scottish Government would have to persuade UK Government, on its behalf, to submit a safeguard action. With the UK Government’s apparently positive stance on GMOs, this may prove difficult.

Question reference: S4W-16017

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 June 2013
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 15 July 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with other EU member states regarding the UK Government's proposal to ease restrictions on the cultivation of genetically modified crops.

Question reference: S4W-16019

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 June 2013
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 15 July 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to ensure that Scotland remains a GM-free zone.

Question reference: S4W-15298

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 May 2013
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 11 June 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4T-00377 by Kenny MacAskill on 28 May 2013 (Official Report, c. 20315), what recent communications it has had with the UK Government regarding extraordinary rendition and whether Aberdeen, Inverness and Wick airports have been used by the US Central Intelligence Agency for this purpose.

As I indicated in response to Patrick Harvie’s question on 28 May, there has been no communication with the UK Government regarding extraordinary rendition flights using airports in Scotland. The Scottish Government remains strongly opposed to illegal rendition flights.

The Crown has made clear how strongly it would view the matter and the Lord Advocate indicated on 5 June 2013 that he has asked Police Scotland to consider the information provided by the Rendition Project undertaken by researchers from Kent and Kingston Universities.

The police and the Crown can act only if information is passed on, and if anyone has any evidence of lawbreaking of this sort, they should come forward with it and help justice to be done.

Question reference: S4W-15297

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 May 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 7 June 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many episodes of treatment have been carried out at the neurosurgery unit of Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and how many included at least one operative procedure, in each year since 2008.

The information requested is not held centrally in the format requested.

It is not possible to identify all neurosurgical activity occurring in specific hospital units through centrally collected hospital admission records. It is, however, possible to identify activity occurring within the consultant specialty of neurosurgery by hospital. This information is provided in the following table.

Number of hospital stays involving the consultant specialty of Neurosurgery at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and the number of procedures performed, Financial years 2008 to 2012

Years	Hospital stays	No. of stays involving at least one procedure
2008	1,243	1,097
2009	1,355	1,173
2010	1,223	1,094
2011	1,104	963
2012	1,073	933

Source: ISD Scotland.

Ref: IR2013-00898.

Question reference: S4W-14727

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 May 2013
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 14 May 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how much the council tax freeze has saved the average band D household in each local authority area.

Over the six year period the council tax freeze will have been in place (2008-14), the average Band D household in Scotland will have benefited from cumulative savings of almost £690. The following table sets out how much the average Band D household within each local authority area will have saved.

Local Authority Area	Average Band D saving from the council tax freeze (£) (2008-09 to 2012-14)*
Aberdeen City	717
Aberdeenshire	693
Angus	656
Argyll and Bute	675
Clackmannanshire	697
Dumfries and Galloway	632
Dundee City	735
East Ayrshire	731
East Dunbartonshire	688
East Lothian	670
East Renfrewshire	656
Edinburgh, City of	679
Eilean Siar	625
Falkirk	656
Fife	671
Glasgow City	720
Highland	693
Inverclyde	725
Midlothian	742
Moray	694
North Ayrshire	687
North Lanarkshire	682
Orkney	636
Perth and Kinross	687
Renfrewshire	702
Scottish Borders	651
Shetland Islands	649
South Ayrshire	690
South Lanarkshire	671
Stirling	706
West Dunbartonshire	712
West Lothian	693

Note: *Derived from CTAXBASE and CTAS statistical returns and

assume 3.0% growth in council tax each year.

Figures show effects on bills – the figures do not take account of council tax benefit.

Question reference: S4O-02105

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 May 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 May 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with Aberdeen City Council about cultural issues.