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: S5O-03667

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 10 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the current regulatory framework for insolvency practitioners is effective.

Question reference: S5O-03577

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 September 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether trade union access and the promotion of collective bargaining, as set out in the Fair Work First principles, are conditions for companies receiving government financial support, including grants from enterprise agencies.

Question reference: S5W-25132

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 September 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 17 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has carried out of traffic levels on both approaches to the Queensferry Crossing; what its response is to reports of frequent queues, and what action it can take to alleviate these.

Transport Scotland is undertaking an evaluation of the Forth Replacement Crossing Project, in line with our published guidance for major infrastructure projects. This will compare conditions including traffic flows, one year after motorway regulations came into force in February 2018, with forecasts made during project design and development. We anticipate that the evaluation report of the first year will be completed in early 2020. Further evaluations will be undertaken at 3 and 5 years.

Some of the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) that assists with the new controlled motorway stretching from the M90 Junction 3 to Newbridge is still in its infancy and will improve journey time reliability as more of the system goes live. This includes the ramp metering at both Ferrytoll and Queensferry junctions, which should assist the traffic flow on the mainline and decrease delays caused by joining traffic during peak periods. This ramp metering will hold traffic on the slip road joining the Queensferry Crossing section of the M90 to allow the mainline flow to take priority. This should link in to the traffic lights at the exit slip to the new Queensferry roundabout, discouraging drivers from using the slips as a rat-run. The ITS will also vary the mandatory speed limits across this section of the network depending on traffic volume, which again should assist with flows.

Question reference: S5T-01751

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 02 September 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to Fife Council to deal with the impact on pupils of the fire at Woodmill High School.

Question reference: S5W-24416

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 22 July 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 8 August 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to address the reported shortage of GPs in Fife.

NHS Fife Health Board is responsible for the provision of primary care services in its area and is currently developing its strategic response to GP recruitment and retention challenges, in combination with targeted support to general practices where appropriate.

The Scottish Government is taking action to ensure that general practice is sustainable in every area of Scotland over the long term. Actions include: investing an additional £250 million in direct support of general practice by the end of this Parliamentary period; delivering a new GP contract from 2018 onwards, which makes a career in general practice even more attractive by reducing GPs' risk and substantially building up the multi-disciplinary team around GPs; and delivering at least 800 more GPs over ten years, through a full range of interventions such as a targeted GP marketing campaign, an increase in medical school places, and delivery of Scotland’s first Graduate Entry Medicine programme (ScotGEM), with a focus on GP and rural medicine, which launched on 3 October 2018.

Question reference: S5W-24415

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 22 July 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 8 August 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many integration joint boards are reporting funding shortages in their budgets.

The consolidated financial reports for Integration Authorities are published quarterly in arrears on the Scottish Government Website:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/nhs-scotland-and-integration-authorities-consolidated-financial-reporting-2019-2020/

The first of these consolidated reports for 2019-20 will be published on 30 September 2019, although financial information on individual Integration Authorities is made public on their own websites as it becomes available.

The most recent consolidated financial report (Quarter 4 2018-19) is available on the Scottish Government Website:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/nhsscotland-and-integration-authorities-consolidated-financial-reporting-2018-2019/

Within this report, all integration Authorities, with the exception of North Ayrshire, have reported a balanced cumulative financial position for their 2018-19 Annual Accounts (subject to audit). North Ayrshire reported an in-year surplus of £0.668 million and have used this to reduce money due to the Council from £5.807 million to £5.139 million.

Question reference: S5W-24516

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 July 2019
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 7 August 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it is making with its £50 million town centre fund.

The £50 million Town Centre Fund was developed in partnership with COSLA and launched on 1 March. The fund will be distributed across all local authorities to enable them to stimulate and support a wide range of investments which encourage town centres and city neighbourhoods to diversify and flourish. The distribution was agreed jointly by Scottish Government and COSLA Leaders and local authorities have received the first two rounds of funding.

It will be for local authorities to allocate this fund against the themes of the Town Centre Action Plan, however we have issued guidance and, with Scotland’s Towns Partnership, held information sessions to discuss the fund and how partners can provide advice, support and co-funding.

We want our towns and town centres to be vibrant, creative, enterprising and accessible. It is essential that we support town centres to become more diverse and sustainable as they face the challenge of changing and evolving retail patterns. We will invest to deliver inclusive growth so that town and neighbourhood centres can be thriving places for communities to live, work and enjoy.

Question reference: S5W-23785

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 14 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 26 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what initiatives it plans to address the reported predicted rise in the levels of child poverty.

As set out in response to question S5W-23556 on 11 June 2019, the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan notes that, if no action were taken, levels of child poverty in Scotland could rise to affect one in three children by 2030. The independent analysis behind these projections found that the key reason for these projected increases was the announced UK Government cuts, primarily the benefit freeze and the two child limit. The impact of these cuts was predicted to be most acute in the period to 2020.

To address this challenge, we committed to a range of concrete action within our first Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan. This includes new support such as: a new minimum School Clothing Grant of at least £100 for every eligible child; a new Financial Health Check service, and; enhanced support through the Best Start Grant.

We will publish our first annual progress report by the end of this month and provide an update to Parliament on activity underway and future activity planned.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

Question reference: S5W-23786

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 14 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 26 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to address child poverty.

Question reference: S5W-23412

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 6 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made in finding a solution in relation to the removal of waste materials dumped at the M90 Commerce Park at Lathalmond in Fife.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has advised that it met with the landowner in December 2018 to discuss possible clearance of the material from the site. During this meeting the landowner expressed a willingness to explore options for removal of the waste from the Lathalmond site. A further meeting is expected to take place in June 2019 to discuss potential options and costs and to decide if how the matter can be progressed further.

SEPA will continue to monitor the site and are in ongoing dialogue with Fife Council regarding this matter.