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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 463 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S5W-21108

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 18 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 30 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what projects were funded by the £13.8 million that was provided by Scottish Enterprise to Selex/Leonardo between 2006-07 and 2017-18, also broken down by what the purpose was of each project.

Question reference: S5W-20900

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 22 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to answer to question S5O-02755 by John Swinney on 10 January 2019 (Official Report, c. 7), (a) how many and (b) what proportion of the teachers who are employed using the Attainment Scotland Fund are on temporary contracts, also broken down by local authority area.

A breakdown of the full time equivalent number of teachers employed using
the Attainment Scotland Fund by permanent or temporary employment type
and local authority at the time of the 2018 teacher census is provided in the following table.

FTE of Attainment Scotland Fund teachers by Employment Type
	Permanent	Temporary 2	Total 1	Percentage in temporary 2 posts
Aberdeen City	1.4	4.2	5.6	75%
Aberdeenshire	4.4	3.6	8.0	45%
Angus	16.2	1.6	17.8	9%
Argyll & Bute	0.0	4.1	4.1	100%
Clackmannanshire	8.8	3.4	12.2	28%
Dumfries & Galloway	4.4	13.3	17.7	75%
Dundee City	25.0	13.2	38.2	35%
East Ayrshire	33.3	16.6	49.9	33%
East Dunbartonshire	6.7	8.2	14.9	55%
East Lothian	3.1	7.3	10.5	70%
East Renfrewshire	15.1	6.6	21.7	31%
Edinburgh City	21.1	24.0	45.1	53%
Na h-Eileanan Siar	0.0	0.0	0.0	N/A
Falkirk	4.4	12.1	16.5	73%
Fife	24.9	31.3	56.2	56%
Glasgow City	140.2	46.6	186.8	25%
Highland	6.3	9.9	16.2	61%
Inverclyde	9.0	22.8	31.8	72%
Midlothian	6.7	7.3	14.0	52%
Moray	1.8	1.2	3.1	40%
North Ayrshire	13.6	25.7	39.3	65%
North Lanarkshire	41.3	58.6	99.9	59%
Orkney Islands	0.0	1.0	1.0	100%
Perth & Kinross	3.1	3.0	6.1	50%
Renfrewshire	40.4	33.2	73.6	45%
Scottish Borders	4.4	5.3	9.8	54%
Shetland Islands	0.0	0.5	0.5	100%
South Ayrshire	4.0	13.6	17.6	77%
South Lanarkshire	67.7	14.2	81.9	17%
Stirling	2.9	4.8	7.7	62%
West Dunbartonshire	14.7	11.4	26.1	44%
West Lothian	17.0	11.2	28.2	40%
Scotland 1	542.0	419.9	961.9	44%
1. Totals may not sum due to rounding 2. Includes teachers on induction schemes

Question reference: S5O-02802

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 January 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to improve the relationship between the police and the Kurdish community.

Question reference: S5O-02770

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 January 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how it will engage stakeholders and the public with the Good Food Nation consultation.

Question reference: S5W-20218

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 November 2018
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 9 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what meetings it has had with the Office for Nuclear Regulation regarding safety concerns at Hunterston B, and whether any such future meetings are planned.

Scottish Government officials are and will continue to be in regular contact with the nuclear safety and security regulator, the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), in respect of safety matters at all Scottish Civil Nuclear sites.

In respect of Hunterston B, whilst there have been no specific scheduled meetings, telephone and written contact has been regular, with ONR providing their latest updates to officials. During the latest communications on 28 November and 19 December 2018, ORN outlined their extensive involvement in this issue, namely:

ONR regulates EDF through on-site inspections which ensure that EDF controls its hazards effectively and maintains the highest nuclear safety and security standards. Site inspectors also provide advice on how to comply with legal requirements. ONR also assesses the adequacy of safety cases to ensure that the hazards are properly controlled. ONR holds regular meetings with EDF to discuss graphite cracking.

Supporting front line site inspectors is a team of specialist inspectors from ONR's assessment units, whom the site inspector can draw upon for in-depth specialist expert advice.

Permission will only be granted for the reactor to return to service if the ORN is satisfied that it is safe to do so. This assessment will include consideration of the timing of further inspections. The specialist inspectors are called onto site to support particular inspections.

I will next meet ONR on 21 February 2019.

Question reference: S5O-02755

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 December 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many teachers who are employed using the Attainment Scotland Fund are on permanent contracts.

Question reference: S5W-20269

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 November 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 18 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-03736 by Keith Brown on 31 October 2016, whether it will provide the information for 2017-18, and what information it can provide regarding which companies received funding, how much they received and the purpose of the award.

Question reference: S5W-20276

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 November 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 12 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to answer S5W-19978 by Jamie Hepburn on 29 November 2018, what action it takes to ensure that a laser guidance system whose development or production has received enterprise grant support is not used for a purpose that meets its definition of munitions.

Question reference: S5W-20219

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 November 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 12 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-18507 by Ivan McKee on 28 September 2018, whether it will provide the details of Scottish Enterprise’s support to Raytheon for the purposes of diversification into non-military, civilian markets, and what (a) specific projects were funded, (b) criteria it was assessed against and (c) specific products or services by Raytheon were supported by this funding.

Question reference: S5W-20156

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 November 2018
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 7 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on professional learning for teachers in each of the last five years, and whether it will provide a breakdown of the topic covered in each year.

Teachers in Scotland have a contractual entitlement to career-long professional learning. As their employer, local authorities play an important role in providing and facilitating access to professional learning. The Scottish Government provides Local Authorities with a block grant to deliver education which reflects this responsibility. The costs of such expenditure over the last 5 years is not held centrally.

In addition, the Scottish Government also funds a range of activity in support of teachers’ professional learning. A table of examples is available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 60287).