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: S5W-16882

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 May 2018
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 5 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what regulations are in place that relate to requirements for changing places lavatories.

There is currently no regulatory requirement for the provision of Changing Places Toilets (CPTs) in new buildings.

I have, however, met with PAMIS (Promoting a More Inclusive Society) and I intend to introduce CPTs into certain types of new large buildings through the Scottish building regulations.

Building types being considered are:

Large enclosed shopping centres greater than 30,000sq.m;

Hospitals;

Leisure centres – particularly swimming pools;

Large stadia and arenas; and

Schools – creating a space for future proofing purposes.

Development of this policy will take around 2 to 2.5 years.

Question reference: S5O-02164

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 May 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 31 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce plastic pollution in the Firth of Forth.

Question reference: S5W-16543

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 May 2018
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 22 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding is directed to men’s groups that are working on domestic abuse issues, and which groups these are.

The Scottish Government recognises that domestic abuse is an abuse of human rights, and is committed to preventing and eradicating it in Scotland. All survivors of domestic abuse deserve access to support.

In terms of funding for supporting survivors, we provide nearly £85,000 ‎(over 2017-2020) to run the Respect Helpline, which signposts male survivors of domestic abuse to support services, over £3 million to ASSIST (over 2017-2020) to provide advocacy support to male survivors of domestic abuse in the Lothians, and £360,000 (2017-18) to the Scottish Domestic Abuse and Forced Marriage Helpline to support victims and survivors.

We also provide £180,000 (over 2017-2020) to White Ribbon Scotland to encourage men to challenge gender based violence in all its forms.

In terms of work with perpetrators, we have provided over £2 million (2017-18) to support the innovative Caledonian System. This allocation includes £1.3 million for local authorities to deliver the men’s programme, the remainder supporting the women and children’s service. We recently announced a further £2.8 million to support the Caledonian System’s expansion into additional local authorities. We also provide nearly £250,000 (over 2017-2020) to Respekt, a domestic abuse project in Edinburgh.

Question reference: S5O-02142

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 May 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to improve the accessibility and increase the availability of properties of all tenure types that are suitable for disabled people.

Question reference: S5W-16396

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 May 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 15 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many times in each of the last 12 months ScotRail services between Edinburgh and Musselburgh have been (a) delayed, (b) cancelled and (c) terminated before reaching (i) Edinburgh or (ii) Musselburgh.

Our franchise agreement does not obligate the franchisee to provide the information in the format requested by the member.

ScotRail provides my officials at Transport Scotland with statistical information on the public performance measurement (PPM), which is used in the railway system in Great Britain to provide a consistent and comparable assessment of performance. The PPM measure counts all trains planned to run, which run and arrive within five minutes of their scheduled arrival time. Trains which are cancelled, either in full or in part, or which do not stop at stations at which they are meant to stop, are counted against this measure.

Performance information for ScotRail is available on-line, at the ORR Data Portal (Table 3.18). An on-line link to this table can be found here:

http://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/displayreport/report/html/5b6fbf8a-7fab-469e-9855-6c6cb4ff67dc

It includes ScotRail’s PPM information by operating sector and overall, on both a by-period and a moving-annual-average basis.

Also, ScotRail publishes quite detailed information for each four week period on by-station and by-sector PPM. This information is published at stations, and is also available on-line, at this URL: https://www.scotrail.co.uk/performance-and-reliability

Question reference: S5O-02009

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 April 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with Creative Scotland regarding the appointment of the head of the new Screen Unit.

Question reference: S5W-15475

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many people in each local authority area it estimates are eligible for Self-directed Support, and how this compares with the number of claimants.

The annual Social Care Survey collects information on people known to Local Authorities that are receiving social care services. This includes self-directed support where a person has been assessed, made a choice and received a service through that choice within the relevant year of the survey. The following table provides figures on the number of self-directed support clients from the 2017 Social Care Survey, along with the total number of social care clients for context. It should be noted that not all people in the survey will be able to exercise choice over their services or support, for example, those receiving reablement and/or crisis support. There is also variability in the set-up of services across Local Authorities.

Local Authority	Social Care Clients	Self-directed Support Clients
Aberdeen City	9,437	389
Aberdeenshire	11,924	4,473
Angus	4,183	1,051
Argyll & Bute	3,693	1,180
Clackmannanshire	2,600	1,656
Dumfries & Galloway	6,843	6,843
Dundee City	11,338	5,327
East Ayrshire	5,143	944
East Dunbartonshire	6,065	1,633
East Lothian	4,732	917
East Renfrewshire	6,423	727
Edinburgh, City of	18,668	4,676
Eilean Siar	1,419	626
Falkirk	7,569	2,758
Fife	12,711	3,350
Glasgow City	15,130	3,333
Highland	8,083	6,083
Inverclyde	4,117	4,117
Midlothian	3,499	2,290
Moray	2,912	1,315
North Ayrshire	6,512	6,512
North Lanarkshire	10,142	1,193
Orkney Islands	827	103
Perth & Kinross	5,784	4,790
Renfrewshire	4,669	830
Scottish Borders	3,946	1,757
Shetland Islands	1,423	48
South Ayrshire	4,849	3,257
South Lanarkshire	12,608	7,420
Stirling	3,379	1,597
West Dunbartonshire	3,330	116
West Lothian	8,260	2,457

Source: http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2017/12/3849

Question reference: S5O-01937

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 March 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the Scottish Fiscal Commission’s revenue forecast for the increase in the top rate of tax.

Question reference: S5O-01921

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 21 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions have taken place regarding the recent publication of the Housing Statistics for Scotland Quarterly Update.

I and my officials have had, and will continue to have, constructive dialogue with stakeholders and the industry to maintain positive progress in the delivery of housing across all tenures. Working together, across Scotland, to provide quality homes in mixed communities that meet local needs.

We are confident that we will meet the 50,000 target, just as we not only met, but exceeded, our previous target. The statistics the member mentions, show that since 2007 we have now delivered nearly 72,500 affordable homes. That is a remarkable achievement and includes almost 50,000 homes for social rent including 9,217 council homes, over 5,000 for affordable rent, and almost 18,000 for affordable home ownership.

In April 2009, we introduced the Council House Build Programme – the first such central government support to councils in a generation and we’ve ended right to buy - protecting existing social rented homes and preventing sale of up to 15,500 houses over a 10 year period.

Question reference: S5O-01878

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 March 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what measures it is taking to ensure that disabled people are not disadvantaged by the ban on plastic straws.