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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

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Question reference: S5W-14765

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what the economic impact of the Borders Railway has been in each year since its opening.

The full economic impact of the Borders Railway will be assessed at the Stage 2 Evaluation, which typically takes place 5 years on from project completion (in line with our Rail Evaluation Guidance ).

To date, a Stage 1 evaluation was carried out after year 1 and repeated after year 2; and these high level assessments have confirmed that key objectives of the Borders Railway are being met through improved connectivity and access to new opportunities, enhancing social inclusion and modal shift from road to rail.

Question reference: S5T-00925

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 February 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it does not support a ban on the export of live animals.

Question reference: S5T-00908

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 29 January 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on concerns regarding the occurrence of stop-skipping by ScotRail.

Question reference: S5W-13665

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 29 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the increase in the number of people attending A&E over the winter months, particularly regarding orthopaedic treatments, what data is collected on the cause of visits, and whether they relate to falling or slipping on icy pavements.

During the week ending 17 December 2017 the weekly A&E statistics show that more than 29,000 people attended Scotland’s emergency departments. That was the highest since weekly reporting began in 2015. It was 12% higher than the previous week, and 15% higher than the comparable week last year. The rise being largely attributed by NHS Boards to slips and trips. Statistics will be available in March 2018 on orthopaedic procedures carried out by hospitals in an inpatient, day case or outpatient setting during December.

Question reference: S5W-13930

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Andy Wightman on 25 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body how many Cross-Party Groups there are, and whether consideration will be given to an audit of the number of MSPs attending each meeting.

As of 22 January 2018 there are 95 approved Cross-Party Groups. Cross-Party Groups are regulated by Section 6 of the Code of Conduct which falls within the remit of the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee. 11-13 months after a Group’s initial meeting, and each 11-13 months thereafter, Groups are required to hold an AGM. Within 30 calendar days of the AGM, Groups are required to submit an annual return form. The Group meetings and activities section of the annual return requires Groups to provide details of each meeting of the Group, including the date of the meeting, a brief description of the main subjects discussed and the MSP and non-MSP attendance figures. This is publicly available on the Groups’ webpages on the Parliament website. Groups are also required to provide minutes of each meeting and the minutes must list the MSP and non-MSP attendees. The Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee reviews on an annual basis whether Groups are complying with the Code.

Question reference: S5W-13256

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 December 2017
Current Status: Answered by Liam McArthur (on behalf of the SPCB) on 20 December 2017

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether it will provide information on accessing and engaging with the Parliament in Japanese.

The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB) has a language policy in response to the linguistic diversity that exists in Scotland, and this policy can be found on our website.

Our priority is to meet the needs of Scottish residents who require some form of language assistance in order to find out about or become involved in the work of the Parliament. Accordingly, a small budget is available to allow appropriate resources to be translated or interpreters engaged to ensure no Scottish resident is disadvantaged because of their communication needs.

To the knowledge of the Public Information office, there has never been a request for anything to be translated into Japanese from/for a resident of Scotland who could only engage with us in Japanese. If such a request was received, then some language assistance would be arranged. For instance, that may be an interpreter for an issue to be discussed or a letter to a constituent (rather than say a translation of one of our visitor leaflets).

We are very pleased to welcome visitors from Japan, including providing free tours of the Parliament.

While there are no plans to produce materials in Japanese, the development of our language policy is kept under review and all enquiries and feedback in relation to languages are taken into account in this context.

Question reference: S5W-12790

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 14 December 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether Police Scotland’s call centre at Bilston Glen has been required to deal with calls from police forces elsewhere in the UK due to them being unable to cope with demand; if so, which police forces, and how many such calls there have been in the last six months.

The delivery of Police Scotland's contact, command and control function is an operational matter for Police Scotland with oversight from the Scottish Police Authority.

Every Police Force (and other Emergency Authority) has an established reciprocal arrangement in place to assist each other at times of high demand or exceptional need called the Public Emergency Call Service (PECS) Code of Practice. This applies only to emergency 999 calls and not those calls which are received on the 101 platform.

During the month of July Police Scotland received requests from British Telecom to assist the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) which resulted in Police Scotland dealing with a total of 29 MPS calls during the month. This equates to 0.0001% of the total call volume for the month which was 211,468.

Full details of what happens within Police Scotland service centres (call handling centres) are outlined in the Police Scotland statement issued 14 October by Nelson Telfer, ACC Service and Protection, Police Scotland, available at http://www.scotland.police.uk/whats-happening/news/2017/august/c3-message-from-acc-nelson-telfer.

I would encourage you to contact Police Scotland directly for further detail.

Question reference: S5F-01841

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 December 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 December 2017

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government understands by the term "Regulatory Alignment", and what this means for commerce between Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Question reference: S5W-12777

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 29 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how much public funding was spent in response to the legal action taken by the Scotch Whisky Association on minimum unit pricing of alcohol.

Question reference: S5W-12265

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 October 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 9 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provided details of each NHS PPP/PFI contract, including where it acts as a rental agent for the third party for GP and dental practice premises.

The following link provide project details which include the actual/estimated annual unitary payment charges paid/to be paid by public sector procuring bodies in Scotland to private sector consortiums for services agreed over the length of NPD, hub and PPP/PFI contracts:

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Government/Finance/18232/12308

The Scottish Government does not hold centrally any information relating to contracts where NHS Boards acts as a rental agent for the third party for GP and dental practice premises.