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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: S4W-01555

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 July 2011
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 3 August 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it monitors the number of disabled applicants for jobs with (a) it and (b) employers for which it provides all funding and which use the double tick disability symbol.

The numbers of disabled applicants are monitored as part of any recruitment exercise undertaken by the Scottish Government.

In instances where the recruitment exercise is managed by external suppliers on behalf of the Scottish Government, for example for the recruitment of Senior Civil Servants, a full diversity analysis is provided.

The monitoring of disabled applicants for jobs with organisations funded by the Scottish Government which also carry the double tick disability symbol is a matter for those organisations.

Question reference: S4W-01556

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 July 2011
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 3 August 2011

Data on the percentage of Scottish Government Employees who are disabled is reported as part of the annual Civil Service Statistics publication. This is published by the Office for National Statistics.

Data is available at this web location http://www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Product.asp?vlnk=2899&Pos=&ColRank=1&Rank=422.

The latest available figures are as follows:

Disabled Employees as a Percentage of Known Disability Status

2007-08	5.5%
2008-09	5.6%
2009-10	5.9%
2010-11	6.4%*

Note: *This data is not yet published.

The current percentage of Scottish Government employees who are disabled is 6.1% (as at 30 June 2011).

Question reference: S4F-00084

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 June 2011
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 June 2011

To ask the First Minister what discussions the Scottish Government has had with the legal profession regarding the attendance of solicitors during interviews following the Cadder ruling.

Question reference: S3W-39068

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 January 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 7 February 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it holds a list of people suspected of having their mobile phone calls illegally intercepted and, if so, what steps it has taken to notify them.

Question reference: S3W-38797

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 1 February 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-38294 by Kenny MacAskill on 11 January 2011, whether the same convention rights of individuals and international obligations attaching to information provided by foreign authorities would have to be taken into account whether the order were amended by primary legislation or by statutory instrument.

Question reference: S3W-38798

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 1 February 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-38294 by Kenny MacAskill on 11 January 2011, whether it can confirm that considerations in relation to data protection legislation are not relevant in this case given that section 194K(4) of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 ensures that, where Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission disclosure is permitted by means of a statutory order, “the disclosure of the information is not prevented by any obligation of secrecy or other limitation on disclosure (including any such obligation or limitation imposed by, under or by virtue of any enactment) arising otherwise than under that section.”

Question reference: S3W-38799

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 1 February 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-38294 by Kenny MacAskill on 11 January 2011, whether it intends to bring forward primary legislation and, if so, whether it will specify the reasons for so doing rather than amending the order by means of a new statutory instrument.

Primary legislation is needed for full flexibility to ensure that an appropriate legislative framework is put in place. The proposed legislation will facilitate, as far as possible, the release of a statement of reasons by the commission in circumstances where an appeal has been abandoned. In doing so, it will also maintain appropriate provision for such matters as data protection, the convention rights of individuals and international obligations attaching to information provided by foreign authorities.

Question reference: S3W-38294

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 December 2010
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 11 January 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will introduce a further statutory instrument amending the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (Permitted Disclosure of Information) Order 2009 to delete Article 2(b).

The Scottish Government intends to bring forward legislation to allow the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission to publish a statement of reasons in cases where an appeal is abandoned, subject of course to legal restrictions applying to the commission such as data protection, the convention rights of individuals and international obligations attaching to information provided by foreign authorities.

Question reference: S3W-38435

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 December 2010
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 17 December 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive when the announcement will be made of the awards to LEADER local action groups under the Broadband Challenge Fund.

I am pleased to announce today that five LEADER Local Action groups will receive awards under the Broadband Challenge Fund announced on 1 July 2010.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-34982 on 1 July 2010. 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

These are Borders, Forth Valley and Lomond, Outer Hebrides, Orkney and South Lanarkshire.

Thirteen local action groups bid for the funding. Unfortunately, this far outstripped the resources of ‚¬1 million available. The assessment panel comprised of the government and external experts in rural community development and IT judged the winning bids as providing the maximum value for money in terms of advancing our rural development objectives and deploying relevant broadband provision. The estimate is that around 88 businesses will be supported from these bids. In Lomond Valley alone, the estimate is that 100 new jobs will be created.

Nevertheless, I commend all the local action groups which applied. This was a tough decision. I hope that local action groups who did not succeed will be able to take some of the local projects forward using existing allocations as part of achieving its local development strategy.

Question reference: S3W-37974

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 November 2010
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 9 December 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what level of savings generated by the withdrawal of testing strips for type 2 diabetes is being reinvested in insulin pump therapy in each NHS board.