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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-16974

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 31 May 2018
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 12 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many people who have been diagnosed with a sleep disorder have been referred for (a) cognitive behavioural therapy or (b) other non-drug based interventions disorders in each of the last three years, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S5W-16971

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 31 May 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 12 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what the cost of prescriptions for sleeping pills has been in each of the last three years, broken down by (a) drug type and (b) NHS board.

The Dispenser Payments and Prescription Cost Analysis report provides, on an annual basis, information on the volume and cost of drugs prescribed in the community, including hypnotics for the treatment of sleeping disorders.

The report is published on the National Services Scotland Information Services Division website:-

www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Prescribing-and-Medicines/Community-Dispensing/Dispenser-Remuneration/

The information requested in part (b) of the question is not available in a format which can be aggregated by substance or therapeutic group.

Question reference: S5W-16972

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 31 May 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 12 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many prescriptions for sleeping pills have been dispensed in each of the last three years, broken down by (a) drug type and (b) NHS board.

Question reference: S5O-02217

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 June 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government which Scottish colleges carry a PFI burden and what it is doing to alleviate this.

Question reference: S5O-02191

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 May 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what the level of recorded crime was in 2006-07 and the last year for which figures are available.

Question reference: S5W-16587

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 May 2018
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 29 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reported concerns of EU citizens that they will lose their right to vote in local government and Scottish Parliament elections and referenda following Brexit.

Scottish Ministers have been clear that the rights of EU citizens to vote in elections in Scotland should be protected after Brexit. It is right that people who make their lives here and contribute to society should have the right to vote, wherever they are from.

The Scottish Government has recently consulted on extending the opportunity to vote in Scotland to all those who are legally resident here, whatever their place of birth.

Question reference: S5O-02160

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 May 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 31 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what the environmental impact is of using wholly-recycled retread lorry tyres compared with new ones.

Question reference: S5W-16502

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 May 2018
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 21 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how much will be invested in the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband programme in North Ayrshire, from its inception to completion, by each partner in each year up to 2021.

The management of the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) programme is done at contract level so we do not break down programme expenditure by individual local authority area or assign it across the various funding partners. The funding is split across both contracts as per the following table, with North Ayrshire falling within both.

Funder	RoS (m)	H&I (m)	TOTAL (m)
BDUK	50	50.8	100.8
Scottish Public Sector	89.3	75.6	164.9
European Union (ERDF)	12	-	12
BT Capital	53.7	6.4	60.1
BT Operational Costs	53	13	66
Total	258	145.8	403.8

All local authorities in Scotland have contributed approximately £40 million in total to the DSSB programme. In addition, 14 local authorities contributed approximately £51 million in additional funding in order to meet their local needs, with North Ayrshire contributing £1.1 million for their own local priorities.

Question reference: S5W-16538

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 May 2018
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 17 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it (a) is providing in 2018-19 and (b) plans to provide in each of the next five years to support the building of council (i) houses and (ii) flats in North Ayrshire, broken down by the number of units that it expects this to help build.

The Scottish Government has Resource Planning Assumptions (RPAs) for councils across Scotland for the three years to March 2021 providing councils with the certainty they need to allow them to put future plans in place to meet the housing priorities in their areas. The following table provides details of this allocation for North Ayrshire which will help fund a range of affordable housing including council house building:

North Ayrshire RPA	£m
2018-19	14.165
2019-20	15.003
2020-21	16.007

North Ayrshire Council uses these planning assumptions to develop its strategic priorities as set out in their Strategic Housing Investment Plan (SHIP). It is therefore a matter for the council to determine through their own strategic processes the number and mix of house types in future years.

North Ayrshire Council’s published SHIP for 2018-2023 estimates that it will deliver 872 council homes in the period up to 2023 as illustrated in the following table. The SHIP does not detail the breakdown of flats and houses.

North Ayrshire Council	Planned Council House Unit Completions
2018-19	158
2019-20	106
2020-21	437
2021-22	165
2022-23	6
Total	872

Question reference: S5W-16537

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 May 2018
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 17 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has provided in each year since 1999 to support the building of council (a) houses and (b) flats in North Ayrshire, broken down by the number of units that this has helped build.

The Scottish Government Council House Build Programme was introduced in April 2009, the aim being to incentivise local authorities to build new homes. This was the first such central government support to councils in a generation.

The following table shows the funding provided to North Ayrshire through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP) for council house building, together with the number of completed council homes since 2009-10.

Please note that expenditure cannot be directly correlated to the number of completions in a particular year as expenditure can span more than one financial year.

We are not able to break down the number of completed homes by (a) houses and (b) flats as our information is not held in this way:

Financial Year	Funding provided through the AHSP £m	Number of completed council homes
2009-10	0	0
2010-11	0.575	23
2011-12	1.070	40
2012-13	0.929	0
2013-14	1.827	12
2014-15	3.756	121
2015-16	1.613	24
2016-17	6.255	24
Total	16.025	244

Expenditure and units in respect of 2017-18 have not been published as yet.