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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.

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Question reference: S5O-01127

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 June 2017
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 15 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what improvements have been made to the rail infrastructure in, and rail services to, North Ayrshire since 2007.

North Ayrshire has benefited from significant Scottish Government investment which has delivered new and additional train services, new rolling stock and investment in its stations. These include, amongst other things:

A 50% increase in services which provided increased journey opportunities and greater connectivity for the towns of North Ayrshire

New Class 380 Rolling stock which provided improved levels of passenger comfort with spacious seating, wide aisles, air conditioning, power sockets for laptops, luggage provision, space for cycles and wheelchairs, plus CCTV.

New car parking opportunities including a new car park at Platform 1 in Irvine and station improvements including better waiting facilities, additional and upgrades to CCTV, new customer information screens, new ticket vending machines, platform validators for SMART cards and cycle parking, all of which will improve the overall passenger experience

Question reference: S5O-01061

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 May 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on how the coalitions that have been recently formed across local authorities will impact on the provision of local services.

Question reference: S5O-00986

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 May 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding the impact of its welfare reforms on communities in North Ayrshire.

Question reference: S5F-01244

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 May 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 May 2017

To ask the First Minister, in light of the local government elections, whether the Scottish Government will act to randomise the ordering of candidates by surname on ballot papers at future elections.

Question reference: S5W-08865

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 5 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5O-00864 by Roseanna Cunningham on 19 April 2017, how many jobs are expected to be lost in Scotland’s renewables industry as a result of the reductions to UK-wide feed-in tariffs.

The reductions to the UK-wide feed-in tariffs by the UK Government will impact future deployment of renewables at a small-scale. The Low Carbon and Renewable Energy (LCRE) sector is a key driver of economic growth and employment in Scotland and across the UK. In 2015, the LCRE sector supported 58,500 jobs in Scotland and accounted for 14% of the total UK employment in this sector. The LCRE sector also generated £10.5 billion in turnover in Scotland in 2015. The reduction to UK-wide feed-in tariffs may see these job numbers revised when they are next updated for 2016.

Question reference: S5W-08864

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what the percentage change has been in the level of railway (a) services and (b) rolling stock in each year since 2007; what the per capita investment was in the last year for which figures are available, and what information it has regarding how this compares with England.

The Scottish Government's record investment of £5 billion in the current control period is unprecedented, this recognises the valuable contribution our railways make to the wider economic outcomes. This has led to a high number of new services, rolling stock and infrastructure investment. The details requested are given in the following tables;

a)Train Services

Year	No of services	% increase from reference year of 2007
2007	2090	100%
2008	2124	2%
2009	2159	3%
2010	2159	3%
2011	2270	9%
2012	2286	10%
2013	2358	13%
2014	2358	13%
2015	2381	14%
2016	2448	17%
2017	2450	17%

b)Rolling stock (No of trains)

Year	No of Trains	% increase from reference year of 2007
2007	251	100%
2008	259	3%
2009	259	3%
2010	259	3%
2011	293	17%
2012	293	17%
2013	293	17%
2014	293	17%
2015	289	15%
2016	297	18%
2017	322	28%

And) Investment within Scotland (based on a population of 5,262,000)

The cost for Franchise is £314,874,000.00

The cost for Network Rail £446,972,000.00

Other £249,000.00

Investment per capita is £144.82

The Office of the Road and Rail (ORR) web site has financial information publicly available on rail investment across the UK. The web link is as follows;

http://orr.gov.uk/statistics/published-stats/uk-rail-industry-financial-information

Question reference: S5F-01229

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 April 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 May 2017

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to Scotland's population rising to an all-time high of 5.4 million.

Question reference: S5W-08828

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 26 April 2017

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason only six Scottish hospitals offer endometriosis patients the opportunity to undergo a procedure known as laparoscopic helium ablation, and what plans it has to extend this treatment to all NHS board areas.

NHS Boards take decisions on whether to adopt technologies based on evidence of their safety and proven clinical and cost effectiveness. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has said that further research is required to support the use of this technology as standard.

Where deemed clinically appropriate, there are existing arrangements in place to allow patients to access this treatment at one of the 6 centres currently offering this treatment.

Question reference: S5O-00864

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 19 April 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what the environmental impact will be in Scotland of reductions to UK-wide feed-in tariffs.

Question reference: S5W-08335

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 18 April 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many council houses have been built in each year since 1997.

The following table is based the most recent quarterly official statistics on local authority new build housing completions to end December 2016, that were published on 14 March 2017 and are available at http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/HSfS/NewBuild.

Year	Number of Council Houses Built (units completed)
1997-98	114
1998-99	120
1999-00	69
2000-01	112
2001-02	65
2002-03	94
2003-04	0
2004-05	0
2005-06	0
2006-07	6
2007-08	28
2008-09	336
2009-10	413
2010-11	614
2011-12	1,114
2012-13	963
2013-14	1,140
2014-15	1,157
2015-16	1,138
2016-17 (to Dec)	817

Source: Scottish Government Housing Statistics for Scotland, quarterly new build housing tables. Data provided by Local Authorities in NB1 Returns.

The next quarterly official statistics release, covering local authority new build completions across the period from January to March 2017, is due to be published in June 2017.