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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-16686

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 May 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 29 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many appeals against unsuccessful applications for blue badges have been lodged with each local authority in each of the last five years, and how many of these appeals were (a) successful and (b) unsuccessful, also given as a percentage.

There is no appeal mechanism against unsuccessful applications for blue badges, except in rare cases where a badge is refused on grounds of fraud. No such cases have been handled in the last five years.

Instead, where applicants are concerned there may have been maladministration, they may use the local authority complaints procedure. Information about the number of such cases is not held centrally.

Where applicants disagree with the merits of an eligibility decision, they may request an internal review. An internal review is carried out by someone in a local authority not connected with the original decision.

The information we have on the number of internal reviews is currently being collated and I will write to the member as soon as the information is available and a copy will be placed in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 59769).

Question reference: S5W-16685

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 May 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 29 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many discretionary applications for blue badges have been refused by each local authority in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S5W-16684

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 May 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 29 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many blue badges have been issued by each local authority in each of the last five years, broken down by automatic and discretionary entitlement.

Question reference: S5O-02122

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 May 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to support the Fife economy.

Question reference: S5W-16232

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 27 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Annabelle Ewing on 10 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many instances of deliberate fire raising have been recorded in each parliamentary constituency in the Mid Scotland and Fife region in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S5W-16231

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 27 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Annabelle Ewing on 10 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to tackle deliberate fire raising.

As part of the Scottish Government’s wider agenda on anti-social behaviour, we support the excellent work being delivered by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) and other partners to develop programmes to target those groups with the potential to become involved in wilful fire-raising. SFRS delivers a range of schemes aimed at educating and supporting young people, who are responsible for a high percentage of deliberate fires, to reduce and prevent the instances of deliberate fire setting and fire related anti-social behaviour.

This includes education and diversion work to improve citizenship, reduce offending by children and young people and education on the dangers and social impact of fire setting through the delivery of interventions such as the ‘Fire setter Intervention and Re-Education Scheme’ (FIReS), ‘FireSkills’ and ‘Adverse Childhood Experience Awareness Programme’.

Recorded Crime in Scotland 2016-17 statistics show that fire-raising has decreased by 40% over the ten year period from 2007-08 to 2016-17. But we must not be complacent, deliberate fire setting and fire related anti-social behaviour continues to be a serious concern in many communities and local authority areas as well as placing a very significant operational demand on the SFRS. That is why prevention will continue to be a central objective being pursued by the SFRS.

Question reference: S5O-02098

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 May 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government on what date the first payments of the carers allowance supplement will be made.

Question reference: S5T-01069

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 May 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with DF Barnes since the announcement of redundancies at BiFab on 4 May.

Question reference: S5W-16094

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 20 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 4 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many applications to introduce the sexual history or sexual character evidence of a victim in a sexual offence or rape trial have been (a) requested, (b) unopposed, (c) granted in full, (d) granted in part and (e) rejected, in each year since 2002.

Data on the use of sections 274 and 275 Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 are not routinely collected by the Scottish Government.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-16093 on 1 May 2018. 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/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

Question reference: S5O-02061

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 May 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with Fife Health and Social Care Partnership since its decision to suspend overnight out-of-hours services in Dunfermline, St Andrews and Glenrothes.