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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-11725

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 October 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 5 October 2017

To ask the Scottish Government on how many days each court has sat in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S5W-11726

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 October 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 5 October 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many indictments have been registered at each court in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S5W-11724

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 October 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 5 October 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many jury trials have taken place at each court in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S5O-01331

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 September 2017
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 4 October 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many children born in Fife in the last five years have been diagnosed with foetal alcohol syndrome.

There were no babies reported with a diagnosis of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome in Fife in the last five years.

The facility to record Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is available on the Scottish Birth Record (SBR). However, some under-reporting of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is considered to exist, although the extent of the under-reporting is not known. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome will be present at birth although it may not be detected until later, and unless the baby requires admission to hospital subsequent to the birth episode, the condition may go unreported.

Significant work on raising awareness of FASD has been undertaken over the past two years. A number of activities aimed at preventing FASD, and diagnosis, so far have included:

Training midwives to ask pregnant women about their alcohol intake and offer appropriate advice and support if required.
Organising education events for health, social care and education
Launching an eLearning resource for health professionals
Setting up the Maternal and Child Fetal Alcohol Harm Care Pathway Group, the main aim of which is to develop a care pathway for children who have been affected by this condition, from pre-birth to the end of primary school.
Developed and launched a diagnostic tool to allow for consistency of diagnosis and more accurate recording of the numbers of children living with this condition.
We have taken steps to learn and share what is happening in other countries. Experts from Manitoba, Canada have twice visited Scotland (2013 and March 2017) to share their expertise of diagnosing FASD using a team approach. 150 medical professionals were trained in using the Manitoba model in 2013 and 70 paediatricians and clinical psychologists were trained this year
Held a one day event for caregivers of children with FASD.

Question reference: S5O-01312

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 September 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 28 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to support GP surgeries in Fife.

The Scottish Government is aware of the pressures facing general practice and are fully committed to supporting a model of sustainable general practice.

On 10 March, I announced an additional £71.6 million will be invested in direct support of general practice, helping to transform the way services are delivered in the community. This forms the first stage of the Scottish Government’s commitment to provide an extra £250 million in direct support of general practice per year by 2021 - increasing the overall investment in primary care by £500 million.

As part of this, I have increased the GP recruitment and retention fund this year from £1 million to £5 million, enabling expansion and continued support to existing and new initiatives across Scotland.

One existing initiative is The Scottish Rural Medicine Collaborative – a ten board collaboration involving NHS Fife. The project will bring together recruitment strategies and support networks for GPs working in remote and rural areas.

Question reference: S5O-01273

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 September 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 20 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it takes to support the tourism sector in Fife.

The development of Fife's tourism sector is supported through the work of a range of our public bodies, for example, VisitScotland's marketing campaigns, including working with the industry to build on the success of film and TV shot there, such as Outlander; business and destination support from Scottish Enterprise; training and development through Skills Development Scotland; and promotion and protection of cultural heritage and historic properties through Historic Environment Scotland. In August I announced £500,000 Scottish Government funding for the 'Reaper' repair restoration at Anstruther which is another example of supporting tourism attractions and of course the opening of the Queensferry Crossing is putting a spotlight on Fife worldwide.

Question reference: S5T-00678

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 18 September 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking in response to the terrorist incident at Parsons Green in London.

Question reference: S5W-10956

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 25 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 14 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to promote the responsible selling among retailers and wholesalers of (a) quad bikes and (b) other similar single person-operated vehicles.

Question reference: S5W-10955

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 25 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 14 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many quad bikes have been registered in Scotland on the DVLA’s voluntary registration scheme, and what action it is taking to promote the scheme.

The legislation governing the registration of quad bikes has not been devolved to Scottish Ministers and remains reserved to the UK Government.

Information about the scheme is available on the UK Government website and the DVLA leaflet, INF 85, "Protect your off road vehicle". The UK Government has confirmed to the Scottish Government that it does not hold any records relating to the DVLA's voluntary registration scheme for quad bikes.

Question reference: S5W-10350

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 July 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 10 August 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many acid attacks there has been in each of the past five years; how many convictions there were, broken down by average length of sentence, and whether it plans to review the law on dealing with this type of crime.

Information on the number of acid attacks over the last five years is not held centrally. Where someone uses acid or other corrosive substances to attack another person, a range of general criminal offences can be used to prosecute including the common law of assault. The statistics for assault held do not differentiate when corrosive substances have or have not been used.

Depending on the facts and circumstances of a given case, anyone carrying corrosive substances in public can be prosecuted for carrying an offensive weapon and anyone who uses a corrosive substance to attack another person can be prosecuted for a number of offences such as assault. Under the common law of assault, courts have powers to sentence up to life imprisonment

The Scottish Government always keeps the criminal law of Scotland under review and will consider carefully what, if any, steps may be needed in this area.