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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: S4O-01340

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 September 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 October 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what its strategy is for the roll-out of 4G mobile services.

Question reference: S4O-01279

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 September 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 September 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to encourage new business start-ups in Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley.

Question reference: S4W-08363

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 29 June 2012
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 1 August 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what benefits are delivered to communities in Ayrshire by the developers of renewable energy schemes.

The Scottish Government does not hold details of individual community benefit arrangements. However, in April we established a public register to encourage transparency and consistency of community benefits being offered across Scotland.

The public register of community benefits has been designed to accommodate all scales of development – from single farm-based turbines upwards and will help communities negotiate with developers and better understand what other communities are receiving. The live, interactive database will be made available at http://www.communityenergyscotland.org.uk/register from 18 July 2012.

Question reference: S4W-08367

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 29 June 2012
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 27 July 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the National Records of Scotland will make available the information that it holds regarding the parish records of the Roman Catholic Church available to all of the country’s genealogy centres.

Question reference: S4W-08368

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 29 June 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 July 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what screening is available for potential sudden cardiac death victims in younger age groups and whether it plans to widen its availability.

We have supported the establishment of the Familial Arrhythmia Network Scotland (FANS). The network aims to raise awareness of familial arrhythmias, define and agree referral protocols, develop national guidance for clinical and genetic testing and establish a national register which will support the long-term follow-up of people living with inherited arrhythmias.

FANS’ work will help ensure that people who need genetic testing get appropriate access. The decision to undertake genetic screening and genetic counselling will be supported through the FANS clinical service once the benefit to the patient and their family has been established.

We have indicated in our Heart Disease and Stroke Action Plan that FANS should extend its activities to cover cardiomyopathies.

We’ve also invested over £350,000 in Scotland’s Cardiac Assessment of Young Athletes (CAYA) Programme, which has enabled over 1,500 young people who are engaged in competitive sports to undergo cardiovascular assessment.

We expect the results from this programme will be helpful in informing the National Screening Committee’s wider review of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy screening.

Question reference: S4W-08489

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 29 June 2012
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 27 July 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will review the (a) standards and (b) guidance for local authority planning officers in relation to assessing loss of light in planning applications.

Question reference: S4W-08365

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 29 June 2012
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 25 July 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will ask public bodies to adopt recognised quality management systems to aid governance and accountability.

Question reference: S4W-08364

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 29 June 2012
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 25 July 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to improve the pre-qualification questionnaire process for the procurement of services from small businesses.

A top priority of the Procurement Reform Programme is to use public procurement spending as a driver of economic growth and we are committed to ensuring that small and medium-sized businesses have fair and equal access to public sector contracts in Scotland.

Inconsistency in the way pre-qualification process is undertaken by different public bodies has been highlighted by suppliers as one of the main barriers to their participation in the public sector market. To address this, following extensive consultation with business and the wider public sector, we have introduced a standardised suite of questions relating to supplier capacity, capability and business probity.

These standard questions and accompanying guidance are now incorporated into the new shared service e-tendering service (PCS: Tender) that is currently being implemented across the wider public sector. We will also provide an online database for suppliers to store and access their answers to pre-qualification and tender exercises. The tender process for this database is currently underway and we hope to award the contract later this year.

To make the standard questions available to buyers who are not currently using the PCS:Tender system, the questions and guidance are also available from the prequalification section of the Procurement Journey on the Scottish Government website. In May, we also issued guidance highlighting the need for requirements at the selection stage of a procurement exercise to be relevant and proportionate to the subject matter of the particular contract.

Measures to mandate the use of standard public procurement processes and systems are being considered as part of the Procurement Bill which will be introduced during this parliament.

Question reference: S4W-08361

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 29 June 2012
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 25 July 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to introduce additional measures to tackle the issue of vacant shop premises.

The Scottish Government recognises that vibrant town centres and high streets are vital to the wellbeing of communities and the local economy. We are committed to supporting town centres and high streets and I will shortly be announcing details of our town centre review which supports delivery of the national Regeneration Strategy. Tackling empty high street property is likely to be one of the key considerations of the review.

Local authorities are responsible for local economic development and therefore for ensuring the viability of the towns within their area, taking account of local circumstances and the aspirations of communities.

We are currently consulting on measures to help communities tackle vacant and unused property in their areas. Ideas contained in the consultation paper on the Community Empowerment and Renewal Bill include measures to encourage temporary use and potential powers for the local authority to enforce the sale or lease of empty properties.

In addition, the Scottish Government intends to create a new incentive to encourage landlords to let vacant commercial premises by reforming empty property business rates relief from April 2013.

Question reference: S4W-08372

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 29 June 2012
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 25 July 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of the potential impact on businesses in Scotland, what discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding signature fraud in financial transactions.

The Scottish Government has a wide counter-fraud agenda of which signature fraud is a part. Our approach to fraud is risk-based and designed to reduce the impact it has across Scotland on organisations in the public sector, the private sector, the not-for-profit sector, as well as individual members of the public.

The Scottish Government is represented on the UK Government’s Fraud, Error and Debt Taskforce that includes members from the Welsh Assembly and all major UK Government departments. The group is tasked with helping to facilitate collaborative working between central and local government, and the public, private and civil sector in order to enhance approaches to counter-fraud. The taskforce works closely with the National Fraud Authority, an executive agency of the Home Office that works with the counter-fraud community to make fraud more difficult to commit in and against the UK. The National Fraud Authority also leads the implementation of Fighting Fraud Together, a cross-sector strategy published in October 2011 aiming to reduce fraud.

In the UK, signature fraud on cheques is handled by the UK Cheque and Credit Clearing Company. The most up-to-date figures released in March 2011 show the continuing decline in cheque usage has played a part in an annual 3 per cent fall in overall cheque fraud losses. The UK Cheque and Credit Clearing Company works in partnership with the Financial Fraud Action UK purpose of creating a united front against financial fraud and its effects.