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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: S5W-16107

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 1 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many people in each local authority area have been (a) prosecuted for and (b) convicted of (i) sheep and (ii) other livestock worrying under the Dogs (Protection of Livestock) Act 1953 in each year since 2007.

Information on cases of sheep worrying is not held centrally. Information is available on the number of people prosecuted under the Dogs (Protection of Livestock) Act 1953 – which relates to dogs worrying livestock on agricultural land. However as this legislation applies to all forms of livestock, these figures are not available for specific types of animal. The available information on criminal proceedings is provided in the following tables.

Number of people prosecuted for offences under Dogs (Protection of Livestock) Act 1953 1 , by local authority, 2007-08 to 2016-17

	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17
Aberdeen City	-	-	1	1	2	-	-	-	1	-
Aberdeenshire	2	3	2	1	-	1	-	-	1	-
Angus	-	-	-	2	-	-	-	2	1	1
Argyll & Bute	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Clackmannanshire	-	-	-	-	-	1	1	1	-	2
Dumfries & Galloway	-	-	1	1	2	-	4	-	1	1
Dundee City	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	1	1
East Ayrshire	2	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	1
East Lothian	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	1	-	-
Edinburgh, City of	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	1	1	1
Fife	1	-	1	-	1	4	-	-	-	-
Glasgow City	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	1	-
Highland	2	-	1	3	1	1	-	1	-	4
Moray	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	2	1
Na h-Eileanan Siar	-	-	1	-	2	-	1	2	1	2
North Ayrshire	1	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Orkney Islands	-	-	-	-	1	2	-	-	2	1
Perth & Kinross	-	-	2	-	-	-	-	-	2	-
Renfrewshire	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-
Scottish Borders	-	2	4	-	-	-	1	-	-	4
Shetland Islands	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	1	-
South Ayrshire	-	1	-	-	1	-	-	-	1	1
South Lanarkshire	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	2	-
Stirling	1	1	2	-	-	2	1	1	-	1
West Dunbartonshire	-	1	-	-	1	-	-	1	-	-
West Lothian	-	-	-	2	-	1	-	1	-	-
Total Scotland	11	11	16	11	11	13	10	12	18	21

Number of people convicted of offences under Dogs (Protection of Livestock) Act 1953 1 , by local authority, 2007-08 to 2016-17

	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17
Aberdeen City	-	-	1	1	2	-	-	-	1	-
Aberdeenshire	1	2	2	1	-	-	-	-	1	-
Angus	-	-	-	2	-	-	-	2	1	1
Argyll & Bute	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Clackmannanshire	-	-	-	-	-	1	1	1	-	2
Dumfries & Galloway	-	-	1	1	2	-	4	-	1	1
Dundee City	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	1	1
East Ayrshire	2	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	1
East Lothian	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	1	-	-
Edinburgh, City of	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	1	1	1
Fife	1	-	1	-	-	3	-	-	-	-
Glasgow City	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-
Highland	2	-	1	3	1	1	-	-	-	3
Moray	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	2	1
Na h-Eileanan Siar	-	-	1	-	2	-	1	2	-	1
North Ayrshire	1	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Orkney Islands	-	-	-	-	1	2	-	-	2	1
Perth & Kinross	-	-	2	-	-	-	-	-	2	-
Renfrewshire	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-
Scottish Borders	-	2	4	-	-	-	1	-	-	4
Shetland Islands	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	1	-
South Ayrshire	-	1	-	-	1	-	-	-	1	1
South Lanarkshire	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	2	-
Stirling	1	1	2	-	-	2	1	-	-	1
West Dunbartonshire	-	1	-	-	1	-	-	1	-	-
West Lothian	-	-	-	1	-	1	-	1	-	-
Total Scotland	9	10	16	10	10	11	10	10	16	19

1. Where main charge.

Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database

Question reference: S5F-02293

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 April 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 May 2018

To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government is taking to ensure that all pupils, irrespective of social background, have full access to arts education.

Question reference: S5O-02039

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 April 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it is having with local authorities regarding the provision of music tuition in schools.

Question reference: S5W-15686

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 16 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what qualifies as an "exceptional circumstance" to allow Attainment Scotland Fund allocations to (a) local authorities and (b) schools to be carried over into the next financial year.

Question reference: S5O-01973

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 April 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the performance of integrated joint boards since their creation.

Question reference: S5F-02164

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 March 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 March 2018

To ask the First Minister for what reason £15 million of the £52 million Attainment Scotland Fund provided to local authorities and schools has reportedly not been spent.

Question reference: S5W-13979

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 30 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with local authorities regarding their statutory requirement to provide adequate assistance for pupils with additional support needs.

To support local authorities to carry out their statutory duties under the Additional Support for Learning Act 2004 (as amended), the Scottish Government regularly engages, through appropriate networks, with local authority representatives including CoSLA, ADES and other relevant organisations.

The Scottish Government has sought the views of these organisations in its development of guidance on the implementation of additional support for learning legislation, including the Supporting Children's Learning Code of Practice. This statutory guidance sets out in detail the statutory duties placed on local authorities to support children and young people with additional support needs.

Question reference: S5W-13914

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 30 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what modifications have taken place in the last five years to upgrade central reservation barriers on motorways and dual carriageways to allow sections to be temporarily removed in bad weather to assist with clearing stranded vehicles.

The provision of crossover points on a dual carriageway is dictated by national standards (Design Manual for Roads and Bridges). We continue to review our network to assess the merit of introducing new crossovers at strategic locations and wider incident response arrangements are being considered for the next trunk road maintenance contracts.

The provision of crossovers on the wider dualling programme will be taken forward as we progress future stages of detailed design. For example, for the dualling of the A9 between Perth and Inverness, demountable barriers (posts are slotted rather than driven or cast in) will be provided at cross-over points. Maintenance crossovers will be provided at regular intervals (approximately 4 km or less) and are primarily located to assist road maintenance operations but also help to control traffic during road incidents. Winter resilience mitigation measures such as planting of shelter belts, snow fences and earthworks profiling will also reduce the effects of drifting snow and improve snow clearance operations.

For the dualling of the A96 between Inverness and Aberdeen, emergency crossovers are anticipated to be required at regular intervals over length of dualling for both incident management and winter service operations. The A96 Dualling Inverness to Aberdeen Scheme Resilience Strategy sets out the approach to scheme resilience on the A96.

On the proposed A96 Inverness to Nairn (including Nairn Bypass) scheme an additional 5 crossover sites are proposed in addition to the 12 required by the design standard (DMRB, TA 92/03, Crossover and Changeover Design) to enhance operational resilience.

Question reference: S5O-01724

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 January 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with ScotRail regarding train punctuality and stop-skipping in the Mid Scotland and Fife region.

Question reference: S5W-13881

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 24 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many teachers have left the profession in each of the last three years for reasons other than retirement.