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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-06612

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 3 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) was engaged in discussions with higher education institutions about how to spend £50 million on campus development projects after the SFC had been notified in the Financial Report to its board in February 2014 that the Scottish Government would claw back this money.

Question reference: S5W-06611

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 3 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason some of the additional £50 million funds allocated to the Scottish Funding Council in 2011 was not passed on to higher education institutions as originally intended.

Question reference: S5W-06335

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 30 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the board of the Scottish Funding Council regarding the Scottish Government's plan to abolish the board, and what response it received.

Question reference: S5W-06249

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 26 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason its report, SCOTLAND CAN DO - Boosting Scotland’s Innovation Performance, makes no reference to UK Research and Innovation, Innovate UK or Research Councils UK.

Scotland CAN DO - Boosting Scotland's Innovation Performance is a high level Action Plan that has been developed through the Scotland CAN DO Innovation Forum. A wide range of industry and academic partners, including Innovate UK and other UK organisations such as Nesta and the Big Innovation Centre, are members of the Forum.

We will work with partners and stakeholders over the coming months to deliver the actions necessary to boost Scotland's innovation performance.

Question reference: S5W-06107

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the Scottish Funding Council returned to it the £50 million underspend that it reported for 2015-16.

Question reference: S5W-06106

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the Scottish Funding Council reported a £50 million underspend for 2015-16.

The £50m reported by the SFC in its reserves for 2015-16 came about because the allocation of funding to the body by the Scottish Government is made on a financial year basis, whereas the body’s spending is on an academic year basis. For this reason the SFC needs the flexibility to manage its cash flow between financial years to ensure all of its academic year funding obligations are met.

Following the award of additional funding to the SFC in the 2011 Spending Review, it rolled forward larger than normal financial year reserves. Being assured that every financial commitment to every institution had been met in full it was decided by the Scottish Government that the £50 million should come back to the government’s consolidated budget and be available to be deployed against agreed priorities.

This process was concluded as part of the Scottish Government’s Consolidated Accounts for 2015-16 as lodged with the Parliament in September.

Question reference: S5W-05697

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 12 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many cases of people with shingles between the ages of (a) 50 and 69, (b) 70 and 79 and (b) 80 and 100 have been reported in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S5O-00518

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Annabelle Ewing on 22 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to prevent deaths from drowning.

The Scottish Government takes this issue very seriously, and has provided £104,000 this year to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents to continue to deliver its annual Home and Water Safety programme.

RoSPA’s Water Safety Scotland group engages with partners to develop a consistent approach to the prevention of drowning, water related deaths and unintentional injuries in and around water.

The Scottish Government supports the aims of this group and has arrangements in place to share its messages on water safety via our social media channels.

Water Safety Scotland is currently developing a Scotland-specific response to the National Water Safety Forum's "UK National Drowning Prevention Strategy", which aims to reduce accidental drowning rates in the UK by 50%.

I understand that Water Safety Scotland plans to consult on its “Scottish Response” in March 2017. The Scottish Government will consider this document carefully when it has been finalised after the consultation period.

Question reference: S5F-00680

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 December 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 December 2016

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to the call by the Association of Headteachers and Deputes in Scotland for the extension of powers to headteachers.

Question reference: S5W-04879

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 21 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 5 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the shingles vaccine is not made available on the NHS to people aged 80 and over, and whether there are exceptions to this position.

The Scottish Government, like all other UK Health Departments, takes advice on immunisation from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). The JCVI reviewed medical, epidemiological, and economic evidence as well as vaccine safety and efficacy data relevant to a universal herpes zoster (shingles) vaccination programme in 2010.

Based on this evidence, a shingles vaccination programme for adults aged 70 years up to and including 79 years was recommended, provided a cost effective vaccine for licence in the UK could be found. At the time the JCVI advised that efficacy of the vaccine declines with age so it was not recommended for people aged 80 years or older.

In light of this, a vaccination programme was introduced in 2013 in Scotland, offering vaccination to those aged 70 as part of the 'routine' programme, and to those aged 71-79 as part of the phased in 'catch up' programme.

The Immunisation against Infectious Disease 2006 (“the Green Book”) contains clinical advice for health professionals on contraindications and states that:

Administration after 80 years of age is less cost-effective due to the limited effectiveness of the vaccine in older individuals

This can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/503773/2905109_Green_Book_Chapter_28a_v3_0W.PDF

As such the national programme defines eligibility as individuals aged up to 79 years.