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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: S4W-24345

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 February 2015
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 18 February 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what support sportscotland provides toward the development of indoor bowling.

Question reference: S4W-24279

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 February 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 17 February 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what representations it has made to Tesco in light of reports that the recently announced job reductions in its retail stores were proportionally higher in Scotland than in the rest of the UK.

The Leader of Fife Council, David Ross and I wrote a joint letter to David Lewis, Tesco Chief Executive on 30 January 2015 following the announcement to close four Tesco stores in Scotland including a superstore in Kirkcaldy with 189 employees. This letter expressed both the Scottish Government’s and Fife Council’s concern that the company had decided to close these stores and the particular devastating effects this will have on Kirkcaldy, the employees affected and their families.

On 2 February 2015 a Scottish Government official and Councillor Ross had a constructive meeting with Tesco representatives. Fife Council agreed to consider their available options and put a proposal to Mr Lewis who confirmed that he was willing to look at all proposals put to him.

Question reference: S4O-04002

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 February 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 February 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with Tesco regarding recent closure announcements.

Question reference: S4W-24158

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 January 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 9 February 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on art works in each year since 1999, broken down by directorate.

Question reference: S4W-24119

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 January 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fiona McLeod on 5 February 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many organisations have had more than one individual require disclosure under the Protection of Vulnerable Groups Scheme in each year.

Protection of Vulnerable Groups (PVG) disclosure requests are made by individuals. These requests are often made in connection with recruitment into paid or unpaid work for an organisation. The number of organisations involved in more than one disclosure request in each calendar year since the PVG scheme was established on 28 February 2011 is set out in the following table.

Year	Number of organisations (Rounded to the nearest 10)
2011 (from 28 February)	1,370
2012	1,620
2013	1,840
2014	1,940
2015 (to 26 January)	980

Question reference: S4W-24118

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 January 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fiona McLeod on 5 February 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have required disclosure under the Protection of Vulnerable Groups scheme in each year.

Question reference: S4W-24087

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 January 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 2 February 2015

To ask the Scottish Government when ministers were first made aware that the amended projection for the cost of the new V&A building in Dundee would be £80.1 million and what discussion they have had with Dundee City Council officials on the matter.

Dundee City Council kept the Scottish Government informed, within the bounds of commercial confidentiality, of the contract negotiations. As part of this, in April 2014, the council informed the Scottish Government that the initial estimate of the price would not be met. The contract price of £80.11 million published by Dundee City Council on 16 January 2015 was shared with Scottish Government on 18 December 2014.

Question reference: S4O-03960

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 January 2015
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 28 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what progress the SQA has made on the development of the Scottish Baccalaureate qualification.

Question reference: S4F-02554

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 26 January 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 January 2015

To ask the First Minister what discussions the Scottish Government has had with NHS boards regarding the reported reduction in funding for mental health research.

Question reference: S4W-23848

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 January 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 21 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what new facilities and opportunities have been created in each local authority area under its new youth arts strategy.

Time to Shine – Scotland’s Youth Arts Strategy, sets out a vision and key recommendations to enable Scotland's children and young people to flourish and achieve, in and through the arts and creativity, centred around the themes of participation, progression and provision.

A network of nine newly established youth arts hubs have been developed to improve youth arts provision and infrastructure in the following areas across the country: Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire, Moray, Highlands, West Dunbartonshire, Glasgow, Argyle and Bute, Ayrshire, Edinburgh and Fife and are all helping to facilitate new opportunities for young people. These hubs have been developed through partnerships between local and national arts and youth services providers to increase access to youth arts across Scotland in a range of art forms and aim to engage with over 40,000 children and young people.

Notable developments in the youth arts hubs so far include the launch of a new youth arts digital platform for Fife, the introduction of a youth led arts network for Ayrshire, a pioneering programme of new arts delivery for West Dunbartonshire and the creation of an arts traineeships and apprenticeships scheme for young people in Edinburgh. In addition to the youth arts hubs, targeted project funding is supporting An Lanntair (Western Isles) and Voice of My Own (Scottish Borders) to give young people in remote and rural areas better access to the arts.

Young people are central to the decision making process and development of the strategy and the hubs development with 13 young people selected from across Scotland to be on the ‘Youth Arts Voice Scotland’ group to advise on the development and forward plans of Time to Shine.

We will continue to support initiatives taking forward Scotland's first national youth arts strategy and in November 2014 we announced an additional £1 million of public and private funding for the national youth arts companies to deepen youth arts participation in the run up to Scotland's Year of Young People in 2018.

Year	PVG disclosures requested (Rounded to the nearest 10)
2011 (from 28 February)	151,990
2012	238,810
2013	342,460
2014	355,080
2015 (to 26 January)	17,160