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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-03365

Asked by: Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 June 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 June 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the away aspect of its Legacy 2014 Scottish Sport Relief Home and Away Programme.

Question reference: S4W-21573

Asked by: Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 June 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 11 June 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many councils take disability related expenditure into account when calculating social care charges for older and disabled people.

Question reference: S4W-21571

Asked by: Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 June 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 11 June 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether local authorities should take into account disability related expenditure for older and disabled people when calculating social care charges.

Guidance on charging for residential care is set out in the Charging for Residential Accommodation guidance published on the Scottish Government website at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Health/Support-Social-Care/Support/Older-People/Care-Homes

The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) produces guidance for local authorities on charging for non-residential social care, which is published on the COSLA website at:

http://www.cosla.gov.uk/sites/default/files/documents/14-01-31_item_nn_13-12-19_national_strategy_and_guidance_2014-15_gs_0_0.doc

Information on how many councils take disability related expenditure into account when calculating social care charges for older and disabled people is not held centrally.

Whilst many councils consider disability related expenditure explicitly, others allow for additional expenditure accrued as a result of having a disability through other elements of their assessment processes. However, this situation is changing following the release in April 2014 of the most recent version of the COSLA charging guidance which encourages councils to ‘be proactive in considering further disregard of income where additional expenditure is incurred by a service user as a result of living as a disabled person’.

Furthermore, COSLA is currently working with the Scottish Government and a range of representative carers’ organisations including disabled people’s organisations to facilitate greater consistency in how disability related expenditure is considered.

Question reference: S4W-21572

Asked by: Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 June 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 11 June 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance is provided to councils about taking into account disability related expenditure for older and disabled people when calculating social care charges.

Question reference: S4O-03288

Asked by: Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 May 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 May 2014

To ask the Scottish Government who sits on the working group on supporter involvement in football clubs.

Question reference: S4O-03260

Asked by: Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 May 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 May 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take to improve the care of older patients in the Lothian region.

Question reference: S4W-20793

Asked by: Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 April 2014
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 8 May 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what financial resources it is committing to improving air quality and how many civil servants are working on it.

Improving air quality in Scotland is a cross cutting issue. Policy leadership is provided by the Environmental Quality Division, which works closely with other business areas across the Scottish Government, particularly transport, climate change, health, planning and renewable energy, to support work to promote Scotland’s air quality. This reflects that successful promotion of air quality improvements is generally achieved through mainstreaming its inclusion into other policy areas.

The Scottish Government also provides funding support to assist local authorities in undertaking their statutory air quality responsibilities. Currently we operate three specific funding schemes covering air quality monitoring and modelling (a total of £0.5 million available per year), vehicle emissions testing (£0.5 million) and air quality action planning (£1 million).

Other funding initiatives also support air quality improvements, notably low emissions vehicles (£5 million in 2014-15), sustainable active travel (also £5 million in 2014-15) and the Scottish Green Bus Fund which provides funding to encourage the use of and purchase of low carbon emission buses. The Scottish Government provided operators with funding of £2.4 million in the last financial year (2013-14) thereby assisting the purchase of 32 new low carbon emission buses. Ministers will shortly announce further funding of £4.75 million for a further round of funding which could see another 40 or more new low carbon emission buses joining the Scottish fleet.

In the context of non-transport related funding, since 2005 Forestry Commission Scotland, through their Woods In and Around Towns Programme, has invested over £60 million in urban woodlands. This investment has supported the reintroduction of management to over 11,500 hectares of neglected urban woods, created 1,600 hectares of new urban woods, equivalent to the area of all the woodland in the city of Glasgow and delivered an extensive programme of outreach work to encourage people living in urban Scotland to use and enjoy their local woods. This investment complements that of local authorities and partners in woodland investment e.g. in respect of Edinburgh, Lothians and Fife which is specifically targeted at improving air quality in urban areas.

Question reference: S4O-03181

Asked by: Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 April 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 May 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what plans Scottish Water has to promote the use of its assets for the generation of renewable energy.

Question reference: S4O-03111

Asked by: Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 March 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 April 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on applications to the Community Links Programme for cycle infrastructure improvements.

Question reference: S4W-20066

Asked by: Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 March 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 13 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to deliver the Health and Work Service on behalf of the UK Government.

The Scottish Government has agreed in principle with the UK Government that the proposed Health and Work Service will be delivered in Scotland through the NHS. This will take advantage of the reasonably well developed occupational health infrastructure that already exists in NHSScotland.

This will avoid the service being delivered in Scotland for profit through the private sector as is the proposition for the Health and Work Service in England and Wales.