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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: S4W-27554

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 7 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-27337 by Michael Matheson on 17 September 2015, in light of the information not yet being made publicly available on its website, whether it will confirm on what dates since 30 May 2015 the First Minister has met the chief constable.

Question reference: S4O-04643

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 September 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what action it plans to improve public transport links in the West Scotland region.

Question reference: S4W-27411

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 23 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the potential impact on (a) business and (b) tourism, what discussions it has had with the (i) rail operators and (ii) Department for Transport regarding reports of overcrowding on trains between Scotland and Manchester Airport and the Department for Transport report that the two most overcrowded services in autumn 2014 were the 0422 Glasgow Central to Manchester Airport and 1600 Manchester Airport to Edinburgh Waverley.

First TransPennine provides rail services between Edinburgh/Glasgow and Manchester airport. The rail franchise, which was awarded by the Department of Transport (DfT) to the First Group in 2004, will be re-let on 1 April 2016. Transport Scotland has been actively involved in the franchise tendering exercise both in assisting DfT in the formulation of the franchise specifications, as they relate to Scotland’s interests, and in discussion with all the franchise bidders on a wide range of service quality issues, including the need to ensure that capacity meets demand.

Question reference: S4W-27337

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 07 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 17 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government on what dates in 2015 the First Minister has met the Chief Constable.

Question reference: S4O-04595

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 16 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what progress is being made with its Dairy Action Plan.

I launched the Dairy Action Plan in March 2015 to take forward the recommendations set out in the earlier dairy review entitled Ambition 2025 which considered ways to achieve sustainable economic growth in the sector. The plan is being implemented through the Dairy Growth Board – ably led by Paul Grant of Mackays Jam.

Work is ongoing to improve the marketing of Scottish dairy produce on international markets – including the launch of a new Scottish dairy brand marque at the Anuga Food Fair in October 2015. Provision of better advice and information to producers has been delivered through the Scottish Dairy Hub – a free online information/advice source. Tailored support is also being provided to First Milk – including support for upgrading of Campbeltown Creamery and assistance with haulage costs for Bute producers.

Question reference: S4W-27114

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 August 2015
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 7 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how much the increased stakeholding of private sector investors in Scotland’s Schools for the Future Programme will cost.

Question reference: S4W-27115

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 August 2015
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 7 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether the agreed timescale for the design, build, finance and maintenance of St Fergus’ Primary School in Ferguslie Park, Paisley, will be honoured by the Scottish Futures Trust.

Question reference: S4O-04557

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 September 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government when the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Constitution and Economy last met the Scottish Futures Trust and what issues were discussed.

Question reference: S4W-27116

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 August 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 1 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that agreed school or other infrastructure projects are not delayed because of an increased involvement of the private sector in their funding.

Question reference: S4W-26047

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 June 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 14 July 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has received a report from the support team that was introduced to help reduce accident and emergency waiting times at the Royal Alexandra Hospital and, if so, whether it will publish this.

The Improvement Support team findings and recommendations was reported to the Scottish Government in March 2015. The support team made a number of recommendations to encourage improved performance, including:

Dedicated director with lead responsibility for all services and targets within the hospital

Enhanced hospital planning and patient safety meetings to enable whole hospital focus on action and faster decision making

Enhanced use of discharge lounge and criteria led discharge

Establish discharge hub

The hospital has actively progressed a number of actions, including:

Hospital planning and safety meetings have been introduced, including weekends

Discharge plans have been reviewed, re-energised and rolled out

Patient flow hub now in place and supported by a multi-disciplinary team

Discharge lounge is promoted as part of the hospital planning and safety meetings, usage continues to increase

The local team continue to implement actions and the new six essential actions approach to improving unscheduled care, which was launched in May 2015, will compliment this work and will support sustainable improvements.

The most recent published data for the week ending 5 July 2015 shows that the Royal Alexandria hospital seen, treated and discharged or admitted 94.1% of all its patients within four hours. This is an improvement of over 19 percentage points since weekly reporting began in February 2015 - long waits over eight hours have also significantly reduced by over 94%. This reflects the hard work of all staff in the hospital, who should be congratulated for their efforts.

A full report will be published shortly.