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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-27362

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 07 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 17 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many home buyers have been victims of fraudulent disposition in each year since 1999.

The Scottish Government answered a similar question S4W-22567 on 2 October 2014.

We do not hold the information requested. However, there is published statistical information on criminal proceedings in Scotland:

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/PubCriminalProceedings

I will write to the member with more details of statistical information on criminal offences relating to fraud.

Registers of Scotland are responsible for the registering of dispositions. However, Registers of Scotland would only know if a fraudulent deed had been registered if the fraud comes to light.

Some deeds are registered in the Land Register and others in the Register of Sasines (though the Register of Sasines is being closed and all dispositions must now be registered in the Land Register).

In the Land Register, a party affected by fraud can apply for rectification of the register. However, the Keeper of the Registers does not catalogue the applications for rectifications in such a way as to allow her to identify the number of rectifications sought as a consequence of fraud.

In the Register of Sasines, a fraudulent deed can be reduced by a decree of reduction granted by the courts. These decrees may be recorded in the Sasines but that is not obligatory. A search of the Sasines to examine decrees of reduction granted by the courts following the recording of a fraudulent deed would be time-consuming. In any event, any such search would not give a definitive answer given that some fraud may be undetected and, in other cases, the decree of reduction may not have been recorded.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

Question reference: S4O-04565

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 9 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what recent meetings and communications it has had with the UK Government regarding the oil and gas industry.

Question reference: S4O-04528

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 August 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how much it is spending in 2015-16 to mitigate the UK Government’s social security reforms.

Question reference: S4W-26545

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 July 2015
Current Status: Answered by Aileen McLeod on 5 August 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether any local authorities use management rules under the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 to discourage the feeding of gulls on public land.

Question reference: S4W-26544

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 July 2015
Current Status: Answered by Aileen McLeod on 5 August 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what data it holds on the control of urban gull populations across Scotland.

Question reference: S4W-26546

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 July 2015
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 30 July 2015

To ask the Scottish Government which local authorities issue planning guidance on gullproofing, and whether the effectiveness is monitored.

Question reference: S4W-26321

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 June 2015
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 28 July 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many local authority (a) teaching and (b) other staff are non-EU citizens and how many earn under £35,000 per year.

Question reference: S4W-26323

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 June 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 23 July 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many of (a) its and (b) its agencies' staff are non-EU citizens and how many earn under £35,000 per year.

Under the Civil Service Nationality Rules, only nationals from the following countries are eligible to be employed by the Scottish Government:

Republic of Ireland

Commonwealth and Dependent Territories

European Economic Area

Switzerland

Turkey - only eligible if they have been lawfully employed in the UK for four years in any job, or three years in a job within the same occupation as they post which they wish to take up within the civil service.

Pre-employment checks confirm compliance with these rules. Historically this information has not been routinely transferred to our electronic HR system. This is being addressed and at present we have the following noted on our system:

At 31 May 2015 there were 14 directly employed staff in core Scottish Government directorates with a recorded nationality of non-EU. Of those, 13 have an annual full time equivalent basic salary of under £35,000.

At 31 May 2015 there were 10 directly employed staff in Scottish Government agencies with a recorded nationality of non-EU. Of those, nine have an annual full time equivalent basic salary of under £35,000.

Question reference: S4W-26319

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 June 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 13 July 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many NHS (a) nursing and (b) other staff are non-EU citizens and how many earn under £35,000 per year.

Question reference: S4W-25747

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2015
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 9 June 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has cost (a) Police Scotland and (b) the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service to deal with the recent incidents of fire raising and vandalism that have taken place at Broadford Works, Aberdeen.