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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-23084

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 10 November 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 26 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what support it can provide to people who do not receive the full state pension because of the impact of divorce or separation on their contributions.

This is a reserved matter under the terms of the Scotland Act 1998. As such, the Scottish Government is currently unable to provide benefits to top up a partial state pension. Pension credit is available for pensioners on a low income.

However, the Scottish Government does support pensioners in a range of ways within its devolved competencies. We are protecting household resources through free personal care for the elderly, the scrapping of prescription charges, free eye examinations, as well as concessionary bus passes and much more.

Question reference: S4O-03755

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 November 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it is making with the integration of health and social care.

Question reference: S4O-03715

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 November 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 19 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met NHS Grampian.

Question reference: S4W-22912

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 18 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government to ensure that customers in the north and north east of Scotland are not charged disproportionately higher amounts for their energy than customers elsewhere.

A number of underlying factors influence regional price variations including the different transmission and distribution costs associated with delivering electricity in remote areas. Network related costs make up around 23 per cent of the average electricity bill in the UK and are regulated by Ofgem. The costs associated with the distribution of electricity in the north Scotland region are expected to fall by £27 per domestic customer in 2015-16. It is up to individual electricity suppliers to set the tariffs they offer to consumers, incorporating these regulated network costs.

I have recently met the Chief Executive of Ofgem to discuss this matter and welcomed his commitment to investigate fully and report back to the Westminster Energy and Climate Change Select Committee. The Scottish Government has also had discussions with the Department for Energy and Climate Change to understand how it plans to investigate this issue and to ensure that officials work together to reach an acceptable outcome.

Question reference: S4W-22910

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 18 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the findings of the report by the Western Isles Poverty Action Group that customers in the north and north east of Scotland are being charged higher rates for their electricity and what action it will take to address these.

The Scottish Government is aware that customers in the Highlands and Islands face some of the highest electricity prices in the country. This is due to a combination of factors including higher costs associated with delivering electricity in remote areas.

The power and responsibility for energy policy in respect of consumer protection rests not with the Scottish Parliament but Westminster. They and Ofgem have the duty to provide protection to the consumer. They have not discharged that duty well. We are doing all we can with the powers we currently have to address this issue, providing £79 million funding this year for our home energy efficiency programme that will help people manage their fuel bills better and give them warmer homes.

We engage regularly with energy companies on a range of issues and consumer energy bills are frequently discussed. We are aware that Scottish and Southern Energy has publicly called for a system of national pricing to remove the regional variation in fuel bills.

The Scottish Government has long argued for greater fairness in the way network charges are applied. While we recognise the measures already in place to reduce the burden of higher network costs in the north of Scotland (the Hydro Benefit Replacement Scheme) and the potential balance of winners and losers of a national pricing regime, we are keen to explore the proposal further.

We have set our proposals for further devolution in More Powers for the Scottish Parliament which includes having control over the full scope of regulation relating to energy efficiency and which would enable us to tailor policies to the specific needs of Scottish households, particularly to tackle fuel poverty in remote and rural areas.

Question reference: S4T-00823

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 10 November 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to introduce legislation to ban circuses from using wild animals.

Question reference: S4W-22640

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 29 October 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many people aged 16 to 21 in Scotland claim housing benefit.

Question reference: S4W-22638

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 28 October 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many people aged 18 to 21 claim jobseekers allowance in Scotland, the amount claimed and the average award.

The information requested for the 18 to 21-year-old age group is not held centrally. From the information published by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), the closest age group is for those aged 18-24.

Based on the DWP Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study, in February 2014 there were 28,200 18 to 24-year-olds claiming jobseekers allowance in Scotland. The average weekly amount of benefit received by persons in this group was £58.29.

DWP only publish data for average weekly amount of benefit – no separate information is published for amount claimed and average award.

Question reference: S4W-22639

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 28 October 2014

The Annual Population Survey provides the preferred measure for detailed labour market information for subsets of the population in Scotland. The latest data covers the period July 2013 to June 2014.

‘Out of work’ has been categorised as those who are ‘unemployed’ according to the internationally agreed definition of unemployment by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The ILO definition of unemployment covers people who are:

Without a job, want a job, have actively sought work in the last four weeks and are available to start work in the next two weeks; or

Out of work, have found a job and are waiting to start it in the next two weeks.

The following table provides information for the number of people aged 16 to 21 who were unemployed for six months or more for July 2011-June 2012 to July 2013-June 2014.

Number of People aged 16 to 21 who were Unemployed for 6 months or more

Time Period	Unemployed for 6 months or more
July 2011 to June 2012	23,600
July 2012 to June 2013	22,400
July 2013 to June 2014	21,400

Source: Annual Population Survey, Office for National Statistics

Notes:

1. Levels based on population aged 16-21.

2. Levels rounded to nearest hundred.

Question reference: S4W-22633

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 September 2014
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 October 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what action it can take to ensure that local authorities use the electoral roll for electoral purposes only.

The Scottish Government believes tighter restrictions should be placed on the use of the electoral registers, including on the sale of the registers to private debt collectors.

The Minister for Local Government and Planning wrote to the UK Government on
6 October 2014 to call again for the transfer of remaining responsibilities in relation to elections in Scotland (including the electoral registers) to the Scottish Parliament.

Among other things, this would allow Parliament to consider the purpose of the registers and who should have access to them, and allow the Scottish Government to bring forward legislation to prevent the sale of the registers to private debt collectors.