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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: S5O-00090

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 30 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the industrial action at ScotRail.

RMT industrial action commenced on Tuesday 21 June 2016, the first of seven planned strikes involving ScotRail conductors over the extension of Driver Controlled Operation when new electric trains are introduced on the Edinburgh – Glasgow route.

Safety is paramount and, as such, the Scottish Government's priority will always be to ensure the safety and efficient running of our railways. I have chaired five meetings of the government's Resilience Committee on this issue and have a further such meeting tomorrow.

Following further strikes on Thursday 23 June, Saturday 25 June and Sunday 26 June the remaining dates are Sundays 3, 10 and 17 July with additional action short of strike action on a number of dates through June and July.

ScotRail’s plans have been successful in easing the impact of the industrial action with around 70% of services operating, and this is anticipated to increase on future strike days.

A multi-agency response team has and will continue to operate on each of the strike dates when all modes of transport have continued to perform well. It monitors the situation throughout the day to help ensure the public has the latest information and agencies are equipped to respond to any major incidents, aiming to help to mitigate the impact on planned major events in July.

Question reference: S4O-05704

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 March 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to strengthening community councils.

Question reference: S4O-05666

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 March 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that its policy on children's attainment takes account of the impact of poverty.

Question reference: S4O-05590

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 February 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has made of the economic impact in Scotland of the recent flotation of the Clydesdale Bank.

Question reference: S4O-05550

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 11 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has made of the potential economic impact on Scotland of the Clydesdale Bank being floated on the stock market.

Question reference: S4O-05521

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 January 2016
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 3 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what its policy is on unpaid internships that last longer than one month.

We believe that fair work is crucial to delivering inclusive growth. The Scottish Government only offers support to external graduate placement programmes that offer good quality, paid internships. All interns on these programmes are paid at least the Scottish living wage for the work they do and these programmes are currently operating on a conversion rate of between 75 and 80 per cent of placements leading to permanent employment.

Question reference: S4F-03177

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 January 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 January 2016

To ask the First Minister what discussions the Scottish Government has had with the UK Government regarding the possible reintroduction of the post-study work visa.

Question reference: S4O-05290

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 January 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had regarding the homeless hostel, the Bellgrove Hotel.

Question reference: S4O-05198

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 December 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 December 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it considers that the three Glasgow colleges each receive a fair share of the region’s resources.

Question reference: S4O-04896

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 November 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 December 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with First Group concerning its proposed closure of the Parkhead bus depot and the potential for redundancies or job transfers.