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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-10298

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 October 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 8 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what action it takes to discourage mothers from drinking alcohol during pregnancy.

The Chief Medical Officer for Scotland's advice is that alcohol should be avoided when pregnant or contemplating pregnancy as there is no known safe time, type or amount of alcohol during pregnancy.

This advice is incorporated into all relevant Scottish Government and Health Scotland publications and is included in Ready Steady Baby, a publication given to all expectant mothers.

In addition, the Scottish Woman-Held Maternity Record (SWHMR) includes a mandatory question on alcohol use, which midwives ask as part of the routine first midwifery or ‘booking’ assessment.

Through funding provided to the Alcohol and Drug Partnerships, work has been undertaken in maternity services to embed alcohol brief interventions (ABI) as part of routine clinical care at booking for those pregnant women who have been screened as requiring advice and support on stopping alcohol consumption during pregnancy. For women whose alcohol use during pregnancy is deemed as unsuitable for an ABI, care pathways into treatment services and additional support are available.

Question reference: S4T-00097

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 November 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what support will be provided to staff at the Freshlink factory in Shettleston, who have been told that the factory is closing and moving its business to England.

Question reference: S4W-10111

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 October 2012
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 30 October 2012

To ask the Scottish Government whether it considers that there should be a limit to the height of trees in urban settings.

Question reference: S4W-09696

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 September 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 24 September 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what the average (a) male and (b) female life expectancy in the Glasgow Shettleston constituency has been in each year since 2000.

Life expectancy estimates by Scottish Parliamentary Constituency were first published by National Records of Scotland (NRS) on 2 October 2009 for the period 2005-07. These estimates have been updated annually to coincide with NRS publications on life expectancy. The figures quoted are a three-year average, produced by aggregating data zone population estimates and number of deaths registered over a three year period. Aggregation is necessary to provide numbers which are large enough to ensure that the life expectancy estimates are sufficiently robust.

Glasgow Shettleston Scottish Parliamentary Constituency

Period	Male life expectancy at birth (years)	Female life expectancy at birth (years)
2005-07	67.2	76.4
2006-08	67.2	76.0
2007-09	68.2	76.5
2008-10	71.3	78.2

Question reference: S4W-09330

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 31 August 2012
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 13 September 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how many convictions have been secured using the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act 2012.

Question reference: S4W-09188

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 August 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 6 September 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what the Student Awards Agency for Scotland’s target is for answering incoming calls.

SAAS has no set target for dealing with incoming calls. At peak times, it is for the operational management of SAAS to balance processing applications with customer contact.

The primary customer service commitment is to meet, annually, the SAAS Guarantee Date. The Guarantee Date, usually 30 June each year, is not a deadline but SAAS aim to process all applications received by the Guarantee Date in time for the start of the student’s course.

This year SAAS received 105,405 applications by the Guarantee Date. All these applications have now been processed.

Question reference: S4W-09184

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 August 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 6 September 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what the average number of monthly calls is for the Student Awards Agency for Scotland.

Since SAAS opened for applications for the 2012-13 academic year on 4 April 2012 until the end August 2012, the total number of attempted calls is 255,235. The number of calls per month varies significantly however this gives an average of just over 51,047 calls per month. It is not possible to isolate how many of these calls are repeated attempts to contact SAAS.

The monthly breakdown of calls attempted is:

Number of Attempted Calls to SAAS Contact Centre

Month
April	20,112
May	29,645
June	64,175
July	37,425
August	103,878
Total (to date)	255,235

Question reference: S4W-09186

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 August 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 6 September 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what contingency action the Student Awards Agency for Scotland takes in case of an increased volume in the number of calls it receives prior to the start of an academic year.

The peak processing session for SAAS is from April to October. During this time SAAS employs additional temporary staff in its dedicated Contact Centre as well as elsewhere across the agency, including student placements.

In recent years the guarantee date has been introduced to incentivise early applications.

SAAS have also invested in technology to ensure students can complete routine tasks online. There is extensive information on the SAAS website and through social media to assist students in completing applications and to answer the most common queries.

Question reference: S4W-09185

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 August 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 6 September 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how many staff are employed by the Student Awards Agency for Scotland to answer incoming calls.

As a frontline delivery agency, all staff at SAAS have some level of customer contact including telephone contact. However the majority of calls are routed through the dedicated contact centre.

The total number of staff currently employed in the contact centre is 25 to 16 permanent staff, plus nine temporary workers recruited to assist the peak call period.

In addition, SAAS have two managers who manage the contact centre and also deal with the more complex or demanding calls.

Question reference: S4W-09187

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 August 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 6 September 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what the Student Awards Agency for Scotland’s average call handling time is.