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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.

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Question reference: S4W-30019

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Cowdenbeath, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 22 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 3 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on current consultant vacancies in NHS Fife and whether the board is having difficulties recruiting in specific clinical areas.

NHS Fife continues to proactively recruit to available consultant posts, with a targeted media campaign resulting in the successful appointment of a number of permanent consultants.

Under this government, the number of consultants in NHS Fife has increased by 74.4 whole time equivalent (WTE), or 44.2 per cent between September 2010 and December 2015, while the establishment has increased by over 50 WTE during this period.

Any fluctuation in consultant vacancies is linked to our efforts to increase capacity by recruiting even more staff. Information on consultant vacancies in NHS Fife is published by Information Services Division (ISD) Scotland and is shown in Table 1:

Table 1. Whole time equivalent of NHS Fife consultant vacancies, staff in post and vacancies as a percentage of establishment as at 31 December 2015.

	Vacancies	Staff in Post	Vacancies as a % of establishment
December 2015	34.0	240.6	12.4%

Sources: Scottish Workforce Information Standard System, ISD(M)36.

Notes:

1. In March 2014 the definition of a vacancy changed to: A vacancy is a post which has been cleared for advert after being through the redeployment process (internal or external advert) and remains a vacancy until an individual starts in the post. Prior to this, a vacancy stopped being classified as such at the point when the post was offered to someone and accepted. The impact of this change is a significant increase in the number of reported vacancies.

2. Establishment is calculated as number of staff in post plus total vacancies.

Question reference: S4W-29352

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Cowdenbeath, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 18 January 2016
Current Status: Answered by Annabelle Ewing on 26 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding how the apprenticeship levy scheme that was announced in the 2015 Autumn Statement will apply to Scotland.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer announced the rate and scope of the UK apprenticeship levy that will be implemented from April 2017. The rate for the levy will be set at 0.5% of an employer’s pay-bill. All employers will receive an allowance of £15,000 meaning that the levy will only be payable on pay-bill in excess of £3,000,000 per annum. It includes all employers in private, public and third sectors and will be collected via PAYE.

As greater clarity emerges from the UK Government on Scotland’s share of the levy, we will work with employers and other stakeholders to explore how the introduction of the levy will align with Scotland’s successful apprenticeship programme.

Question reference: S4W-27980

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Cowdenbeath, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 09 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 27 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many meetings it has had with the communications firm, Charlotte Street Partners, in each of the last five years, broken down by meetings organised by (a) it and (b) the firm, and how many were attended by (i) the First Minister, (ii) other ministers and (iii) officials.

Question reference: S4W-27983

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Cowdenbeath, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 09 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 15 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many contracts it has awarded to organisations (a) represented by and (b) with an established link to the communications firm, Charlotte Street Partners, in each year since 2007, also broken down by the name of the organisation and the (i) duration and (ii) value of each contract.

Question reference: S4W-27982

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Cowdenbeath, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 09 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 15 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many contracts it has awarded to the communications firm, Charlotte Street Partners, in each year since 2007, also broken down the (a) duration and (b) value of each contract.

Question reference: S4O-04444

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Cowdenbeath, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 June 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 June 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many unfilled consultant posts there are in NHS Fife.

Question reference: S4O-04406

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Cowdenbeath, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 May 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 June 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it considers that there is an adequate joined-up approach to tackling antisocial behaviour.

Question reference: S4O-04299

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Cowdenbeath, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 April 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many complaints Police Scotland has received from Fife residents regarding police response and call-out times since services were moved from the Fife control centre to Bilston Glen.

Question reference: S4O-04227

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Cowdenbeath, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 April 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government who is responsible for ensuring the water quality in relation to new building developments.

Question reference: S4W-24567

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Cowdenbeath, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 23 February 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 5 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many new jobs will be needed by (a) 2020 and (b) 2025 to meet the changing demographics of the labour force.

The Scottish Government does not produce forecasts of jobs or the changing demographics of the labour market. The Office for National Statistics principal population projections (2012) are for the Scottish working age population to increase by 162,000 in the eight year period from 2012 to 2020 and an increase by 150,000 in the thirteen year period from 2012 to 2025. To put these projections into context, the number of people in employment in Scotland has increased by 114,000 in the four year period from October to December 2010 to October to December 2014. The impact of a rising working age population on the labour market will depend on a number of factors including the proportion of people of working age in work or seeking work and the labour market participation rates of those above state pension age.