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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: S4O-03386

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Cowdenbeath, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 June 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 19 June 2014

To ask the Scottish Government at what percentage of staffed bed capacity the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy is operating.

The Scottish Government does not routinely collect bed occupancy information at hospital level.

The occupancy of acute beds across the whole of NHS Fife in the quarter ending December 2013 was 85.1%, a reduction of 4.4 percentage points compared to the same quarter in the previous year

However, NHS Fife has informed us that during the six month period from 1 December 2013 to 31 May 2014, their data on acute bed availability and occupancy at the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy was as follows:

Available bed days – 95,545

Occupied bed days – 84,338

Rate of occupancy – 88.3%

Question reference: S4O-03404

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Cowdenbeath, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 June 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 June 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to address the estimated backlog of over £72 million for necessary school maintenance costs in Fife.

Question reference: S4W-21122

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Cowdenbeath, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 May 2014
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 27 May 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what its initial position was regarding concessionary travel access to the Edinburgh trams project for people living outwith the City of Edinburgh Council area and for what reason tram travel will no longer be covered by the national concessionary travel scheme for all travellers in Scotland.

In agreeing to provide substantial funding for the introduction of the Edinburgh trams project in 2007, the Scottish Government made clear that no further subsidy would be provided once the network was commissioned and that it was making no commitment at that time to include tram travel within the national concessionary travel scheme. This is consistent with the approach to other non-bus schemes such as the Glasgow Subway and Scottish rail travel.

The Scottish Government, through the national concessionary travel scheme funds Scotland-wide free bus travel for older and eligible disabled people. The scheme is based around free bus travel as it is the most widely available mode of transport in Scotland. Local authorities can if they wish, offer their resident cardholders concessionary transport schemes for modes other than bus. Any local authority that chooses to operate local concessionary transport schemes is responsible for the administration and funding of these schemes.

Question reference: S4O-03270

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Cowdenbeath, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 May 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 May 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether it considers that the future growth of the economy lies in a highly skilled workforce and what steps it will take to attract businesses to Scotland that require a highly skilled workforce.

Question reference: S4W-20752

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Cowdenbeath, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 April 2014
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 12 May 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the maintenance needs of the school estate in each local authority area, also broken down by the number of schools where the need for repairs has been categorised as (a) urgent, (b) essential and (c) desirable.

Question reference: S4W-20124

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Cowdenbeath, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 March 2014
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 21 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the number of students attending colleges with no prior qualifications has decreased since 2007-08.

Question reference: S4O-03038

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Cowdenbeath, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how it will meet its targets for literacy and numeracy in Fife schools.

Question reference: S4O-02901

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Cowdenbeath, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 February 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 February 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether it considers that schools will be in a position to implement the new higher examinations through the curriculum for excellence in 2014-15.