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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: S5W-14412

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 05 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Annabelle Ewing on 21 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how it expects the number of (a) firefighters, (b) fire stations and (c) fire appliances to change as a result of the transformation plan for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, and when it was informed of these changes.

The number of firefighters, fire stations and fire appliances are operational matters for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS). SFRS is currently considering how it should deliver safe and planned changes to the services it delivers in light of changing circumstances, technology and risks facing communities in Scotland. SFRS launched a consultation on its service transformation proposals on 13 February 2018.

Until the consultation is closed and assessed, no decisions have been taken on the number of firefighters, fire stations and fire appliances.

Question reference: S5W-14415

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 05 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Annabelle Ewing on 21 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government when it indicated to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service that it would provide the increase in budget to facilitate the transformation plan.

Question reference: S5W-14182

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 12 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports that EMIS, which provides electronic GP records products, has failed to meet standards across three categories in its service-level agreement with NHS Digital in England, what assessment it has made of whether this will impact on any services that the company provides to the NHS in Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-14123

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 26 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 1 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide details of all meetings between ministers and members or former members of the Scottish Police Authority Board since 2015, including whether there was a minute taken of the meeting.

Question reference: S5T-00900

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 29 January 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the reported allegations of “government interference” in the independence of the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner.

Question reference: S5W-13862

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 15 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 26 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the effectiveness of the relationship between the Scottish Police Authority and ministers and officials, and whether it plans to review this relationship.

Question reference: S5W-13864

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 15 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 26 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of what (a) meetings and (a) phone calls there have been between ministers and members of the board of the Scottish Police Authority, and which of these were minuted.

Question reference: S5W-13863

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 15 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Annabelle Ewing on 24 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports that lawyers from the Edinburgh Bar Association have unanimously voted to resign from the police station duty scheme and that the Glasgow Bar Association is due to vote on this, what action it plans to address the reported concerns regarding the workload issues that are associated with the scheme.

The Scottish Government supports the increased rights to legal advice in police stations that the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2016 provides, as did the Scottish Parliament in passing the Act.

When part 1 of the Act commences on 25 January 2018 the Scottish Legal Aid Board have arrangements in place to ensure that all those entitled to access to solicitor advise while in police custody will receive it.

Question reference: S5W-13798

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Annabelle Ewing on 24 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason there is a gap in the publication of statistics for racist incidents recorded by the Police Scotland, and when they will next be published.

In the latest publication of racist incidents recorded by the police in Scotland, we outlined for users our plan to scope out the possibility of replacing this bulletin with a new and broader product on police recorded hate crime. This would include information on other strands of hate crime recorded by the police, in addition to retaining data on hate incidents with a race element. Scottish Government statisticians have been working with Police Scotland as it develops the data it holds on its existing systems, and we anticipate an update early this year on the outcome of this work and plans for a new publication. This will be circulated to users through the Scotstat network (http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/scotstat)

Question reference: S5W-13799

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 23 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason there is a gap in the publication of prison statistics and population projections, and when they will next be published.

Scottish Government prison population data from 2014-15 onwards have been affected by a technical issue with the underlying dataset which limits the range of data that can currently be provided. Potential solutions are under investigation and in the interim, although not published in the form of National Statistics, data is being extracted directly from the Scottish Prison Service's management information systems. Up-to-date weekly and yearly data on the population in custody broken down by type of custody, gender and age can be found at: http://www.sps.gov.uk/Corporate/Information/SPSPopulation.aspx.