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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-08134

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 27 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding how many public access defibrillators there are in each local authority area, and what action it can take to promote the locations of these, including providing details online.

One aim in the Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA) Strategy for Scotland is “to put in place effective arrangements to ensure that Public Access Defibrillators (PADs) are mapped, maintained and accessible to the public”. The Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) is progressing this work to improve the effectiveness of the use of PADs, including mapping them onto their call handling system so they can rapidly deploy them by directing callers, where appropriate, to a nearby PAD, in the case of an OHCA. A critical element in this is for members of the public, communities, businesses and other partners responsible for PADs to register the details. This can be done through a dedicated section of the SAS website at the following link; http://www.scottishambulance.com/YourCommunity/pad.aspx.

Further information can be found here: OHCA - A Strategy for Scotland; http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0047/00474154.pdf and OHCA - A Strategy for Scotland Review; http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0051/00510496.pdf.

Question reference: S5O-00851

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 March 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what help it provides to nurseries in the North East Scotland region.

Question reference: S5W-07798

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 22 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-06742 by Keith Brown on 28 February 2017, whether it will provide the information that was requested regarding whether the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route (AWPR) contractor is responsible for contractual penalties or liquidated damages in the event of a failure to complete the project on time and, if so, whether sums recovered by the Scottish Government will be reinvested in the local area.

Question reference: S5W-07376

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 14 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to develop new windfarms in the Huntly area.

Question reference: S5O-00768

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 March 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what action is being taken to ensure that social prescribing enables GP practices to refer obese patients and people with type 2 diabetes, and other medical conditions, to third sector support services.

Question reference: S5W-07419

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 8 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what support it offers to voluntary playgroups to assist in recruiting specialised and experienced staff.

Question reference: S5W-07460

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 8 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what support it offers to voluntary playgroups that rely on fundraising or donations.

Question reference: S5W-07420

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 8 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what role voluntary playgroups will play in meeting its commitment to expand the early learning and childcare entitlement to 1,140 hours per year by 2020 and for this to apply to all three- and four-year-olds.

Playgroups are one of a range of settings which support the delivery of the current 600 hours provision and we expect will continue to do so in the expansion to 1140 hours. Local authorities can and do use playgroups as part of delivery of the entitled hours.

It is for local authorities to determine how the entitlement is delivered in their local area, and to agree arrangements with partner providers, including playgroups, if they so choose.

Our consultation on policy options to deliver our vision for early learning and childcare closed on 9th January, with a significant number of responses representing a diverse range of views, which we published on 6 February. We will set out our response in the Spring.

Question reference: S5W-07416

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 8 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-05882 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 19 January 2017, for what reason the SAAS loan bands are no longer based on a parental income sliding scale and what support it gives to families whose income is just above the threshold, resulting in them not being eligible for the higher loan rate to pay for more than one child at college or university.

New household income brackets were introduced as part of the overall simplification of the higher education student support system in 2013-2014.

Simplification made it clear what every student is individually eligible to apply for, according to the income of the household in which they reside. When the new system was introduced, the minimum loan that all students, regardless of their household income, were eligible to claim, was increased from £910 to £4,500.

In addition to the support provided by SAAS through loans, every higher education institution has a discretionary fund that students experiencing financial difficulty can apply to for help with study related costs such as accommodation and travel. These funds are allocated by Scottish Ministers and administered by individual colleges and universities.

The Scottish Government wants to ensure that student funding is fair and equitable, which is why we have enabled an independent review of the further and higher education student support system. The review is chaired by Jayne-Anne Gadhia, CEO of Virgin Money and is scheduled to report to Ministers by autumn 2017.

Question reference: S5W-07417

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 8 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on reports that inexperienced volunteers and parents are permitted to run childcare businesses and that they can be held accountable for the quality of the (a) care and (b) education provided.

The Scottish Government is not aware of reports of inexperienced volunteers and parents being permitted to run childcare businesses. Any concerns regarding the standard of early learning and childcare in Scotland should be raised with the Care Inspectorate.

All care services classed as day care of children (including nurseries, children’s centres, crèches, childminders and playgroups) must be registered with the Care Inspectorate if they provide services for over two hours a day and for six days or more each year. The Care Inspectorate has a statutory responsibility to inspect and regulate all registered providers of day care against the ‘National Care Standards for Early Education and Childcare up to the age of 16’.