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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: S5O-00536

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 11 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how it encourages access to art, drama and music by all children, irrespective of background.

Through the Youth Music Initiative, Cashback for Creativity programme and Sistema Scotland we are ensuring that no young person’s background is a barrier to taking part in the arts.

Creative Scotland continue to work with a range of partners to ensure young people have the opportunity to engage in cultural activity. Scotland's five National Performing Companies too are committed to creating and performing their work across the whole of Scotland and make a significant contribution to cultural life both in Scotland and internationally. Their performances and outreach programmes continue to be of the highest quality with the Theatre for Schools Scotland initiative, which I helped launch in June, aiming to ensure every child in Scotland receives a minimum of one performing arts production, per year, as part of their education.

Question reference: S5F-00718

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 January 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 January 2017

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to the recent BBC report suggesting that 90% of performance athletes supported by sportscotland come from a middle class background.

Question reference: S5W-05451

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 21 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the proposal by the StepChange Debt Charity and others to extend the Debt Arrangement Scheme to help people who have undergone an income shock.

I recognise the extreme difficulty and distress that an income shock can cause individuals and their families. The Scottish Government has fought to provide a supportive framework to help individuals to address their indebtedness and reassure a positive path in terms of their personal finances.

Scotland has lead the way in implementing a moratorium, being the only part of the UK which has a moratorium in place at this time. The current 6 week moratorium period was extended to cover all our statutory debt management and debt relief products as part of the Bankruptcy and Debt Advice (Scotland) Act 2014, and will be reviewed when we look at the impact of all the changes introduced in that legislation during the coming year.

The Scottish Government, through Accountant in Bankruptcy (AiB), is currently carrying out a policy review of DAS legislation. This includes analysing the effectiveness of payment breaks which provide flexibility to those who suffer a short term income shock while they are in a DAS Debt Payment Programme. A consultation was carried out as part of this review and will help to inform our future policy. AiB is currently finalising its response to this consultation.

Question reference: S5W-05454

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 20 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Review of Scottish Public Sector Procurement in Construction, which was published on 22 October 2013, (a) what the timeline is for completion of the review's recommendations, (b) how any payment schemes will be policed and reported on and (c) how much retention money in total is being held by public authorities and, of this total, how much in sterling is over 12 months old.

In answer to the three parts of the question:

(a) Implementation of the majority of recommendations is expected to be completed by mid-2017.

(b) The Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 requires that Contracting Authorities prepare a procurement strategy. Within this, they must set out how they intend to ensure the following payments are made, no later than 30 days after the invoice (or similar claim), relating to the payment is presented:

(i) Payments due by the authority to a contractor,

(ii) Payments due by a contractor to a sub-contractor,

(iii) Payments due by a sub-contractor to a sub-contractor,

Contracting Authorities are required, under Section 18 of the Act, to prepare an annual procurement report on their regulated procurement activities, which must include a review of whether those procurements complied with the authority's procurement strategy. If any regulated procurements did not comply, the authority must produce a statement of how they will ensure that future regulated procurements will comply.

(c) Information regarding how much retention money is being by held public authorities is not held centrally and could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.

Question reference: S5W-05453

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 20 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Review of Scottish Public Sector Procurement in Construction, which was published on 22 October 2013, what it can do to assist SMEs with retention payments, and whether the model used under the Tenancy Deposit Schemes (Scotland) Regulations 2011 can be used as an alternative to cash retentions.

As part of the implementation of the recommendations of the Review of Scottish Public Sector Procurement in Construction, we are developing guidance for contracting authorities. This will help them make the right decisions regarding the appropriate use of project assurance, including retention and the alternatives to it. We will review the feasibility of a scheme similar to the model used for Tenancy Deposit Schemes.

The baseline position of the guidance will be that, whatever project assurance tool is used, it must be appropriate, proportionate and not overly onerous for contractors and their supply chain. This guidance will be published in the Scottish Construction Procurement Manual.

Question reference: S5W-05455

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 20 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Review of Scottish Public Sector Procurement in Construction, which was published on 22 October 2013, and the issue of payments, how it will ensure that the whole supply chain is paid within 30 days.

Question reference: S5W-05452

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 19 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether the minimum suggested level of physical education each week in primary and secondary schools is two hours or two periods.

Question reference: S5W-05244

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 16 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5T-00215 by Shona Robison on 22 November 2016 (Official Report, c. 6), whether it considers that Healthcare Improvement Scotland has the required skills and expertise to ensure the credibility and competency of the inquiry, and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.

I refer to the answer given to S5W-05242 on 16 December 2016. HIS has a cohort of 53 clinical advisers who support and advise on its work, and for each review will co-opt individuals to provide clinical and other expertise and advise to support each particular piece of work.

Dr Tracey Johnston, Consultant Obstetrician, Birmingham Women’s Hospital, NHS Foundation Trust has been appointed as the chair of the NHS Ayrshire and Annan Review group.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at:http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

Question reference: S5W-05245

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 16 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5T-00215 by Shona Robison on 22 November 2016 (Official Report, c. 6), what the timescale of the inquiry is; what its (a) parameters, (b) objectives and (c) scope will be, and whether the families affected by the issue will be consulted from the outset.

The terms of reference for the review are now published on the Healthcare Improvement Scotland website: http://www.healthcareimprovementscotland.org/our_work/governance_and_assurance/programme_resources/ayrshire_maternity_unit_review.aspx and it is expected that it will be completed within 3-6 months.

Any family affected will have the opportunity to speak with the HIS review team and some have already made contact.

Question reference: S5W-05242

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 16 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on establishing an independent investigations body, similar to the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch in NHS England and Wales, to examine incidents in the NHS.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland is responsible for scrutinising healthcare providers in Scotland to provide public assurance about the quality and safety of the care being delivered and for supporting those organisations to deliver high quality, evidence based, safe, effective and person-centred care. The Scottish Government does not consider there is a need to change these arrangements at this time.

In collaboration with NHS boards, HIS has led on the development of the national approach to learning from adverse events and is driving implementation through an improvement support programme. However, individual care providers are responsible and accountable for effectively managing adverse events. All organisations should have a management system for reporting, reviewing and learning from all types of adverse events. This includes clinical events involving patients, families, staff and carers (including health and safety, accidents or incidents) and non-clinical events (including information governance, health and safety at work and finance). This is a developing process and is under constant review.

The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) was established by the UK Government to investigate the most serious risks to patient safety across the NHS in England. HSIB is part of NHS Improvement and has a similar status and, when fully operational, will carry out a similar role to the investigations and inspections undertaken by Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS).