Chamber and committees

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

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 566 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S2O-10091

Asked by: Lord James Douglas-Hamilton, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2006
Current Status: Answered by George Lyon on 8 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide an update on the Edinburgh Airport Rail Link.

The EARL Bill has now come throughthe objection period. Forty-seven objections were received including an objectionin detail from BAA. Transport Initiatives Edinburgh (TIE Ltd) the promoters of theBill are now considering their response to the objections

Negotiations with BAA are underwayto secure a contribution to the scheme. Transport Scotland, NetworkRail and Tie Ltd recently met together to discuss progress on the project.

A Design and Technical consultancycontract has recently been let and will shortly begin on the next phase of design.

Question reference: S2W-23812

Asked by: Lord James Douglas-Hamilton, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by George Reid on 15 May 2006

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether consideration will be given to instituting legal proceedings in respect of any defective work in relation to the construction of the debating chamber roof, in light of the incident on 2 March 2006 when a support beam came loose from its mounting in the chamber.

Question reference: S2W-23813

Asked by: Lord James Douglas-Hamilton, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by George Reid on 15 May 2006

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what the implications are for the structure of the Parliament of the incident on 2 March 2006 when a support beam came loose from its mounting in the debating chamber.

Question reference: S2W-23815

Asked by: Lord James Douglas-Hamilton, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by George Reid on 15 May 2006

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether it will be established as soon as possible what the reason or reasons were for one support beam coming loose from its mountings in the debating chamber on 2 March 2006 and what future checks will be required to establish the safety of the roof for anyone entering the chamber.

Question reference: S2W-23810

Asked by: Lord James Douglas-Hamilton, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by George Reid on 15 May 2006

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body which contractor was responsible for the installation of support beams above the debating chamber.

Question reference: S2W-23814

Asked by: Lord James Douglas-Hamilton, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by George Reid on 15 May 2006

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether MSPs will be kept closely informed of the progress of any remedial work to be carried out in the Parliament and the speed with which it will be concluded.

Question reference: S2W-23811

Asked by: Lord James Douglas-Hamilton, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by George Reid on 15 May 2006

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body who was responsible for checking the effectiveness of the installation of support beams above the debating chamber.

Question reference: S2W-24546

Asked by: Lord James Douglas-Hamilton, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 20 April 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is intended that biometric data will be recorded in the candidate number database and, if not, what alternative methods will be implemented to prevent records being confused or identities being stolen from the proposed candidate number database system.

It is not intended thatbiometric data (such as finger print details, iris scanning) will be recorded. Theonly change to a school’s management and information system database is theaddition of the allocated Scottish Candidate Number (SCN). The new arrangementinvolves no change to ScottishQualifications Authority’s (SQA)candidate database since there are no requirements to submit candidate data toSQA until the point the candidate is sitting an SQA examination. The allocationof SCNs will be monitored on an annual basis, initially by Education Departmentthrough the annual pupil census, to maintain the identifier’s uniqueness.

Question reference: S2W-24549

Asked by: Lord James Douglas-Hamilton, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 20 April 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what the projected (a) set-up and (b) annual running costs will be of the proposed candidate number database system and what the timescale is for effective implementation of the system.

Question reference: S2W-24548

Asked by: Lord James Douglas-Hamilton, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 20 April 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how parents’ rights will be protected by keeping Scottish candidate numbers secret from them and how parents will be able to gain access to the data stored on their children.

There is no intention tokeep the allocated Scottish Candidate Numbers (SCNs) secret from pupils andparents. This issue has clearly been wrongly reported in some places. Schools arerequired under the terms of the Data Protection Act (DPA) to regularly requestdata subjects and their parents/carers to check the data held about them.

The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) does not collect data directly from candidatesor parents, so in order to comply with the requirements of the DPA to issue a“fair collection notice”, SQA’s Operational Guide issued to all centres hasdetails of the SQA’s DP Notifications as well as guidance to centres oninforming candidates that their information is passed to SQA, and the use SQAmake of it. Additionally, the guide includes a statement as to the right ofsubject access and contains a copy of SQA’s DPA Subject Access Request Form.