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.

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Question reference: S4W-20558

Asked by: Fiona McLeod, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 April 2014
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 28 April 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Town Centre Action Plan takes into consideration the apportionment of community burdens for properties being converted from commercial to residential use.

Neither the Town Centre Action Plan nor the subsequent Town Centre Housing Fund make reference to community burdens.

Part 2 of The Title Conditions (Scotland) Act 2003 contains provisions on community burdens. These obligations are typically set out in the individual conveyance or a deed of conditions.

It is possible to make an application or appeal an application to The Lands Tribunal for Scotland for the variation or discharge of a community burden: http://www.lands-tribunal-scotland.org.uk/about.html.

In addition section 20 of The Title Conditions (Scotland) Act 2003 allows for the termination of a real burden if it is at least 100 hundred years old: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2003/9/section/20".

Question reference: S4W-19982

Asked by: Fiona McLeod, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 March 2014
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 13 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what statutory requirements there are on local authorities for the maintenance of its school estate buildings that are included in merger or closure plans.

Question reference: S4W-20080

Asked by: Fiona McLeod, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 10 March 2014
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 11 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the distribution of and costs associated with Scotland’s Future: Your Guide to an Independent Scotland.

Since its launch in November, demand for Scotland’s Future – Your guide to an independent Scotland has exceeded 100,000 copies.

Scotland’s Future - Your guide to an independent Scotland has been available to order at no cost to individuals in hard copy or digital formats since its launch. Latest available figures confirm that 114,441 copies of the white paper have been ordered, 57,708 in digital format, and 56,733 as a hard copy.

To meet this demand, production, printing and distribution costs to date are:

Scotland’s Future -Your guide to an independent Scotland	Costs
Production	£75,000
Print	£350,000
Distribution	£375,000
Total	£800,000

Final costs for printing and distribution will not be available until final demand is known.

A 44 page summary of Scotland’s Future has also been produced and has been translated into 14 languages, versions for people who are deaf or blind as well as an easy read publication for people with learning disabilities. The cost to date for this is £60,000.

Question reference: S4O-02989

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S4W-19945

Asked by: Fiona McLeod, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 5 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what the physical ill health criteria are for excusal from jury service.

Question reference: S4W-19946

Asked by: Fiona McLeod, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 5 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what mechanisms there are for people to apply to be permanently excused from jury service because of (a) chronic and (b) incurable physical ill health.

The categories of persons automatically disqualified or excused from jury service are set out in schedule 1 of the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Scotland) Act 1980. These categories do not include those suffering from chronic and/or incurable physical ill health.

Persons who are unable to carry out jury service because of illness of any nature may apply for excusal, at the time they are requested to carry out such service, to the Sheriff Clerk, who has discretion in these matters. Further information on excusal from jury service is available from the Scottish Court Service’s website at:

http://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/docs/default-source/scs---court-users/guide_to_jury_service_in_the_court_of_session.pdf?sfvrsn=2

Question reference: S4W-19466

Asked by: Fiona McLeod, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2014
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 30 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-11204 by Fiona Hyslop on 27 November 2012, whether it will provide an update on the final costs of the Scottish Government visit to Chicago in September 2012.

The projected costs £468,580, previously estimated in answer to Parliamentary Question S4W-11204 on 27 November 2012, covered both Scottish Government and Visit Scotland expenditure.

On finalising costs, VisitScotland spend was £414,731, this is almost £3,000 less than initially anticipated because some invoices were not settled until after the date of the estimate.

A breakdown of Scottish Government costs by date of purchase and covering the whole delegation of eighteen people is as follows:

Flights	04-Sep-12	854.57
Flights	06-Sep-12	4,795
Flights	07-Sep-12	10,478
Flights	24-Sep-12	17,015.65
Accommodation and business room hire	01-Oct-12	13,333.71
Accommodation	02-Oct-12	298
Flights	06-Oct-12	4,337
Total		£51,111.93

Scottish Government costs did not change from the estimate and these are detailed in the daily breakdown above.

The 2012 Ryder Cup at Medinah outside Chicago provided a unique opportunity to promote Scotland to a worldwide audience at one of the biggest global sporting events; and to develop new and existing business relationships through an extensive programme of wrap-around activity.

The Ministerial delegation’s work in Chicago, in the week before the Ryder Cup also included a number of business meetings which secured over 140 new jobs and tens of millions in new investment from US based companies who are successfully expanding their operations in Scotland.

The next Ryder Cup will take place at Gleneagles in 2014 and has the potential to generate £100 million for the Scottish economy with tens of thousands of spectators attending from all over the world and millions more watching the tournament on television in more than 180 countries. Over 200,000 people attended the 2012 tournament at Medinah and over 500 million watched it on television.

Question reference: S4W-19173

Asked by: Fiona McLeod, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 January 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 24 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what powers local authorities have to ensure that private owners maintain properties to an acceptable standard.

Owners of private property are responsible for repairing and maintaining their property.

Under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006 local authorities can use work notices to require private home owners to carry out work on substandard property and maintenance orders to require them to maintain their property. Under these powers local authorities can carry out work if owners are unable or unwilling to do so themselves and to recover their costs.

Under the Building (Scotland) Act 2003, local authorities have a duty to deal with dangerous buildings. The 2003 Act also provides local authorities with powers to deal with defective buildings. This includes serving a notice that calls for work to be carried out, carrying out emergency work or doing work in default of the owner.

It is for local authorities to determine when it is appropriate to use these powers.

The Housing Bill which was introduced to the Scottish Parliament in November 2013 contains some amendments to give local authorities a broader range of tools that they can use as part of a strategic approach to tackling poor standard housing in their areas. This includes discretionary powers for a local authority to issue a maintenance plan where it has had to issue a work notice to require the owner to carry out repairs, and no certificate has been issued to confirm that the work required to be carried out by the work notice has been completed.

Question reference: S4O-02860

Asked by: Fiona McLeod, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what powers local authorities have to exempt care home residents from council tax payments on their unoccupied properties.

Question reference: S4F-01843

Asked by: Fiona McLeod, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 January 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 January 2014

To ask the First Minister what assessment the Scottish Government has made of recent reports on how the UK Government’s economic strategy is impacting on inequality in Scotland.