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-18146

Asked by: Fiona McLeod, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 November 2013
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 19 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what powers it has under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 in relation to community councils.

Local authorities have statutory oversight of community councils. The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 sets out the requirement that local authorities introduce community council schemes for their area, outlining various arrangements including elections, meetings, boundaries and finance.

Central Government has no powers in relation to community councils under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973.

Question reference: S4W-17916

Asked by: Fiona McLeod, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 21 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 13 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made by Scottish Opera in appointing a new music director.

Question reference: S4W-17871

Asked by: Fiona McLeod, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 8 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Succession (Scotland) Act 1964 prevents a person from leaving their entire estate to their spouse to the exclusion of any children.

Scots law provides that a spouse or civil partner and children can claim legal rights to a fixed share of a deceased’s moveable (cash, shares etc.) estate regardless of whether the deceased left a will (and what it said) or died without making a will.

These “legal rights” predate the Succession (Scotland) 1964 Act and are a protection from disinheritance.

The 1964 Act did introduce “prior rights” to a deceased’s estate for a spouse or civil partner where the deceased died without a will. As prior rights are paid first out of a deceased’s estate, it can be the case that the prior rights encompass the whole of the deceased’s estate, so that no money is left in the estate to pay any legal rights, including to the deceased’s children.

The law of succession was reviewed by the Scottish Law Commission, Scotland’s law reform body, who produced a Report in 2009:

http://www.scotlawcom.gov.uk/law-reform-projects/completed-projects/succession/. That project included consideration of whether children should continue to be protected from disinheritance. This proved to be the most divisive issue on which the Commission consulted.

The Scottish Government is considering the report and it is clear, following informal dialogue with stakeholders, that this, and a number of other issues, are controversial. Formal consultation will therefore be required to inform how best to take forward reform of succession law and we will do this when other priorities allow.

Question reference: S4O-02588

Asked by: Fiona McLeod, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 November 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth has had with the First Minister regarding the economic opportunities arising from his recent visit to China.

Question reference: S4W-17608

Asked by: Fiona McLeod, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 October 2013
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by John Swinney on 3 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide the names of its special advisers; what their responsibilities are; what their pay bands are for 2013-14; how many special advisers are in each pay band, and what the total salary cost of employing special advisers was in 2012-13.

There are currently 13 special advisers. They are appointed in accordance with Part 1 of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 by the First Minister as a special adviser for the purpose of providing assistance to the Scottish Ministers.

The total costs of the special adviser team employed during financial year 2012-13 was £925,105, a real terms decrease of £60,653 from the uprated 12 month cost of the 2006-07 Special Adviser team which was £985,758.

The specific responsibilities of the special advisers are as follows:

Name	Role	Appointed
Geoff Aberdein	Chief of Staff Responsible for the First Minister's strategic programme in Government First Minister’s senior intermediary with key internal and external stakeholders Coordination of the Special Adviser team Policy support on Commonwealth Games and Sport portfolio	26 May 2011
Stuart Nicolson	Head of Communications Senior Political Spokesperson	26 May 2011
Noel Dolan	Senior Special Adviser to the Deputy First Minister Policy advice on Infrastructure and Investment portfolio Policy advice on Welfare	26 May 2011
Liz Lloyd	Senior Special Adviser for Finance (Policy and Communications) Constitution Communications	30 January 2012
Campbell Gunn	Senior Special Adviser and Political Spokesperson	8 July 2013
Alexander Anderson	Support to the First Minister’s Private Office Contributing to FM’s keynote speeches and new media Policy advice for Culture and External Affairs	8 October 2012
Malcolm Fleming	Policy advice on Energy, Rural Affairs and the Environment portfolios Policy advice on International Development portfolio	25 July 2011
John MacInnes	Lead on political research Support for First Minister’s Questions Support to the Communications Special Advisers	3 June 2011
Ewan Crawford	Senior Special Adviser supporting Ministers on Government Strategy and Constitutional issues	13 February 2013
Colin McAllister	Head of Policy Senior Adviser for Education and Lifelong Learning	3 October 2012
David Hutchison	Policy advice on the Health and Wellbeing portfolio Adviser for Broadcasting Lead on FOI legislation	8 June 2011
John McFarlane	Policy advice on Justice portfolio Policy advice on Parliamentary Business portfolio, including engaging with Parliamentary Liaison Officers	26 May 2011
Delancy Johansson	Cross portfolio special adviser reporting to Head of Policy	8 October 2012

The current special adviser pay bands and ranges and the number of special advisers within each pay band are:

Pay Band	Current Pay Range	Number of Special Advisers
1	£39,445 - £52,904	7
2	£51,041 - £67,709	3
3	£65,017 - £83,963	3
3 (premium)	£83,549 - £100,942	0
4	£86,965 - £104,462	0

Total Costs include salary, ERNIC and employer pension contributions. Total costs figures have been converted into real terms (2012-13 prices) to adjust for inflation using HM Treasury deflators, published on 27th June 2013. These were the latest available deflators at the time of calculation; September 2013.

Question reference: S4O-02431

Asked by: Fiona McLeod, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 25 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether the proposed Sustainable Procurement Bill will include provisions relating to fairly traded products.

The Procurement Reform (Scotland) Bill is aimed at ensuring public procurement processes are transparent, streamlined and proportionate and that they take into account social and environmental sustainability, including fair trade where appropriate. The Bill will also seek to address the use of technical specifications in procurement, again including fair trade where appropriate. The Scottish Fair Trade Forum has agreed to work with the Scottish Government to progress the uptake of fair and ethically traded goods and services through public procurement.

Question reference: S4O-02355

Asked by: Fiona McLeod, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 September 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what mechanisms are available to enforce nature conservation legislation regarding marine protected areas.

Question reference: S4O-02329

Asked by: Fiona McLeod, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 August 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the latest employment figures.

Question reference: S4O-02292

Asked by: Fiona McLeod, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 June 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 June 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether there is a mechanism for insisting that local authorities follow the Scottish Commissioner for Children and Young People's guidance on consulting with children and young people on school closures and other significant changes.

Question reference: S4T-00382

Asked by: Fiona McLeod, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 June 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 June 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what impact a reduction in winter fuel payments would have on older people in Scotland.