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-19515

Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for East Kilbride, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 31 January 2014
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 27 February 2014

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-18819 by Roseanna Cunningham on 9 January 2014, what target date it has set for all court reporters on child welfare issues to be assessed in accordance with the Protection of Vulnerable Groups scheme.

This is an operational matter for the Scottish Court Service (SCS) and I have asked the SCS to write to the member. However, reporters already appointed and/or engaged by the court prior to 28 February 2011 to undertake reporting work with children will have until 29 October 2015 to become members of the Protection of Vulnerable Groups cheme. They may continue to supply this service to the court during this period.

Question reference: S4O-02985

Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for East Kilbride, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 February 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish the findings of its review of the guidance on the administration of the Educational Maintenance Allowance.

Question reference: S4O-02947

Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for East Kilbride, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 February 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how junior doctors’ hours are regulated.

Question reference: S4O-02859

Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for East Kilbride, 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 assessment it has made of the effectiveness of the 101 non-emergency police telephone number.

Question reference: S4W-19103

Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for East Kilbride, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 January 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 17 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many people on average per month reported sleeping rough the night before making a homelessness application in each year since 2006-07.

The following table shows the average number of homeless applications per month where any member of the household slept rough on the night immediately preceding the date of application:

Year

2006-

2007

2007-

2008

2008-

2009

2009-

2010

2010-

2011

2011-

2012

2012-

2013

Monthly

Average

323

286

275

229

210

163

145

A further breakdown of the number of people within each application who slept rough on the night before making the application is not held centrally.

Source: HL1 Dataset 10 January 2014.

Further information on homelessness statistics are available at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/homelessstats.

Question reference: S4W-18823

Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for East Kilbride, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 December 2013
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 9 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to revise arrangements for ensuring that the interests of children affected by matrimonial law cases are identified and are treated as paramount by the court.

Section 11 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995, on court orders relating to parental responsibilities etc., already provides that in considering whether or not to make an order and what order to make the court shall regard the welfare of the child as its paramount consideration. Section 11 also provides that the court shall not make any order unless it considers it would be better for the child that an order be made than that none should be made at all. We have no plans to change these provisions, which reflect the need to have the welfare of the child at the centre of the decision-making process. The Scottish Government has established a working group on bar reporters, who provide advice to the court in some section 11 cases. More information on this working group can be found at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Justice/law/17867.

We also intend to introduce a Courts Reform (Scotland) Bill, which will streamline court procedures generally.

Question reference: S4W-18819

Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for East Kilbride, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 December 2013
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 9 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many of the people appointed (a) to the Safeguarders Panel under the Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011 and (b) as reporters under the Matrimonial Proceedings (Children) Act 1958 have been trained in eliciting the views of children as part of the appointment process.

(a) All safeguarders are trained in seeking the views of the child as part of the safeguarder pre-appointment training.

(b) Information is not available centrally on how many persons appointed as reporters in cases involving children in the Court of Session and the sheriff court have been trained in eliciting the views of children as part of the appointment process. The Scottish Government has established a working group on reporters in these cases more details are available from the Scottish Government website at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Justice/law/17867.

Question reference: S4W-18815

Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for East Kilbride, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 December 2013
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 9 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether all of the people appointed as (a) reporters under the Matrimonial Proceedings (Children) Act 1958 and (b) safeguarders under the Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011 are required to hold Disclosure Scotland certificates.

The Scottish Court Service are currently carrying out work to ensure that reporters providing advice to the Court of Session or the sheriff court on the welfare of children are members of the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme. All safeguarders appointed under the Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011 carry out regulated work in terms of the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act 2007 and are required to be members of the Protection of Vulnerable Groups scheme.

Question reference: S4W-18821

Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for East Kilbride, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 December 2013
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 9 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what improvements it has made to the representation of children’s interests in matrimonial cases in courts since the UK Government ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and how it ensures that these arrangements comply with clause 9.2 of the convention.

Section 11 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 makes provision on court orders relating to parental responsibilities etc. Section 11(7) provides that in considering whether or not to make an order the court shall regard the welfare of the child as its paramount consideration. Section 11(7) further provides that the court, taking account of the child’s age and maturity, shall, so far as is practicable, give the child an opportunity to indicate whether he or she wishes to express views; if so, give him or her an opportunity to express them and have regard to such views as he or she may express. There is then further provision in court rules on obtaining the views of the child.

Question reference: S4O-02789

Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for East Kilbride, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 January 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what the economic benefits to Scotland are of the revenues from North Sea oil.