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: S3W-16352

Asked by: Trish Godman, MSP for West Renfrewshire, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 September 2008
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 25 September 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on progress in the rehabilitation, rehousing and, where appropriate, employment and vocational training of service personnel wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan and what monitoring there is to ensure that their concerns are addressed by the Scottish Government and other interested parties.

The Scottish Government recognises the very unique circumstances and sacrifices that we ask our servicemen and women to endure whilst similarly acknowledging the considerable contribution that they and the veterans'' community make to civic society in Scotland. That is why this Scottish Government is committed to improving the support available to and access to services for all our service personnel injured on operational duty.

In June this year we published our paper entitled, Scotland''s Veterans and Forces'' Communities: meeting our commitment. This sets out a series of measures that the Scottish Government will put in place to improve the quality of life for armed forces'' personnel and their families stationed in Scotland and for our veterans'' community. These commitments cover a range of issues across the Scottish Government, including health care, mental health, education, training, housing, transport and employability.

Alongside this work, we will continue to liaise closely with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and veterans'' organisations to ensure the delivery in Scotland of commitments contained within the MoD command paper The Nation''s Commitment: Cross-Government Support to our Armed Forces, their Families and Veterans.

Moreover, we will develop a robust implementation plan in consultation with our partners in order to maintain the momentum of progressing our proposals and will monitor the impact and effectiveness of their implementation. It is important that we co-operate fully with our partners to ensure that our actions are most appropriately meeting the needs and aspirations of service personnel and veterans, including those injured in Iraq and Afghanistan, including measures to address issues of rehabilitation, re-housing, employability and vocational training.

Question reference: S3W-16350

Asked by: Trish Godman, MSP for West Renfrewshire, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 September 2008
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 24 September 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what the outcome was of the legal pursuit of the recovery of the cost of the repairs to the Erskine Bridge following the incident involving an offshore structure.

Question reference: S3W-16351

Asked by: Trish Godman, MSP for West Renfrewshire, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 September 2008
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 24 September 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what companies were deemed to be responsible for the damage caused to the Erskine Bridge by an offshore structure and how much money was recovered from each of the organisations concerned.

The Erskine Bridge was damaged in 1996 when it was struck by an oil rig platform being towed from the construction yard to the North Sea. As a result of this incident, the bridge was closed for about six months.

During 2007 an agreement was reached with the parties involved to refer the matter to formal mediation which took place between 12 and 15 November 2007. Mediation is an alternative method of resolving commercial disputes which may be useful where there is a willingness from the parties to discuss resolution outwith formal court proceedings. The mediation resulted in a formal agreement that the parties would reimburse the sum of £4,850,000 in damages to Scottish ministers incurred as a result of the Erskine Bridge incident.

The matter was drawn to a complete conclusion by 17 December 2007 with receipt of the following sums in reparations:

Party	Amount Recovered
BOS UIE Limited	£4,039,500
Coflexip Stena Offshore Limited (now known as Technip UK Ltd)	£ 450,000
Saipem UK Limited	£300,000
ABB Lummus Global Limited	£60,500
Total Recovered	£4,850,000

Two other parties were involved in the incident at the time, Astileros Y Talleres Del Noroesta SA and Hollingworth Murray Technical Services Ltd. These companies could not be pursued in the Court of Session as neither was any longer in existence.

Question reference: S3W-13885

Asked by: Trish Godman, MSP for West Renfrewshire, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 June 2008
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 12 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-13003 by Richard Lochhead on 27 May 2008, what precise amount was negotiated between the Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency and the Polish shipyard in respect of liquidated damages for the late delivery of the vessel, Hirta.

Question reference: S3W-13778

Asked by: Trish Godman, MSP for West Renfrewshire, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 02 June 2008
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 11 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how much it has spent on campaigns to raise the awareness of (a) breast cancer, (b) HIV/Aids, (c) road safety and (d) MRSA and clostridium difficile over the last five years.

Advertising spend for all campaigns managed directly by the Scottish Government Marketing Unit from 2004-05 to 2006-07 is published on the Scottish Government website at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/govtmay307/Strategic-Board/corp services/17963/advertising-marketing.

Expenditure for 2003-04 is outlined in answer to question S2W-15204 on 12 April 2005. Figures for each year include expenditure on a variety of Road Safety campaigns. The relevant figures for 2007-08 will be published shortly.

Campaigns to raise awareness of issues relating to Breast Cancer, Aids and Hand Hygiene were run during this period by NHS Health Scotland and Health Protection Scotland respectively, although in 2007-08 the Scottish Government made a contribution of £39,618 to the Hand Hygiene campaign. Further details of expenditure are a matter for the bodies involved; the information requested is not held centrally.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Question reference: S3W-13687

Asked by: Trish Godman, MSP for West Renfrewshire, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 11 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive when the Wheelchair and Seating Services Project Board last met and whether up-to-date minutes of its meetings will be made available on the Scottish Government’s website.

Question reference: S3W-13702

Asked by: Trish Godman, MSP for West Renfrewshire, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 30 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 5 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is now in a position to put out to tender the contract to build the second fisheries protection vessel, given that Hirta is now fully operational.

Question reference: S3W-13448

Asked by: Trish Godman, MSP for West Renfrewshire, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 4 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether population screening for thrombophilia could reduce the concerns of users of contraceptives and hormone replacement therapy about the risks of deep vein thrombosis.

We have accepted the recommendation of the UK National Screening Committee (NSC) that it would be inappropriate to introduce population screening for thrombophilia.

The risks of thrombosis associated with hormone replacement therapy and the contraceptive pill are well-known. These would be discussed by the woman and her GP. As mentioned in the answer to question S3W-13398 on 4 June 2008, the NSC recommends that a woman with a personal history of venous thrombosis should be advised to avoid oral contraception and HRT if acceptable alternatives are available, and should be counselled regarding the level of risk faced.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Question reference: S3W-13450

Asked by: Trish Godman, MSP for West Renfrewshire, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 4 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what the cost would be of screening people deemed to be at risk of thrombophilia.

Question reference: S3W-13451

Asked by: Trish Godman, MSP for West Renfrewshire, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 4 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how the cost of screening for thrombophilia compares with the cost of treatment for venous thromboembolism-related disease.