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-27142

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 23 September 2009

The table below sets out the number of lawyers employed by the Scottish Government Legal Directorate (known as the Office of the Solicitor to the Scottish Executive before 2007) and the Office of Scottish Parliamentary Counsel in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008.

Year	2005	2006	2007	2008
SGLD	111	110	111	120
OSPC	16	14	14	14

Lawyers within SGLD are not employed solely to draft subordinate legislation, but drafting Scottish Statutory Instruments makes up a significant part of the work of the Directorate. Of the 10 divisions in SGLD, eight are engaged in drafting Scottish Statutory Instruments as part of the legal services they provide to the Scottish Government.

The Office of Scottish Parliamentary Counsel drafts Scottish Parliamentary Bills and Scottish provisions in UK Bills.

Question reference: S3W-27431

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 23 September 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how much is set aside for the presumed North Sea capital allocation fund, as referred to in The Herald of 17 September 2009.

Question reference: S3W-27430

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 23 September 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what the purpose is of the presumed North Sea capital allocation fund, as referred to in The Herald of 17 September 2009.

Question reference: S3W-27141

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 23 September 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many lawyers are employed by it to draft legislation.

The Scottish Government employs 122 lawyers in the Scottish Government Legal Directorate (SGLD). Lawyers within SGLD are not employed solely to draft subordinate legislation, but drafting Scottish Statutory Instruments makes up a significant part of the work of the Directorate. Of the 10 divisions in SGLD, eight are engaged in drafting Scottish Statutory Instruments as part of the legal services they provide to the Scottish Government.

The Office of Scottish Parliamentary Counsel drafts Scottish Parliamentary Bills and Scottish provisions in UK Bills. OSPC presently consists of 14 lawyers.

Question reference: S3O-07761

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 10 September 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it will take to safeguard the future of the Lighthouse in Glasgow.

Question reference: S3W-24929

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 June 2009
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 25 August 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how much it has spent on the National Conversation.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-23202 on 1 July 2009. 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

Further to that answer, a further £24,379 has been spent on the design, publication, print, distribution and translation of Scotland''s Future: Join the Debate leaflets.

Expenditure on the National Conversation includes the cost of supporting a successful programme of public engagement, which has resulted in over 4,500 people attending events across the country to debate Scotland''s future. Expenditure also includes the cost of engaging with the UK Government, and others, on related initiatives such as the Governance of Britain programme, the All Wales Convention, the Independent Commission on Funding and Finance for Wales and the Commission on Scottish Devolution “ which involved over 20 officials in the preparation of a Scottish Government response to requests for factual information.

Question reference: S3W-24927

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 June 2009
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 25 August 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what the cost was of producing (a) Scotland’s Future: Join the Debate: Education and Lifelong Learning, (b) Scotland’s Future: Join the Debate: Finance and Sustainable Growth, (c) Scotland’s Future: Join the Debate: Health and Wellbeing, (d) Scotland’s Future: Join the Debate: Justice, (e) Scotland’s Future: Join the Debate: Rural Affairs and the Environment and (f) Scotland’s Future: Join the Debate: Scotland’s Place in the World.

Scotland''s Future: Join the Debate leaflets are an important contribution to informing the public debate successfully generated by the National Conversation. Over 4,500 people have attended public events, there have been over 500,000 hits on the National Conversation web pages and the voluntary sector, businesses, universities, the media, faith groups, ethnic minorities, and Scotland''s young people are all taking part.

The cost for design, printing, translation and web publication was £20,927. The cost of distribution to almost 600 libraries across Scotland was £3,452. Copies of the leaflets will be available at National Conversation events and on request.

Question reference: S3W-24928

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 June 2009
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 25 August 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how much it (a) has spent and (b) is planning to spend on distributing (i) Scotland’s Future: Join the Debate: Education and Lifelong Learning, (ii) Scotland’s Future: Join the Debate: Finance and Sustainable Growth, (iii) Scotland’s Future: Join the Debate: Health and Wellbeing, (iv) Scotland’s Future: Join the Debate: Justice, (v) Scotland’s Future: Join the Debate: Rural Affairs and the Environment and (vi) Scotland’s Future: Join the Debate: Scotland’s Place in the World.

Question reference: S3W-24930

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 June 2009
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 25 August 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how much it plans to spend on the National Conversation.

Question reference: S3W-26085

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 July 2009
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 13 August 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on when a decision will be made on the planning application for the site formerly known as Holiday Inn, 177 Bothwell Street, Glasgow.