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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 2367 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S4W-25058

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 2 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what procedures it adopted to ensure that the procurement methods used to secure the use of the MV Loch Seaforth under a private leasing arrangement offered best value for money.

A full tender process for an operating lease arrangement was undertaken by Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (CMAL) in line with the EU procurement rules.

This resulted in the award of the contract to Lloyds Banking Group as their tender was assessed as the most economically advantageous in terms of lease rentals and lease terms.

CMAL is subject to Procurement Capability Assessments (PCA) as are all public bodies. CMAL participates and prepares documentary evidence for annual Procurement Capability Assessments which are conducted by the Scottish Government.

Question reference: S4W-25026

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 20 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 2 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-24780 by Shona Robison on 19 March 2015, what the (a) highest and (b) lowest number of bed occupancies was at Ospadal Uibhist agus Bharraigh [Uist and Barra Hospital] in Benbecula in each week in 2014.

Information on weekly occupied beds and occupancy rates is not held centrally. Monthly information is available and the following table shows average number of occupied beds for Uist and Barra Hospital, NHS Highland between January and September 2014.

Occupied beds for Uist and Barra Hospital, by month.

	January 2014	February 2014	March 2014	April 2014	May 2014	June 2014	July 2014	August 2014	September 2014
Average Occupied Beds	16.4	21.6	16.9	13.6	15.6	13.4	12.8	12.4	10.7

Source: Information Services Division Scotland, ISD(S)1

Question reference: S4W-24937

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 31 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government on what date it will announce how it will allocate funding from the (a) Equality, (b) Violence Against Women and Girls, (c) Children's Services and (d) Rape Crisis Specific Fund.

Question reference: S4W-24938

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 31 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government when the Voluntary Action Fund made its recommendations to ministers regarding applications to the (a) Equality, (b) Violence Against Women and Girls, (c) Children's Services and (d) Rape Crisis Specific Fund.

Question reference: S4W-24990

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 31 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what interim measures it will take to ensure that women in Argyll and Bute can access NHS ante-natal screening locally, rather than having to travel to Glasgow or Paisley.

I refer the member to the answer to parliamentary question S4O-04076 to Jamie McGrigor on 4 March 2015. The answer to the oral parliamentary question is available on the Parliaments website, the official report can be viewed at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28862.aspx?r=9813&mode=pdf.

The Scottish Government has welcomed NHS Highland’s plan to fund a proposal to develop scanning services locally in Argyll and Bute.

NHS Highland anticipates that the local service will be fully implemented from the autumn of 2016.

Question reference: S4W-24989

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 27 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how it will ensure that there is sufficient capacity in hospitals and communities to provide women with ante-natal scanning services close to home.

Question reference: S4W-24905

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 25 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what developments there have been regarding the strategy, Equally Safe: Scotland's Strategy for Preventing and Eradicating Violence against Women and Girls, since its publication.

Since Equally Safe was published on 25 June 2014 positive progress has been made in a number of key areas. Building on the strategy, the Scottish Government committed in the Programme for Government to consult in 2015 on the potential to introduce a specific ‘domestic abuse’ offence and an offence against the sharing of intimate images – so-called ‘revenge porn’. The courts and Crown office have put in place additional resources to speed up the processing of cases, including cases involving domestic abuse and sexual offences, through the courts, and Police Scotland is currently piloting a disclosure scheme for domestic abuse in two locations – Aberdeen and Ayrshire.

In addition, the Scottish Government announced on 20 March 2015 that it will be investing £11.8 million from its equality budget (total £20.3 million) in a range of projects and services to tackle, raise awareness of, and support those affected by violence and abuse during 2015-16. This funding includes: £60,000 for a Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference development officer Scotland in connection with the commitment made by the Scottish Government in Equally Safe to ‘‘roll-out a National Framework for Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conferences’’, and £220,000 of funding to support work to tackle female genital mutilation in 2015-16.

Question reference: S4W-24900

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 25 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what the membership is of the (a) Violence Against Women Joint Strategic Board and (b) violence against women strategy working groups.

Question reference: S4W-24902

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 25 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government when each of the violence against women strategy working groups (a) has met, (b) will report on progress and (c) will report its recommendations to the joint strategic board.

As stated in the answer to S4W-24905 on 25 March 2015, positive progress is being made in a number of key areas and to take forward the early commitments made in Equally Safe. Unfortunately it has not been possible to move forward as quickly as originally envisaged in establishing the four expert working groups proposed in Equally Safe to inform the development of longer term action plans in the areas of: primary prevention; capacity and capability; justice, and accountability. We are currently looking at the timing and development of this longer term work.

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/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

Question reference: S4W-24780

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 06 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 19 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) highest and (b) lowest bed occupancy was at Ospadal Uibhist agus Bharraigh [Uist and Barra Hospital] in Benbecula each week in 2014.

The following table shows average monthly occupancy rate (%) for Uist and Barra Hospital, NHS Highland between January and September 2014.

Occupancy rate (%) for Uist and Barra Hospital, by month.

	Jan 2014	Feb 2014	Mar 2014	Apr 2014	May 2014	Jun 2014	Jul 2014	Aug 2014	Sep 2014
Occupancy rate (%)	56.4	74.4	58.4	46.8	53.8	46.2	44.3	42.7	37.0

Source: Information Services Division Scotland, ISD(S)1

Official statistics on the number of hospital beds relating to the quarters ending December 2014 and March 2015 will be will be published by ISD on 31 March 2015 and in June 2015, respectively.