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: S2W-15319

Asked by: Susan Deacon, MSP for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 March 2005
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 11 April 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive which local authorities participate in the Ready Steady Bike programme, operated by Cycling Scotland, and how its effectiveness is being monitored.

Five local authorities will participate in the Ready Steady Bike programme from summer 2005: Clackmannan, East Lothian, East Renfrewshire, Edinburgh and West Lothian. Participating later in 2005 will be: Dumfries and Galloway, Dundee, Highland and Falkirk.

Cycling Scotland will liaise with local road safety officers and school travel co-ordinators to evaluate the programmes. Cycling Scotland intends to monitor: the number of children trained; levels of on-road and off-road training; the number of children making the journey to school by bicycle following training; provision of cycle parking and other interventions to encourage cycling at the schools, and "signposting" to direct children towards additional cycling and journeying activities.

Question reference: S2W-15298

Asked by: Susan Deacon, MSP for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 March 2005
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 11 April 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many safer routes to school schemes have been established in each local authority area.

The following table gives the information provided by local authorities in 2004. However it should be noted that safer routes to school is a generic term and some activities were reported under a school travel plan banner. One authority stated that whilst a considerable amount of school travel activity was being undertaken it was not in a position to identify this as a specific number of schemes.

I have recently commissioned research to review the role of school travel co-ordinators. The research will include a survey of the number of schools with school travel plans in place. The report is expected to be published in August this year.

Local Authority	Safer Routes to School Schemes
Aberdeen City	78
Aberdeenshire	48
Angus	34
Argyll and Bute	81
Clackmannanshire	1
Dumfries and Galloway	34
East Ayrshire	55
East Dunbartonshire	31
East Lothian	14
East Renfrewshire	1
Edinburgh City	34
Falkirk Council	56
Fife	40
Glasgow City	37
Highland	55
Inverclyde	0
Midlothian	6
Moray	36
North Ayrshire	Activities not identifiable as a specific number of schemes
North Lanarkshire	4
Orkney	6
Perth and Kinross	18
Renfrewshire	64
Scottish Borders	20
Shetland	3
South Ayrshire	14
South Lanarkshire	54
Stirling	16
West Dunbartonshire	18
West Lothian	49
Western Isles	0
Total	907

Question reference: S2W-15320

Asked by: Susan Deacon, MSP for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 March 2005
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 11 April 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive whether specific cycle training courses are being developed by Cycling Scotland for women.

Question reference: S2W-15321

Asked by: Susan Deacon, MSP for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 March 2005
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 29 March 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive which primary schools have access to the Scottish Road Safety Campaign's "Streetwise" road safety resource and how its effectiveness is monitored and reviewed.

The Scottish Road Safety Campaign has not produced a resource called Streetwise. At least one copy of the Campaign’s Streetsense resource, which was piloted in 45 schools, has been provided to every primary school in Scotland. The resource can also be downloaded from the Campaign’s website at www.srsc.org.uk. The Scottish Executive plans to commission research to evaluate the resource later this year.

Question reference: S2O-05276

Asked by: Susan Deacon, MSP for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 January 2005
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 3 February 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to modernise Scotland's water and sewage infrastructure.

Scottish Water is currently delivering a £1.8 billion investment programme, one of the largest in the UK, involving a higher level of investment than that currently being delivered by the private water companies in England and Wales.

We consulted recently on what Scottish Water’s future investment priorities should be, and we will announce next week the objectives we wish Scottish Water to address in the next regulatory period.

Question reference: S2O-05083

Asked by: Susan Deacon, MSP for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 January 2005
Current Status: Answered by Andrew Welsh on 26 January 2005

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether the SPCB has any plans to commission research to monitor the levels of public contact and other activity undertaken by MSPs.

The SPCB has no current plans do so. In December 2004 the SPCB agreed to buy a module of questions in the MORI Social Attitudes Survey which began on 20 January. This will cover public awareness levels of the role and work of the Parliament, their attitudes towards it and the perceptions of the impact of the Parliament on their lives. It will not monitor levels of public contact with MSPs or other activities undertaken by MSPs.

Question reference: S2O-05002

Asked by: Susan Deacon, MSP for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 January 2005
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 20 January 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how it is improving the health of children.

The Scottish Executive is committedto giving every child the best possible start in life. Improving child health hasbenefits which last into adulthood, and our health improvement challenge focuseson the early years. We have already achieved a lot.

This includes:

Developing an Integrated EarlyYears Strategy to ensure all services for young children work together effectively;

Supporting breastfeeding;

Examining how child health canbe improved by providing parents in deprived areas of Glasgow with extra supportand access to enhanced community-based resources, through the Starting Well nationalhealth demonstration project;

Improving diet and raising physicalactivity levels for schoolchildren, through healthier school meals and the recruitmentof over 600 Active School Coordinators;

Making children and young peoplea priority in the National Programme for Improving Mental Health and Well-being,and

Ensuring all children and youngpeople who need it have an integrated package of health, care and education support,as part of our Closing the Opportunity Gap work.

Question reference: S2O-04553

Asked by: Susan Deacon, MSP for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 December 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 16 December 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to promote and support employers in the development of flexible working practices.

Employment issues are reserved and most schemes of promotion and support are run on a UK-wide basis. But there are things which the Executive has been doing including:

· funding to Fair Play through the Enterprise Networks to promote equal opportunities and the work-life balance;

· through our response to the report of the Strategic Group on Women published in March;

· publishing a Work-Life Balance toolkit for Childcare Partnerships in 2002, and

funding a National Childcare Co-ordinator whose remit is to engage employers to use flexible working practices.

Question reference: S2W-10166

Asked by: Susan Deacon, MSP for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 27 August 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 24 September 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive when it expects to be able to implement the recommendations of the recent NHS Quality Improvement Scotland report, Routine ultrasound scanning before 24 weeks of pregnancy, which would provide for all pregnant women to be offered routine ultrasound scanning at 20 weeks.

The Scottish Executive awaits advice from the UK National Screening Committee on anomaly scanning during pregnancy which is expected later this year.

In anticipation of the advice we may receive from the National Screening Committee the Scottish Executive have been liaising with NHS National Services Scotland to begin to define the resource implications, both financial and personnel, and possible timescales for delivery.

Question reference: S2O-03195

Asked by: Susan Deacon, MSP for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 September 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 16 September 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to improve procedures for dealing with complaints against lawyers.