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: S4O-02937

Asked by: Alex Johnstone, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 February 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how it encourages local authorities to take advantage of the private and institutional funding streams that are available to them.

Question reference: S4F-01816

Asked by: Alex Johnstone, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 January 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 January 2014

To ask the First Minister whether the Scottish Government aims to use the planning process to prevent unconventional gas production.

Question reference: S4W-18752

Asked by: Alex Johnstone, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 December 2013
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 7 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance it has given to local authorities on inspection regimes for premises offering a tattooing service.

The Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (Licensing of Skin Piercing and Tattooing) Order 2006 gave local authorities the power to license individuals who carry out skin piercing or tattooing activities as a business.

The Scottish Government has not provided any guidance to local authorities, however to support the implementation of this legislation the Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland and Health Protection Scotland produced a local authority implementation guide. The guide provides best practice information to assist officers in making licensing decisions. In order to minimise the risk to public health, there are a number of key requirements detailed with regard to the premises, operator, equipment and client information.

The guide can be viewed at:

http://www.hps.scot.nhs.uk/enviro/guidelinedetail.aspx?id=36090

Question reference: S4W-18749

Asked by: Alex Johnstone, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 December 2013
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 6 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many licences for tattooing, skin piercing and electrolysis each local authority has issued in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S4W-18750

Asked by: Alex Johnstone, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 December 2013
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 6 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been prosecuted for tattooing without a licence in each local authority area in each of the last five years.

The available information is given in the following table.

People prosecuted for tattooing and/or skin piercing without a licence under the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 Section 7(1)¹

Approximate Local Authority area²	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13
East Ayrshire	0	0	1	0	0
Edinburgh, City of	0	0	0	0	1
Falkirk	0	0	0	0	1
Fife	0	0	0	0	0
Glasgow City	0	2	0	0	0
North Ayrshire	1	0	0	0	0
Orkney Islands	0	0	0	0	1
Perth and Kinross	0	0	0	1	0
Scottish Borders	0	0	0	0	1
South Lanarkshire	2	0	0	0	0
Total	3	2	1	1	4

1. Where main offence and where the charge description specifically states tattooing/skin piercing.

2. Incorporates an approximate mapping of sheriff courts into local authority areas. Some sheriff courts will deal with cases from more than one local authority area.

Question reference: S4W-18751

Asked by: Alex Johnstone, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 December 2013
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 6 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been prosecuted for failure to register their premises as a tattooing establishment in each local authority area in each of the last five years.

A person is required to register themselves and their premises with their local council in order to get a certificate of registration (or licence). A person failing to register would be prosecuted under the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 Section 7(1).

The available information on persons prosecuted for tattooing without a licence, under the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 Section 7(1), in each local authority area in each of the last five years is given in the answer to question S4W-18750 on 6 January 2014. 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-18510

Asked by: Alex Johnstone, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 November 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 3 December 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what support it plans to provide to local authorities to help them protect vulnerable people from telephone cold calling.

Question reference: S4W-18352

Asked by: Alex Johnstone, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 November 2013
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 22 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how much Cycling Walking and Safer Streets funding it allocated to each local authority in 2012-13.

Question reference: S4O-02647

Asked by: Alex Johnstone, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 November 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take to improve safety on the A937 between Montrose and Laurencekirk.

Question reference: S4W-18469

Current Status: Withdrawn