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-03175

Asked by: Chic Brodie, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 April 2014
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 1 May 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what the status is of the appointment or re-appointment of the Judicial Complaints Reviewer.

Question reference: S4O-03203

Asked by: Chic Brodie, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 April 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 May 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made in reducing the financing of repeat prescriptions.

Question reference: S4O-03023

Asked by: Chic Brodie, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the Californian State Government and Governor regarding how to ensure a lasting legacy from the Homecoming Scotland 2014 event, the John Muir Festival.

Question reference: S4F-01906

Asked by: Chic Brodie, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 24 February 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 February 2014

To ask the First Minister how the Scottish Government will ensure that all sectors of sport are equipped to handle cardiac arrests by participants.

Question reference: S4O-02890

Asked by: Chic Brodie, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 February 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to boost Scottish exports.

Question reference: S4W-19119

Asked by: Chic Brodie, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 January 2014
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 16 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what (a) monitoring is in place and (b) action is planned to ensure that there are no significant underspends in local authority (i) revenue and (ii) capital budgets.

Local authorities are distinct corporate bodies whose powers and duties are set out in statute and are separate from the Scottish Government. As long as they act lawfully, it is up to each authority how it manages its day to day business and how best it maximises the use of the resources and assets at its disposal which includes both its revenue and capital budgets.

The Scottish Government encourages a local authority to spend its General Capital Grant within the financial year it relates to through the conditions set out in the General Capital Grant offer letter. For revenue funding, however, local authorities may carry forward an underspend of their budget into the following financial year if they feel it is prudent and necessary to so do.

Audit Scotland is responsible for conducting audits of local authorities to ensure high standards are maintained and best value is achieved.

Question reference: S4O-02729

Asked by: Chic Brodie, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 December 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 December 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what action Scotland's ports are taking regarding clean marine fuels and how this fits into a Scottish port strategy.

Question reference: S4W-18335

Asked by: Chic Brodie, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 November 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 26 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many pupils have studied Mandarin in each of the last five years.

We do not have data to show how many pupils have studied Mandarin in each of the last few years due to the huge variety in the forms of study of Mandarin from taster and cultural classes to courses aimed at pupils sitting national qualifications. However, data for national qualifications show an increasing trend in popularity. The Scottish Qualifications Authority data for Chinese language entries to qualifications for all Scottish publicly funded schools (where a result or certificate was achieved) shows entries of 14 in 2008-09, 145 in 2009-10, 137 in 2010-11, 200 in 2011-12 and 224 in 2012-13.

Question reference: S4O-02609

Asked by: Chic Brodie, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 November 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the interim report of the Commission for Developing Scotland's Young Workforce, what plans it has to pilot new pathfinder projects.

Question reference: S4W-17463

Asked by: Chic Brodie, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 9 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the Professional Golf Association on developing a foundation degree similar to the course that it operates with the University of Birmingham and whether it will offer student loans to undergraduates from Scotland who study the course in Birmingham.

While we recognise the importance of golf to Scotland, the provision of degree courses in Scotland is a matter for universities rather than the Scottish Government and we have not been involved in any discussions on the matter.

Subject to the proviso that Regulations do not allow us to support distance-learning courses outside Scotland, we will support students studying at foundation degree level on a full-time basis for a recognised course not available in Scotland.