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-31764

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 February 2007
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 1 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that Scotland should be the pilot for UK road pricing.

Question reference: S2W-31759

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 February 2007
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 26 February 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many crimes were reported and responded to on train services and in stations in each of the last four years.

The available information isshown in the following table.

Crimes and Offences Recordedby the British Transport Police in Scotland, 2002-03 to 2005-06

2002-03	10,344
2003-04	9,892
2004-05	9,487
2005-06	8,146

Note: These include all crimesand offences recorded by the British Transport Police, and not only those occurringon trains and in stations. For example, any instances of graffiti/vandalism of signalboxes or trespass on railway lines that have been recorded will have been included.

Question reference: S2W-31762

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 February 2007
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 23 February 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will publish its response to Audit Scotland’s overview of governance in Scottish local authorities.

Question reference: S2W-31760

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 February 2007
Current Status: Answered by Johann Lamont on 22 February 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has had any meetings with the British Transport Police about antisocial behaviour in railway stations and on trains in Scotland and, if so, what (a) was discussed and (b) action was taken as a result.

Question reference: S2W-30693

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 December 2006
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 6 February 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether all local authorities have been consulted on any new responsibilities and costs resulting from any legislation introduced since January 2006 and, if so, whether it will publish their responses, broken down by local authority.

Public consultation is an integralpart of the policy formulation process in the Scottish Executive. As part of thatconsultation process, local authorities are consulted routinely. The Executive considersin detail all responses provided to consultation documents and takes these intoaccount when finalising its legislative proposals. Copies of the responses to consultationexercises are always made available to the public, except where the respondentshave asked for them to be treated as confidential.

Question reference: S2W-31140

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 January 2007
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 31 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive when prescribers will be able to prescribe lenalidomide to patients who suffer from multiple myeloma.

Licensing of medicines is reservedand is the responsibility of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency(MHRA). Before a medicine can be placed on the UK market it must have a marketingauthorisation from either the MHRA or the European Medicines Agency (EMEA). TheMHRA has advised that an application for a marketing authorisation for lenalidomidefor the treatment of multiple myeloma is pending with the EMEA.

When a medicine receives a UKmarketing authorisation, either from the MHRA or the EMEA, it can be prescribedon the NHS unless it is subject to a direction by Scottish ministers under section17N(6) of the NHS (Scotland) Act 1978.

However, NHS Scotland is expectedto await the advice of the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) before making a newmedicine routinely available. SMC conducts rapid and careful appraisals of medicinesusing pre-launch data and provides its advice to NHS Scotland as soon as possibleafter the launch.

Question reference: S2W-31139

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 January 2007
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 31 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to allow patients and prescribers access to orphan drugs.

Question reference: S2W-30698

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 December 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 25 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive when it expects that the A90 north of Aberdeen will be fully dualled.

Question reference: S2W-30694

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 December 2006
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 24 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has provided guidance to local authority education departments on participation in crime prevention programmes that affect their local communities and, if so, whether it will publish such guidance.

Broad guidance is produced bythe Scottish Executive Education Department and Learning and Teaching Scotland.Advice and guidance seeks to ensure that the curriculum secures breadth, balance,continuity and progression for all pupils. Responsibility for the management anddelivery of the curriculum belongs to education authorities and head teachers, orin the case of independent schools, the boards of governors and head teachers.

the Scottish Executive’s 4th National Priority in Education is “values and citizenship”.Education for Citizenship is cross curricular and permeates through a number ofcurricular areas. In the 5-14 Environmental Studies National Guidelines,with “Social Subjects: Understanding People in Society” the key features; “socialrules, rights and responsibilities” and “conflict and participation in decision-makingin society” are particularly relevant and primary schools have used these to introduceaspects of citizenship into their work.

Manysecondary schools (around 70%) offer Modern Studies courses in S1 and S2 which offersubstantial opportunities for teaching about citizenship. In upper secondary, fromS3-S6, all pupils undertake Personal and Social Education (PSE) courses and manyof these contain the strands of citizenship identified in the report.

Community Safety Partnerships(CSPs) work with schools to deliver safety information to young people through fireservice and police visits. Police officers are regular visitors to schools for otherinterventions, either delivering inputs on personal safety, road safety and in somecases drugs awareness. The CSPs along with the ASB teams also produce materialsfor use in schools focussing on personal safety and awareness, accident preventionand driving skills, amongst others.

Question reference: S2W-31137

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 January 2007
Current Status: Answered by George Lyon on 24 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive when the National Licensing Forum last met and what issues were discussed.

The National Licensing Forumlast met on 18 April 2006. It discussed a number of issues relating to the Licensing(Scotland) Act 2005 including overprovision and the capacity of licensed premisesand training. The Forum also agreed its next phase of work as drafting guidancefor Licensing Boards. This task has now been completed

I shall shortly be consideringthe future role of the forum as we move closer towards full implementation of thenew Licensing legislation.