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-02600

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 November 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how it is monitoring the regionalisation of colleges.

Question reference: S4W-18052

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 31 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 12 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what the target is and current waiting times are for angioplasty procedures, broken down by (a) NHS board and (b) hospital.

Angioplasty procedures are covered by the 12 weeks legal treatment time guarantee set out in The Patient Rights (Scotland) Act 2011. Current waiting time for angioplasty is not available centrally.

Information on the treatment time guarantee is currently being collected from a local statistical return from boards and not through the new ways warehouse, this information does not go down to specialty level. This is to allow boards to make the necessary changes to their IT systems. It is planned that statistics will be reported on the treatment time guarantee through the new ways warehouse early in 2014. This will provide waiting time information at specialty level.

Latest information from the local statistical returns showed that during the quarter ending 30 June 2013, 98.4% of patients were treated within the 12 weeks legal treatment time guarantee.

Question reference: S4W-17774

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 11 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 8 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the merger of Langside, Anniesland and Cardonald colleges, whether the Woodburn House site will be put up for sale on the open market and, if so, when, and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.

Question reference: S4W-17775

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 11 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 8 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the merger of Langside, Anniesland and Cardonald colleges, what consideration it has made of the community benefits that might arise from selling the Woodburn House site.

Question reference: S4W-17944

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 1 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the punctuality rates for the (a) west coast rail service between Glasgow and London Euston and (b) east coast rail service between Edinburgh and King's Cross.

Cross Border train operating companies have no requirement to submit information on train punctuality rates to the Scottish Government. They operate under franchises specified and managed by the Department for Transport.

However, information on punctuality rates across all train operating companies is collated by the Office of Rail Regulation, and published in regular statistical releases. The most recent is available at:

http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/upload/pdf/pass-freight-rail-perf-2013-14-q1.pdf.

Question reference: S4W-17945

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 1 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the (a) Transport Scotland, (b) the Office of Rail Regulation, (c) Network Rail and (d) other stakeholders regarding the Office of Rail Regulation’s final determination on national rail output and funding requirements for 2014 to 2019.

The Office of Rail Regulation’s Final Determination is a key milestone in the Periodic Review process. The Scottish Government’s input to this process is managed by Transport Scotland. The Scottish Ministers’ High Level Output Specification (HLOS) was submitted to the ORR in June 2012 and set out the requirements from the railway in Scotland over control period 5 (2014-15 to 2018-19) and the resources being made available to support their achievement. The HLOS was informed by an extensive public consultation and a series of detailed engagements with rail industry stakeholders.

Throughout the Periodic Review process Transport Scotland has worked closely with the ORR, Network Rail and stakeholders across the wider industry to ensure that the requirements and expectations of the Scottish Ministers are fully reflected in the ORR’s determination for CP5. A draft determination was published in June 2013 for consultation and Transport Scotland formally responded to this in September, focussing on a number of key strategic issues relating to the Scottish Ministers’ HLOS and broader policy objectives for rail. This was followed by a number of bilateral discussions between Transport Scotland and the ORR over the detail of the final determination. In advance of publication the ORR Chair, Anna Walker, provided a formal briefing to advise the Scottish Ministers on the final decisions taken, including those relevant to a number of key issues and opportunities identified by Transport Scotland for further consideration.

Question reference: S4W-17696

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 1 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what the process is for authorising the sale of land relating to the Glasgow Airport Rail Link project.

Question reference: S4W-17747

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 1 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how much Infratil owes to HM Revenue and Customs for (a) value added tax, (b) airport passenger duty and (c) national insurance in relation to Glasgow Prestwick Airport and whether this will be written off if the airport is taken into public ownership.

Question reference: S4W-17706

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 1 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what land that it holds was purchased for the Edinburgh Airport Rail Link project.

Question reference: S4W-17697

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 1 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-17218 by Keith Brown on 30 September 2013, who authorised the decision to sell the land at public auction.