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-02419

Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 September 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government when the Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs last met the chief executive of Creative Scotland and what issues were discussed.

Question reference: S4O-02384

Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 September 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the effectiveness of the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing's letter of 22 February 2013 to NHS boards encouraging them to support a culture of openness among staff.

Question reference: S4W-16731

Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 August 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 10 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made in developing national cancer quality performance indicators for melanoma services and when these will be published.

Under the auspices of the Scottish Cancer Taskforce, National Cancer Quality Performance Indicators (QPIs) are being developed to drive continuous quality improvement in cancer care across NHSScotland. An ambitious programme of work has been agreed, which will see QPIs developed for all main cancers by 2014.

The Melanoma QPI development group initially met in May 2013 and identified key areas for inclusion in the draft Melanoma QPIs. A set of draft indicators are being developed and they will be discussed further at the National Cancer Quality Steering Group meeting in September 2013. Public engagement on the draft indicators is scheduled to commence in January 2014.

Once completed the Melanoma QPIs will be made available on Healthcare Improvement Scotland’s website at:

http://www.healthcareimprovementscotland.org/programmes/cancer_care_improvement/cancer_qpis.aspx.

Question reference: S4W-16733

Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 August 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 4 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what GP referral guidelines for melanoma services there are and when these were last updated.

To support GPs in Scotland to refer patients with suspected cancer as early as possible, the Scottish Government published referral guidance in 2007 Scottish Executive Health Department Letter (2007) 9: Scottish Referral Guidelines for Suspected Cancer.

This guidance includes referral for suspected melanoma. In early 2009, the guidelines were shortened into a user-friendly version for quick reference. All GPs across NHS Scotland were sent a copy of this guidance, which is also available on the Scottish Government website:

www.scotland.gov.uk/quickreferenceguide/suspectedcancer

The guidance is currently being refreshed as part of the Detect Cancer Early Programme.

Question reference: S4W-16607

Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 05 August 2013
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 2 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether it was informed by Transport Scotland that FirstGroup would be paid a bonus of £51,989 following the Service Quality Incentive Regime outcomes for April to June 2013.

Question reference: S4W-16608

Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 05 August 2013
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 2 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the awarding of bonuses to private companies for meeting the standards required of franchises.

Transport Scotland’s well established Service Quality Incentive Regime provides incentives to the franchisee (First ScotRail) for above “benchmark” performance and penalties for areas that fall below. This covers 36 different areas which affect rail passengers experience.

Over the period of the current franchise, ScotRail has never received an overall annual incentive payment for SQUIRE. Penalties have reduced year on year since the regime was rolled out to all Scottish stations and trains. Annual figures have reduced from £938,959 (before RPI) in 2009 to £133,126 (before RPI ) in 2013. This indicates that performance has improved without the Scottish Government providing additional payments.

Question reference: S4W-16609

Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 05 August 2013
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 2 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the Service Quality Incentive Regime for the ScotRail franchise requires bonus payments or whether penalties for not meeting targets would be sufficient.

The Service Quality Incentive Regime is a vital aspect of the Franchise Agreement as it encourages and incentivises investment by the Franchisee to actually surpass the benchmark level thus improving the performance of facilities and services for passengers. Failure to meet the benchmark level can result in penalties to the Franchisee.

The robust and thorough regime has received numerous positive comments within the rail industry and from Audit Scotland.

Question reference: S4W-16620

Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 August 2013
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 2 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish its paper on pensions in an independent Scotland.

Question reference: S4W-16610

Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 05 August 2013
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 2 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to ensure that future ScotRail franchises do not include bonus payments.

The two new franchise contracts, Caledonian Sleeper and ScotRail, will include refinements of the current SQUIRE regime.

In the case of the Caledonian Sleeper Franchise, SQUIRE assessments of station and train quality will be undertaken. These will commence without any financial penalty or incentive payments, but the financial regime will be triggered if quality levels fall below the pre-agreed thresholds.

For the ScotRail Franchise, a refined SQUIRE regime with penalty and incentive payments will be in place from commencement.

Other aspects of service quality will not be subject to out-performance or bonus payments from the Scottish Government in either franchise.

Question reference: S4W-16619

Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 August 2013
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 2 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how it would split pension schemes between an independent Scotland and the rest of the UK.