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: S4W-12346

Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 18 January 2013
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 7 February 2013

To ask the Scottish Government (a) how many and (b) what companies received support in the first round of the Housebuilding Infrastructure Loan Fund.

I can confirm that three companies received loan offers from the first round of the Fund. Details of these are as follows:

Applicant	Project	Loan Amount
EWP Investments Limited	Armadale Station, West Lothian	£500,000
Trustees of Richard Tyser	Ness Castle, Inverness	£1,900,000
ISIS Waterside Regeneration Limited	Maryhill Locks, Glasgow	£600,000
Total		£3,000,000

Question reference: S4W-12345

Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 18 January 2013
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 7 February 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it distributed in the first round of the Housebuilding Infrastructure Loan Fund.

Question reference: S4W-12531

Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 25 January 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 6 February 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken to provide schools with reliable information about the holocaust.

Question reference: S4W-12529

Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 25 January 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 6 February 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what support it provides to holocaust education programmes.

The Holocaust education and Holocaust Memorial Day have a vital role in ensuring that atrocities of the past are never repeated and that racism, bigotry and prejudice are not tolerated.

The Scottish Government has provided sustained support to the Holocaust Educational Trust (HET) to deliver the Lessons from Auschwitz project, which has had participants from more than 60% of Scotland’s schools and colleges. The four part project includes survivor testimony, a visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum in Poland and wider dissemination of the lessons learned within schools and communities. Survivor testimonies are also captured and promoted through initiatives such as the Gathering the Voices project.

We work with HET, the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, Interfaith Scotland, local authorities and others including the Anne Frank Trust to raise awareness in schools and to deliver the annual national commemoration of the Holocaust and subsequent genocides. The Holocaust Memorial Day 2013 Advisory Board developed a schools programme which included a number of school visits, schools intranet events, exhibitions and a Holocaust Memorial Day Commemoration programme for schools at Glasgow City Chambers which was attended by about 400 pupils.

Education Scotland promote education resources, professional development opportunities and curricular projects which build capacity and expertise in holocaust education. Holocaust education practice is also included in sessions run for undergraduate teacher trainees offered to Scottish universities, as part of global citizenship awareness for students.

Question reference: S4W-12530

Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 25 January 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 6 February 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to raise awareness in schools of holocaust memorial day.

Question reference: S4W-12533

Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 25 January 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 6 February 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to provide school pupils with the opportunity to visit the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum.

Question reference: S4W-12532

Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 25 January 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 6 February 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it has taken to help provide schools with first-hand accounts of the holocaust through survivor stories.

Question reference: S4W-12377

Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 18 January 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 30 January 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether written guidance has been issued to NHS boards following the decision to make Kalydeco available on the NHS.

A letter from the Scottish Government was issued to NHS boards on 23 January 2013 to clarify the interim arrangements for immediate requests for ivacaftor (Kalydeco®) for NHS patients suffering from cystic fibrosis who have not had a lung transplant and who have the G551D gene mutation.

Further guidance will be issued to NHSScotland on the operational arrangements for the Rare Conditions Medicines Fund in due course.

Question reference: S4W-11887

Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 14 December 2012
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 22 January 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on a fiscal stabilisation pact with the United Kingdom in the event of a Scotland separated from the rest of the United Kingdom using Sterling and what (a) discussions it has had and (b) agreement it has reached in this regard with the (i) UK Government and (ii) Bank of England, by what means contact was made, on what dates and which ministers took part.

The Fiscal Commission Working Group is continuing its work to oversee the development of a robust macroeconomic and fiscal framework for an independent Scotland, and will be publishing its recommendations shortly.

Scottish Ministers recognise the importance of operating within a robust fiscal framework. An independent Scotland would retain the flexibility, fiscal freedom and responsibility for setting taxes and economic policy in the best interests of the Scottish economy within a sustainable framework. Scotland will have no difficulty adhering to fiscal discipline within a Sterling Zone because it is committed to maintaining its record of responsible management of public finances and it is in a stronger financial position than the UK as whole.

Question reference: S4W-11975

Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 December 2012
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 16 January 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what institution will act as (a) lender of last resort and (b) financial regulator in the event of Scotland separating from the rest of the UK and what agreement has been reached with the institution in this regard.

As I set out in my speech to the David Hume Institute on 2 February 2012, our proposal is to maintain the Bank of England as the central bank as part of a formal monetary union.

The Fiscal Commission Working Group is continuing its work to oversee the development of a robust macroeconomic and fiscal framework for an independent Scotland, which includes proposals for financial stability, and will be publishing its recommendations shortly.

Under the Edinburgh Agreement, the Scottish and UK Governments are committed to continue to work together constructively in the light of the outcome of the referendum, whatever it is, in the best interests of the people of Scotland and of the rest of the United Kingdom. The Scottish Government engages in discussions with the UK Government and UK bodies on a regular basis about matters of relevance to Scotland.