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-08122

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 June 2012
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 28 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what the impact on the Scottish economy will be of UK Government proposals to add VAT to the cost of repairing and maintaining listed buildings.

I am very concerned by the proposal to remove the VAT relief on approved alterations to listed buildings and I have written to the Treasury urging them to withdraw from this deeply regrettable proposal. The proposal will add 20% to the cost of alterations to listed buildings. The impact of this change will fall directly upon those owners of listed buildings who are not able to reclaim VAT. I have requested data underpinning the decision to impose this change, in particular the impact upon Scotland. Without these figures we are unable to estimate the full impact upon the Scottish economy.

Notwithstanding that specific impact, the Scottish Government advocates reducing VAT on repair and maintenance work on all dwellings regardless of listed status. It is currently levied at the standard rate of 20% on all such works. We believe such a reduction would be an important positive step which would stimulate economic activity; bring empty homes back into use; reduce the incentive to use non-VAT registered contractors; and help improve the condition of houses.

Question reference: S4W-08003

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 June 2012
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 28 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive to what extent the Scottish Enlightenment is taught in schools.

The Scottish Enlightenment provides an excellent way to inspire and engage young people in aspects of history, philosophy, science and other areas of the curriculum. A dedicated Scottish Enlightenment resource was developed by Education Scotland in partnership with the National Trust for Scotland and supported by the National Library of Scotland and the Heritage Education Forum. Such resources are being promoted and supported as we take forward the recommendations of the Scottish Studies Working Group, through the Studying Scotland resource and professional learning opportunities for practitioners.

Although information is not held centrally on the use of topics such as the Scottish Enlightenment, Education Scotland advise that most children and young people will meet aspects of the Scottish Enlightenment as they progress through their education and inspection evidence indicates that more schools are offering topics on the Scottish Enlightenment as Curriculum for Excellence is implemented.

Question reference: S4W-08004

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 June 2012
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 28 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what it is doing to (a) raise awareness and (b) encourage the teaching of the Scottish Enlightenment.

Question reference: S4W-07806

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 June 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 21 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to tackle depressive illness.

The Scottish Government has a range of actions in place to support people experiencing depression, including: improved access to psychological therapies, with a HEAT target to deliver faster access to mental health services by delivering 18 weeks’ referral to treatment for psychological therapies from December 2014; action to tackle alcohol misuse, including through availability of alcohol brief interventions; improving public awareness of what can be done to help prevent suicide – e.g. through Choose Life’s “Don’t Hide It. Talk About It” campaign, and continued funding of sources of support such as Breathing Space and Samaritans.

The Scottish Government will be publishing a new mental health strategy shortly, and will continue to work with our partner agencies in the NHS, local government and the third sector to provide a wide range of care, treatment and support.

Question reference: S4W-07804

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 June 2012
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 21 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S4W-07532 by John Swinney on 8 June 2012, whether it will provide the GDP information in sterling.

The GDP per capita estimates provided in the answer to question S4W-07532 are expressed as a Purchasing Power Standard. The PPS is produced by Eurostat and takes into account differences in national price levels in order to allow for meaningful comparisons of GDP per capita over countries.

We are therefore unable to provide the information presented in the table in the answer to question S4W-07532 in sterling.

Question reference: S4W-07805

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 June 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 19 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what its response is to Quarriers' recent survey of people with epilepsy that claimed that 55% of respondents believed that discrimination toward them was widespread.

The Scottish Government is committed to making Scotland a place where everyone is treated fairly, has the chance to live their lives without prejudice or discrimination and achieve their full potential, in all aspects of their lives.

There has been good progress in addressing discrimination in the delivery of health services and making measurable progress in equality and good relations. However we are not complacent and recognise we need to ensure that Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates and NHS boards continue to engage in this agenda at all levels.

Epilepsy Scotland has been working to improve employment opportunities for people with epilepsy. Its employer of the year award has been supported with funding from the Scottish Government, with the aim of raising awareness and reducing stigma associated with epilepsy by promoting best practice across Scotland. The award acknowledges employers who give outstanding support to employees with epilepsy.

We also recognise the invaluable service and support that Quarriers offers people living with epilepsy. We have provided £1 million funding to Quarriers to help build their new Scottish Epilepsy Centre which is expected to be completed next year. A consortium of NHS boards has also contributed further funding of £2 million to support this project.

Question reference: S4O-01168

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 June 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what message the Scottish Government has for the public and competitors from Scotland for the forthcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Question reference: S4W-07532

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 8 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive where Scotland would rank on the table, Regional GDP per capita in the EU27 in 2009, published by eurostat on 13 March 2012, had account been taken of Scotland's economic share of the UK's national air-space, territorial waters and the continental shelf lying in international waters over which the UK enjoys exclusive rights, territorial exclaves including deposits of oil and natural gas.

An illustrative estimate of Scottish GDP with a geographic share of Extra Regio output (GDP), suggests that Scotland would have been ranked 5th in terms of GDP per capita against the 27 EU countries in 2009.

This estimate has been produced using data from Eurostat, the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the National Records of Scotland (NRS), and the Scottish National Accounts Project (SNAP). The methodology used to produce these estimates is the same as set out in the note Scotland’s International GDP Per Capita Ranking, which was published on the Scottish Government website in March 2012 and can be found at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/0039/00390896.pdf.

Table: Illustrative estimate of Scotland’s GDP per Capita Ranking against EU27 countries in 2009 with the inclusion of a geographic share of Extra Regio GDP:

Rank	Country	2009 GDP per capita (EU27=100)
1	Luxembourg (Grand-Duchy)	266.3
2	Netherlands	131.9
3	Ireland	127.6
4	Austria	124.6
5	Scotland (with geographic share of Extra Regio GDP)	123.7
6	Denmark	122.9
7	Sweden	119.4
8	Belgium	117.8
9	Germany	115.7
10	Finland	114.5
11	United Kingdom	110.7
12	France	108.2
13	Italy	104.0
14	Spain	103.2
15	Cyprus	99.9
16	Greece	94.3
17	Slovenia	87.1
18	Czech Republic	82.2
19	Malta	81.9
20	Portugal	80.0
21	Slovakia	72.6
22	Hungary	64.7
23	Estonia	63.5
24	Poland	60.7
25	Lithuania	54.5
26	Latvia	51.2
27	Romania	47.0
28	Bulgaria	44.0

Source: Scottish Government estimates based on data from Eurostat, ONS, NRS and SNAP.

Question reference: S4W-07526

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 31 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how many permanent unpromoted teaching posts were advertised by North Ayrshire Council in the (a) primary and (b) secondary sectors in each of the last five years for which figures are available.

Question reference: S4O-01081

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 May 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 31 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what degrees it considers will be in greatest demand by employers by 2020 and how will it encourage more people to study for them.