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-25688

Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 May 2006
Current Status: Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 17 May 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what specific action it is taking to help Scottish businesses to bid for contracts relating to the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The Scottish Executive hasset up an Economic Development Sub-Group of the Scottish Steering Group for London 2012 whose remit is to maximise the economic benefits to Scotland of The London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.

The sub-group is currentlyworking towards ensuring that Scottish businesses and industry have as muchnotice as possible about when they can bid for contracts. The sub-group is alsolooking at ways they can help Scottish businesses and industry maximise theirchances of submitting successful bids. To this end, as they receive informationabout the London 2012 procurement strategy, the sub-group will arrangeworkshops on bidding for Olympic contracts.

The Economic Development sub-groupis also planning to organise a conference for Scottish business before the nextround of contracts are to be announced. Lord Coe, on his visit to Scotland on 4May, told the sub-group that the next round of contracts will not be until nextyear.

Question reference: S2W-25676

Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 May 2006
Current Status: Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 17 May 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to undertake an independent economic assessment of the impact of the London 2012 Olympic Games on Scotland.

Question reference: S2W-24569

Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 9 May 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will clarify what the First Minister meant by “a Scottish-level athlete” as opposed to a “world-level” or “UK-level” one, in comments reported by The Scotsman on 1 August 2002.

The categorisation of an athletewould largely depend on the sport in question and the entry criteria for any associatedcompetition. A “Scottish-level” athlete may be one who is selected to representScotland or restricts their participation in competition to national events. A “UK-level”athlete may be one who is selected to represent the UK or restrictstheir participation in competition to UK events. A “world-level” athlete is one who competes regularlyon the world stage. Some athletes may be the best in their sport or event in Scotland butnot be among the best in the UK and the rest of the world.

Question reference: S2W-25486

Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 April 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 8 May 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive on how many occasions police search and rescue teams have been assisted by military air search and rescue services in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S2W-25479

Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 April 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 8 May 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has had any discussions with civilian mountain rescue teams on the implications of privatisation of air search and rescue services and, if so, what concerns were expressed.

Question reference: S2W-25481

Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 April 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 8 May 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has requested any assessment of the potential impact on police and civilian mountain rescue teams of privatisation of air search and rescue services and, if so, whether it will publish such an assessment.

Question reference: S2W-25485

Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 April 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 8 May 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive on how many occasions police and civilian mountain rescue teams have been assisted by military air search and rescue services in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S2W-25480

Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 April 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 8 May 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has had any discussions with police forces on the implications of privatisation of air search and rescue services and, if so, what concerns were expressed.

Question reference: S2W-24083

Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 31 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what funding it has provided for the investment in swimming pool facilities, in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S2W-24082

Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 21 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of the statement in sportscotland’s report, The Ticking Time Bomb, published in 2001, that “if Scotland wishes to retain its present level of public pool provision over the next twenty years, there will be a need for massive re-investment in existing pools…somewhere around £540 million over 22 years”, what action it has taken to address this issue and how much funding it (a) has committed since 2001 and (b) plans to commit in the future to swimming pools.

In response to the TickingTime Bomb report, sportscotland established the lottery funded swimmingpool strand under its Sports Facilities programme. £10 million was committed tothis strand and over £8 million was awarded before the strand was subsumed withinsportscotland’s Building for Sport programme in May 2004. Projects involvingswimming pools remain eligible for funding from the Building for Sport programmeand since its introduction over £1.75 million has been awarded.