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-27175

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 21 August 2015
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 24 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will clarify each of the specific irregularities that has been identified by the European Commission leading to the commission's decision to suspend European Social Fund support for Scotland, and what action it is taking to resolve this.

Irregularities detected by the Audit Authority in the course of their Annual Control Report work in 2014 fall into three main types: final beneficiaries grant recipients failing to comply with public procurement rules, final beneficiaries failing to provide a full audit trail to support the eligibility and reality of project expenditure and final beneficiaries failing to provide time sheets as evidence to support staff costs in projects. The Scottish Government has worked closely with final beneficiaries and the European Commission to respond to issues raised in relation to individual projects; this led in a number of cases to individual error rates reducing and as a result lower programme error rates. An action plan is in place to ensure that organisations are better prepared for visits this year and to provide increased assurance to the European Commission on the management and control of the funds in Scotland.

Question reference: S4W-27356

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Frank Mulholland QC on 24 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government on what legal basis Police Scotland assisted in the seizure of the boat, Echo, which belongs to the Dutch-registered Sea Shepherd ship, the MV Sam Simon, on 1 September 2015 in Lerwick.

On the basis of an international letter of request received from the Faroese authorities, I authorised the Procurator Fiscal at Lerwick to crave a warrant under Section 18 of the Crime (International Co-operation) Act 2003. The warrant was granted by the Sheriff at Lerwick. The warrant authorised officers of the Police Service of Scotland to seize evidence which resulted in the seizure of the boat Echo at Lerwick harbour on 1 September 2015.

Question reference: S4W-27204

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 August 2015
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 17 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-26869 by Humza Yousaf on 24 August 2015, whether the US Government has been consulted on which topics discussed at the meeting between the First Minister and the Deputy Secretary of State can be referred to in parliamentary answers.

Question reference: S4W-27205

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 August 2015
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 17 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-26869 by Humza Yousaf on 24 August 2015, whether its policy position of not commenting in Parliamentary answers about certain topics discussed at meetings with foreign governments was taken to prior to the minister making his comments about the UK Government in his answer to the supplementary to question S4O-02111 on 15 May 2013 (Official Report, c.19791).

Question reference: S4W-27206

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 August 2015
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 17 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-26869 by Humza Yousaf on 24 August 2015, who took the decision to decline to confirm or deny whether the Shaker Aamer case was raised at the meeting.

Question reference: S4W-27207

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 August 2015
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 17 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-26869 by Humza Yousaf on 24 August 2015, whether there have been topics discussed at its meetings with the (a) Qatari and (b) Chinese Government that it will decline to confirm or deny were raised.

Question reference: S4W-27203

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 August 2015
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 17 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-26869 by Humza Yousaf on 24 August 2015, whether the US Government was provided with a draft of its news release listing the topics discussed at the meeting between the First Minister and the Deputy Secretary of State and, if so, whether the US requested any topics to be redacted.

Question reference: S4W-27201

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 August 2015
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 17 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-26869 by Humza Yousaf on 24 August 2015, with which countries since 2011 it has had discussions where it has decided to decline to confirm or deny whether certain topics were discussed.

Question reference: S4W-27202

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 August 2015
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 17 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-26869 by Humza Yousaf on 24 August 2015, whether the US Government asked it to refuse to confirm or deny if the Shaker Aamer case was raised at the meeting.

Question reference: S4W-27311

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 04 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 17 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what selection criteria are included in the retendering process for the emergency services' communication system, which is currently run by the company, Airwave, and what input the Scottish Government has had in ensuring that the new system meets rural and island needs.

Since 2011, the Scottish Government has been participating in the UK Government led Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme, which has been working to procure a replacement emergency services network for when the existing Airwave contracts begin to expire in England and Wales from 2016 (contracts covering Scotland begin to expire in 2019).

The programme will deliver a mobile communications network that will provide integrated critical voice and broadband data services to all three emergency services (police, fire and ambulance) that are:

Enhanced – to provide integrated broadband services to meet user need;

Flexible – to better match and be responsive to user demand;

Affordable – to address budget pressures on user budgets.

The main procurement for the programme is divided into three lots – Lot 1 (Delivery Partner), Lot 2 (User Services), and Lot 3 (Mobile Services). As the procurement process has not yet concluded, the evaluation criteria for the main procurement lots has not yet been made public. However the high level criteria, which are all assessed in combination with the proposed pricing, are:

Lot 1 – Programme management, integration and reporting to assure the build and transition of the network; user devices and upgrade of their vehicles;

Lot 2 – system-integration; network and IT infrastructure, and public safety communications services;

Lot 3 – mobile communication services; coverage, and availability.

The three emergency services in Scotland have been closely involved in the programme to develop an understanding of future operational needs as well as to ensure that the technical aspects of the proposed new network will meet the needs of all communities across Scotland, including island and rural communities.

In addition, I met the programme director recently to emphasise that geographic coverage should be at least as good as under the present system.