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-27004

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 August 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 27 August 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how much it spends on the procurement of Scottish-produced milk and what information it has regarding how much other public bodies spend.

Question reference: S4W-26954

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 31 July 2015
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 25 August 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what the membership is of the Emergency Authorities' 999 Liaison Committee; when it last met, and what matters it discusses.

<>Due to the 999/112 service being a matter reserved to the UK Government, the 999/112 Liaison Committee is chaired by the Department of Culture Media and Sport. The membership includes representatives from all of the emergency services, telecoms providers, Cabinet Office, Department of Health, Home Office, Department for Transport, Ofcom and Devolved Administrations including the Scottish Government. It last met on 27 May 2015. It discusses a range of issues related to the operation of 999 and connectivity to the emergency services. Recent issues discussed include:

999 Blue Light Seminar – 30 March 2015,

Update on National 101 Failure - 22 November 2014,

Strategic Direction of the 999 service,

Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attacks,

Disabling mobile phone SIM cards of nuisance callers,

Zone codes of mobile operators connecting to emergency services,

Update from 999 Issues in Scotland Group.

Question reference: S4W-26947

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 July 2015
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 25 August 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how it will prevent a repeat of the breakdown of emergency service calls in Shetland on 25 July 2015.

<>The security and resilience of the 999 service is a matter reserved to the UK Government. Officials from the Scottish Government meet regularly with representatives from BT, other telecoms providers, Ofcom and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The Scottish Government is fully engaged in the lessons learned process (for this incident on the 25 July 2015) with local responders and other telecoms operators to ensure that plans are in place to reduce the likelihood of such an issue recurring and responders are in a position to act quickly and appropriately.

Question reference: S4W-26949

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 July 2015
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 25 August 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what backup to the BT system there is for connecting 999 calls for Shetland.

<>The security and resilience of the 999 system is a matter reserved to the UK Government. The 999 system is operated by telecoms providers including BT and as such this is a matter for those companies and the regulator (Ofcom). However local emergency responders have 999 outage plans to mitigate the effects of outages when certain triggers are met. It is important to note that 999 is available by both landline and mobile phones and since 2009 the 999 service from mobile phones roams to available networks to ensure connectivity.

Question reference: S4W-26950

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 July 2015
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 25 August 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether any area other than Shetland has lost emergency call connections in the last five years.

The 999 service is reliant on local exchanges and mobile phone masts operating to deliver messages to 999 call centres. Community Isolations (faults) at local exchanges for landline and mobile phone masts occur for a variety of reasons including:

severe weather;

power supply problems;

third party damage;

and equipment failure or damage.

Often these outages are of short duration (less than an hour) and affect relatively small numbers of customers. (less than 500) at small exchanges.

Emergency Service Control Rooms are always notified by BT of Community Isolations affecting their network to enable emergency responders to take decisions as to whether to instigate Local Resilience Partnerships 999 outage plans. Community isolations can affect different services, for example broadband, therefore do not always result in a loss of 999.

Question reference: S4W-26948

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 July 2015
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 25 August 2015

To ask the Scottish Government at what time ministers were informed that 999 calls in Shetland could not be connected on 25 July 2015.

<>The Scottish Government was notified by BT of a telecoms failure occurring on Orkney at 15:12 on 25 July, 2015. Transport Scotland notified Ministers shortly after this time that Sumburgh Airport on Shetland has been impacted. At that stage BT had not identified a problem on Shetland as a result of the Orkney fault other than the issue at Sumburgh Airport. As BT’s investigations progressed the Scottish Government was notified on 27 July 2015 that 999 services on Shetland had been widely impacted due to the fault on Orkney.

Question reference: S4W-26868

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 24 July 2015
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 August 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-26305 by Humza Yousaf on 22 July 2015, whether the First Minister plans to follow up her meeting with the US Deputy Secretary of State with a written representation on the case of Shaker Aamer.

Question reference: S4W-26869

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 24 July 2015
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 August 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-26305 by Humza Yousaf on 22 July 2015, for what reason the answer did not address whether the case of Shaker Aamer was discussed at the meeting.

Question reference: S4W-26871

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 24 July 2015
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 August 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-26305 by Humza Yousaf on 22 July 2015, whether the (a) Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Europe and External Affairs or (b) Minister for Europe and International Development was consulted about whether the case of Shaker Aamer should be raised at the First Minister’s meeting with the US Deputy Secretary of State.

Question reference: S4W-26870

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 24 July 2015
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 August 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-26305 by Humza Yousaf on 22 July 2015, whether notes on the case of Shaker Aamer were included in the First Minister’s briefing pack for her meeting with the US Deputy Secretary of State.