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: S5W-11594

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 September 2017
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 24 October 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has carried out of the economic impact on Scotland of digital currencies, such as the bitcoin, and whether it has discussed with the Treasury what can be done to ensure that their use complies with anti-money laundering regulations.

Question reference: S5W-11595

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 September 2017
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 9 October 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many new public sector jobs (a) it and (b) its agencies have announced in each local authority area in each year since 1999, and how many jobs were created.

Information on Public Sector job announcements are not tracked or held centrally.

Whilst the Scottish Government's Human Resources system is able to provide the net change between the number of staff in post at points in time - and this is published in the Scottish Government Workforce Information publication (https://beta.gov.scot/publications/workforce-information/) - this would include circumstances such as backfilling vacancies and restructuring so would not give an accurate picture of how many new jobs were created. Records of public sector jobs created in NHS, Police, Fire and Local Authorities are not held by the Scottish Government.

Records of public sector jobs created in NHS, Police, Fire and Local Authorities are not held by the Scottish Government. Staffing changes over time can be reviewed at https://beta.gov.scot/publications/public-sector-employment-scotland-statistics-4th-quarter-2016/

Question reference: S5O-01342

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 September 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 October 2017

To ask the Scottish Government on what date it will publish its proposals for setting the level of income tax.

Question reference: S5W-10905

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 25 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 14 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many tram tickets for travel to Edinburgh Airport were purchased by passengers departing from Edinburgh Gateway Station since it opened, and how many of these tickets were prepaid.

Question reference: S5W-10907

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 14 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many joint train and tram tickets have been purchased for journeys starting in Fife and connecting through Edinburgh Gateway Station, since it opened.

Question reference: S5W-10904

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 31 August 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with (a) Public Health England and (b) the Food Standards Agency regarding the threat of hepatitis E from pork products purchased in supermarkets in Scotland.

The Scottish Government is part of the Scottish Health Protection Network Hepatitis E sub-group, a multi-agency group which includes representatives from Health Protection Scotland, Public Health England and Food Standards Scotland, which is leading work to improve the understanding of hepatitis E epidemiology in Scotland, and identify actions that can be taken to reduce the risks it poses to health in Scotland.

The Scottish Government is also part of the UK Zoonoses, Animal Diseases and Infections (UKZADI) subgroup on Hepatitis E in the Food Chain, which includes representatives from Food Standards Scotland, Health Protection Scotland, Public Health England and the Food Standards Agency. This work aims to identify policy options for managing and reducing any potential risk to public health from foodborne Hepatitis E Virus in the food chain in respect of farming, food processing, and food consumption.

Question reference: S5O-01197

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 August 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish its response to the Barclay review of non-domestic rates.

Question reference: S5W-09835

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 June 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 19 July 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how the R100 open market review will help communities that are currently waiting at the bottom of a queue for Community Broadband Scotland funding.

Broadband, like defence and foreign affairs, is a matter reserved to the UK Parliament. Despite this, the Scottish Government has committed to extending superfast broadband access to 100% of premises by 2021 through the Reaching 100% (R100) programme.

The R100 Open Market Review is identifying those premises that do not currently have access to superfast broadband, and those for which there are no commercial delivery plans over the next three years. This information will then form the basis of a draft ‘intervention area’, which will be tested through a State Aid Public Consultation. This is a necessary precursor to public sector investment in broadband infrastructure, and will allow initial procurements to be launched later this year.

We expect that communities will then have the choice of continuing with their current proposals, or waiting on the outcome of initial R100 procurements. This would be a decision for the communities themselves. The State Aid process outlined above has the flexibility to allow a reasonable timescale for the Community Broadband Scotland schemes in the current pipeline to make a decision as to how they would like to proceed.

Question reference: S5W-09838

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 June 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 19 July 2017

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish the findings of the R100 review.

Question reference: S5W-10277

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 10 July 2017
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 19 July 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether there are plans to enact Part 7 of the Planning etc. (Scotland) Act 2006.

Part 7 of the Planning etc. (Scotland) Act 2006 would give Scottish Ministers powers to assess a planning authority's performance or decision making. We currently have no plans to commence this part of the Act.

The Scottish Government’s relationship with authorities changed in November 2007 with the signing of the concordat with COSLA. In the Concordat, the Scottish Government agreed to stand back from micro-managing local authorities. Part 7 was therefore, not commenced.

Instead, a planning performance framework was introduced voluntarily by Heads of Planning Scotland in 2011 which provides a holistic view of planning authorities’ performance and service quality.

The recent Places, People and Planning – Position Statement stated that we would continue to work with the High Level Group on Planning Performance and others in pursuit of improved performance.