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-00930

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 24 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive when it expects work on the Scottish Crime Campus to be completed and whether the work is currently (a) on budget and (b) on time.

Question reference: S4W-00923

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 24 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how much it will cost to roll out the Family Nurse Partnership across Scotland.

Question reference: S4W-00933

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 24 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it holds on the number of (a) grocery, (b) butcher, (c) baker, (d) fishmonger, (e) newsagent, (f) confectionery and (g) tobacco retail outlets in the most recent period for which it is available, and on the number of wholesalers in each category.

Data on business sites by industrial sector in Scotland are available from the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR). The IDBR is maintained by the Office for National Statistics and is a database of all registered enterprises operating in the UK i.e. enterprises that are registered for VAT and/or PAYE. The IDBR covers 99% of economic activity in the UK. Those excluded are small soletraders or partnerships with no employees and an annual turnover of less than the VAT threshold (£68,000 as at March 2010).

Business sites are categorised on the IDBR according to the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) 2007. It is not possible to obtain figures for the exact categories requested due to the structure of the SIC 2007. The figures in the following table are the closest equivalents available.

Table 1 contains the number of business sites by SIC 2007 code for the most recent period available.

Table 1: Number of Business Sites in Selected Retail/Wholesale Industrial Classifications, March 2010

SIC 2007	Description	Business Sites
47210	Retail sale of fruit and vegetables, in specialised stores	365
47220	Retail sale of meat and meat products in specialised stores	725
47230	Retail sale of fish, crustaceans and molluscs in specialised stores	245
47240	Retail sale of bread, cakes, flour confectionary and sugar confectionary in specialised stores	820
47260	Retail sale of tobacco products in specialised stores	220
47620	Retail sale of newspapers and stationery in specialised stores	640
46310	Wholesale of fruit and vegetables	190
46320	Wholesale of meat and meat products	155
46350	Wholesale of tobacco products	5
46360	Wholesale of sugar and chocolate and sugar confectionary	45
46380	Wholesale of other food, including fish, crustaceans and molluscs	265

Source: Inter-Departmental Business Register, ONS.

Notes:

Business site counts are rounded to the nearest five.

Business sites are the individual sites within an enterprise, i.e. every store, branch, office within an enterprise.

Question reference: S4W-00922

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 24 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will roll out the Family Nurse Partnership across Scotland.

Question reference: S4W-00927

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 24 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive when it expects the second phase of HMP Shotts to be completed.

Question reference: S4W-00919

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 24 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what recommendations it has taken forward from the 2006 report, Review of Public Procurement in Scotland.

The Public Procurement Reform Programme was initiated to implement the recommendations of the Review of Public Procurement in Scotland Report. Since 2006, all 82 recommendations have been taken forward. The Efficiencies from Procurement Report that was published on 17 November 2010 provides further information on progress with procurement reform. http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2010/11/17094015/0.

Question reference: S4W-00921

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 24 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress it has made on introducing a new minimum standard for MRSA screening.

All NHS boards in Scotland have introduced targeted screening for MRSA since January 2010. Building on this, on 23 February 2011, the Scottish Government announced new minimum standards for MRSA screening in Scottish hospitals, based on the recommendations of the Healthcare Associated Infection Task Force and the MRSA Screening Programme Board, and informed by world leading scientific based study in Scotland. The new arrangements, which will extend existing practice are to be in place no later than 31 March 2012. Health Protection Scotland is working with NHS boards to co-ordinate roll-out of the new national minimum screening policy.

Question reference: S4W-00929

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 24 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what measures it will take forward to establish a maximum waiting time of 12 months for IVF treatment and what the financial implications of this are for NHS boards.

Question reference: S4W-00916

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 24 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to increase the East of Scotland Investment Fund in (a) 2011-12 and (b) 2012-13.

The East of Scotland Investment Fund (ESIF) provides loan finance to new and growing small to medium sized enterprises within the east of Scotland. ESIF secured funding of £5 million over five years, 1 April 2010 to 21 December 2015, from the consortium of nine east of Scotland local authorities members, the Royal Bank of Scotland and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The full £1,761,000 ERDF contribution was drawn down at the start of the project. There are currently no plans to increase the resources available.

Question reference: S4W-00925

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 24 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-38805 by Kenny MacAskill on 24 January 2011, whether it remains its position that the construction of HMP Low Moss will be completed in autumn 2011.