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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 696 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S4W-21763

Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 13 June 2014
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 25 June 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what it considers the impact is of the findings of the Review of the Strategic Development Plans in Scotland for regional transport partnerships.

The report of the Review of Strategic Planning was published in April 2014. It included three findings that the research team identified as specifically relevant to Regional Transport Partnerships (RTPs). Officials have met with representatives of the RTPS to consider the findings and discuss the next steps. The Scottish Government has published its response to the review on its planning web page. The actions within the response reflect the discussions with RTPs.

Question reference: S4W-21761

Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 13 June 2014
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 25 June 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the use of the National Standards for Community Engagement in the planning system.

In applying the National Standards for Community Engagement to the planning system, Planning Advice Note 3/2010: Community Engagement recognises that the National Standards, as linked to the VOiCE (Visioning Outcomes in Community Engagement) toolkit are particularly useful and can help plan, monitor and evaluate community engagement.

Both the National Standards and VOiCE were recently used successfully by the Scottish Government in the public engagement on National Planning Framework 3 and Scottish Planning Policy.

Question reference: S4W-21760

Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 13 June 2014
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 25 June 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the findings of the Review of the Strategic Development Plans in Scotland and whether it considers that there is a need for more targeted engagement with the wider community and the use of representative forums.

Question reference: S4W-21667

Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 06 June 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 13 June 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to eradicate racial abuse in schools.

All children and young people should be able to learn in schools free from discrimination to enable them to make the most of their learning. We want every child and young person in Scotland to grow up free from bullying and we want them to develop mutually respectful, responsible and confident relationships with other children, young people and adults.

Curriculum for Excellence aims to provide the right environment to enable young people to develop as informed and responsible global citizens with a knowledge of Scotland and its place in the world and an understanding of different beliefs and cultures. Racism can be addressed across the curriculum for example in expressive arts, health and wellbeing, literacy and English, religious and moral education and social studies.

Citizenship education is embedded throughout Curriculum for Excellence. The aim is to develop Scotland’s children and young people into responsible global citizens with an understanding of Scotland and its place in the world. It addresses the exercising of rights and responsibilities within communities at local, national and global levels, encompassing the development of informed decision making and the ability to take thoughtful and responsible action, locally and globally.

We are clear that bullying of any kind is unacceptable, regardless of the motivation, and should be tackled quickly.

The Equality Act 2010 places duties on local authorities to actively deal with inequality, this may include, harassment or victimisation of pupils on the basis, or a perceived basis, of their race.

We continue to support the national anti-bullying service, respectme, which works with schools, authorities and communities in preventing and tackling bullying effectively. The service provides advice, information and training to those who work directly with children and young people to support improvement in preventing and tackling bullying of any kind. The service works to raise awareness of all types of bullying, including a section on its website covering prejudice bulling.

Education Scotland is the Scottish Government’s executive agency responsible for the national development and improvement of education. It is charged with providing support and challenge to the education system, from early years to adult learning. Education Scotland has a number of useful resources available on their website to practitioners on tackling the issue of racism in schools in Scotland.

Question reference: S4O-03388

Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 June 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 June 2014

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body how many incidents there have been in the Parliament complex since 2012 that have led to police action.

Question reference: S4O-03336

Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 June 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 June 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what measures are being taken to improve early identification and diagnosis of children with asthma.

Question reference: S4O-03233

Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 May 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 May 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many cataract operations the NHS performs each year.

Question reference: S4O-03198

Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 April 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 May 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the Cabinet Secretary for Commonwealth Games, Sports, Equalities and Pensioners' Rights has had regarding the provision of late night or overnight commuter rail services during the Commonwealth Games.

Question reference: S4O-03138

Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 April 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 April 2014

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met the chief executive of Scottish Enterprise.

Question reference: S4W-20247

Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 March 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 26 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what the referral time targets are from GP to community psychiatric unit and which NHS boards (a) have met these targets in each of the last three years and (b) are meeting these targets.

There is no specific referral time target to community psychiatric units.

If a patient is referred for a psychological therapy, the HEAT target to deliver 18 weeks referral to treatment for psychological therapies from December 2014 applies. If a patient is referred to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), the HEAT target to deliver 26 weeks referral to treatment for specialist CAMHS from March 2013, reducing to 18 weeks from December 2014, applies. The data for both these HEAT targets in each NHS board are published quarterly by Information Services Division Scotland (ISD). The latest publication for both took place on 25 February 2014 and can be found on the ISD website.

The 12 week treatment time guarantee ensures that patients who are receiving planned treatment provided on an inpatient or day case basis will not wait longer than 12 weeks from the date the treatment is agreed to the start of treatment. This will more commonly be applied in physical health settings, but can apply to some mental health treatments. The data from the 12 week treatment time guarantee is not broken down to show the type of treatment received.