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-02044

Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 August 2011
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 31 August 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with the Republic of Ireland Government regarding properties in Scotland subject to enforcement action by the National Asset Management Agency, given the potential impact on the Scottish Government's regeneration activities in the relevant areas.

So far as the Scottish Government is aware, NAMA (National Asset Management Agency) is following normal commercial practice in relation to its enforcement action. Only one property concerned falls within a Scottish Urban Regeneration Company (URC) operational area, Riverside Inverclyde. A number of public realm improvements have taken place in West Blackhall Street, benefitting Greenock Town Centre generally, using monies from the Scottish Government’s Town Centre Regeneration Fund. As such we do not believe that NAMA’s actions have a significant impact on our regeneration activities and no discussions have taken place with the Republic of Ireland’s Government on the matter.

Question reference: S4W-01114

Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 18 July 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what NHS Lanarkshire's budget for the provision of optometry services is in 2011-12.

NHS Boards are not provided with allocations for General Ophthalmic Services (GOS).

GOS is a demand led primary care service. The GOS budget is non-discretionary and NHS Boards are funded to the level of their expenditure in meeting the costs in their area of providing the NHS eye examinations, optical vouchers issued and the fees for domiciliary visits. The total GOS budget for Scotland for 2011-12 is £93 million.

Question reference: S4W-01598

Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 July 2011
Current Status: Answered by Mary Scanlon on 7 July 2011

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body how many (a) media and (b) publicity officers it has employed in each year since 1999.

The Scottish Parliament employs media officers.

Excluding the Head of Office please find below the number of full time media officer posts at the start of each year since 1999. This includes a number of posts which were fixed term and secondments.

In November 2010, the Scottish Parliament committed to reducing its overall Parliament staff complement by around 50 staff by 31 March 2013. A review of the Media Relations Office was undertaken in early 2011 and the office is now staffed by five media officer posts.

1999	2 media officers
2000	2 media officers
2001	2 media officers
2002	3 media officers
2003	3 media officers
2004	4 media officers
2005	4 media officers
2006	4 media officers
2007	4 media officers
2008	7 media officers
2009	6 media officers (+1 vacant post)
2010	7 media officers
July 2011	5 media officers

Question reference: S4O-00098

Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 June 2011
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with NHS boards and local authorities regarding care home places for people with dementia.

Question reference: S4W-00392

Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 May 2011
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 13 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W–19965 by John Swinney on 27 January 2009, whether it will review the core funding to the Improvement Service.

Question reference: S4W-00393

Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 May 2011
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 13 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding it provided to the Improvement Service in 2010–11.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-392 on 13 June 2011. It states, the Scottish Government provided no core funding to the Improvement Service in 2010-11. Grant funding of £704,920 was provided for specific projects. These projects cover shared services, the DirectScot Public Services Portal, the Planning Development Programme, an economic development framework for Local Government and three pilot projects with Community Planning Partnerships.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

Question reference: S4W-00394

Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 May 2011
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 9 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how it is monitoring progress on the shared services agenda in relation to the Clyde Valley Review of Joint Working and Shared Services.

Question reference: S4W-00395

Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 May 2011
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 9 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the local authorities that agreed to participate in the Clyde Valley Shared Service Initiative are participating in the Clyde Valley Review of Joint Working and Shared Services.

Question reference: S4O-00028

Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 June 2011
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what statutory duties local authorities have for the provision of education for those seeking refugee status.

Question reference: S3W-40560

Asked by: John Wilson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 21 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what measures it takes to monitor the performance of local authorities in relation to empty homes

Bringing empty properties back into use is a matter for individual authorities. Where there are significant issues locally we would expect authorities to address these in their local housing strategies. However, a variety of information is collected and published on empty homes in Scotland.

Information on empty homes in Scotland is primarily collected through data from the council tax system. This information is provided by local authorities and includes data on how many properties are unoccupied, how many properties are long term empty, how much of a discount is offered for long empty properties and how much money is raised by reducing the 50% discount for long term empty properties. This includes data for both private and social sectors. Information is also collected on second homes through these data collections on council tax. Information on long-term empty housing is not routinely published but is available on request from the Statistical Support for Local Government team ([email protected]). More general council tax information can be found at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Local-Government-Finance/DatasetsCouncilTax.

More information is also collected on vacancies specifically within local authority managed social properties. This information is also provided directly from local authorities and includes information on the number of vacancies, how long the properties have been vacant and the reasons why the properties are vacant. This information is published through the Housing Statistics for Scotland publication and can be found at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk./Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/HSfS/StockManagement.