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-11659

Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 December 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 11 December 2012

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-10484 by Michael Russell on 29 November 2012, how many students were eligible to pay the graduate endowment on graduating in (a) 2003-04, (b) 2004-05, (c) 2005-06 and (d) 2006-07.

The following table shows the number of students that were eligible to pay the graduate endowment, broken down by the year they graduated. These figures do not include students who have deferred their payments while they complete a postgraduate course.

Year of graduation	Number of students
2003-04	1,021
2004-05	8,728
2005-06	11,821
2006-07	1,492

There are an additional 470 students who graduated between 2003-04 and 2006-07 and are eligible to pay the fee but it was not possible to determine their exact year of graduation.

Question reference: S4O-01616

Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 December 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 December 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on Scotland Excel's consultation on a proposed national framework for residential children’s care services.

Question reference: S4W-10483

Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 October 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 29 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what the average student debt has been of university students in their final year of study whose parental income was less than £17,000, in each year since 2001-02.

<>The Student Loans Company does not hold information on student loan debt broken down by parental income. The Student Loans Company’s publication Income Contingent Repayments by Repayment Cohort and Tax Year 2000-01 to 2010-11 shows that average debt was £5,980 for borrowers who started to repay in 2011. Please see Table 3(iii) in the report which is available here: http://www.slc.co.uk/media/333195/slcosp052012.pdf

Question reference: S4W-10484

Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 October 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 29 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how many students paid back their graduate endowment on graduating or added it to their student loan debt in (a) 2001-02, (b) 2002-03, (c) 2004-05, (d) 2005-06 and (e) 2006-07.

The following table shows the number of graduate endowment customers who have repaid or added the amount of their graduate endowment to their student loan debt, from 2003 to 2007. The Student Loans Company (SLC) do not hold any data for 2001-02 or 2002-03.

Last Academic year prior to repayment [1]	Count of Customers who took out a loan to cover the graduate endowment.[2]
2003-04	1,080
2004-05	5,660
2005-06	7,330
2006-07	410

Source: Student Loans Company

[1] This is the academic year on which the loan is taken out. Not necessarily the last academic year prior to graduation. SLC does not know if the customer graduated or not.

[2] Figures are rounded to the nearest 10.

As at 31 March 2012, there have been 7,220 individuals who have paid their graduate endowment amount in full to the Student Awards Agency Scotland.do not hold information on when these students made the payments so it is not possible to break down this information by year.

Question reference: S4W-11149

Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 November 2012
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 28 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how many properties VisitScotland has classified under its quality assurance scheme, broken down by (a) star rating and (b) type of accommodation.

At present 8,818 businesses take part in the VisitScotland Quality Assurance(QA) scheme. This covers restaurants, attractions, pubs, bars and restaurants as well as accommodation providers. It includes a further 1,280 self-catering properties which are now being assessed to the VisitScotland QA standard, as part of the recent partnership agreement with Hoseasons in Scotland. The table also shows the 262 businesses which have properties with a range of gradings. This includes businesses which, for example, operate multiple self-catering units which are individually graded.

The number of businesses broken down by star rating is shown in the following table.

Star rating	Numbers
1 star	40
2 star	370
3 star	2,827
4 star	2,908
5 star	389
1 – 5 stars	262
EatScotland Gold	17
EatScotland Silver	77
EatScotland Award	212
EatScotland – Below Award	4
Awaiting grading	124
On hold	150
Pass	158
Running total	7,538
Hoseasons	1,280
Total	8,818

The number of businesses broken down by their classification is shown in the following table.

Classification	Numbers
Hotel	827
Small serviced accommodation	2,051
Self-catering	2,573
Serviced apartment	38
Hostel	209
Camping and caravan parks	251
Individual caravan holiday home	39
Visitor attraction	1,218
EatScotland	332
Running total	7,538
Hoseasons	1,280
Total	8,818

Full details of the VisitScotland Quality Assurance scheme can be found using the url:

http://www.visitscotland.org/business_support/quality_assurance.aspx

Question reference: S4W-11150

Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 November 2012
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 28 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how often a property classified by VisitScotland under its quality assurance scheme is reinspected.

All accommodation scheme and EatScotland participants are visited annually. Participants in the visitor attraction scheme are visited every two years. VisitScotland are currently undertaking a pilot with the Association of Scottish Self Caterers regarding scheduling visits every two years for their members

Full details of the VisitScotland quality assurance scheme are available using the url: http://www.visitscotland.org/business_support/quality_assurance.aspx.

Question reference: S4W-10485

Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 October 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 27 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how many students have paid back their graduate endowment in full or have a balance remaining.

Question reference: S4W-11148

Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 November 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 22 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government (a) how many and (b) what percentage of people have had (i) an eye test and (ii) two dental examinations in each of the last three years, broken down by (A) NHS board, (B) gender and (C) age.

Question reference: S4W-11147

Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 November 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 22 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) deaths and (b) hospitalisations have been caused by so-called legal highs in each of the last three years, broken down by (i) NHS board and (ii) drug.

Information on the number of deaths caused by so-called legal highs is not held centrally. There is no standard definition of legal highs, therefore it is not possible to produce comprehensive statistics for deaths in Scotland where legal highs were implicated in, or potentially contributed to, the cause of death.

National Records of Scotland (NRS) collect data on drug related deaths registered in Scotland, providing data on:

Drugs (where reported) which were implicated in or potentially contributed to, the cause of death.
Drugs (where reported) which were found to be present in the body.

Data are published annually by NRS and their most recent report, Drug Related Deaths in Scotland 2011 was published on 17 August 2012 and available via:

http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/theme/vital-events/deaths/drug-related/2011/index.html

Question reference: S4F-00980

Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 November 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 November 2012

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government’s position is on the likely impact of the proposed job losses at BBC Scotland.