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: S5O-01224

Asked by: Colin Beattie, MSP for Midlothian North and Musselburgh, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 7 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what financial and employment support it plans to give fishing communities after the UK leaves the EU.

EU funding, such as the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund, which includes match funding from the Scottish Government, has made a vital contribution to safeguarding jobs and ensuring the prosperity of our fishing communities.

Our communities and businesses expect and deserve clarity from the UK Government on the future arrangements that will replace these vital funding streams in the event that the UK departs from the EU. I recently wrote to Michael Gove requesting such clarity but his reply only referred vaguely to future consultations on the matter. It is imperative for the UK Government to confirm that Scotland would receive its fair share of funding in the future, at a level which properly reflects the importance of fisheries and other marine sectors in our rural economy, as well as the powers to determine how best to invest it.

Question reference: S5O-01226

Asked by: Colin Beattie, MSP for Midlothian North and Musselburgh, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 September 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how its targets on climate change and sustainable development are supported through renewable energy projects such as the turbines in the Pentland Firth.

Question reference: S5O-01173

Asked by: Colin Beattie, MSP for Midlothian North and Musselburgh, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 June 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the impact on Scotland of the equalities and social security aspects of proposals in The Queen's Speech.

Question reference: S5O-01137

Asked by: Colin Beattie, MSP for Midlothian North and Musselburgh, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 June 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many nurses from the rest of the EU have registered to work in Scotland since the EU referendum was held, in light of a recent report suggesting that there has been a 96% decline for the UK as a whole.

Question reference: S5O-01070

Asked by: Colin Beattie, MSP for Midlothian North and Musselburgh, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what recent steps it has taken to promote culture and tourism in Midlothian and East Lothian.

Question reference: S5O-00989

Asked by: Colin Beattie, MSP for Midlothian North and Musselburgh, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 May 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether there are plans for the Access to Elected Office Fund Scotland to be open to disabled people wishing to be nominated for the 2017 General Election.

Question reference: S5O-00935

Asked by: Colin Beattie, MSP for Midlothian North and Musselburgh, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 3 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to support adults who wish to return to education.

Question reference: S5O-00843

Asked by: Colin Beattie, MSP for Midlothian North and Musselburgh, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 29 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to promote apprenticeship schemes.

The Scottish Government's skills agency Skills Development Scotland promotes Modern Apprenticeships in a number of ways including its Apprenticeship.scot website and My World of Work. Through the Developing the Young Workforce agenda we are taking forward the promotion of all options for young people, including apprenticeships.

Earlier this month the Scottish Government supported Scottish Apprenticeship Week 2017. This was the most comprehensive Scottish Apprenticeship Week to date with all Scottish Government Ministers undertaking an event to promote the benefits of apprenticeships to employers and to participants. Also involved in the Scottish Apprenticeship Week activities were schools, employers, apprentices, colleges, councils and training providers.

Question reference: S5W-07313

Asked by: Colin Beattie, MSP for Midlothian North and Musselburgh, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 17 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what role it considers that the Open University can play in widening access to education in Scotland.

The Open University’s open access policy, combined with its flexibility and support has always provided an opportunity for learners from a range of backgrounds to access and study higher education courses in Scotland. In particular, the flexibility of part-time distance learning can remove barriers faced by some learners for whom full-time study at university would prove difficult e.g. those with caring responsibilities, in employment or living in remote locations.

Question reference: S5W-07382

Asked by: Colin Beattie, MSP for Midlothian North and Musselburgh, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 1 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many schools in each local authority have been (a) rebuilt and (b) refurbished in each year since 2007.

2. Information specifying whether a school was built or refurbished is not available until 2009-10

Table 2: Number of schools which have been built or substantially refurbished¹ in the financial year 2009-10 by local authority


	Built	Substantially refurbished	Not specified²
Aberdeen City	6	0	0
Aberdeenshire	0	0	0
Angus	2	0	0
Argyll and Bute	0	0	0
Clackmannanshire	1	0	0
Dumfries and Galloway	10	1	0
Dundee City	2	0	0
East Ayrshire	0	0	0
East Dunbartonshire	6	1	0
East Lothian	0	1	0
East Renfrewshire	0	1	0
Edinburgh, City of	6	0	1
Eilean Siar	0	0	0
Falkirk	2	2	0
Fife	0	2	0
Glasgow City	4	2	1
Highland	1	6	1
Inverclyde	2	0	0
Midlothian	3	0	0
Moray	0	0	0
North Ayrshire	0	0	0
North Lanarkshire	0	0	0
Orkney Islands	0	1	0
Perth and Kinross	6	2	1
Renfrewshire	0	3	0
Scottish Borders	2	1	0
Shetland Islands	0	0	0
	Built	Substantially refurbished	Not specified²
South Ayrshire	0	0	0
South Lanarkshire	9	4	0
Stirling	0	1	0
West Dunbartonshire	1	0	2
West Lothian	2	3	1
Total	65	31	7

1. Only builds or refurbishments with a cost of £500,000 or more for primary and £1 million or more for secondary and special schools are included

2. The data collected did not distinguish whether it was a new build or a refurbishment

Table 3: Number of schools which have been built¹ in the financial years 2010-11 to 2015-16 by local authority

Built

	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16
Aberdeen City	2	1	0	0	0	1
Aberdeenshire	0	0	0	0	1	3
Angus	1	0	0	0	0	1
Argyll and Bute	0	0	0	0	0	0
Clackmannanshire	0	0	0	0	1	0
Dumfries and Galloway	3	0	1	1	1	0
Dundee City	1	1	1	2	0	0
East Ayrshire	0	0	5	1	0	0
East Dunbartonshire	0	0	0	0	0	1
East Lothian	0	1	0	0	0	0
East Renfrewshire	0	1	0	1	0	0
Edinburgh, City of	0	0	0	0	0	1
Eilean Siar	0	3	4	0	0	0
Falkirk	0	0	0	0	0	0
Fife	0	1	1	1	1	0
Glasgow City	2	2	2	0	1	0
Highland	0	0	3	0	0	5
Inverclyde	0	2	0	3	0	0
Midlothian	0	0	1	1	0	0
Moray	0	1	1	0	0	0
North Ayrshire	0	0	1	0	1	0
North Lanarkshire	0	5	4	0	0	1
Orkney Islands	0	0	1	1	0	0
Perth and Kinross	2	1	0	0	1	2
Renfrewshire	0	0	1	0	1	0
Scottish Borders	0	0	1	1	0	0
Shetland Islands	2	0	0	0	0	0
South Ayrshire	1	0	0	1	0	0
South Lanarkshire	14	11	11	16	14	4
Stirling	0	0	1	0	0	0
West Dunbartonshire	3	2	0	1	0	0
				Built
	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16
West Lothian	0	1	0	1	0	0
Total	31	33	39	31	22	19

1. Only builds with a cost of £500,000 or more for primary and £1 million or more for secondary and special schools are included

Table 4: Number of schools which have been substantially refurbished¹ in the financial years 2010-11 to 2015-16 by local authority

Substantially refurbished

	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16
Aberdeen City	1	0	0	1	0	0
Aberdeenshire	1	0	0	0	4	3
Angus	1	0	0	0	0	0
Argyll & Bute	0	0	0	0	0	0
Clackmannanshire	0	0	0	0	0	0
Dumfries & Galloway	2	0	3	5	1	2
Dundee City	0	1	0	0	0	0
East Ayrshire	0	0	3	0	1	0
East Dunbartonshire	0	0	0	0	0	0
East Lothian	2	0	0	2	0	1
East Renfrewshire	0	0	0	0	0	1
Edinburgh, City of	0	0	0	6	4	8
Eilean Siar	0	0	0	0	0	0
Falkirk	0	0	1	0	0	2
Fife	5	1	2	1	0	1
Glasgow City	1	1	0	2	43	0
Highland	0	0	1	2	2	0
Inverclyde	0	1	3	2	0	2
Midlothian	0	0	0	1	0	0
Moray	0	0	0	0	1	1
North Ayrshire	3	2	0	2	0	1
North Lanarkshire	0	0	4	0	0	1
Orkney Islands	0	0	0	0	0	0
Perth & Kinross	0	0	1	3	1	0
Renfrewshire	0	1	2	0	0	0
Scottish Borders	2	1	0	0	0	0
Shetland Islands	0	0	0	1	0	0
South Ayrshire	1	1	0	3	2	0
South Lanarkshire	1	0	1	0	0	1
Stirling	1	1	0	1	0	0
West Dunbartonshire	0	0	0	0	0	1
West Lothian	3	3	0	0	0	0
Total	24	13	21	32	59	25

1. Only refurbishments with a cost of £500,000 or more for primary and £1 million or more for secondary and special schools are included