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-17432

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 3 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has commissioned research on whether there are barriers to the full use of the available legislation for the provision of kinship care placements.

The Scottish Government has funded CELCIS (the Centre for Excellence for Looked after children In Scotland) specifically to address issues and improve practice for Looked After Children. Further, significant engagement has been undertaken with a wide range of stakeholders to explore areas where legislation or practice could be improved to achieve better outcomes for children and young people and this consultative work is currently on-going.

Question reference: S4W-17429

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 3 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether priority access to specialist psychological and therapeutic services will be available to children subject to kinship care orders under the Children and Young People (Scotland) Bill.

All children in need are entitled to access services and those with a kinship care order will require to ask for a referral in the same way as families of other children. The therapeutic services introduced by the Bill will be available to all children and will be available based on need not status. It is further expected that the statutory implementation of a “named person” will allow families to access services more easily.

Question reference: S4W-17434

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 3 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide extra funding to support kinship care placements.

Question reference: S4W-17428

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 3 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the Department of Work and Pensions on the benefit entitlements for kinship carers proposed by the Children and Young People (Scotland) Bill.

Question reference: S4W-17433

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 3 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether it considers that there are barriers to the full implementation of the kinship care orders proposed by the Children and Young People (Scotland) Bill and, if so, what these are.

Question reference: S4W-17430

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 3 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many children have been given formal kinship care status in each of the last three years.

Question reference: S4W-17431

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 3 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has issued guidance to local authorities on reducing the number of children receiving formal kinship care.

Question reference: S4O-02494

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S4O-02460

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 2 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made on increasing the number of teachers employed on permanent contracts.

My answer to Angus MacDonald a few minutes ago covered this.

We now have the strongest level of teacher employment in years, and the lowest level of teacher unemployment since the current Jobseekers Allowance time-series began in 2005. This constitutes tremendous progress.

You will appreciate, of course, that the employment of teachers is a matter for local authorities. That includes the nature of contracts they offer, for example, whether permanent or temporary.

On the specific matter of permanent contracts, which is what the question asks about, the General Teaching Council for Scotland’s post-probation employment surveys have shown a rising trend in the use of permanent contracts over recent years; up from 22.9% in spring 2011 to 50.3% in spring 2013, better than doubling over two years.

There is also now a Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers pay offer on the table, which I hope the teacher unions will accept.

Question reference: S4O-02338

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 August 2013
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 4 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what the impact on the Scottish economy will be of the recently reported record investment in the North Sea.

Oil and Gas UK expect capital investment in the North Sea to reach an all-time record of £13.5 billion this year.

This will bring a significant boost to the Scottish economy. In 2012, oil and gas production was estimated to have contributed around £22 billion to Scottish GDP and approximately 225,000 people across Scotland are estimated to be employed directly or indirectly in the sector. It is therefore clear that the industry will continue to make an important contribution to the Scottish economy for years to come.