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: S3W-11864

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 April 2008
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 23 April 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will hold discussions with the UK Government with a view to enabling concessionary bus travel passes to be accepted throughout the whole of the United Kingdom.

Question reference: S3W-11632

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 April 2008
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 22 April 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to encourage the parents of pupils in private schools to choose to send their children to their local state school.

Question reference: S3W-11626

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 April 2008
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 22 April 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what examination it has undertaken of the propriety of it subsidising post offices in Scotland.

Question reference: S3W-11633

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 April 2008
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 22 April 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what estimate it has made of the impact of pupils attending private schools in Edinburgh on the provision of public education in the city.

Question reference: S3W-11623

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 April 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 21 April 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive when it plans to introduce legislation to enable inquiries into deaths of Scottish service personnel overseas to be held in Scotland.

Discussions are still continuing with Whitehall departments in efforts to find a solution to this problem. A letter emphasising the need to make progress with this issue was sent to the Secretary of State for Defence on 25 March.

The chief complication is that the subject-matter of inquiries into military deaths is reserved. The Scottish Parliament at present cannot legislate only for military deaths because that would cut across the defence reservation in the Scotland Act 1998.

Ministers are acutely aware of the sensitivity of this subject and will continue to explore with the UK Government how the investigations and inquiries into the deaths of Scottish-based service personnel can be dealt with in a way which minimises the additional distress for bereaved families caused by them having to travel to the south of England for inquest hearings.

There are, however, difficult legal and policy issues which have to be resolved and which will take time to work through. They are likely to require changes in the law on both sides of the border.

Question reference: S3W-11611

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 April 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 21 April 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many prison places there (a) were on 3 May 2007 and (b) are currently, broken down by gender.

I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:

The following table shows the design capacity of the SPS for male and female prisoner places in May 2007 and April 2008.

Month/Year	Gender	Design Capacity
4 May 2007	Male	6,168
	Female	375
11 April 2008	Male	6,251
	Female	375

Question reference: S3W-11636

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 April 2008
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 21 April 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what the practical outcomes have been of the Futures Project since its establishment.

The Futures Project has realised its intended outcomes. The outputs (data and analysis) and approaches from this kind of long-term thinking continue to influence policy-making, including for example the 2007 budget, and we continue to build the working relationship between the Scottish Government and the Scottish Parliament Futures Forum to develop a greater understanding of the challenges and opportunities that will face Scotland in the future.

Question reference: S3W-12156

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 21 April 2008
Current Status: Awaiting answer

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will provide a substantive answer to question S3W-10606 which received a holding answer on 14 March 2008.

Question reference: S3W-12157

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 21 April 2008
Current Status: Awaiting answer

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will provide a substantive answer to question S3W-10605 which received a holding answer on 14 March 2008.

Question reference: S3W-11627

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 April 2008
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 17 April 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of the cost to businesses of mental ill health at work, what support it is providing to cope with this and what plans it has made to develop this.

Improving mental health and wellbeing in employment and working life is one of the six priority areas for action under the government''s National Programme for Improving Mental Health and Wellbeing.

This seeks to contribute “ in a range of settings including the workplace - to the promotion of mental health literacy, to helping to prevent common mental health problems and to supporting those experiencing mental ill-health.

The government funds the Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives to offer support and advice to employers free of charge on a wide range of occupational health and safety issues, including workplace mental wellbeing, through a network of workplace advisers, a website and a telephone advice line.

The centre also offers training to employers in Mentally Healthy Workplaces, delivered in partnership with Jobcentre Plus. This was supported recently by a marketing campaign aimed at raising the awareness of employers to the cost to business of sickness absence due to poor mental health.

The centre operates the Healthy Working Lives award scheme. The scheme embeds workplace mental health as a key criterion in achieving an award and also recognises exceptional effort in addressing workplace mental health and wellbeing through the Health Working Lives Mental Health Commendation award.