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: S5W-14975

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 15 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-14146 by Keith Brown on 26 February 2018, how many of the Carillion employees working on the AWPR Aberdeen Roads Limited, both directly or through a labour-only sub-contract through a Carillion subsidiary, have been made redundant as a result of the company's liquidation.

Aberdeen Roads Limited has confirmed that of the 63 Carillion staff on the AWPR site, 2 individuals were not offered a position.

Aberdeen Roads Limited has confirmed that required agency staff are now being contracted through its remaining construction partners, Balfour Beatty and Galliford Try.

We are continuing to work with the contractor and our stakeholders, with a view to delivering the benefits associated with opening areas of the project as soon as it is safe to do so.

Question reference: S5W-14806

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 15 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether a national system for recording the deaths of young people who have been at any stage looked-after is in place and, if not, what its position is on introducing one.

Under regulation 6 of the Looked After Children (Scotland) Regulations 2009 , local authorities have a duty to notify the Care Inspectorate of the death of a looked after child or young person. The guidance relating to these regulations requires local authorities to submit a report and supporting documentation following notification of a death.

In addition to this, work is underway to introduce a system with the aim of reducing the number of child deaths in Scotland which will include the deaths of all live born children up to the date of their 18th birthday and the deaths of looked after young people in receipt of aftercare or continuing care at the time of their death, up to the date of their 26th birthday.

Question reference: S5W-14643

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 15 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what target has been set to increase the number of businesses that have signed the Scottish Business Pledge.

Question reference: S5W-15063

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 15 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-14494 by Aileen Campbell on 28 February 2018, for what reason this information was not published on 16 February 2018.

Question reference: S5W-14694

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 16 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 15 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-13936 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 31 January 2018, what discussions it has had with the Commission for Fair Access regarding the key stakeholder group; who it is inviting to form that group and when it will announce the membership; when the group will commence its work; whether the group will be able to make admissions to the Fair Access Agenda and, if so, by when it must do so, and what links the group will have with the working group on admissions that has been set up by Universities Scotland.

The Access Data Working Group has been established by the Scottish Government with the aim of assisting with the delivery of Recommendation 31 from the Commission on Widening Access:

Recommendation 31: The Scottish Government and the Scottish Funding Council, working with key stakeholders, should develop a consistent and robust set of measures to identify access students by 2018.

The group is a technical working group. Membership includes representatives from Universities Scotland, the Scottish Funding Council and the National Union of Students Scotland.

Work to deliver Recommendation 31 will be monitored by the Access Delivery Group, which oversees implementation of all Commission recommendations. The Commissioner for Fair Access is an observer on this group. The target date for delivery of Recommendation 31 is the end of 2018.

The working group met for the first time on 13 March 2018.

Question reference: S5W-14805

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 15 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether a national system for recording the outcomes of looked-after young people who have been looked after at any time is in place and, if not, what its position is on introducing one.

Question reference: S5W-14804

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 15 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether there is a statutory requirement to record the nature of and number of looked-after young people who die each year and if (a) so, (i) under what legislation and (ii) what the figure is for each of the last 10 years (b) not, what its position is on introducing such a requirement.

Under regulation 6 of the Looked After Children (Scotland) Regulations 2009 , local authorities have a duty to notify the Care Inspectorate of the death of a looked after child. The guidance to these regulations requires local authorities to submit a report and supporting documentation following notification of a death.

There is no statutory requirement to collate numbers of looked after young people who have died, however this information is recorded through the notification process and shared with the Scottish Government.

1. Deaths of looked after children in Scotland 2009 – 2017

Year	Number
2009	18
2010	6
2011	6
2012	8
2013	9
2014	8
2015	3
2016	5
2017	8

2. Cause of death of looked after children in Scotland 2009 – 2017

Cause of death	Numbers of children
Life-limiting conditions	18
Health-related (complex health conditions, illness)	18
Accidental death	12
Drug-related	8
Suicide	10
Sudden unexplained death in infancy (SUDI)	2
Unknown /unascertained	2
Murder	1

Question reference: S5O-01913

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 March 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that people do not lose universal credit because of the starter rate of income tax.

Question reference: S5W-14998

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 14 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what data it collects on the number of victims who have provided statements ahead of sentencing, and what this represents as a percentage of the overall number of cases.

The Scottish Government do not hold the data requested. The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) manage the process of informing victims if they are eligible to make a Victim Impact Statement (VIS). COPFS do not collect data on the number of victims who have provided a VIS ahead of sentencing as their case management database does not enable such data to be collected automatically and the time taken to complete this task manually is considered to be prohibitive.

Question reference: S5W-15008

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 14 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government by what means home detention curfew orders are communicated to the families of victims where the offender has received a sentence of four years or less.

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

All victims who are registered with the Victim Notification Scheme are entitled to know the date of release of an offender. This includes the date of release on Home Detention Curfew. Those victims of offenders sentenced to 18 months or more are entitled to make representations to the Scottish Prison Service when the offender is being considered for release. These representations will inform licence conditions and where a licence condition is included which relates to the victim, or their family, the victim is informed of the licence condition. The communication of the decision and any licence conditions is in writing.