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-07703

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 06 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 15 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the statement in the publication, On Board: A Guide for Board Members of Public Bodies in Scotland, that it is the responsibility of boards to participate "in shared services and/or collaborative service delivery arrangements", what its position is on boards having the right to refuse to participate in collaborative service delivery arrangements if they deem them to be damaging to their own roles and responsibilities.

Question reference: S5W-07780

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 06 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 15 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what funding it will provide to the rural economy hub.

Question reference: S5W-07701

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 06 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 15 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the statement in the publication, On Board: A Guide for Board Members of Public Bodies in Scotland, that the "Chief Executive of the public body is employed and appointed by the Board (with approval of Scottish Ministers)", whether it considers that the recommendation in Professor Crerar's report, Proposals on Governance and the Creation of a Strategic Board, that ministers should appoint members to the proposed Strategic Board, as well as agency chairs, (a) will have an impact on the autonomy of the agencies and (b) is consistent with the guide.

The Scottish Government is considering the detail of the proposals outlined by Professor Crerar, the views of the Ministerial Review Group and wider interests in taking forward the development of the Strategic Board. In line with “On Board” guidance, we have confirmed that individual Agencies will continue to employ and appoint Chief Executives to undertake their formal responsibilities in delivering the functions of the agencies. The Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Jobs and Fair Work has committed to make a statement to Parliament in the coming weeks.

Question reference: S5W-07778

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 06 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 15 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what the remit of the rural economy hub is, and what considerations it will give to island communities.

The Rural Economy Hub is an internal Scottish Government mechanism that brings together all parts of Government working in areas that support Scotland's rural economy, and co-ordinates them into a single coherent framework that maximises the impact of policy interventions on the rural economy, and thus the delivery of the Scottish Government's aspirations for rural Scotland.

This co-ordinating mechanism is resourced by officials from within existing resources, with a remit to develop actions which will help to grow economic activity which flows from and directly supports rural communities, including those on the islands, which will benefit from this focused approach.

One of the actions of this work will be engagement with stakeholders on how to build on the current platform and increase the delivery of a strong sustainable rural economy and stakeholders will be asked for their views in due course.

Given that this is an internal mechanism, there are no plans to publish the names of officials who are engaged on the work or any minutes of meetings at this time. However, the Scottish Government is committed to being inclusive and transparent and therefore another action flowing for this Hub will consider how best to ensure that there is a two way flow of information on this important subject.

Question reference: S5W-07781

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 06 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 15 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government which stakeholders have been notified about the creation of the rural economy hub, and how they will engage with the hub in future.

Question reference: S5W-07232

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 15 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-02951 by Fergus Ewing on 3 October 2016, whether it will publish the findings of its analysis, and what subsequent steps it has taken.

The Scottish Government is absolutely committed to supporting food and drink producers from across Scotland, including those located across the islands and regions. The industry leadership body, Scotland Food and Drink, has recently facilitated an extensive engagement exercise with businesses across Scotland to help inform the development of a new national food and drink strategy - as part of that, ideas were sought on actions to further promote island and regional produce. The new strategy will be published soon and, when it is, we will set out our plans for further supporting the industry.

Question reference: S5W-07233

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 15 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S5W-00157, S5W-00158, S5W-00159, S5W-00160, S5W-00161 and S5W-00162 by Fergus Ewing on 1 June 2016, whether it will provide an update on (a) what progress is being made with and (b) how it will ensure that organisations, businesses and charities will receive support from, the investment to support island and rural produce that it pledged in the SNP Manifesto for the Islands.

Question reference: S5W-07274

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-06417 by Michael Matheson on 3 February 2017, what alternative locations there are to prisons for young offenders on remand to be held overnight.

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

Other than a prison, young people on remand can be held overnight in a Young Offenders Institution or a Legalised Police Cell (LPC). A LPC would only be used in exceptional circumstances where, for example, severe weather conditions impeded a return to the mainland from the Outer Hebrides.

Question reference: S5W-07275

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-06417 by Michael Matheson on 3 February 2017, how many young offenders on remand have been placed in each prison since 2010, broken down by those being held for (a) up to one night, (b) two to three nights, (c) four to five nights and (d) six or more nights.

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

This information is not readily available on our electronic Prisoner Records System and requires significant resource time to extract this data. Given the quantity of prisoner movements involved in this enquiry, this response covers the 5 year period 2013 to 2017 in the following table.

	2013				2014				2015	2016	2017
	1nt	2-3nt	4-5nt	6+nt	1nt	2-3nt	4-5nt	6+nt	1nt	1nt	1nt
Aberdeen	2	1	1	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Addiewell	8	5	6	27	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Grampian	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	6	7	0
Greenock	4	4	3	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Inverness	0	4	1	5	1	3	2	1	5	6	2
Perth	2	5	3	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Totals	16	19	14	44	1	3	2	1	11	13	2

Question reference: S5W-07273

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-06417 by Michael Matheson on 3 February 2017, whether the reasons that young offenders on remand are held in a prison overnight are (a) statutory or (b) non-statutory; under what circumstances young offenders are on remand in prisons; whether there has been a policy or guideline change in this regard since 2010 and, if so, what the reason for this change was.

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

Young people remanded to SPS custody can legally be held in either a prison or Young Offenders Institution (YOI). In recent years SPS has taken the policy decision to locate all young people on remand in a YOI rather than Prison. There may be occasions when SPS will locate a young person in a prison, for a temporary purpose, such as for during court proceedings, where daily travel arrangements to and from a YOI would be challenging or exhausting.

The change in SPS Policy recognised the vulnerability and significant care requirements of young people remanded to our care, in particular those aged 17 and 18. SPS believes that their needs in terms of regime and accommodation can be better met in a YOI.