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-00393

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the reported comment by the Deputy Chief Constable Designate, Neil Richardson, in The Herald on 1 June 2016 that "the SPA would be developing the next corporate strategy, a development which has not been communicated to, nor agreed by Police Scotland", for what reason Police Scotland was not consulted about the next corporate strategy and what role it will have in developing that strategy.

Question reference: S5W-00392

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the reported comment by the Deputy Chief Constable Designate, Neil Richardson, in The Herald on 1 June 2016 that the Scottish Police Authority and Police Scotland "will not bring forward any new strategies before the election in May 2016", what discussion it has had with (a) the Scottish Police Authority, (b) Police Scotland and (c) other stakeholders about postponing new strategies beyond May 2016.

Question reference: S5W-00395

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the reported comment by the Deputy Chief Constable Designate, Neil Richardson, in The Herald on 1 June 2016 that "we have submitted papers setting out our thinking about strategy and development to the last two Private Meetings' Meetings, however, both of these have been removed from the agenda," (a) for what reasons items were removed from the agenda, (b) whether the papers were ever discussed and (c) what further opportunities there will be to discuss strategy development.

Question reference: S5W-00391

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the reported comment by the Deputy Chief Constable Designate, Neil Richardson, in The Herald on 1 June 2016 that the Scottish Police Authority and Police Scotland "will not bring forward any new strategies before the election in May 2016", for what reason new strategies were not proposed in March 2016 despite the former three year plan coming to an end.

Question reference: S5W-00416

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Annabelle Ewing on 15 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to reform the law with regard to defamation.

The Scottish Law Commission is currently reviewing defamation law and will make recommendations to the Scottish Government on the need for reform and the content of any proposed legislation. The Scottish Government awaits the outcome of the Scottish Law Commission’s review and will consider fully the terms of any report produced on this issue.

The Scottish Law Commission’s consultation on defamation law is open until the 17 June 2016.

Question reference: S5W-00394

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the reported comment by the Deputy Chief Constable Designate, Neil Richardson, in The Herald on 1 June 2016 that "the SPA would be developing the next corporate strategy, a development which has not been communicated to, nor agreed by Police Scotland", what impact the Scottish Police Authority's development of the next corporate strategy will have on financial resources in the current financial year.

The financial resources available to the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) from the Scottish Government for the current year, 2016, are set out in the Budget Act 2016-17. The budget provides real terms protection for the police resource budget and provides an additional £55 million of reform funding in 2016-17. The SPA’s allocation of resources to Police Scotland and its interim corporate strategy were considered at its board meetings in February and March 2016.

Question reference: S5W-00500

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 06 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 15 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-00142 by John Swinney on 2 June 2016, whether an earlier date was initially identified for the release of the Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy and announced 12 months in advance and, if so, what action it took to ensure that the subsequent change in the publication date was drawn to public attention in accordance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

Question reference: S5W-00501

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 06 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 15 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-00142 by John Swinney on 2 June 2016, whether it will provide the information that was requested regarding (a) the reason for the Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy being published more than one month later than in previous years and (b) what stakeholders were consulted.

Question reference: S5W-00502

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 06 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 15 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-00142 by John Swinney on 2 June 2016, on what date the responsible statistician advised ministers that the Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy would be published more than one month later than in previous years, and whether the statistician was employed by it at the time of the decision.

Question reference: S5W-00503

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 06 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 15 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-00142 by John Swinney on 2 June 2016, which (a) ministers, (b) officials and (c) stakeholders had pre-release access to the Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy, and on what date this access was provided.

In addition to professional and production staff the following post holders were given pre-release access:

First Minister

Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills

Special Advisers, Private Office

Head of the First Minister’s Policy and Delivery Unit

Strategic Policy Adviser, First Minister's Policy and Delivery Unit

C1, B3, B3, B2 Communications Smarter

Permanent Secretary

Director General Learning and Justice

Director of Learning

Deputy Director Curriculum, Qualifications and Gaelic

Head of Curriculum Unit

C1, C1, B3, B2 Curriculum Unit

C2, Curriculum, Qualifications and Gaelic Division

Deputy Director Strategy and Performance

Head of Strategy and Performance Unit

C1, B3 Strategy and Performance Unit

Head of Raising Attainment Unit

C1, B3 Raising Attainment Unit

Deputy Director People and Infrastructure

Head of People and Leadership Unit

C1, People and Leadership Unit

Head of Empowering Schools Unit

C1, Empowering Schools Unit

Chief Executive Education Scotland

Strategic Director, Education Scotland

Assistant Director, Education Scotland

Senior Education Officer, Education Scotland

Head of Communications, Education Scotland

Communications and Media Manager, Education Scotland

Head of Assessment Development and Delivery, SQA

Assessment Manager, SQA

Communications, SQA

In line with the, ministers and officials can have pre-release access to final form statistics five working days in advance. This date was 20 May 2016 (to account for two public holidays i.e. non-working days).