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-29703

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 1 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-29439 by Richard Lochhead on 3 February 2016, whether the UK Government is supportive of the implementation of a deposit return system for beverage containers.

Question reference: S4W-29699

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 1 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-29452 by Richard Lochhead on 3 February 2016, whether the Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive are supportive of the implementation of a deposit return system for beverage containers.

Question reference: S4W-29704

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 1 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-29452 by Richard Lochhead on 3 February 2016, on what date it will write to UK ministers regarding implementing a deposit return system for beverage containers and whether it will publish this correspondence.

Question reference: S4T-01334

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 29 February 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on reports that 67% of colleges had committed all of or more than their bursary budget by December 2015.

Question reference: S4W-29824

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 08 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 29 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-29472 by Angela Constance on 5 February 2016, what resource accounting and budgeting charge is expected to apply in 2016-17, expressed as a percentage of initial loan outlay.

Question reference: S4W-29826

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 08 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 29 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-29473 by Angela Constance on 5 February 2016, what the estimated requirements are for 2016-17, and how these differ from 2015-16.

Question reference: S4W-29823

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 08 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 29 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-29470 by Angela Constance on 5 February 2016, what the resource accounting and budgeting charge is for a repayment threshold of £21,000, also expressed as a percentage of initial loan outlay.

The resource and accounting budget (RAB charge), estimated each year, forecasts repayments of student loans for all existing borrowers, as well as future borrowers. The model draws on demographics to calculate a repayment profile and a write off element, which combined provide the RAB charge. The repayment profile calculates the time and rate of repayment, whereas the write off estimates the amount that will never be recovered. The current RAB charge represents a percentage of every £1 lent.

The current estimated RAB charge for Scotland is 29%, meaning that for every £1 lent through the student loan scheme, the Scottish Government can expect to recoup 71 pence. The Scottish Government modelled the impact of increasing the student loan repayment threshold to £21,000 based on 2014-15 data, which produced an estimated RAB charge of 33%.

Question reference: S4W-29918

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 29 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish the revised national anti-bullying strategy.

The Scottish Government launched ‘A National Approach to Anti-Bullying for Scotland’s Children and Young People’ in 2010. The national approach forms part of our wider attempts to improve the health and wellbeing of our children and young people. It fits in with our ongoing work to ensure children and young people feel safe and secure and are able to build up strong and positive relationships with their peers and with adults, as well as our work to promote positive behaviour.

Following many legislative and policy developments since the publication of the national approach, a working group was established in January 2015 to refresh the guidance. The purpose of the refreshed national approach is to communicate and promote a common vision and aims to make sure that work across all sectors and communities is consistently and coherently contributing to a holistic approach to anti-bullying in Scotland.

Following extensive consultation with children and young people, parents and carers and practitioners, the revised national approach will be published in spring 2016.

Question reference: S4W-29739

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 05 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 24 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-29440 by Aileen Campbell on 4 February 2016, on what date it will convene the group that will look at the overall allowances system.

Question reference: S4W-29619

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 24 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the finding from the Scottish House Condition Survey 2012-2014 that the levels of fuel poverty and extreme fuel poverty had increased in some areas, what additional investment it will make to tackle fuel poverty (a) in Orkney, (b) in the Highlands and Islands and (c) across the country.

The results from the Scottish House Condition Survey 2012-2014 for (a) the Highland and Islands (b) Orkney do not show a statistically significant increase in fuel poverty and extreme fuel poverty between 2011-13 and 2012-14. However, the Scottish Government is committed to tackling fuel poverty. We have allocated £103 million to tackle fuel poverty and energy efficiency in 2016-17, which will be used to help install energy efficiency measures, including solid wall insulation, in 14,000 homes, building on the more than 900,000 measures delivered since 2008.

The new Warmer Homes Scotland scheme is delivered on a regional basis (including a separate island region) to ensure that all households, including those living in more remote parts of the country receive the same level of service as those in urban areas. In addition, since 2013 the maximum grant available through our Area Based Scheme to households in very remote rural areas (including all island communities) has risen by almost 40% to £9,000.