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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 176 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S4F-00325

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee City West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 December 2011
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 December 2011

To ask the First Minister what the impact would be of Gamesa locating its manufacturing base for offshore wind turbines outside Scotland.

Question reference: S4O-00470

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee City West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 November 2011
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 December 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average fees will be for non-domestic students attending a university in Scotland in 2012-13.

Question reference: S4F-00202

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee City West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 24 October 2011
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 October 2011

To ask the First Minister what steps the Scottish Government is taking to support Scotland’s computer games industry.

Question reference: S4O-00255

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee City West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 September 2011
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 October 2011

To ask the Scottish Exectuive what progress has been made in treating familial hypercholesterolaemia since the publication of the Better Heart Disease and Stroke Care Action Plan in 2009.

Question reference: S4W-00179

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee City West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 May 2011
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by John Swinney on 25 May 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made on preparations to enable use of the power to vary the Scottish variable rate.

Further to the information I provided to Parliament in the answer to question S3W-40295 on 7 March 2011 I am able to report on the latest developments.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and Scottish Government officials agreed the scope of and timescales for a Viability Study into the work required to return the computer systems which operate the Scottish variable rate (SVR) to a state of readiness such that any decision by the Scottish Parliament to vary the rate could be implemented by HMRC within an agreed period. The Scottish Government has agreed to meet the cost of this Viability Study, which is estimated at £135,000. A report is expected before the end of June.

Officials have also discussed with their HMRC counterparts the timescale for subsequent decisions on using the SVR. The outcome of these discussions is that HMRC require us to decide before the end of September 2011 whether to invoke use of the SVR in tax year 2013-14.

I intend to make the Study report available to the Parliament through the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 52934) once it is available.

The Scottish Government has a Manifesto commitment that the Scottish variable rate power will not be used in the term of this Parliament.

Question reference: S3W-40510

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 21 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients are participating in clinical trials, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S3W-40515

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 21 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish the progress reports of NHS boards that were requested by ministers as part of the process of implementing the CEL 17 (2010) guidance on the introduction of new medicines into NHSScotland.

NHS boards were asked to align their local policies to the framework set out in CEL 17 (2010) by 1 April 2011.

Progress in this area was reported to the Scottish Parliament Public Petitions Committee via the response to the committee dated 13 February 2011 and can be viewed via the attached link:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/committees/petitions/petitionsubmissions/sub-07/subIndexForPE1108.htm.

Question reference: S3W-40512

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 21 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients have been enrolled in clinical trials in each of the last three years, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S3W-40511

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 21 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of eligible patients is participating in clinical trials, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S3W-40514

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 21 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made toward the CEL 17 (2010) guidance on the introduction of new medicines into NHSScotland, broken down by NHS board.

NHS boards were asked to align their local policies to the framework set out in CEL 17 (2010) by 1 April 2011. The Scottish Government recognises the importance of allowing NHS boards time to fully develop their policies and put them in place before asking them to demonstrate their effectiveness.

Progress in this area was reported to the Scottish Parliament Public Petitions Committee via the response to the committee dated 13 February 2011 and can be viewed via the attached link:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/committees/petitions/petitionsubmissions/sub-07/subIndexForPE1108.htm.