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: S5O-03244

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 May 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how its new victim support service will help the families of victims of crime and the families of people involved in fatal accidents and sudden deaths.

Question reference: S5W-21973

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 19 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how much Pupil Equity Funding has been given to schools in the Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley constituency.

Question reference: S5O-03032

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 March 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what the mortality rates for cancer, heart disease and stroke are in the Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley constituency, and how these compare with Scotland as a whole.

Question reference: S5W-21855

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 7 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what progress is being made in delivering the Scottish national investment bank.

A Bill to underpin the establishment and capitalisation of the Scottish National Investment Bank was introduced to the Scottish Parliament on 27 February 2019. The Bill will place a duty on Scottish Ministers to establish the Bank as a public limited company and give the necessary powers to capitalise it. The Scottish Government has committed to investing £2 billion over 10 years to capitalise the Bank, making it a cornerstone of Scotland’s economy. Ministers will also be given the power to set the strategic direction of the Bank by the setting of Missions that will address socio-economic challenges.

The Bill and its accompanying documents are published on the Scottish Parliament website .

Question reference: S5O-02857

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 January 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what impact its commitment to invest £500 million to expand early learning and childcare provision will have on demand for skilled staff and infrastructure investment opportunities in the Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley constituency.

Question reference: S5O-02837

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 30 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how the Five Routes – One Great Adventure initiative could help promote tourism in the Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley constituency.

I recently had the pleasure of announcing £300,000 of Scottish Government funding for the 5 routes project in line with our Programme for Government commitment to promote Ayrshire as a tourism destination.

These Five Routes, and the co-operative working between local businesses and the local authorities involved in developing the initiative, are an innovative and positive development which will help Ayrshire grow as a destination.

The investment provides an opportunity to attract new visitors, which will support and grow the existing tourism business base and provide a launchpad to create jobs and attract further investment.

Question reference: S5O-02817

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 January 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether non-looked after kinship carers should receive the same level of financial support that fosters carers and looked after kinship carers receive when looking after children who have experienced family break-ups or the death of a parent.

Question reference: S5W-20652

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 8 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the work of the Joint Ministerial Committee (EU Negotiations) in 2018.

In 2018 there have been nine meetings of the JMC (EN). We have continued to meet our commitment to issue letters to convenors of the relevant Scottish Parliament committees both before and after each meeting and the communiqués for each JMC(EN) are available on the Scottish Government website, providing further information on individual meetings.

Since the EU referendum we have sought to engage meaningfully and in good faith with the UK Government on the UK’s withdrawal from the EU and we have been clear that we will continue to respect the terms of the engagement, which are laudable in principle. The discussions in the JMC (EN) have however fallen short of the original aim of the committee and of the Prime Minister's own commitment to 'full involvement' of the devolved administrations. Indeed throughout the Brexit process there has been far too little meaningful consultation with the devolved administrations and we have continued to be frustrated by the quality of engagement to date.

The Committee last met on 19 November 2018 and at that meeting the Scottish Government said that it had been completely unacceptable that the devolved administrations did not see the detail of the draft agreement between the UK and EU before it was published on the 14 November 2018. That has unfortunately been characteristic of the UK Government’s approach to engaging with the devolved administrations since the EU referendum.

Question reference: S5O-02728

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 19 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how its homelessness action plan will help to end rough sleeping and homelessness in the Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley constituency.

The Ending Homelessness Together High Level Action Plan published by the Scottish Government and COSLA last month sets out the actions we will take in partnership with others to realise our shared ambitions to end rough sleeping and homelessness.

This will help anyone at risk of homelessness across the country including in the member’s constituency.

Our key actions include a focus on prevention of homelessness and ensuring local authorities respond quickly and effectively when it does happen alongside getting people quickly back to a settled home, with any support they need, as a priority. Local authorities will submit rapid rehousing transition plans to the Scottish Government by 31 December 2018 to support this work.

Question reference: S5W-20476

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 18 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update regarding the number of modern apprenticeship places in the Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley constituency.

Skills Development Scotland does not report on Modern Apprenticeships by constituency area but instead by Local Authority Area. This means that the information and statistics which Skills Development Scotland hold are based on local authority area and cannot be broken down to constituency level.

In terms of East Ayrshire the local authority area which includes your constituency there were;

982 apprentices in training as of 28 September 2018.
In 2017-18 there was 624 MA starts and;
From the 1 of April – 28 September 2018 there were 359 MA starts.