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-00739

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 March 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that children receive quality early learning and childcare.

Question reference: S5W-07226

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 1 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what policy recommendations its Homelessness Prevention and Strategy Group has made in the last year.

The Homelessness Prevention and Strategy Group, attended by the Minister for Local Government and Housing, agrees an annual workplan.

Its current priorities include addressing the future role of temporary accommodation for homeless households and establishing joint working between health and housing services to improve outcomes for those with more complex needs.

In the past year, it has made policy recommendations on how best to address these priorities and other areas, such as the continued development of housing options approaches to prevent homelessness.

Question reference: S5O-00668

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 9 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it is making in achieving its target for 10% of journeys to be taken by bike.

The proportion of everyday journeys made by bike has risen since 2011 but there is still a long way to go in achieving our vision. The vision is important as it focusses minds and that is why we have reaffirmed it in our 3rd Cycling Action Plan for Scotland, published in January.

That's also why our Programme for Government commits us to maintain recent, record levels of funding for active travel for the rest of this Parliamentary term. This funding commitment is unique; and we look forward to working with local authorities and third sector organisations both to secure continued match-funding and to make further progress towards our vision.

Question reference: S5W-05911

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 10 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what criteria it will use when reviewing the appointment process for building control verifiers from May 2017 onward.

I refer the Member to the answers to questions S5W-05274 and S5W-05275 on 13 December 2016. In assessing the appointment of verifiers from May 2017 I intend to use the criteria set out in the Operational Framework and underpinned by the revised Performance Framework.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

Question reference: S5W-05912

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 10 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government when the conclusions of its consultation on building warrant fees will be published.

Question reference: S5W-05393

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 20 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many local authorities have taken advantage of the opportunity under the Community Empowerment Act 2015 to reduce business rates.

Question reference: S5W-05392

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 20 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether its decision to double the large business rates supplement considered "the vibrancy of town centres as a starting point", as set out in its Town Centre First Principle.

Question reference: S5O-00467

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 14 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to assist local authorities in overcoming forecasted funding gaps.

Question reference: S5W-05273

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 13 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of recent research carried out by Pye Consulting on its behalf in its report, Evaluation of the performance of local authorities in their role as building standards verifiers, which shows large variances in the overall performance of local authorities in allocating building warrants.

Question reference: S5W-05272

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 13 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to support local authorities with the reported increase in the volume of building warrant applications that they are receiving.

Each of the 32 local authorities is responsible for resourcing their building standards services appropriately.

I have become aware that since the economic downturn of 2008 there have been situations where experienced Building Standards Managers and staff have either retired or taken voluntary exit arrangements from local authorities. At the same time there appears to have been little corresponding intake of trainee or apprentice Building Standards Officers in many areas of Scotland. I understand that as the volume of building projects has been increasing some local authorities have had difficulty in recruiting and replacing staff. The Scottish Government is currently consulting on Building Warrant Fees which includes a proposal to increase fees to provide additional funding to local authorities.