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-03284

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 27 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to widen access to postgraduate study for people from deprived backgrounds.

Under current postgraduate support arrangements, all eligible postgraduate students are able to access a total student loan support package of £7900, comprising a tuition fee loan of £3400 and a living cost loan of £4500 if studying from a wide ranging course list. In the current academic year all universities were invited to add a further ten taught postgraduate diploma courses to the list currently eligible for support.

And, as the Programme for Government made clear, the Scottish Government will be announcing further changes to the support package available to all eligible students in academic year 2017-18.

Although the Commission on Widening Access’s primary focus was undergraduate level study, it recommended that the Commissioner for Fair Access consider what further work is required to support equal outcomes after (undergraduate) study for those from disadvantaged backgrounds or with a care experience. This is a matter that the Commissioner can examine with regard to postgraduate study.

Question reference: S5O-00241

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 October 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with local authorities regarding equalities in their employment practices.

Question reference: S5W-03231

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 7 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many NHS dental surgeries in each local authority area have full patient lists.

The information requested is not collected or held by the Scottish Government.

NHS dental patient registrations are at a record high level of 90.7%. Patients looking for a dentist can contact local dental practices to enquire if they are registering NHS dental patients. Addresses of dental practices in an area can be found at: http://www.nhs24.com/findlocal/?postcode=G44+1AB&service=Dentists&page=s11&imageField.x=41&imageField.y=10

Question reference: S5F-00321

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 October 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 October 2016

To ask the First Minister what discussions the Scottish Government is having with the governing bodies of contact sports regarding head injuries.

Question reference: S5W-02871

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 28 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many referrals to the children’s reporter were made in each year between 2000-01 and 2015-16, broken down by local authority.

Question reference: S5W-02604

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 27 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many free school meals were distributed in each local authority area in the last year.

The Local Finance Returns outline the amount of free school meals served in pre-primary, primary, secondary and special education; and are published on a financial year, rather than a calendar year basis. The following table outlines the amount of free school meals served in pre-primary, primary, secondary and special education settings according to the most recent Local Finance Returns for 2014-15:

	Total number of free school meals
Scotland*	22,828,000
Aberdeen City	597,000
Aberdeenshire	709,000
Angus	417,000
Argyll & Bute	330,000
Clackmannanshire	262,000
Dumfries & Galloway	714,000
Dundee City	773,000
East Ayrshire	697,000
East Dunbartonshire	445,000
East Lothian	312,000
East Renfrewshire	367,000
Edinburgh, City of	1,430,000
Eilean Siar	75,000
Falkirk	794,000
Fife	1,381,000
Glasgow City	3,651,000
Highland	842,000
Inverclyde	427,000
Midlothian	422,000
Moray	288,000
North Ayrshire	779,000
North Lanarkshire	1,818,000
Orkney Islands	59,000
Perth & Kinross	384,000
Renfrewshire	733, 000
Scottish Borders	418,000
Shetland Islands	57,000
South Ayrshire	494,000
South Lanarkshire	1,356,000
Stirling	306,000
West Dunbartonshire	516,000
West Lothian	979,000

*Scotland total does not equal the sum of components due to rounding to nearest 000.

This data includes the number of free school meals provided for children in Primary 1-3 in January-March 2015 following the launch of the universal free school meals policy for P1-3 in January 2015.

Question reference: S5W-02603

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 22 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many primary school children are registered for free school meals in each local authority, also broken down by month over the last year.

The latest statistics on free school meals were published on 22 June 2016 in the Scottish Government Statistics Publication - Summary statistics for attainment, leaver destinations and healthy living, No. 6: 2016 Edition. Table 7 in the accompanying supplementary data provides details of the number of children and young people in primary schools in each local authority who were registered for free school meals in each year from 2007. This can be accessed at http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/School-Education/MealsSD/mealspesd/mealspesd2016.

The information was collected in February 2016 from all publicly funded schools in Scotland and cannot be broken down on a monthly basis.

Question reference: S5O-00178

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 22 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on CAP subsidy payments to farmers in Perthshire.

For the purposes of administering the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), Scotland is divided into areas covered by Scottish Government's Area Offices.

The current position for 2015 Basic and Greening Payments for the area covered by the Perth office, which includes but is not limited to Perthshire is as follows:

Total number of eligible claims 2567

Total number of claimants paid in full 2475

Total claimants who have received a part payment 24

Total cases unpaid 68

Question reference: S5W-02290

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 20 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many Basic Payment Scheme payments are outstanding, broken down by local authority.

The information requested is not categorised by local authority and I am therefore supplying the best alternatives available at present which is the information relating to each Rural Payments and Inspections Division local area office as at 14 September 2016.

Area Office	Eligible	Full	Part	Unpaid
Ayr	1817	1774	14	29
Benbecula	624	590	6	28
Dumfries	1373	1309	27	37
Elgin	474	464	2	8
Galashiels	1599	1507	29	63
Golspie	443	429	8	6
Hamilton	765	749	7	9
Inverness	1332	1298	14	20
Inverurie	2750	2673	33	44
Kirkwall	679	660	9	10
Lerwick	882	855	18	9
Oban	891	841	18	32
Perth	2567	2475	24	68
Portree	501	479	4	18
Stornoway	892	842	8	42
Thurso	711	689	9	13
Other	37	0	0	37
Total	18337	17634	230	473

Question reference: S5W-02295

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 12 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what fee payment rate has been paid to Scottish Qualifications Authority invigilators for a standard four-hour session in each year since 2007.