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-12641

Asked by: John Lamont, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 January 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 13 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the number of jobs that are directly connected to wind farm developments, broken down by the parliamentary constituency of the employee’s residence.

The Scottish Government’s position on energy employment is set out in the Energy in Scotland statistical compendium published on 25 January 2013 and available at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Business/Energy/Compendium2013.

Scottish Renewables estimates that of the 11,136 full time equivalent posts directly supported by the renewables industry and its supply chain in 2011-12, 2235 were connected directly to onshore wind. The figures are not broken down by parliamentary constituency.

The success of the onshore wind industry has contributed towards the wider success of the renewable energy sector and in particular provided a rationale for the major grid upgrade projects.

Question reference: S4W-13377

Asked by: John Lamont, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 February 2013
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 12 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many NHS boards provide access to three cycles of IVF treatment for couples.

Question reference: S4W-13375

Asked by: John Lamont, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 February 2013
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 12 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the provision of IVF and other fertility treatments by each NHS board since 2008.

Question reference: S4W-13376

Asked by: John Lamont, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 February 2013
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 12 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what (a) advice and (b) reports on access to and provision of fertility treatment it has received from the National Infertility Group.

Question reference: S4W-13148

Asked by: John Lamont, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 February 2013
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 7 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-10024 by Kenny MacAskill on 17 October 2012, how many drug finds there were in each prison in 2012.

I have asked Colin McConnell, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. His response is as follows:

The following table illustrates the number of suspected drug finds recorded in 2012 broken down by establishment. SPS does not carry out analysis on substances found, and is not always advised of the outcomes of such analysis.

Establishment	2012
Aberdeen	77
Addiewell	465
Barlinnie	208
Cornton Vale	52
Dumfries	26
Edinburgh	208
Glenochil	114
Greenock	52
Inverness	36
Kilmarnock	252
Low Moss	90
SPS Open Estate	30
Perth	111
Peterhead	28
Polmont	64
Shotts	136
Totals	1949

HMP Addiewell opened December 2008

HMP Low Moss Closed April 2007 – re-opening March 2012

Question reference: S4W-11892

Asked by: John Lamont, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 December 2012
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 6 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions or other communications it has had with the International Olympic Committee, the British Olympic Association or any other Olympic organisation about the creation of a Scottish Olympic team.

The International Olympic Committee has confirmed to sportscotland that under the Olympic Charter, National Olympic Committee recognition can only be granted when an independent State is recognised by the international community.

We will publish our detailed proposals in the coming months which will outline Scotland’s participation as an independent nation in international sporting events such as the Olympics – as of course we already do in many disciplines, including football, rugby and the whole range of sports which will be represented by Team Scotland in next year’s Commonwealth Games.

Question reference: S4W-12929

Asked by: John Lamont, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 February 2013
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 4 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many accidents there have been on the (a) single and (b) crawler lane section of the A68 between Edinburgh and the border in each year since 2002, broken down by (i) severity and (ii) location.

The accident data (personal injury accidents) for the period 1 January 2002 -12 is provided in the following tables. The first table covers the whole of the A68 Trunk Road, the following tables cover the three separate climbing lane sections of the A68 trunk road. The A68 Dalkeith Bypass opened in September 2008.

68 Trunk Road including climbing lanes broken down by year/ severity

	Fatal	Serious	Slight	Total
2002	2	8	36	46
2003	2	9	24	35
2004	2	7	47	56
2005	1	10	28	39
2006	1	17	35	53
2007	2	9	36	47
2008	2	10	56	68
2009	1	13	31	45
2010	0	8	30	38
2011	1	6	20	27
2012*	1	3	12	16
Total	15	100	355	470

A68 Dalkeith Bypass Single Climbing Lanes broken down by year/ severity

	Fatal	Serious	Slight	Total
2008	0	0	0	0
2009	0	1	1	2
2010	0	0	1	1
2011	0	0	0	0
2012*	0	0	1	1
Total	0	1	3	4

A68 Soutra to Oxton Single Climbing Lanes broken down by year/ severity

	Fatal	Serious	Slight	Total
2002	1	0	1	2
2003	1	1	1	3
2004	0	1	2	3
2005	0	0	2	2
2006	0	1	2	3
2007	0	0	2	2
2008	0	0	1	1
2009	0	0	2	2
2010	0	0	2	2
2011	0	0	0	0
2012*	0	0	1	1
Total	2	3	16	21

A68 Drygrange ( south of Earlston) Single Climbing Lanes broken down by year/ severity

	Fatal	Serious	Slight	Total
2002	0	0	0	0
2003	0	0	0	0
2004	0	0	0	0
2005	0	0	1	1
2006	0	0	0	0
2007	0	0	0	0
2008	0	1	0	1
2009	0	0	0	0
2010	0	0	0	0
2011	0	0	1	1
2012*	0	0	0	0
Total	0	1	2	3

*2012 – These statistics are not fully complete for all police forces, and are subject to change on submission of further datasets. However, the fatal accident figure is correct.

The figures quoted may differ slightly from those published elsewhere due to being extracted on a different date and the database may have changed between the two dates, e.g. due to late returns or corrections.

Question reference: S4W-13149

Asked by: John Lamont, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 February 2013
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 28 February 2013

To ask the Scottish Government when it plans to commence sections 1 to 4 of the Prisons (Interference with Wireless Telegraphy) Act 2012.

I have asked Colin McConnell, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

The Scottish Prison Service is in the early stages of planning the implementation of the provisions of The Prisons (Interference with Wireless Telegraphy) Act 2012, which received Royal Asset on the 19 December 2012. The timescales for commencing sections 1 to 4 of the Act will be considered as part of the implementation process.

Question reference: S4W-12928

Asked by: John Lamont, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 February 2013
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 28 February 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has had discussions regarding raising the speed limit for HGVs on the (a) A1, (b) A7 and (c) A68.

Question reference: S4W-12643

Asked by: John Lamont, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 January 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 28 February 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many apprenticeships have been created by wind farm developers, broken down by the parliamentary constituency of the apprentice.

There were 3,128 modern apprenticeship (MA) starts in engineering and related frameworks in 2011-12, of which 20 could be attributed to wind turbine operations. However, as this is the only apprenticeship framework which relates specifically to the renewable energy sector, it is not possible to identify how many more of the engineering-related MA starts were linked to the renewables sector. The figures provided are not broken down by parliamentary constituency.