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-08818

Asked by: John Lamont, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 July 2012
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 8 August 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what Scotland’s GDP per hour worked has been relative to the top 31 most productive OECD countries in each year since 2005.

Scotland’s productivity (measured as output per hour worked) performance relative to OECD countries is monitored through Scotland Performs. Information on the latest performance can be found at Scotland Performs:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/Performance/scotPerforms/purpose/productivity.

Against the 31 OECD member countries Scotland is estimated to have been ranked 19th in both 2005 and 2006 in terms of productivity performance; 16th in 2007; and 17th in each year between 2008 and 2010.

In 2010, the gap in productivity performance between Scotland and the closest ranked country in the top quartile decreased to 14.5 percentage points - the lowest level since 2005.

Question reference: S4W-08290

Asked by: John Lamont, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 June 2012
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 13 July 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how the electricity industry would be regulated in an independent Scotland.

The Scottish Government strongly believes that it is in the shared interests of Scotland and the rest of the UK to continue with the GB-wide energy and electricity markets after Scottish independence, in line with the increasingly integrated EU energy market. This would be similar in principle to the many international sharing arrangements which are planned, for example the All-Islands Approach agreed by UK, Scottish and Irish governments. A Scottish regulator would co-operate closely with regulators in the rest of GB on a consistent approach to regulation to provide certainty for investors.

Full details of the Government’s proposals on energy will be provided in the White Paper on Independence to be published in November 2013.

Question reference: S4W-08321

Asked by: John Lamont, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 June 2012
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 4 July 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how many businesses have appealed their non-domestic rates since 2007 and what average time was taken to settle the appeals.

The Scottish Government publishes quarterly statistics on Non-Domestic Rates Revaluation Appeals, providing information on the number of properties for which revaluation appeals were lodged at 2005 and 2010 revaluations and the rate at which these appeals have been resolved.

These statistics can be found at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Local-Government-Finance/NDR-Rates-Relief.

Question reference: S4W-08199

Asked by: John Lamont, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 June 2012
Current Status: Answered by Brian Adam on 27 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how many requests for information under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 it has (a) received and (b) refused, broken down by year.

Question reference: S4O-01196

Asked by: John Lamont, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 June 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to promote local broadcasting and programming in the Scottish Borders.

Question reference: S4O-01045

Asked by: John Lamont, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 May 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it expects the estimated costs of constructing the Borders Railway to change.

Question reference: S4F-00688

Asked by: John Lamont, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 14 May 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 May 2012

To ask the First Minister, in light of the Scottish Government's recent decision to hire a PR firm, what its position is on whether a mechanism should be established to ensure that such services are not used for party-political purposes.

Question reference: S4W-06682

Asked by: John Lamont, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 April 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 8 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients have been discharged from hospital between 11 pm and 6 am in each month since 2007, broken down by hospital.

Information on the time patients have been discharged from hospital is not collected centrally. Information on date of discharge is collected.

Discharging patients during the night is not normal practice although there are instances when discharges during the night will be recorded e.g. deaths and removal to the mortuary are recorded as discharges, mothers who give birth during the night sometimes choose to go home. Patients may also discharge themselves against clinical advice.

Question reference: S4W-06517

Asked by: John Lamont, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 March 2012
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 24 April 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how many Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance (STAG) 2 appraisals have been carried out since 2007 and, of these, how many have been funded by Transport Scotland.

In addition to Transport Scotland, Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance (STAG) appraisals are carried out by parties including local authorities, regional transport partnerships, local planning and strategic planning authorities and developers. Transport Scotland does not maintain a record of all transport appraisals carried out using STAG. Since 2007 Transport Scotland has carried out and funded three STAG appraisals.

Question reference: S4W-06283

Asked by: John Lamont, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 March 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 16 April 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how many still births there have been in each NHS board area in each of the last 10 years.

<>The preliminary numbers of stillbirths in each NHS board area in 2011 can be obtained from Preliminary Table P2, which is available via http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/theme/vital-events/general/bmd-preliminary/2011.html.

The number of stillbirths in each NHS board area in each of the last 10 years has been previously published by the National Records of Scotland, and its predecessor the General Register Office for Scotland. The figures for 2010 can be obtained from Table 1.3 for that year, which is available via: http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/theme/vital-events/general/ref-tables/2010/summary.html.

Each earlier year's numbers, from 2001, can be found in that year's Vital Events Reference Table 1.3, which is available via: http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/theme/vital-events/general/ref-tables/index.html.