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: S4O-05184

Asked by: Richard Lyle, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 December 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 December 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to look after the welfare of older people.

Question reference: S4O-04919

Asked by: Richard Lyle, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 December 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 December 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many businesses have received support from the Small Business Bonus scheme.

Question reference: S4W-28418

Asked by: Richard Lyle, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 November 2015
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 24 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what acoustic performance standards must be met in the design of new-build schools.

Question reference: S4W-28419

Asked by: Richard Lyle, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 November 2015
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 24 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding how many schools built with Scottish Futures Trust support meet the standards set out in Building Bulletin 93, Acoustic Design of Schools, which was published by the UK Department for Education and Skills, and what its position is on introducing legislation to make such standards compulsory.

Responsibility for the provision of school buildings rests with individual local authorities. It would be for them to ensure that the standards within the Building Bulletin 93, Acoustic Design of Schools, are met. However, we understand that the majority of local authorities make reference to Building Bulletin 93.

With regard to introducing legislation, the Scottish Government has no plans to do so. The Scottish Government’s guidance School Design: Optimising the Internal Environment, Building Our Future: Scotland’s School Estate is intended to assist local authorities in the development of design brief documents for a range of environmental conditions in schools, including acoustics. Building Bulletin 93 is extensively referenced in our design guidance.

Question reference: S4W-28421

Asked by: Richard Lyle, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 November 2015
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 23 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what specialist mental health provision it offers for children and young people who are deaf.

The decision on the best treatment for a particular situation will primarily be the responsibility of the lead clinician to determine, in line with clinical and other guidelines. Whenever a child or young person requires a child and adolescent mental health service, the service will ensure that it is appropriate for their needs including ensuring that the needs of sensory impaired children are met.

In March 2015 we announced following the successful pilot of the NHS 24 online British Sign Language Video Relay Interpreting Service that we would be extending this service to the rest of the public sector. The roll out will allow deaf people across Scotland to use sign language to contact public sector services.

This new Scottish Government-funded service, contactSCOTLAND-BSL (www.contactscotland-bsl.org), will mean deaf people can now speak to public services, such as their local council, doctor’s surgery and the Scottish Government, without the need for someone to call on their behalf.

Question reference: S4W-28423

Asked by: Richard Lyle, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 November 2015
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 23 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of such support being available in the rest of the UK, what its position is on establishing a specialist deaf child and adolescent mental health service.

There are currently no plans to develop a specialist child and adolescent mental health service solely for deaf children and young people using specialist NHS child and adolescent mental health services. Our approach to improving services over the last few years has been to shorten waiting lists, invest in more staff, and to measure the performance of services by using a wide range of indicators, with the ultimate aim being improving outcomes for patients. We now have 1,134 (979.5 whole time equivalent) specialist child and adolescent clinicians in the workforce nationally and this has been a rise of over 27% since 2009. A breakdown of the specialities can be found on the Information Services Division website (http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/CAMHS/).

Question reference: S4O-04817

Asked by: Richard Lyle, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 November 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking toward ending the gender pay gap and tackling gender discrimination in the workplace.

Question reference: S4O-04760

Asked by: Richard Lyle, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 November 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what its position is on the Scottish Parliamentary Pension Scheme investing a reported £2.1 million in fossil fuels while the Parliament is trying to move toward renewables.

Question reference: S4O-04749

Asked by: Richard Lyle, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 October 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on enshrining the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in Scots law.

Question reference: S4O-04624

Asked by: Richard Lyle, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 23 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to tackle childhood obesity.

In 2010 the Scottish Government published Preventing Overweight and Obesity in Scotland: A Route Map Towards Healthy Weight which sets out both national and local governments’ respective long-term commitment.

The Scottish Government remains committed to addressing obesity in Scotland but there is no simple solution and we have to maintain activity across a broad front that makes it easier for people including children and their families to be more active, to eat less, and to eat better.