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-23522

Asked by: Mark McDonald, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 December 2014
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 18 December 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many small businesses have received support from the Small Business Bonus Scheme in 2014 and what was the (a) average and (b) overall saving was.

Recent statistics have revealed record numbers of business properties in Scotland are receiving rates relief under the Small Business Bonus Scheme, with 96,265 properties (over two in five) being supported by the initiative in 2014-15 – up four per cent from 2013-14 and an increase of 50 per cent since the scheme’s introduction in 2008-09. The average saving for a property is £1,724 with the overall savings to business properties in Scotland estimated to be £166 million in 2014-15.

Question reference: S4W-23521

Asked by: Mark McDonald, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 December 2014
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 15 December 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what the average saving has been for band D households since the introduction of the council tax freeze.

Question reference: S4W-23523

Asked by: Mark McDonald, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 December 2014
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 15 December 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many new businesses have been established in 2014.

New business start-ups are measured using new business VAT/PAYE registration figures. The latest figures available are for 2013. In 2013, there were 21,540 new business start-ups in Scotland. Note that these figures do not include business start-ups which are below the VAT/PAYE threshold.

These figures are taken from the Office for National Statistics Business Demography 2013 publication. Figures for 2014 are due to be published in November 2015.

Question reference: S4O-03824

Asked by: Mark McDonald, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 December 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 December 2014

To ask the Scottish Government to what extent small businesses in Aberdeen have benefitted from the small business bonus scheme.

Question reference: S4O-03816

Asked by: Mark McDonald, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 December 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 December 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with pension fund administrators regarding investment opportunities to support capital infrastructure projects.

Question reference: S4W-23398

Asked by: Mark McDonald, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 24 November 2014
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 3 December 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how groups and organisations can bid for support from the Scottish Strategy for Autism.

A broad range of local and national third sector organisations, local authorities and NHS health boards were invited to bid for funding from the autism programme fund from financial year 2011-12 to present. The opportunities are promoted via existing autism service networks, voluntary and third sector networks as well as statutory organisation relevant networks.

A further invitation for additional funding has just been issued (November 2014). Existing autism projects have been asked to consider how they can upscale and increase activity in current projects and services, the aim being to increase local activity and make a bigger impact on local services that deliver outcomes for people with autism in the financial year 2014-15.

Question reference: S4W-23396

Asked by: Mark McDonald, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 24 November 2014
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 3 December 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what (a) deadline it has set for local authorities to set autism strategies and (b) information it holds on how many (i) draft and (ii) completed autism strategies have been developed.

The deadline set by the Scottish Government was March 2014. The autism coordination team – based within the University of Strathclyde and funded under the autism strategy – are supporting local authorities to further develop and implement their local autism strategies.

All local autism action plans and strategies (completed and draft) are published on the Scottish Strategy for Autism website at: http://www.autismstrategyscotland.org.uk

Question reference: S4W-23399

Asked by: Mark McDonald, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 24 November 2014
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 3 December 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish a progress report on the implementation of the Scottish Strategy for Autism.

Question reference: S4F-02423

Asked by: Mark McDonald, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 24 November 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 November 2014

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to the RCN report on mental health services.

Question reference: S4W-22810

Asked by: Mark McDonald, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 3 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how it monitors the performance of BT in rolling out superfast broadband.

There are two contracts with BT for the deployment of fibre broadband. The first is for the Highlands and Islands and is managed by Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE). The second covers the rest of Scotland and is managed by the Scottish Government.

An established governance procedure of consistent reporting and meetings applies across both contracts. These monitor operational progress of each project and include key stakeholders at a senior level to monitor strategic performance across Scotland.

Payments are only made to BT upon the delivery of agreed milestones. BT’s performance is tracked across a number of milestone types, including premises connected to fibre broadband, to ensure that the project plan is delivered.

The Scottish Government and HIE each have their own dedicated contract management resources. These teams are continually reviewing how they access and use additional information to increase performance and standards. They also work closely with Broadband Delivery UK to apply standard tools, guidance and benchmarking as other broadband infrastructure projects across the UK.