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-27244

Asked by: Mark McDonald, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 August 2015
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 22 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what checks it makes to ensure that registered charities continue to fulfil the purposes for which they were founded.

Question reference: S4W-27245

Asked by: Mark McDonald, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 August 2015
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 22 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it can take in relation to charities that no longer fulfil the purposes for which they were founded.

Question reference: S4O-04619

Asked by: Mark McDonald, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 September 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how it is supporting primary care in Aberdeen.

Question reference: S4W-27093

Asked by: Mark McDonald, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 August 2015
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 15 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether abandoned vehicles must be left in place for a set period before being uplifted and removed.

The procedures and time limits depend on the circumstances in which the vehicle has been abandoned, and are set out in the Removal and Disposal of Vehicles Regulations 1986. Where local authorities are subject to the duty in section 3 of the Refuse Disposal Amenity Act 1978, they must affix a notice to the vehicle. The notice period before removal of the vehicle is 15 days where the vehicle has been abandoned on private property, seven days for other land, or 24 hours where the local authority are of the opinion that the vehicle is in such a condition that it ought to be destroyed. Where a police officer has the power to intervene, there is no set period before a vehicle can be removed.

Question reference: S4W-27091

Asked by: Mark McDonald, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 August 2015
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 14 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance it issues to the relevant bodies regarding the removal of abandoned vehicles.

Question reference: S4W-27092

Asked by: Mark McDonald, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 August 2015
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 14 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government which bodies are responsible for the removal of abandoned vehicles and whether there is a maximum time limit for such action to be taken.

Question reference: S4W-27224

Asked by: Mark McDonald, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 August 2015
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 9 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many living wage-accredited employers there have been in each year since 2013.

Since the Living Wage accreditation scheme started, and up until 31 March 2014, there were 24 Accredited Living Wage Employers in Scotland. From April 2014 to 31 March 2015, there were 133, and since the start of April 2015, there have been 159 these figures are correct as of 9 September 2015. The current total of 318 Accredited Living Wage Employers in Scotland illustrates that we are on our way to our target of 500 by the end of March 2016.

Question reference: S4W-27223

Asked by: Mark McDonald, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 August 2015
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 9 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many living wage-accredited employers there are, broken down by local authority.

There are currently 318 Accredited Living Wage Employers in Scotland (correct as of 9^th September 2015), details of which can be found at http://scottishlivingwage.org/accredited.

Local Authority	No. of Accredited Living Wage Employers
Aberdeen	11
Aberdeenshire	3
Angus	3
Argyll and Bute	7
Clackmannanshire	2
Dumfries and Galloway	9
Dundee	4
East Ayrshire	1
East Dunbartonshire	2
East Lothian	3
East Renfrewshire	2
Edinburgh	70
Falkirk	1
Fife	16
Glasgow	72
Highlands	13
Inverclyde	6
Midlothian	13
Moray	2
Na h-Eileanan Siar	0
North Ayrshire	4
North Lanarkshire	6
Orkney	1
Perth and Kinross	12
Renfrewshire	6
Shetland	1
South Ayrshire	0
Scottish Borders	3
South Lanarkshire	18
Stirling	3
West Dunbartonshire	1
West Lothian	10

Question reference: S4W-27304

Asked by: Mark McDonald, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 September 2015
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by John Swinney on 4 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what the cost was of the referendum on independence.

The cost of running the Scottish independence referendum which took place on 18 September 2014 was £15.8 million. A breakdown of this total cost is set out in the following table:

	Financial Memorandum (£,000)	Actual outturn (£,000)
Chief Counting Officer	330	510
Counting officers	8,317	10,888
Electoral registration officers	333	1,042
Royal Mail	2,383	1,568
Electoral Commission	2,350	1,826
Miscellaneous	-	7
Total	13,713	15,841

The total cost of £15.8 million is £2.1 million more than the indicative cost of running the referendum which was set out in the Financial Memorandums which accompanied the Scottish Independence Referendum Bill and the Scottish Independence Referendum (Franchise) Bill.

This additional expenditure was a result of the very high turnout at the referendum which resulted in additional expenditure by counting officers and electoral registration officers in preparing for and running the poll.

Question reference: S4W-27305

Asked by: Mark McDonald, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 September 2015
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by John Swinney on 4 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of counting officers’ costs for running the poll at the referendum on independence.

The agreed claims from counting officers, including the counting officers’ services, incurred in running the poll in individual local government areas were as follows:

Local government area	Total agree claim (£)
Aberdeen City	495,002
Aberdeenshire	572,679
Angus	245,781
Argyll and Bute	270,223
Clackmannanshire	113,699
Dumfries and Galloway	368,565
Dundee City	250,437
East Ayrshire	258,159
East Dunbartonshire	161,335
East Lothian	178,471
East Renfrewshire	180,660
Edinburgh (City of)	1,172,806
Eilean Siar	74,039
Falkirk	288,521
Fife	604,833
Glasgow City	1,072,921
Highland	507,755
Inverclyde	164,486
Midlothian	133,832
Moray	180,544
North Ayrshire	285,951
North Lanarkshire	789,143
Orkney Islands	52,606
Perth and Kinross	293,517
Renfrewshire	383,499
Scottish Borders	272,078
Shetland Islands	53,140
South Ayrshire	258,653
South Lanarkshire	592,938
Stirling	153,376
West Dunbartonshire	159,698
West Lothian	299,211
Total	10,888,558

The total revised maximum recoverable amount of £10,888,558 is £1,919,908 more than the total maximum recoverable amount for counting officers set out in the Scottish Independence Referendum (Chief Counting Officer And Counting Officer Charges And Expenses) Order 2014.

This additional expenditure was due to the very high turnout at the referendum. In anticipation of a high turnout, the chief counting officer provided guidance to counting officers on issues such as printing additional ballot papers, to ensure that replacement ballot papers were available to cover for any damaged or misprinted ballot papers, and limiting the number of electors attending individual polling stations, to avoid queues. In addition, additional staff were employed at count centres in order to ensure a prompt result. These, and other similar sensible contingency measures, added to counting officers’ costs but ensured that the poll ran smoothly on the day.

In addition to the above, the total claim by the chief counting officer for her costs of administering the referendum, including the chief counting officers’ services, was £509,880. This is £159,880 more that the amount set out in article 3 of the Scottish Independence Referendum (Chief Counting Officer and Counting Officer Charges and Expenses) Order 2014. This increase mainly reflects the Chief Counting Officer’s costs associated with the running of the international event to declare the referendum result which took place at Ingliston on the night of 18 to 19 September 2014.

Scottish Ministers will bring forward an order revising the chief counting officers’ and individual counting officers’ maximum recoverable amounts in line with the above figures in due course.