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-22353

Asked by: Graeme Pearson, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 August 2014
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 10 September 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many times its taskforce for Stranraer has met and on what dates.

The lead role in the regeneration of Stranraer Waterfront rests with Dumfries and Galloway Council.

The Scottish Government established the Stranraer taskforce to work with Dumfries and Galloway Council and a number of other local partners to explore the potential for the future of the Stranraer waterfront, following the relocation of ferry services from the town.

The taskforce was intended to be a short- life group. It met on four occasions on 16 February 2012, 28 May 2012, 27 September 2012 and 22 April 2013.

Question reference: S4W-22363

Asked by: Graeme Pearson, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 August 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 9 September 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it has taken to ascertain how many homeless people there are in Scotland, and how vulnerable it considers the visibly homeless are to abuse, crime and others forms of ill-treatment.

The most recent homelessness statistics for Scotland show that, during 2013-14, local authorities assessed 29,326 households as either homeless or likely to become homeless within two months. Local authorities have the statutory duty for homelessness and all unintentionally homeless households are entitled to settled accommodation.

The most recent homelessness statistics, including further information on those who had also slept rough, are available at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/homelessstats.

Police Scotland is committed to keeping people safe. It acknowledges that those that are homeless can often be some of the most vulnerable people within our communities. That is why it works together with its partners, including the Scottish Government, to try to minimise the risk of homeless people becoming the victim of crime or abuse and that they are provided with medical or other forms of support that they require. If Police Scotland receives a complaint from a homeless person that they have been the victim of crime or abuse, it would investigate that in the same way it would with any another complaint, and if criminality was established it would ensure that appropriate action was taken.

Question reference: S4W-22304

Asked by: Graeme Pearson, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 August 2014
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 21 August 2014

To ask the Scottish Government (a) how it defines and (b) what its position is on operational independence in relation to policing and what arrangements are in place to ensure that it is properly applied.

The Chief Constable has operational responsibility for policing in Scotland, which ensures the police are able to impartially apply the law.

The Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012 clearly sets out the responsibilities of the Chief Constable, which include the direction and control of the police service, the day to day administration of Police Scotland, the allocation and deployment of resources received from the Scottish Police Authority, and ensuring adequate arrangements for the policing of each local authority area are in place. This approach to the policing of Scotland must be undertaken with due regard to the policing principles, which set out that the main purpose of policing is to improve the safety and well-being of persons, localities and communities in Scotland.

The Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012 makes clear that the Chief Constable is fully accountable to the Scottish Police Authority for the decisions that he and his officers make in the policing of Scotland. It is of course part of the authority’s governance and accountability role to scrutinise the implementation and impact of operational policing policy in Scotland, such as its scrutiny review on the use of the stop and search tactic which made a number of recommendations in May 2014. The Chief Constable must also have due regard to such recommendations made, or guidance issued by the Scottish Police Authority.

Question reference: S4W-22216

Asked by: Graeme Pearson, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 July 2014
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 18 August 2014

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-21827 by Paul Wheelhouse on 16 July 2014, on how many occasions (a) the quality of water supplied to consumers has been affected as a result of raw water quality changes and (b) an elevated level of trihalomethanes has been detected in raw water supplying treatment works, in each year since 2011.

a) The quality of raw water is continually varying over a wide range of parameters. Similarly, the quality of treated water varies, although it must meet the standards set out in the Water Supply (Water Quality) (Scotland) Regulations 2001. Problems may occur when the quality of raw water varies outside the quality range that a particular treatment works is designed to treat.

The Drinking Water Quality Regulator for Scotland (DWQR) receives notification from Scottish Water of all events that either do, or may potentially, affect treated water quality. The most serious of these are declared to be incidents. Summaries of incident investigations are published on the DWQR’s website. In the years 2011, 2012 and 2013 there were 25 such incidents which could potentially be attributed to a treatment works that was either not designed, or optimised, sufficiently to cope with the quality of incoming raw water. Details of specific incidents, and their impact on water supplied to consumers, will vary, depending upon the circumstances of each particular incident.

b) Trihalomethanes (THMs) form when water containing naturally occurring organic material is disinfected using chlorine during the treatment process. Consequently, raw water should not contain THMs and Scottish Water is not required to test for THMs in its raw waters, only at consumers’ taps. Question S4W-22219, answered on 18 August 2014, deals with this matter.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

Question reference: S4W-22219

Asked by: Graeme Pearson, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 31 July 2014
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 18 August 2014

To ask the Scottish Government on how many occasions an elevated level of trihalomethanes has been detected in treated water in each year since 2011.

There have been 97 failures of the total trihalomethane standard of 100 g/l in Scotland out of 5,252 samples taken since 2011 and details for samples taken between 2005 and 2014 (as at 31 May 2014) are set out in the following table:

Year	No. THM Samples Taken	No. THM Samples Failed
2005	1,713	103
2006	1,770	93
2007	1,737	80
2008	1,684	81
2009	1,645	89
2010	1,636	62
2011	1,575	43
2012	1,554	42
2013	1,511	12
2014 (year to date)	612	0

Question reference: S4W-20230

Asked by: Graeme Pearson, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 March 2014
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 21 July 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many official visits ministers have made outwith Scotland in each year since 2007.

Question reference: S4W-21826

Asked by: Graeme Pearson, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 June 2014
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 16 July 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has examined the causes of a reduction in the quality of raw water supplying water treatment works.

Raw water quality can change due to a wide range of reasons, some of which are site-specific and some of which are more general. These can include changes in the physical characteristics of the catchment, the impacts of climate change and impacts arising from man-made activities, including land use change. The Scottish Government, in collaboration with Scottish Water, has commissioned CREW (Centre of Expertise for Waters) to use existing data in order to identify any trends in raw water quality across Scotland and to quantify the extent of these.

Question reference: S4W-21827

Asked by: Graeme Pearson, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 June 2014
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 16 July 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what impact a reduction in raw water quality can have on the quality of drinking water.

In general terms, a reduction in raw water quality can challenge water treatment works and increase the costs of treatment. Scottish Water’s treatment works are designed to cope with fluctuations in raw water quality and ensure final water quality is unaffected. Occasionally, where raw water quality changes beyond the range for which the works is designed, the quality of water supplied to consumers can be affected.

Impacts can be experienced in respect to:

increased treatment costs due to greater use of chemicals

reduced resilience and reliability of the treatment process

reduced final water quality

increased operation and maintenance costs

increased risk of contaminant breakthrough

Question reference: S4F-02211

Asked by: Graeme Pearson, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 23 June 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 June 2014

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to the Police Scotland report, Management Information Year End 2013/14.

Question reference: S4W-21736

Asked by: Graeme Pearson, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 June 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 23 June 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the extent of the powers available to the Care Inspectorate.