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: S4F-02120

Asked by: Graeme Pearson, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 19 May 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 May 2014

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government is doing to tackle racial intolerance and hate crime.

Question reference: S4O-03200

Asked by: Graeme Pearson, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 April 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 May 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the issues associated with opencast mines in South Scotland.

Question reference: S4W-20306

Asked by: Graeme Pearson, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 March 2014
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 3 April 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what factors it considers have contributed to the current low crime figures.

The Scottish Government’s continued delivery of 1,000 extra police officers has contributed to the almost 40-year low in recorded crime.

The available international research suggests that a wide range of social, demographic, technological, economic and environmental drivers influence crime levels, as do policy and practice. Analysis of Scottish crime data suggests that each of these factors is likely to have played a part in the fall in crime, although no research currently exists that definitively proves the relative strength of each of these influences.

Question reference: S4W-20283

Asked by: Graeme Pearson, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 March 2014
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 1 April 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether it considers that cross-border co-operation between Scottish and UK justice and law enforcement agencies will be as effective in an independent Scotland as it is currently.

Yes. The existing independence of Scotland’s legal and justice systems ensures a strong starting point. Scotland already has its own police service, Police Scotland, and there are well-established arrangements to ensure effective cross-border co-operation between them and law enforcement agencies in the rest of the UK.

It will be in the shared interests of all parties to ensure that these practical arrangements continue following independence.

Question reference: S4W-20284

Asked by: Graeme Pearson, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 March 2014
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 1 April 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how cross-border arrests will operate in an independent Scotland.

There are well established arrangements for effective cross-border co-operation between Police Scotland and forces in the rest of the UK, including procedures for cross-border arrests. These reciprocal arrangements operate effectively and ensure public safety. In an independent Scotland, the Scottish Government would seek to maintain current arrangements for cross-border policing in order to ensure the continuation of flexible and effective policing.

Question reference: S4W-20285

Asked by: Graeme Pearson, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 March 2014
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 1 April 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether it considers that procedures for cross-border arrests will be as effective and efficient in an independent Scotland as they are currently.

There are well established arrangements to ensure effective cross-border co-operation between Police Scotland and forces in the rest of the UK, including procedures for cross-border arrests. These reciprocal arrangements operate effectively and ensure public safety. In an independent Scotland, the Scottish Government would seek to maintain current cross-border arrangements in order to ensure the continuation of flexible and effective policing.

Question reference: S4W-20196

Asked by: Graeme Pearson, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 14 March 2014
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 27 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) frontline and (b) support staff there were in the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service on 28 February (i) 2013 and (ii) 2014.

The Scottish Government collated staffing information on the eight Scottish Fire and Rescue Services as of 31 March each year. Staffing information for 2013 was published in Table 3 (headcount) and Table 4 (FTE) of the Fire and Rescue Service Statistics Scotland 2012-13 publication (published 22 August 2013):

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2013/08/3869/0

Staff numbers are broken down by role, of which there are three broad groupings: operational, control room and support staff.

Staffing data on the single Scottish Fire and Rescue Service for 2013-14 has not yet been collected. The data will be published later in 2014 in the Fire and Rescue Service Statistics 2013-14 publication.

Question reference: S4W-20195

Asked by: Graeme Pearson, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 14 March 2014
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 26 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many police support staff there were in (a) Police Scotland and (b) the Scottish Police Authority on 28 February 2014, also broken down by policing division.

The Scottish Government does not hold data on police support staff by each local division, or hold breakdowns between police support staff employed by Scottish Police Authority (SPA) and Police Scotland. This is a matter for Police Scotland and the SPA.

The Scottish Government continues to collect the total number of police support staff working within the SPA and Police Scotland each quarter but do not hold numbers as at 28 February 2014. The latest published total number of police support staff, as at 31 January 2014, is available in the HR Paper to be presented at the 26 March 2014 SPA board meeting, available at:

http://www.spa.police.uk/meetings-events/board-meetings/194964/

Question reference: S4T-00646

Asked by: Graeme Pearson, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 24 March 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the admission by the Chief Constable that some stop and searches are "made up".

Question reference: S4O-03080

Asked by: Graeme Pearson, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 March 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body how many knives have been removed from visitors to the Parliament in each year since 2011.