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-27633

Asked by: Graeme Pearson, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 7 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many applicants to the Scottish Welfare Fund in (a) 2013-14 and (b) 2014-15 received (i) financial and (ii) other assistance, and how many applications to the fund were rejected.

The Scottish Welfare Fund comprises of two types of grants – Community Care Grants and Crisis Grants. Community Care Grants are intended to enable people to live independently or continue to live independently, preventing the need for institutional care. A Crisis Grant aims to help people, typically on benefits, who are in crisis because of a disaster or an emergency.

The following table shows the number of applications from each part of the fund who were awarded a grant and the number who were rejected. Those awarded are broken down into those where the award was:

Financial assistance (defined as payment into bank, cash or cheque);

Those where the award was made via another form (travel warrants, store voucher, purchase card, goods provided-new, goods provided- re-use or other), or

Those where the award was a mixture of both.

Community Care Grants

Rejected

Awarded

Financial year of Community Care Grant final decision

No payment

Other assistance

Financial assistance only

Both financial and other assistance

Total applications decided

2013-14	17,500	23,300	9,100	3,600	53,600
2014-15	25,800	35,100	9,900	2,600	73,400

Crisis Grants

Rejected

Awarded

Financial year of Crisis Grant final decision

No payment

Other assistance

Financial assistance only

Both financial and other assistance

Total applications decided

2013-14	31,100	28,300	38,800	14,900	113,100
2014-15	40,700	43,400	43,100	16,500	143,700

Notes:

All figures have been rounded to the nearest 100.

Totals may not sum due to rounding.

Source: SWFQ dataset as at 28 September 2015

Question reference: S4T-01131

Asked by: Graeme Pearson, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 05 October 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that people in Cumnock are not disadvantaged by the decision to close the Cumnock campus of Ayr College.

Question reference: S4W-27573

Asked by: Graeme Pearson, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 18 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 2 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding the allocation in Scotland of the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived.

In May 2013 the then Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth Mr John Swinney MSP wrote to the UK Minister for Employment Mark Hoban about the fund and the UK Government’s wish to block the proposal on budgetary grounds as the Scottish Government is committed to increasing overall incomes and reducing inequality as part of its Economic Strategy.

However, the European Commission rules regarding the fund means that any member state participating would have its European Structural and Investment Funds reduced accordingly – specifically the European Social Fund allocation. Therefore, accessing the fund for aid for the most deprived means reducing other elements and redirecting existing funds into this more constrained area.

The Scottish Government expects to shortly announce significant funding to tackle poverty and social inclusion as part of the European Social Fund 2014-2020 programmes.

Question reference: S4W-27578

Asked by: Graeme Pearson, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 21 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 1 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government at what stage potential windfarm developers must obtain a licence to export power to the grid.

Under the Electricity Act 1989 certain activities concerning electricity may only be carried out with a licence (or under a relevant exemption or exception). It is the responsibility of Ofgem to determine the content of electricity licences, and to grant licences to successful applicants.

For further information about this process and associated timescales please see http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Licensing/Work/Documents1/SupplementaryAppendix2-Guidanceforgasnd0electricityapplications.pdf.

Question reference: S4W-27571

Asked by: Graeme Pearson, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 18 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 29 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many grants were made under the Emergency Food Action Plan between 11 April 2014 and 31 August 2015; to whom they were made, and what the value of each grant was.

There have been 27 grant offer agreements made between 11 April 2014 and 31 August 2015 in connection with the Emergency Food Action Plan. The details of the grant offer agreements are contained in the following table:

Organisation	Total Grant 2014-15 and 2015-16
Fareshare	£500,000
Barlornock East Residents Association/Maryhill Foodbank	£39,700
Citizens Advice Edinburgh	£49,500
Community Food Moray	£43,500
Council of Voluntary Organisations	£48,400
Dumfries and Galloway Citizens Advice Service	£45,400
Dundee Foodbank	£42,700
Lanarkshire Community Food and Health Partnership	£33,500
Wheatley Group	£50,000
Apex Scotland	£3,200
Bethany Christian Trust	£10,000
Calderbank Parish Church	£10,000
Calman Trust	£9,900
Central and West Integration Network	£15,200
Community Links	£10,000
East Lothian Foodbank	£10,100
ENeRGI	£10,000
Falkirk Foodbank	£10,000
Fersands and Fountain Community Project	£8,600
Glasgow NE Foodbank	£3,800
Glasgow NW Foodbank	£9,800
Instant Neighbour	£9,900
Inverclyde Foodbank	£10,000
Midlothian Foodbank	£10,000
North Ayrshire Foodbank	£9,300
The Gate Charity	£9,600
The Rock Trust	£10,000
Total	£1,022,100

Question reference: S4W-27572

Asked by: Graeme Pearson, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 18 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 29 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how much was distributed under the Scottish Welfare Fund in (a) 2013-14 and (b) 2014-15.

The local authority budget allocation for the Scottish Welfare Fund was £32,995,240 for 2013-14 and £32,995,240 in 2014-15.

Following the first two years of operation, as at 31 March 2015, a total of £64,695,089 had been distributed by the fund (£28,915,060 in 2013-14 and £35,780,029 in 2014-15).

The most recent annual statistics are available at:

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Social-Welfare/swf.

Question reference: S4W-27435

Asked by: Graeme Pearson, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 24 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how long it takes on average for Police Scotland to respond to freedom of information requests.

Question reference: S4W-27446

Asked by: Graeme Pearson, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 24 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what meetings it has had with the (a) Falkirk and District Faculty of Solicitors and (b) Glasgow Bar Association regarding its members' reported concerns about the legal aid arrangements for the new sheriff appeal court.

We have not met directly with either the Falkirk and District Faculty of Solicitors nor the Glasgow Bar Association. As the representative body for the profession, I met with the senior management team of the Law Society of Scotland on 3 September 2015 where we discussed the legal aid arrangements for the new Sheriff Appeal Court. A further meeting was held between senior officials from the Scottish Government Justice Directorate and the Law Society on 10 September 2015. This is in addition to ongoing discussion between Scottish Government officials and the Law Society on the draft regulations that were intended to put in place the new arrangements since they were first circulated for comment in April 2015. I have also had recent discussions with the Dean of the Faculty of Advocates.

Following the Justice Committee’s vote against the original regulations, I withdrew the draft legal aid regulations and, having listened to concerns, I put in place alternative arrangements which mirror the current situation around legal aid payments for summary appeal cases in the High Court. This allowed for the smooth opening of the Sheriff Appeal Court for criminal cases, safeguarding access to justice for all those appearing in the new court and providing consistency for solicitors, counsel and solicitor advocates during this transitional period.

Question reference: S4W-27238

Asked by: Graeme Pearson, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 August 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding the independent panel of inquiry on the use of hormone pregnancy tests and whether there are links between such tests and birth defects, which was announced by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health on 23 October 2014, and whether NHS Scotland has submitted evidence to the inquiry.

The Scottish Government has raised, and continues to raise, the issue of the independent panel with the UK Government and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. I have stressed that it is vital that the independent panel has the opportunity to hear from women who were prescribed Primodos and their families. The Scottish Government has also written to families in Scotland encouraging them to share their experiences with the independent panel.

Question reference: S4W-27237

Asked by: Graeme Pearson, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 August 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has about the use of the hormone pregnancy test, Primodos, by women in Scotland in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.

Following engagement between the Scottish Government and families in Scotland around their concerns about hormone pregnancy tests, the Scottish Government conducted a search to identify if we held any information. No information was identified and therefore the information we hold relates to what has been shared with us by families and the Association for Children Damaged by Hormone Pregnancy Tests in the last year.