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-18913

Asked by: Mary Fee, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 13 December 2013
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 8 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many consultants specialise in treating adults who have epispadius, broken down by NHS board.

Information requested on how many consultants specialising in treating adults who have epispadias by each NHS board is not held centrally.

Table (a) shows the headcount of consultant urologists from at September 2013. The available data does not indicate whether consultants specialise in treating adults with epispadias.

Table (a)

Consultant urologists (headcount	2013
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	3
NHS Borders	-
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	1
NHS Fife	5
NHS Forth Valley	5
NHS Grampian	6
NHS Greater Glasgowand & Clyde	20
NHS Highland	3
NHS Lanarkshire	8
NHS Lothian	9
NHS Orkney	-
NHS Shetland	-
NHS Tayside	5
NHS Western Isles	-
NHS Scotland	65

Source ISD

Question reference: S4W-18917

Asked by: Mary Fee, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 13 December 2013
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 19 December 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what the average waiting time for treatment is for adults with epispadius, broken down by NHS board.

The information requested is not available centrally. Adult patient with epispadius are likely to require inpatient and day case treatment would be covered by the 12 weeks legal treatment time guarantee set out in The Patient Rights (Scotland) Act 2011.

Latest information from the local statistical returns showed that during the quarter end 30 September 2012, 98.3% of patients were treated within the 12 weeks legal treatment time guarantee.

Question reference: S4O-02745

Asked by: Mary Fee, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 December 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 December 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how the Social Care (Self-directed Support) (Scotland) Act 2013 supports carers.

Question reference: S4O-02691

Asked by: Mary Fee, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 December 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 December 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what services will transfer from the Royal Alexandra Hospital to the new Southern General Hospital.

Question reference: S4O-02674

Asked by: Mary Fee, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 November 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 December 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what impact the closure of police stations in West Scotland will have on community safety.

Question reference: S4W-18065

Asked by: Mary Fee, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 08 November 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 22 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has bought or sold carbon offset credits under the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme and, if so, to or from whom.

Question reference: S4W-18061

Asked by: Mary Fee, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 08 November 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 22 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many households have received support under the Green Deal Scotland.

Up to the end of October 8602 households in Scotland had had a Green Deal assessment. Of these, 1224 sought Green Deal finance:

131 of those households have installed measures using Green Deal finance.

Another 400 have a Green Deal plan with a “pending” pending. This means they have agreed finance but are still in the cooling off period and may still choose not to go ahead with the Green Deal finance.

A further 305 households engaging with Green Deal finance have a Green Deal plan with a “New” status. This means they have indicated they would like to install measures using Green Deal finance but have not yet agreed a finance package.

Lastly 388 households who chose to engage with Green Deal finance have since either decided not to proceed, or have not been approved for credit and have cancelled their Green Deal plan.

Of the 8,602 households that have had a Green Deal assessment, 7,378 have yet to seek Green Deal finance.

Question reference: S4W-18070

Asked by: Mary Fee, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 08 November 2013
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 21 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to (a) meet its target of having at least 70% of all waste being recycled by 2025 and (b) design avoidable waste out of the economy by 2050.

Through our Zero Waste Plan, we have already taken bold action to ensure we meet our 70% recycling target. The Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2012 are transforming the availability of recycling services to households and business. This is accompanied by the introduction of bans on certain materials going to landfill or incineration.

Over the past 18 months, we have invested around £20 million to support the roll out of household food waste collections. This is one of a series of actions and investments being made through Zero Waste Scotland and by Councils across Scotland, in the quality and availability of recycling services and participation in those services.

Our new action plan ‘Safeguarding Scotland’s Resources, Blueprint for a More Resource Efficient and Circular Economy’ sets out a series of measures to reduce waste, use materials more efficiently and ensure that products and materials are cycled through the economy rather than discarded. This work has already been started by Resource Efficient Scotland, which provides support for businesses to achieve resource efficiency not just in material resources but also in water and energy, delivering economic as well as environmental benefits. We are also working with Education Scotland to help ensure Scotland has the right skills to deliver the transition necessary to achieving our ambitions for a waste-free society by 2050.

As with any long-term plan, we continue to examine the success of our activities and identify where further actions may be needed. That is why I recently commissioned work on the feasibility of a national deposit and return scheme for Scotland. It is also why Scotland has led the way in becoming the first nation to join the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Circular Economy 100 programme, which seeks to accelerate progress toward eradicating waste.

Question reference: S4W-18062

Asked by: Mary Fee, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 08 November 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 20 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what impact its target of making Scotland 100% reliable on renewable energy sources by 2050 will have on energy prices.

The Scottish Government’s target is to generate the equivalent of 100% of Scotland’s gross annual electricity consumption from renewable sources by 2020, as part of a wider, balanced, low carbon energy mix.

In the future, we would see far greater energy price increases if our energy supplies relied more on fossil fuels and did not take advantage of our abundant renewable resources. As such, our continued focus on renewable generation will help protect Scotland’s consumers by keeping energy prices down in the long term.

Question reference: S4W-18058

Asked by: Mary Fee, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 08 November 2013
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 19 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it will take to help mitigate the effects of the recently announced increase in energy prices for vulnerable households.

The Scottish Government has invested £220 million on fuel poverty and energy efficiency programmes since 2009. That is an estimated total net saving to household incomes over the lifetime of the measures of more than £1 billion.

We will spend nearly a quarter of a billion pounds over the next three years on fuel poverty and energy efficiency. The Scottish Government has created a £200 million per year initiative, using Scottish Government funding to lever in additional investment from major energy companies to tackle fuel poverty, reduce carbon emissions and support jobs.

We need the full powers of independence to tackle all the causes of fuel poverty. If elected, in an independent Scotland this government would reduce energy prices by five per cent or around £70 per household and meet the costs of fuel poverty and energy efficiency schemes through government spending.