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: S4O-01908

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 March 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the recent announcement of a school meals sourcing summit, when the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment will meet local authorities to discuss the sourcing and standard of food in schools.

Question reference: S4W-13050

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 11 February 2013
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 5 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether industrial production in the manufacturing sector has increased or decreased in each year since 1997.

This information can be derived from the latest (2012 Quarter 3) Scottish Quarterly Gross Domestic Product (GDP) Publication, which was released on 1February 2013 and can be found on the Scottish Government website at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Economy/GDP2012Q3.

Scottish GDP (output measure) is now published on the basis of the 2007 Standard Industrial Classification and 2009 Input-Output Gross Value Added weights.

With regards to annual data, a consistent time series for manufacturing production (in real terms) is available for the period 1998-2011. The published index of manufacturing production for Scotland is reported in Table 1.

Table 1. Index of Manufacturing Production, 1998-2011

(seasonally adjusted, chained volume measure of Gross Value Added at basic prices)

1998	108.5
1999	105.3
2000	101.2
2001	100.9
2002	97.3
2003	93.9
2004	97.6
2005	100.2
2006	105.6
2007	107.2
2008	108.8
2009	100.0
2010	103.8
2011	105.2

Using the index in Table 1, annual growth rates of output from the manufacturing sector have been calculated and reproduced in Table 2 for each year since 1999.

Table 2. Year-on-Year Change in Manufacturing Production, 1999-2011

1999	-2.9%
2000	-3.9%
2001	-0.2%
2002	-3.6%
2003	-3.5%
2004	4.0%
2005	2.6%
2006	5.4%

2007	1.5%
2008	1.5%
2009	-8.1%
2010	3.8%
2011	1.3%

Question reference: S4W-13054

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 11 February 2013
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 5 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many planning appeals in the (a) energy, (b) retail, (c) commercial property, (d) housing, (e) environmental waste management and (f) hotel, leisure and recreation sector ministers have considered since May 2011 and with what outcome.

Question reference: S4W-11205

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 November 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 28 February 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the report on BBC Newsnight Scotland on 13 November 2012, whether it has sought legal advice in relation to the former chair of Stow College.

Question reference: S4W-12827

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 01 February 2013
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 27 February 2013

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason residents associations are not allowed to represent their estates as a whole at homeowner housing panels.

Residents association bodies cannot represent their estates as a whole because section 17 of the Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011 (the Act) provides that it is homeowners themselves who have the right to make an application to the Homeowner Housing Panel (HoHP).

However, regulation 7(1) of the Homeowner Housing Panel (Applications and Decisions) (Scotland) Regulations 2012 (SSI 2012/180) provides that homeowners may act in person or be represented by any person. This means that if the homeowner so wished, he or she could choose to be represented by someone from a residents association.

Further, regulation 9(2) provides that when two or more applications by different homeowners relating to the same property factor are pending at the same time, the homeowner housing committee may direct them to be heard together. Therefore, if multiple homeowners from the same estate wished to apply at the same time regarding the same matter, there is nothing to prevent a residents association providing support and co-ordination to this group of applicant homeowners.

Question reference: S4O-01758

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 January 2013
Current Status: Answered by Frank Mulholland on 30 January 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the Lord Advocate has had with the Advocate General concerning the agreement between the UK and Scottish governments on an independence referendum.

Question reference: S4O-01647

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 December 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 20 December 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how many direct weekday train services between 9.00 am and 5.00 pm there are from Paisley Gilmour Street to Ayr and how many there were prior to the recent timetable change.

There were eighteen direct weekday services between 09:00 and 17:00 hours from Paisley Gilmour Street to Ayr in the December 2011 timetable. There are ten direct weekday services between 09:00 and 17:00 hours from Paisley Gilmour Street to Ayr in the December 2012 timetable. In addition, there are eight services from 09:00 to 17:00 hours from Paisley Gilmour Street to Ayr with an interchange at Irvine.

Question reference: S4O-01652

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 December 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 January 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has made of the benefits of creating an investment zone in Renfrewshire.

Question reference: S4O-01569

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 November 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 December 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how much it plans to spend on economic development in Paisley.

Question reference: S4O-01494

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 November 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what progress there has been on the development of the e-petitions system.

	Number of appeal decisions	Number of appeals allowed
Energy	92	27
Retail	19	11
Commercial property	17	12
Housing	148	53
Environmental waste management	5	3
Hotel, leisure and recreation	13	6