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-01355

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 September 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 October 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with trades unions regarding support for international projects in which they are both involved.

Question reference: S4W-09633

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 14 September 2012
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 26 September 2012

To ask the Scottish Government whether it considers that the payment of the living wage should be achieved by (a) raising the pay floor or (b) paying special supplements.

Question reference: S4W-09635

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 14 September 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 25 September 2012

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will include a clause in its proposed Sustainable Procurement Bill to prevent public contracts being awarded to firms that engage in illegal trade union blacklisting.

Question reference: S4W-09319

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 August 2012
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 24 September 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what progress is being made toward making the platforms at Hyndland railway station fully accessible to passengers who are disabled.

Network Rail is on site installing a new footbridge and three lifts that will significantly improve access to the station. These improvements will create step free access from the station to the Broomhill residential estate on one side and Gartnavel Hospital on the other. The work will be complete by the end of the year.

Network Rail and Transport Scotland are currently considering the potential to create a third platform and associated improved access to the Queensborough Gardens station entrance.

Question reference: S4W-09320

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 August 2012
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 21 September 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many people have been employed by the (a) television and (b) film production industry in (i) Scotland, (ii) Glasgow and (iii) Glasgow Kelvin in each year since 1999.

Statistics on employment in the creative industries, as one of the seven growth sectors identified in the Government Economic Strategy, are being compiled from 2009 onwards and are available at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Business/Publications/GrowthSectors/Database.

The data are not broken down beyond Scotland level but are broken down by sector, including film & video and radio & television. The relevant data are:

	2009	2010
Employment in film and video	2,900	3,400
Employment in radio and television	3,300	3,600

Question reference: S4W-09321

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 August 2012
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 21 September 2012

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the potential economic impact, whether it has a strategy to help develop the (a) television and (b) film industry.

The Scottish Government and agencies such as Creative Scotland, Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise are doing much to help the television and film production sectors.

Efforts to encourage television production in Scotland, following the 2008 report of the Scottish Broadcasting Commission Platform for Success, have seen Scottish produced content screened UK-wide by public service broadcasters increase from 2.6% in 2007 to 4.9% in 2011, with the BBC increasing from 3.3% to 8.6%. Television production activity in Scotland (independent and broadcasters) in 2010-11 was estimated to account for 1,577 jobs (both permanent and freelance) with a total (estimated) value of £131.2 million. The value of the sector increased by £38.7 million from £92.5 million in 2009-10.

Creative Scotland’s Film and Broadcasting Programme has an allocation of £5 million for the year 2012-13. £1 million of the allocation is dedicated to the Television Production Investment route, which is a pilot project between Creative Scotland and Scottish Enterprise.

Question reference: S4W-09494

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 September 2012
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 18 September 2012

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-09163 by Alasdair Allan on 4 September 2012, for what reason it stopped collating information on the cost of school meals.

In autumn 2010, a consultation took place to ascertain what educational data collection continued to be necessary and what data could cease to be collected. Following the consultation a number of data collections, including information on the cost of a school meal to pupils, were deemed to be an unnecessary reporting burden on schools and local authorities and are now no longer collected centrally.

Further detail can be found through the following link.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/School-Education/scotstat/PastCons.

Question reference: S4O-01262

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 September 2012
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 12 September 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what recent action it has taken to maintain employment and create new jobs.

On Monday 10 September, we published a progress report on our Government Economic Strategy which sets out the actions that are being taken to accelerate the recovery, maintain employment and create new jobs.

Our immediate priorities for supporting output and employment continue to be:

Boosting public sector capital investment – such as our £105 million stimulus package, announced in June, which will support the construction industry and benefit key sectors such as renewables, tourism, transport and housing;

Direct action to tackle unemployment, in particular youth unemployment – such as our commitment to delivering 25,000 Modern Apprenticeship opportunities in each year of the current parliament – with a record 26,427 Modern Apprenticeship starts in 2011-12, and

Action to enhance economic confidence – we’re continuing to take action to build on Scotland’s strong inward investment record. The recent Ernst & Young UK Attractiveness Survey showed that Scotland was the leading location in the UK for inward investment in terms of jobs created.

Question reference: S4W-09351

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 September 2012
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 11 September 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what opportunity there is for the medical and life sciences industry to benefit from investment in the new South Glasgow Hospitals.

The new South Glasgow Hospitals will create a range of opportunities for the medical and life sciences industries.

For example, the planned construction of Clinical Research Facilities will provide a focus on clinical and translational research making them suited to the placement of commercial clinical trials by the pharmaceutical industry and Clinical Research Organisations.

To maximise such opportunities, Scottish Enterprise, in support of the Glasgow Economic Leadership Group’s life sciences workstream, is undertaking an assessment of the wider life science infrastructure in the West of Scotland. As part of this work, there will be a specific focus on the opportunity for the life sciences industry that comes with the new South Glasgow Hospitals.

Question reference: S4W-09329

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 31 August 2012
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 11 September 2012

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of his comments at the Edinburgh International Television Festival on 24 August 2012, whether the First Minister has had discussions with (a) the BBC (i) Trust, (ii) management and (iii) staff trades unions and (b) representatives from (1) non-BBC television companies and (2) the film industry on transferring BBC staff and assets to a separate Scotland-based broadcaster and, if so, what the outcome of these discussions were.

The intention, under independence, to create “a national public service broadcaster (based initially on the existing staff and assets of BBC Scotland)” was set out in Your Scotland Your Voice: A National Conversation, published on 30 November 2009.

In the normal course of government business, officials and ministers meet with many people with an interest in the future of broadcasting in Scotland. Full details of the Scottish Government’s proposals for independence will be provided in the comprehensive White Paper to be published in November 2013.