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-06456

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 26 March 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 2 April 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what support it has given to suicide prevention charities in each of the last five years.

Through grant funding, the Scottish Government has for many years provided support to a wide range of charities which support people experiencing mental health problems, and their families. Some of these voluntary organisations – such as Samaritans - include, in their remit, work to support people at risk of suicide. None are solely focussed on suicide prevention action.

The Scottish Government has also provided, for some years, funding to NHS Health Scotland (which is a special health board, not a charity) for a broad range of mental health improvement actions, including funding to support the Choose Life suicide prevention programme. In addition, the Scottish Government has fully funded, since its launch in 2002, the Breathing Space telephone advice line, operated by the NHS24 Special Health Board. Breathing Space can help support people at risk of suicide but is a broader service to provide support to callers experiencing low mood, depression and anxiety.

Question reference: S4W-06496

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S4W-06494

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S4W-06495

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S4W-06497

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S4W-06498

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S4W-06092

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 March 2012
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 28 March 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S4W-05862 by Michael Russell on 23 February 2012, whether it will provide a breakdown by (a) ethnicity, (b) gender and (c) disability status of the young people identified as not in employment, education or training in each year since 2007.

The Annual Population Survey (APS) is the official source for data on people not in education, employment or training. The table shows the latest published estimates from the APS, covering the period January to December 2010, of the numbers of people aged 16 to 19 not in education, employment or training in Scotland, by gender. Estimates are provided for the latest calendar year and previous calendar years back to 2007.

It is not possible to estimate the number of young people not in employment, education or training by ethnicity or disability status due to small sample sizes within these breakdowns.

APS data for the 2011 calendar year (January to December) will be released in June 2012.

Number of People Aged 16 to 19 Not in Education, Employment or Training, by Gender, Scotland 2007-10

Level

Year	Male	Female	Total
2007	16,000	15,000	32,000
2008	16,000	15,000	31,000
2009	20,000	15,000	36,000
2010	20,000	16,000	36,000

Source: Annual Population Survey, January to December datasets.

Note:

1. Estimates are rounded to the nearest thousand.

2. Male and female estimates may not sum to totals due to rounding.

3. The survey sample sizes for these estimates are small; hence the estimates are subject to a high degree of sampling error.

Question reference: S4W-06150

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 12 March 2012
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 22 March 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on whether (a) territorial police forces or (b) its agencies have been involved in collating or passing on information that might have been used to inform any blacklists.

Question reference: S4W-06060

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 12 March 2012
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 21 March 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of the practice of selecting chief police officers from other forces, whether the post of chief police officer in the proposed single Scottish police service will be selected from another force in the UK.

The Chief Constable of the Police Service of Scotland will be appointed through open competition. The standard eligibility requirement which applies for current chief constable appointments will continue in the new service. Any candidate must therefore have already held a rank of assistant chief constable or above in a UK police force, and have completed the Strategic Command Course, as currently provided for in paragraphs 1 and 2 of Part One of the determination made under Regulation 11 of the Police (Scotland) Regulations 2004.

Question reference: S4W-06157

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 12 March 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 21 March 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people (a) applied for and (b) obtained a Student Awards Agency for Scotland Care Leavers Grant (i) before and (ii) after the criteria changes in 2011.

The number of students who received the vacation grant for care leavers is shown in the following table. The 2011-12 session is still open for applications and that figure may therefore change.

It was not possible to identify the number of students who applied for the grant but did not receive it. Because of the very low volumes of applicants, this information is not collated by SAAS systems and is only identifiable through the review of individual records (160,000 per annum). SAAS has received no complaints or appeals in relation to the vacation grant for care leavers.

Number of students who received money through the vacation grant for care leavers, 2003-04 to 2011-12:

Academic Session	Number of Students
2003-04	2
2004-05	1
2005-06	2
2006-07	0
2007-08	1
2008-09	0
2009-10	0
2010-11	2
2011-12*	1

Note: *Still open for applications.