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-05525

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 February 2012
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 22 February 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how many police officers have been disciplined as a result of inappropriate sharing of information with the media in each year since 2007.

Question reference: S4O-00717

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 February 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 February 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress it has achieved in tackling poverty.

Question reference: S4W-05339

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 30 January 2012
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 14 February 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has made representations to the UK Government regarding exempting Scotland from legislation requiring the letting of rail passenger services as franchises.

Question reference: S4W-05342

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 30 January 2012
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 14 February 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how much (a) private and (b) public sector investment there has been in ScotRail services since 2007 and how much revenue has been raised from fares.

Scottish ministers make franchise payments to ScotRail in accordance with the terms of the franchise agreement. Rail Franchise Budget information is shown in the following table.

Fare box revenue information is disclosed within the published annual report and accounts for First ScotRail Ltd. The fare box revenue figures disclosed are shown in the following table.

Financial Year	Rail Franchise Budget	Fare Box Revenue
2007-08	£289 million	£216 million
2008-09	£306 million	£235 million
2009-10	£295 million	£243 million
2010-11	£315 million	£258 million

Transport Scotland only holds information on ScotRail private investment where it relates specifically to terms in the franchise agreement. This includes ScotRail’s commitment to invest £40 million capital investment over the first seven years of the franchise and the franchise extension investment. Transport Scotland does not hold information on all private investment out with the terms of the franchise agreement.

Question reference: S4W-05341

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 30 January 2012
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 14 February 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment has been made of any (a) economic and (b) passenger benefits of running rail services on a not-for-dividend basis.

Question reference: S4W-05343

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 30 January 2012
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 13 February 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what meetings it has had with the Scotland Office since 2007 to discuss allowing 16 and 17-year-olds to vote in (a) local government and (b) Scottish Parliament elections.

The Scottish Government has consistently argued that the Scottish Parliament should have full responsibility for elections to the Scottish Parliament and local government, including the ability to determine the franchise.

The Scottish Government has raised the issue of the franchise in its published responses to the Gould Report in 2008, the Report of the Commission on Scottish Devolution in November 2009 and in evidence to the Scottish Parliament on the Scotland Bill. It has pressed the case for full devolution of local and Scottish Parliament elections in meetings and exchanges of correspondence with the UK Government.

Question reference: S4W-05271

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 January 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 8 February 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how it is monitoring its progress on achieving the objectives set out in Achieving Our Potential: A Framework to tackle poverty and income inequality in Scotland

Question reference: S4W-05317

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 27 January 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 8 February 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) full-time, (b) part-time and (c) other (i) teaching, (ii) support, (iii) management and (iv) other staff were employed by further education institutions in the Glasgow parliamentary region on 27 January (A) 2007, (B) 2011 and (C) 2012.

This information is not held centrally.

However it can be estimated that at the end of the academic year 2006-07 there were 2,672 full time equivalent staff working in Glasgow colleges compared with 2,630 full time equivalent staff working in these colleges at the end of the academic year 2010-11.

Employment in Glasgow colleges in 2006-07 and 2010-11 can be broken down as follows:

Mode

2006-07

2010-11

Headcount

FTEs

Headcount

FTEs

Teaching

Non-Teaching

Teaching

Non-Teaching

Teaching

Non-Teaching

Teaching

Non-Teaching

Full-time	1,164	1,054	1,056	912	1,151	1,023	1,049	903
Part-time	2,324	628	473	232	1,720	619	416	262

Total

5,170

2,672

4,513

2,630

Source: Scottish Funding Council Staffing Data.

Notes:

1. Status of staff is at end of academic year (31 July).

2. The Scottish Funding Council collects information annually on staffing in Colleges in Scotland. All members of staff who have been on the payroll at any point during the year are included in these figures.

3. These figures cover the following nine Glasgow colleges: Anniesland College, Cardonald College, Central College, Glasgow Metropolitan College, Glasgow College of Nautical Studies, John Wheatley College, Langside College, North Glasgow College and Stow College.

4. All college payroll staff are included.

Question reference: S4W-05331

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 30 January 2012
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 8 February 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance there is on non-standard conditions in relation to home detention curfews.

Question reference: S4W-05325

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 30 January 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 8 February 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will review the criteria for the Student Awards Agency for Scotland's care leavers grant to include others who have previously had prolonged periods in care.

We conducted a review of the Vacation Grant for Care Leavers in 2011 with a view to extending eligibility. This resulted in some changes to the criteria which means that students who are under the age of 23 on the first day of their course and who have been or were in local authority care for at least three continuous months following their 16th birthday may be eligible.

This allows some account to be taken of historical circumstances in situations going back up to seven years, however there was no call during the review for the grant to be extended to students who were in care during their early years but who had left the care system by the time they were 16.

Accordingly, we have no plans to extend the criteria further.

Parliament dissolved ahead of election

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