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-23294

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2014
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 3 December 2014

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-22729 by Keith Brown on 30 October 2010, how many times it has met the Expert Ferry Group to discuss this and what future meetings with the group are planned.

Question reference: S4W-23260

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 November 2014
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 3 December 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what its latest estimate is of Transport Scotland's expenditure on the tendering process for the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services contract from 2016, and how much has been spent to date.

Question reference: S4W-23258

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 November 2014
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 27 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many people were (a) treated and (b) refused treatment by the national transcatheter aortic valve implantation service in 2013-14, broken down by parliamentary constituency.

This information is not held centrally.

The information in the following table shows referrals to the national transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) service during its first two years of operation.

Table 1: People referred to the national TAVI service, from October 2012 to 24 October 2014, by NHS board.

Health board	Those who need assessed	Those who need tests	Those who have had TAVI	Those suitable for TAVI	Those suitable for conventional surgery	Not suitable for TAVI/ surgery	Total
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	8	11	36	5	18	33	111
Lanarkshire	1	1	5	0	3	2	12
Ayrshire and Arran	1	1	6	1	0	2	11
Dumfries and Galloway	0	0	4	0	0	0	4
Lothian	2	3	30	1	10	25	71
Tayside	2	2	11	0	5	9	29
Fife	1	1	14	0	1	0	17
Forth Valley	2	2	8	0	0	5	17
Borders	1	0	2	1	1	0	5
Grampian	2	3	6	3	7	7	28
Highlands and Islands	2	2	5	1	0	2	12
Total	22	26	127	12	45	85	317

Source: National TAVI Service, October 2014

Question reference: S4W-23257

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 November 2014
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 27 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-15277 by Alex Neil on 13 June 2013, what consideration it has given to whether there is a need to introduce a regional model of service or extend the service to two sites.

Question reference: S4O-03742

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 November 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to tackle high rents in the private sector.

Question reference: S4W-22918

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 12 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made with the development of the administration of the Scottish Independent Living Fund.

Significant progress has been made to a tight timetable, this includes, formation of a project board, representing a range of partners. The first meeting took place in October 2014. The board’s role is to ensure the smooth operational transition of current Independent Living Fund (ILF) funding for existing Scottish ILF users and overseeing the delivery of new arrangements.

Capacity to facilitate a co-produced approach has been created in partnership with Self Directed Support Scotland.

Officials continue on-going dialogue with the UK ILF and have negotiated an agreement with the Department for Work and Pensions to continue to use the existing bespoke ILF IT system.

Question reference: S4W-22919

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 12 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what communication it has had with possible recipients of the Scottish Independent Living Fund.

Question reference: S4W-22952

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 10 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the (a) Herald and Times Group and (b) NUJ regarding proposals to make posts in Glasgow redundant and transfer sub-editing of its titles to Wales and what support it will provide to the staff affected.

The Scottish Government has recently met the Scottish Organiser of the National Union of Journalists, along with other trade union representatives, to discuss a range of matters relating to media. In that meeting, the potential redundancies were brought to our attention. The Scottish Government stands ready to discuss this further with the Herald and Times Group. In the event of redundancies, through the Scottish Government's Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE) initiative, we will provide support to those employees who may be affected by redundancy. Through providing skills development and employability support, PACE aims to minimise the time people, affected by redundancy, are out of work.

Question reference: S4O-03666

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 November 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it is making in developing its low emissions strategy.

Question reference: S4W-22724

Asked by: Drew Smith, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 03 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 31 October 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what support it has offered to Pride Glasgow.

Statements of support were provided to Pride Glasgow by the First Minister and Deputy First Minister in 2008, 2010 and 2012 which underlined the government’s commitment to equality, our support for LGBT people, and our belief in a fair, inclusive society.

In 2014, Glasgow hosted what is being hailed as one of the most successful and inclusive Commonwealth Games, and was the first Commonwealth Games to host a Pride House. Pride Glasgow, alongside many other Scottish LGBT organisations, was involved in making Pride House the success it was widely recognised to be.