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-18833

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 December 2013
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 8 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether local authorities are independently inspected on the services that they provide for autistic children.

Local authorities are inspected on the range of services they provide for children and young people with additional support needs including autism. In terms of education, Education Scotland inspects both mainstream schools and special schools and units that make provision for children and young people with autistic spectrum disorders. Within Education Scotland’s reports, specific reference is made to the quality of provision for such units.

Question reference: S4W-18830

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 December 2013
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 7 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many local authorities have autism strategies for (a) children and (b) adults.

The joint Scottish Government-COSLA Scottish Autism Strategy focuses on the whole life journey and so local authorities will want to consider both children and adults in their local strategies. 12 local action plans have been submitted to date and four local authorities have promised completed action plans early in 2014.

As part of our work to deliver the Scottish Strategy for Autism, the Scottish Government commissioned some work to map autism services and supports across localities. This work produced individual mapping reports for each council area and completed in October 2013. Some councils chose to wait for these reports to be available before completing their local autism strategy and action plans. But it means that some councils have been reviewing their drafts in light of the findings of the mapping reports, and these should be submitted to the Scottish Government, once ratified through the appropriate council committees, as a matter of urgency.

Question reference: S4O-02753

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 December 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance it provides to ensure that children with additional support needs who are educated in mainstream schools receive appropriate support.

Question reference: S4O-02671

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 November 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 December 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many times Police Scotland has found so-called legal highs cut with illegal substances but not seized them.

Question reference: S4O-02649

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 November 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many stop-and-searches Police Scotland has carried out.

Question reference: S4W-17779

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 8 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many seizures of so-called legal highs cut with illegal drugs there have been in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S4W-17778

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 8 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many hospital admissions there have been of people who have taken so-called legal highs in each NHS board area in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S4W-17780

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 8 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether shops or internet sites selling so-called legal highs and drug paraphernalia are subject to any licensing regime.

The subject matter of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 is reserved to the UK Government, as is the regulation of internet services. Section 9A of the UK’s Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 makes it an offence to supply any article (often referred to as paraphernalia) used for administering a controlled drug unlawfully (i.e. without a doctor’s prescription). ‘Legal highs’ or Novel/New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) as they are also known, are substances which produce similar effects to illegal drugs, but they are not controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. In response to the availability of NPS, the UK Government’s Home Office introduced a new temporary class drug order (15 November 2011). See UK Government website:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/98006/temporary-class-drug-factsheet.pdf.

Some substances sold as NPS have also been found to contain drugs controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act. There is no other specific legislation outwith the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and temporary class drug order that uniquely deals with the supply of NPS. However, Police Scotland together with partners are exploring other options, including Trading Standards powers. The Scottish Government will continue to work with the Home Office and the Police Scotland to understand more about the use and supply of these substances and options to tackle their supply.

The planning system in Scotland does not generally seek to control the types of goods and services sold from shops, offices and other premises. Where products or services have potentially negative health or social implications, their availability or sale is usually subject to other statutory controls, for example, licensing as in the case of the sale of alcohol or knives. There is no licensing that is specific to the sale of NPS and drug paraphernalia.

Question reference: S4W-17776

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 1 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many local authorities run (a) household and (b) business oil and fat recycling collection services.

In 2012, 8 local authorities ran a waste vegetable oil collection service for households, collecting 62.2 tonnes of oil. Three local authorities ran a similar service for businesses and collected 23.3 tonnes.

With regard to waste mineral oils, 29 local authorities provided a collection service to households in 2012, collecting 490.2 tonnes. Seven local authorities ran the same service for businesses and 73.6 tonnes was collected.

Question reference: S4W-17781

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 31 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has carried out an analysis of how many steroid users are using needle exchanges.

There has been no analysis carried out on the number of Performance and Image Enhancing Drugs (PIEDs) users accessing needle exchange services in Scotland.

The distribution of needles/syringes and other injecting paraphernalia by needle exchange outlets in Scotland has been monitored by ISD Scotland since 2009. Community and pharmacy outlets are surveyed annually to obtain information on the volume of such items distributed, number of attendances, number and characteristics of individuals attending and drugs injected. However, it is not possible from this centrally held information to analyse how many PIED users are using needle exchanges.