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-22926

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 17 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what criteria it used in selecting projects to receive support from the Emergency Food Fund in the recent allocation round.

The application form for the Emergency Food Fund set out five criteria, which were:

Projects which will help respond to immediate demands for emergency food aid and help address the underlying causes of food poverty;

Projects which can demonstrate a partnership approach;

Projects that build more sustainable local solutions to food poverty;

Projects that adopt an assets-based approach;

Project costs.

Question reference: S4O-03693

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 November 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what resources it provides to allow members to scrutinise the Scottish Government's budget.

Question reference: S4O-03387

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 June 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 June 2014

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what steps it is taking to ensure that it maximises the benefits of digital working.

Question reference: S4W-20647

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 April 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 30 April 2014

To ask the Scottish Government, if a major disaster was to be declared in or around the Dunfermline area, what contingencies are in place to cope with any increased (a) pressure on the emergency services and (b) need for hospital admissions.

Major Incidents can happen anywhere and at anytime and will inevitably lead to additional pressures on hospitals and the emergency services. Should a major incident be declared anywhere in Fife, NHS Fife and its emergency services partners have well-developed and tested response and contingency plans in place. Risk assessments are undertaken by the health board to ensure that it is sufficiently resilient, even with increased pressure, and capable of responding to a major incident whilst maintaining patient care.

In line with its duties under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, NHS Fife has major incident and business continuity plans in place to ensure that it can continue to provide expected levels of healthcare services in the event of any major disruptive incident.

Question reference: S4W-20648

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 April 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 30 April 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what (a) public meetings and (b) other public consultation took place regarding the proposal to move accident and emergency services from Queen Margaret Hospital in Dunfermline to the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, and how many people participated.

The relocation of Accident and Emergency services to the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy was agreed in 2002, as part of NHS Fife’s Strategic Plan ‘Right For Fife. As part of the ‘Right for Fife’ process, an extensive public consultation exercise was undertaken. This included:

a) Twenty-seven large-scale public consultation meetings, held during the formal consultation period from Nov 2001 to Feb 2002. These were organised in a variety of locations around Fife including Dunfermline, Cowdenbeath, Inverkeithing, Glenrothes, Kirkcaldy, St Andrews and Cupar.

b)Other aspects of the public engagement process included:

The distribution of the ‘Right for Fife’ newsletter to 160,000 households in Fife in addition to patient and user groups, partner agencies, voluntary organisations, local groups, staff and professional groups, libraries, GP surgeries and local pharmacies. The newsletter was accessed over 22,000 times on the NHS Fife website;

The production of a full public consultation document and smaller summary version;

A number of Open Space meetings (a public meeting where the public sets the agenda);

Community focus groups (existing community groups such as mother and toddler groups who took the opportunity to discuss health issues with an external facilitator);

Health Panels (randomly selected to debate health issues);

A number of additional public events;

Multiple meetings with Community Councils and other Community organisations across Fife;

A media campaign and various methods of advertising including local radio and a poster campaign, raising awareness of the public meetings, public consultation and opportunities available for the public to comment and have their views heard.

Question reference: S4W-20645

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 April 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 29 April 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many patients travelling by ambulance from Queen Margaret Hospital in Dunfermline to the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy have been pronounced "dead on arrival" since accident and emergency services were moved from Dunfermline to Kirkcaldy.

The Scottish Ambulance Service advised that 1814 patients were transferred by ambulance from Queen Margaret Hospital in Dunfermline to the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy between 1 January 2012 and 7 April 2014. Based on an interrogation of their local management data systems, including the information input by crews to the electronic patient record forms, there is no record of any patient being ‘dead on arrival’ at the receiving hospital.

Question reference: S4W-20646

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 April 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 29 April 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how much moving accident and emergency services from Queen Margaret Hospital in Dunfermline to the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy has cost the Scottish Ambulance Service in additional fuel.

Question reference: S4O-03082

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 March 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what plans it has to promote access to parliamentary proceedings for people who are deaf or have a hearing impairment.

Question reference: S4W-19796

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 28 February 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what its definition is of a free school meal.

For the purposes of the First Minister’s announcement to extend the entitlement for children in primary 1 to 3 to a free school meal, a free school meal is a free school lunch. A free school lunch means any food or drink which an education authority provides free of charge to pupils in the middle of the day and which the education authority consider is appropriate for consumption as a meal at that time of the day. The food and drink provided must adhere to the standards set out in the Nutritional Requirements for Food and Drink in Schools (Scotland) Regulations 2008.

Question reference: S4W-19800

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 28 February 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the preparedness of schools to deliver its free school meals policy with regard to (a) capital and (b) staffing costs.