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-28275

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 November 2015
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 16 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how much money it has given to Fife Council to provide improvements to the school estate in each of the last three years.

Through the Scotland's Schools for the Future programme the level of funding awarded to Fife Council in each of the last three years to provide improvements to its school estate is as follows:

2012-13: £18,085,647

2013-14: £391,586

2014-15: £0

Moreover, the following table shows the amount of capital funding Fife Council has received as part the Local Government Finance Settlement. It is a matter for each council how best it maximises the use of the resources and assets at its disposal including how much to allocate to improvements to its school estates.

General Capital Grant

2012-13

£ Million

2013-14

£ Million

2014-15

£ Million

Fife Council

23.301

23.330

37.750

Question reference: S4W-28273

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 November 2015
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 16 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how much money it has given to Fife Council as part of the Schools for the Future programme in each of the last three years.

Question reference: S4W-28195

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 November 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 16 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what its capital spend has been in Dunfermline in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S4W-28307

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 November 2015
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 13 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government which schools in the Dunfermline constituency are receiving support from the Attainment Scotland Fund schools programme; how much they are receiving; what criteria were used for selecting them, and what support the programme can provide to the schools that were not chosen but were close to the selected schools in the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation rankings.

The schools in Dunfermline involved in the Attainment Scotland Fund Schools Programme are St Serf’s RC Primary School and Inzievar Primary School. We are currently reviewing their improvement plans and once finalised their funding allocation will be made available. The schools were selected on the basis that over 70% of their pupils live in the 20% most deprived data zones in Scotland (Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation).

The Scottish Attainment Challenge provides both the targeted support made through the Attainment Scotland Fund and universal support available across Scotland. This includes an attainment advisor, who will work collaboratively alongside local authority staff on agreed priorities, a national hub, which provides a virtual centre of educational expertise and incorporates a range of features to build collaborative learning and engage leaders and practitioners.

Question reference: S4O-04819

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 November 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with Fife College regarding the relocation of its Halbeath campus.

Question reference: S4O-04772

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 November 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to encourage and expand the use of CCTV video links for prisoner appearances at court.

Question reference: S4W-27962

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 29 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what support it gives to housing associations in (a) Dunfermline and (b) Fife to mitigate the impact of the so-called bedroom tax.

The Scottish Government is making £35 million available to local authorities for discretionary housing payments in 2015-16 so that the bedroom tax in Scotland can again be fully mitigated for all households affected, including tenants of housing associations in (a) Dunfermline and (b) Fife.

In addition, under stream 2 of the Making Advice Work programme – which focuses specifically on advice for tenants of social landlords – we have invested around £400,000 in projects in Fife.

Question reference: S4W-27961

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 29 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding how many people under 25 in (a) Dunfermline and (b) Fife have (i) applied for and (ii) received discretionary housing payments in each of the last three years.

The Scottish Government does not collect information regarding the age of applicants for discretionary housing payments, which are administered by individual local authorities. The number of applications and awards for discretionary housing payments broken down by local authority area for the last three years is published on the Scottish Government’s website:

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Social-Welfare/dhp

Question reference: S4W-27963

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 29 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding how many people under 25 in (a) Dunfermline and (b) Fife have been or are affected by the so-called bedroom tax.

Question reference: S4W-27788

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 21 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what organisations it consulted when drafting the Children (Performances and Activities) (Scotland) Regulations 2014.

The Children (Performances and Activities) (Scotland) Regulations 2014 were informed by the recommendations of a working group of relevant stakeholders including: the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, Barnardo’s Scotland, the BBC, BBC Scotland, the British Psychological Society, Chaperones & Tutors, Glasgow City Council, the Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television, Scottish Youth Theatre, Strange Town, and OFCOM.

The proposed amendments to the child performances licensing system were subject to a public consultation, which took place between 4 April and 6 June 2014. As part of the consultation process, the Scottish Youth Theatre and Strange Town also sought the views of over 220 children and 40 parents.

The non-confidential responses received and a consultation analysis are published on the Scottish Government website at the attached links: http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0047/00471862.pdf and http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2014/07/4746.