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: S5W-22676

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Ash Denham on 3 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what work is being done to ensure that the remaining sections of the Prescriptions (Scotland) Act 2018 come into force, and by what date these provisions will commence.

Commencement provisions for the Prescription (Scotland) Act 2018 raise a number of important and complex issues, including, but not limited to, the appropriate duration for any transitional period given the range of statutory obligations that would be subject to a shortened period of prescription. The Scottish Government are currently in discussions with stakeholders about these issues. The intention is to lay the Commencement Order as soon as practicable.

Question reference: S5W-22557

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 3 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions or correspondence it has had with Police Scotland regarding the operational impact of the £2.4 million shortfall in the budget allocation for core operating solutions in 2019-20 as identified in the Scottish Police Authority Board Papers of 28 March 2019.

Question reference: S5W-22553

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 3 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions or correspondence it has had with Police Scotland regarding the operational impact of the £4.3 million shortfall in the budget allocation for ICT in 2019-20 as identified in the Scottish Police Authority Board Papers of 28 March 2019.

Question reference: S5W-22556

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 3 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions or correspondence it has had with Police Scotland regarding the operational impact of the £300,000 shortfall in the budget allocation for mobility in 2019-20 as identified in the Scottish Police Authority Board Papers of 28 March 2019.

Question reference: S5W-22839

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 26 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 2 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how its work with the National Scottish Steering Group for Educational Psychologists has progressed, and whether it is able to provide any information on higher education institutions that are willing to provide trainee placements in 2019.

The Scottish Government continues to work with the National Scottish Steering Group for Educational Psychologists to deliver a sustainable and regular supply of educational psychologists to meet future need. The NSSGEP last met on 29 April 2019.

The current priority for the group is the implementation of the Scottish Government/ COSLA partnership funding training arrangements which they helped develop and which were agreed in 2018. The University of Dundee started 29 trainees under these new arrangements in September 2018, and are currently recruiting trainees to take up the next round of 30 training places this autumn.

Question reference: S5W-22496

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 1 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many times in the last year an electronic tag was removed without authorisation on the grounds of medical emergency.

Information on the overall number of tags removed for emergency medical reasons is not routinely collated by the electronic monitoring service provider.

However, in every case where the Electronic Monitoring service provider is notified that a tag has been removed for emergency medical reasons, they are required to obtain confirmation of that fact from a medical professional and where appropriate report this to the relevant authority.

Question reference: S5W-22343

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kezia Dugdale on 26 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body, further to the answer to question S5O-03051 by Kezia Dugdale on 21 March 2019, and the reference to its review of how it supports MSPs in their role as employers, what role it has in assisting MSPs engage and remunerate interns, and whether it would consider making funds available to ensure that all interns engaged in MSP's offices and across the parliamentary estate are paid.

MSPs are entitled to seek reimbursement of the cost of employing staff within the annual limit set for the Staff Cost Provision, and provided they do so on terms and conditions no less favourable than the minimums agreed by the SPCB. It is a matter for individual MSPs, having regard to these constraints, to define the structure, job descriptions and salaries for their staff. It is also a matter for MSPs in their role as employers to determine appropriate terms and conditions for internships and work experience placements in their offices. The Parliament’s HR Office can support MSPs with defining their requirements.

The Parliament agreed changes to the Staff Costs Provision of the Members’ Expenses Scheme in 2016 and there are no plans to make further changes in the current parliamentary session.

Question reference: S5W-22591

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 25 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason licences are not available to catch American signal crayfish.

Question reference: S5W-22545

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 25 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what the cost has been for the contracts to run (a) HMP Addiewell and (b) HMP Kilmarnock in each year since 2010-11.

I have asked Colin McConnell, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. His response is as follows:

The following table shows the costs to SPS as per the annual accounts for each of the years since 2010-11 (the costs shown below are net of credit payments recovered by SPS due to contract non-compliance).

Year	Total
	£'000
(a) HMP Addiewell
2010-11	24,610
2011-12	26,949
2012-13	28,351
2013-14	28,212
2014-15	29,661
2015-16	29,256
2016-17	29,343
2017-18	30,146

(b) HMP Kilmarnock
2010-11	13,002
2011-12	14,180
2012-13	15,332
2013-14	13,375
2014-15	13,474
2015-16	13,435
2016-17	13,769
2017-18	13,848

Question reference: S5O-03159

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 April 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the announcement that SQA staff are to be balloted for industrial action.