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-06303

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 2 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what action it can take to encourage reduced consumption of energy drinks by children.

The Scottish Government is working to foster responsible retailing of energy drinks through voluntary and statutory means.

The provision of energy drinks at school is already banned under the School (Health Promotion and Nutrition) (Scotland) Regulations 2008. Through Beyond the School Gate, we are advocating that schools, communities and local authorities take a pro-active role to engage with young people, their parents and local retailers to ensure that consumption is appropriately limited, taking into account the 2015 European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) report on energy drinks. Similarly, there is guidance available in Better Eating, Better Learning on what schools can do to educate pupils about energy drinks as well as equipping them with the skills, knowledge and experience they need to make better health choices and live longer, healthier lives.

In the UK, high caffeine drink manufacturers are now required to include advice on their products (other than those based on coffee/tea or coffee/tea extracts where the term coffee/tea appears in the name of the product) about their unsuitability for children and pregnant women due to the high caffeine content. Manufacturers are required to label beverages with caffeine content in excess of 150 mg/l as ‘High caffeine content. Not recommended for children or pregnant or breast-feeding women’. This is a legal requirement set out in Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 on the provision of food information to consumers which is enforced in Scotland by the Food Information (Scotland) Regulations 2014 (as amended).

Furthermore, the Scottish Government has continued to support voluntary mechanisms such as the British Soft Drinks Association’s (BSDA) code of practice not to promote energy drinks to under 16s. We welcome campaigns such as last year’s ‘Can It’ campaign which the Scottish Grocers Federation advocated to its members and we are calling on the larger retailers to take similar proactive measures.

The Scottish Government will continue to monitor the evidence base and carefully consider recommendations made in relation to this issue.

Question reference: S5W-06510

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 2 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the Independent Living Fund Scotland regarding the impact of the Scottish Living Wage agenda on the organisation's (a) operations and (b) budget.

Scottish Ministers have asked Independent Living Fund (ILF) Scotland to extend the commitment to enable the Scottish Living Wage, for adult social care workers, to those employed as a result of ILF payments of support to disabled people. I recently discussed the Scottish Living Wage with the Chair and Chief Executive of ILF Scotland, at our meeting in December 2016. Officials have also had several meetings with ILF Scotland about Scottish Living Wage implementation. At all these meetings, both the operational implementation of the commitment and the budgetary implications were discussed.

Question reference: S5W-06512

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 2 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what support it providing to the Independent Living Fund Scotland to encourage nationwide compliance with the Scottish Living Wage.

As stated in my answer to S5W-06510 on 2 February 2017, Scottish Ministers have asked Independent Living Fund (ILF) Scotland to extend the commitment to enable the Scottish Living Wage, for adult social care workers, to those employed as a result of ILF payments of support to disabled people. In order to support this work, officials have had several meetings with the Chair, Chief Executive and staff of ILF Scotland about Scottish Living Wage implementation and helping to encourage nationwide compliance.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at:http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

Question reference: S5W-06271

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2017
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 31 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has received a report from Scottish Natural Heritage on its review of snaring legislation and whether it plans to publish this.

The Scottish Government has received a report from Scottish Natural Heritage on its review of snaring legislation and intends to lay a copy of the report before the Scottish Parliament as soon as practicable, in accordance with Section 11F(5) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (as amended by the Wildlife and Natural Environment (Scotland) Act 2011). The Scottish Government will also publish a copy of the report on its website.

Question reference: S5W-06272

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2017
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 31 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to publish information submitted to the Scottish Natural Heritage review of snaring legislation and, if so, when.

Question reference: S5W-06273

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2017
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 27 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how often the Partnership for Action Against Wildlife Crime in Scotland (PAW Scotland) (a) plenary and (b) executive group has met in the last year, and how many meetings are planned for 2017.

Question reference: S5O-00567

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 18 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Scottish Parent Teacher Council’s comments that parents were "puzzled" and "felt excluded" by its consultation on the review of school governance.

I am committed to empowering teachers, parents and schools to drive improvement in education and believe that, wherever possible, decisions about children’s learning and school life should be made at school level.

We have received almost 1,100 written responses to the Governance Review consultation and spoken to over 700 people in public engagement sessions across the country. The parents that I spoke to at those events had clear views about the strengths and the weaknesses of our current system. Parliament will note that the Scottish Parent Teacher Council state in their response “the status quo cannot simply continue”.

Question reference: S5O-00491

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 December 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to amend the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002, in light of the review by Lord Bonomy.

Question reference: S5W-04974

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 6 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to figures in the National Diet and Nutrition Survey, calculated by Cancer Research UK, which show that 11 to 18-year-olds eat and drink three times the recommended amount of added sugar, with sugary drinks being the main source of this.

There are clear health benefits associated with reducing sugar consumption as part of a healthy diet. While we welcome the creation of a sugary drinks levy, it cannot in isolation address the levels of obesity in the country.

We support the work of Public Health England in setting sugar reduction targets across a range of food categories and are inputting to this through Food Standards Scotland.

We have announced our intention to set out and consult on the development of our new Diet and Obesity Strategy in 2017, building on our wide range of activity to make it easier for people – including children and their families – to be more active, eat less, and eat better.

Question reference: S5O-00421

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 November 2016
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 1 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government when ministers last met the president of COSLA to discuss the spending review and the local government settlement.