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-18111

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 August 2018
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 4 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce stop-skipping on the Borders Railway; how it is monitoring the effectiveness of this approach, and what information it has regarding how many services on the line have skipped stations each year.

Following engagement by the Scottish Government, ScotRail will now only deploy the practice of “skip-stopping” in exceptional circumstances. The effectiveness of this process is monitored by Transport Scotland.

On the Borders Railway: there were 27 reported instances of stations on the Borders Line being affected by skip-stopping since the start of this calendar year. However, since the change in policy from the end of March, there has been no skip-stopping of stations on the Borders Line.

Question reference: S5W-18112

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 August 2018
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 4 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce overcrowding on trains (a) on commuter services between Waverley and Tweedbank and (b) overall.

Since the opening of the Borders railway we have gradually increased the number of peak services which have more carriages than the normal two. The following table shows the number of seats provided in the morning and evening peaks.

		August 16	May 17	Dec 17
Edinburgh Arrival	0730-0930	816	922	984
Tweedbank Arrival	1700-1900	680	733	733

The Scottish Governent announced a ‘Revolution in Rail’ in March 2016. As part of these major improvements, more Class 170 units will be deployed on the Borders Railway. These 3 carriage trains with more seats will largely replace the 2 carriage class 158s units which currently operate on the Borders route and provide an additional 1,500 seats per day. The changeover of train fleets will take place during 2019.

The number of passenger carriages operated by ScotRail increases from 796 at the start of the franchise to 1,043 by the end of 2019 – an increase of over 30%. We will also operate more than 250 additional services compared to now, meaning that the number of seats provided each weekday will increase from just over 500,000 at the start of the franchise to more than 620,000 at the end of 2019.

Question reference: S5W-18345

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 August 2018
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Ash Denham on 31 August 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on publishing a register of licensed premises that offer full access for disabled people.

Legislation on equalities is largely reserved to the UK Government at Westminster.

However since 30 March 2018, individuals applying to their local Licensing Board for a new liquor premises licence have been required to provide a disability access and facilities statement along with their application. The statement is to contain information about disabled access to the premises and the facilities and any other provision available to aid the use of the premises by disabled people.

Scottish Ministers expect to lay regulations in September to amend the Licensing Register (Scotland) Regulations 2007. The amendment will require the statement accompanying an application for a premises or provisional premises licence to be contained in the public licensing register kept by every Licensing Board. This will provide access to some information held by local authorities.

This provision does not interfere with the existing duty under equality law to make reasonable adjustments to make sure that a person can use a service as close as it is reasonably possible to get to the standard that is usually offered to non-disabled people.

There are no current plans for further legislation or work in this area.

Question reference: S5W-18347

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 August 2018
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Ash Denham on 31 August 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what support it gives to premises license (a) holders and (b) applicants regarding assisting people who have a hidden disability.

The Scottish Government published Guidance for Completing a Disabled Access and Facilities Statement to support applicants in completing, and local authorities in assessing, the required statement. The Guidance advises that it is important to consider that not all disabilities are obvious and provides a list of disabilities, which may be hidden.

The Guidance can be viewed at http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2018/03/2767 .

Question reference: S5W-18346

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 August 2018
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Ash Denham on 31 August 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what support it gives to premises license (a) holders and (b) applicants regarding providing clear information about access for disabled people.

The Scottish Government has published Guidance for Completing a Disabled Access and Facilities Statement to support applicants in completing, and local authorities in assessing, the required statement. The Scottish Government encouraged local authorities to provide a link to the Guidance alongside their alcohol premises/provisional premises licence application form.

The Guidance can be viewed at http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2018/03/2767 .

Question reference: S5W-18154

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 August 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 30 August 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many nurses have (a) joined and (b) left NHS Borders in each year since 2007.

The number of joiners and leavers across an entire year is not captured centrally. However, the equivalent information available centrally, showing the number of net joiners and net leavers for qualified nursing and midwifery staff in NHS Borders each year between 2008 and 2017 is shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Qualified nursing and midwifery staff in NHS Borders - Net joiners and leavers, in each year ending 30 Sep, from 2008 to 2017 (Whole Time Equivalent).

Year ending 30 Sep	Nursing		Midwifery
Year ending 30 Sep	Net Joiners	Net Leavers	Net Joiners	Net Leavers
2008	95.6	42.4	8.6	3.3
2009	62.0	43.0	4.9	3.7
2010	35.3	51.6	-	1.8
2011	16.0	57.1	1.0	0.9
2012	25.8	48.0	3.1	2.9
2013	56.2	61.5	14.6	4.5
2014	46.7	47.6	1.5	15.1
2015	57.3	51.3	4.4	2.0
2016	67.5	57.3	1.9	3.6
2017	56.1	62.7	3.6	5.6

Source: Scottish Workforce Information Standard System (SWISS), ISD Scotland

Question reference: S5W-18156

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 August 2018
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 29 August 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many applicants to the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2018 are from Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) quintile (a) Q1, (b) Q2, (c) Q3, (d) Q4 and (e) Q5 areas, and how this compares with each year since 2007.

Question reference: S5W-18155

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 August 2018
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 29 August 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many places have been offered at undergraduate level for (a) music, (b) drama and (c) dance at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in each year since 2007.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on how many places have been offered at undergraduate level for music, drama or dance at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in each year since 2007.

Information on the number of applicants to Conservatoires is collected by UCAS. Provider-level data is only available for applications for these institutions and breakdowns are limited to domicile, sex and age.

Question reference: S5W-18153

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 August 2018
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 29 August 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many applicants to the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in each year since 2007 were (a) male and (b) female.

Information on the number of applicants and applications to the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland is collected by UCAS.

UCAS do not publish information on the number of applicants to the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. However they do publish the number of applications to the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland by sex since 2010. UCAS only provide a breakdown by institution and sex since 2010.

Applications to RCS by sex

	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017
Male	425	395	1,125	1,200	1,170	1,285	1,395	1,470
Females	600	600	1,820	1,830	1,930	2,235	2,550	2,565

Source: UCAS, Conservatoires end of cycle 2017

Question reference: S5W-18108

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 August 2018
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 29 August 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to assist farmers whose fodder supplies have been impacted on by the recent warmer weather.