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-25721

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2015
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 3 June 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how it discharges its responsibility for overseeing the effective functioning of land-use planning with reference to local review bodies.

Responsibility for the delivery of the planning service in Scotland lies with individual planning authorities. Where a case comes before a local review body for consideration, that review must be undertaken in accordance with The Town and Country Planning (Schemes of Delegation and Local Review Bodies) (Scotland) 2013 and all decisions must be in accordance with the relevant development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise.

Question reference: S4W-25732

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 3 June 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding will be available to the proposed Scottish business development bank and when it will be launched.

Question reference: S4O-04413

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 May 2015
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 3 June 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will encourage Police Scotland to publish responses to the consultation on the merger of K and L Divisions.

Police Scotland has undertaken an open and transparent consultation which commenced at the earliest stage of its considerations in December 2014. This process has incorporated engagement with local communities, including local scrutiny committees, to ensure all views are reflected and considered thoroughly.

The Scottish Police Authority has maintained ongoing dialogue with Police Scotland throughout and will have formal oversight ahead of any decision.

It would be inappropriate to publish consultation responses before this formal decision-making process is complete. Police Scotland has, however, confirmed consultation responses will be published in due course, subject to the standard data protection requirements for consultations.

Question reference: S4W-25736

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 2 June 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-25018 by Fergus Ewing on 2 April 2015, when it will complete its analysis and publish a revised oil and gas bulletin.

Question reference: S4F-02821

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 May 2015

To ask the First Minister how much revenue has been raised by the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax and the Landfill Tax since April 2015.

Question reference: S4O-04340

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 May 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact on disabled people in Scotland of the Department for Work and Pensions' proposal to cap the Access to Work scheme.

Question reference: S4W-25272

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 12 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish an assessment of the cost of its proposals for (a) freezing the retirement age, (b) scrapping the so-called bedroom tax, (c) fully retaining child benefit and (d) increasing universal credit.

Question reference: S4W-25271

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 12 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has taken account of spending on extra welfare and pensions costs in its proposals to boost UK spending by £165 billion and, if not, how these would be paid for.

The Scottish Government will make it a priority to press the incoming UK Government for an end to the current austerity agenda. Our proposal is to increase spending on public services by 0.5% a year in real terms from 2016-17 to 2019-20. This is estimated to provide at least an additional £140 billion of resources in real terms over the period 2016-17 to 2019-20 compared to the spending plans published in the March 2015 UK Budget. These plans are fiscally sustainable as both the deficit and national debt would be falling as a share of GDP by the end of this Parliament.

Question reference: S4W-25277

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 11 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the costings produced by the UK Treasury that the fiscal loss under full fiscal autonomy will increase across the next parliamentary session from £7.7 billion in 2015-16 to £8.4 billion in 2019-20.

The Scottish Government believes that the analysis by the UK Treasury does not provide a meaningful description of the fiscal position in a fiscally autonomous Scotland as it simply projects forward Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland.

The fiscal position would depend on a range of factors including the transition process, the negotiated fiscal framework between Scotland and the rest of the UK, Scotland’s contribution to UK wide public services such as defence and international aid, as well as the decisions made by the Scottish Government about economic policy, public spending and borrowing.

Question reference: S4W-25276

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 11 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Council of Economic Advisers agrees with the assessment by the Institute for Fiscal Studies that there will be a budget shortfall of £7.6 billion a year with full fiscal autonomy.