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-16667

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 August 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 4 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government for which Higher grade subjects the pass mark at grades A, B or C were reduced in 2013 and what the reason was for each.

Question reference: S4W-16665

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 August 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 4 September 2013

Question reference: S4W-16660

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 August 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 4 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many people marked the 2013 Higher Mathematics papers and when they were hired.

Question reference: S4W-16666

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 August 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 4 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the Institute of Engineering and Technology's comment in relation to the decline in the number of passes in Advanced Higher Mathematics in 2013 that "economic prosperity could be at risk if more students did not successfully complete maths."

The number of passes in Advanced Higher Mathematics actually increased this year from 2,156 in 2012 to 2,303 (pre-appeal figures).

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of science, technologies, engineering and maths (STEM) for the Scottish economy. Learning and skills development relating to STEM is an integral part of Curriculum for Excellence, and we continue to see good uptake of the relevant subjects at secondary, including mathematics qualifications.

Education Scotland has developed a range of resources to support teaching in STEM subjects, and build young people’s awareness of careers in the sector and the relevant skills. This includes a range of learning journeys within the STEM Central online resource.

Question reference: S4W-16663

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 August 2013
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 4 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what criteria were used for any changes to the pass mark for the 2013 Higher Mathematics paper compared with 2012.

Question reference: S4W-16681

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 09 August 2013
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 3 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has provided to (a) local authorities, (b) housing associations and (c) others in relation to rough sleeping in each year since 2007-08.

The Scottish Government has not provided local authorities, housing associations or other bodies with specific, ring-fenced funding related to rough sleeping since 2007-08.

Local authorities determine what they allocate to homelessness services from their share of the local government settlement. This may include services to people who sleep rough.

Since 2007-08, over £2.1 billion has been provided to housing associations to develop homes for social rent to help satisfy local housing need and demand.

A range of Scottish Government funds including the Housing Voluntary Sector Grants scheme; People and Communities Fund; and the Hostels Deficit Grant all support activity assisting the prevention of homelessness.

To support homelessness prevention directly, we have committed £300,000 to fund local authority led housing options Hubs over the next two financial years. Since 2010, £650,000 in total has been provided for this purpose.

Question reference: S4T-00422

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 02 September 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to support food banks.

Question reference: S4W-16671

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 August 2013
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 2 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether the public has an automatic right under Scots law to use a crossing for access.

Question reference: S4W-16670

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 August 2013
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 2 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what the legal definition is of a private crossing and whether such crossings are exempt from provisions relating to (a) rights of way, (b) core paths and (c) access.

Question reference: S4W-16669

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 August 2013
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 2 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 provides the right to (a) cross land and (b) use any structure designed to facilitate passage, such as a level crossing.

The Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003:

a) provides that everyone has statutory access rights to cross land in Scotland, except land specified in or under section 6 of the Act. A person has access rights only if they are exercised responsibly.

b) does not specifically consider the position of level crossings.

In 2010 the Law Commission and the Scottish Law Commission published a joint consultation paper setting out a number of proposals and questions about how the law relating to level crossings might be reformed. In this, the commissioners refer to private level crossings as crossings over which there is a private right of way. There is no statutory definition of a private level crossing.

In their joint consultation paper the commissions took the view that:

The public do not automatically have a right of way over a private level crossing, but such a right could be established by operation of the law of prescription, namely uninterrupted use of the crossing over a continuous period of 20 years. In the absence of a core path, access rights do not apply in respect of private level crossings over an operational railway there is no automatic right under Scots law for a member of the public to use a private level crossing (as opposed to a public level crossing).

The 2010 consultation document on level crossings (Scottish Law Commission Discussion Paper 143) is available at: http://www.scotlawcom.gov.uk/publications/discussion-papers-and-consultative-memoranda/2010-present

The Commissions’ Report on Level Crossings is expected to be published in autumn 2013.