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-19272

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 05 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Ash Denham on 25 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what the timescale is of its proposed Family Law Bill.

Question reference: S5W-19130

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 28 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 25 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what Transport Scotland's response is to the reported call of South Queensferry residents for box junctions to be introduced on the new bridge access roundabout on the northbound approach to the Queensferry Crossing.

Ramp metering equipment, which controls traffic flow onto the motorway from the Queensferry junction roundabout, has recently been installed as part of Intelligent Transport Systems measures and will become operational in the near future. An aim of this is to ease congestion at the junction.

Transport Scotland will be undertaking an evaluation of the Forth Replacement Crossing Project, one, three and five years after motorway opening in line with Scottish Trunk Road Infrastructure Project Evaluation, against both the transport planning objectives and wider evaluation criteria. In addition, Transport Scotland is undertaking an evaluation of performance one month after motorway regulations came into effect. These evaluations will consider pre-opening and post-opening traffic data.

Following evaluation, Transport Scotland will consider whether any further measures are necessary at the Queensferry Junction.

Question reference: S5W-19298

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 08 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 24 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-18753 by Kevin Stewart on 27 September 2018, which local authorities are involved in the regular meetings to monitor funding to Castle Rock Edinvar Housing Association.

Question reference: S5W-19300

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 08 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 24 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-18754 by Kevin Stewart on 27 September 2018, whether Ministers received any report on the provision of funding to Castle Rock Edinvar Housing Association before the loan was repaid to Hearthstone.

Question reference: S5W-19297

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 08 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 24 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-18753 by Kevin Stewart on 27 September 2018, when the loan was paid by Hearthstone to Castle Rock Edinvar Housing Association and when it was repaid by the housing association.

Question reference: S5W-19295

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 08 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 24 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-18753 by Kevin Stewart on 27 September 2018, what happened to the £6 million repaid to Hearthstone by Castle Rock Edinvar Housing Association.

The £6 million was grant funding provided by Scottish Government to Castle Rock Edinvar Housing Association (CRE) to enable delivery of social rent homes. CRE also accessed loan funding for its proposal which it has subsequently repaid to Hearthstone. CRE continues to work with local authority partners to develop the originally planned social rent homes which will contribute to the Scottish Government’s 50,000 affordable homes target.

Question reference: S5W-19296

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 08 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 24 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-18753 by Kevin Stewart on 27 September 2018, whether any interest was levied prior to the loan being repaid to Hearthstone.

Question reference: S5W-19299

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 08 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 24 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-18753 by Kevin Stewart on 27 September 2018, when the most recent meeting between officials and local authorities to monitor funding to Castle Rock Edinvar Housing Association took place.

Castle Rock Edinvar Housing Association operates across a number of Local Authority areas in Scotland. In reference to the Hearthstone scheme, the relevant Local Authorities are Stirling, Clackmannanshire and Falkirk. The most recent meeting between Scottish Government officials and these local authorities were: Falkirk Council (11 October 2018), Clackmannanshire Council (15 August 2018) and Stirling Council (6 September 2018).

Question reference: S5W-19273

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 05 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 24 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the current arrangements put in place by the Bankruptcy Act (Scotland) Act 1985 allows for a loophole whereby child maintenance and aliment debts are not protected debts and can therefore be written off.

Under the current legislation arrears of child maintenance or aliment existing at the commencement of insolvency proceedings will rank with other equivalent debts and will be repaid from any available estate recovered by the trustee. Any balance remaining following the completion of the trustee’s administration is written off. This does not apply where child maintenance arrears or aliment are payable by virtue of a court order and in these circumstances the debt will survive the bankruptcy. An individual declared insolvent is required to meet their on-going liabilities for child maintenance or aliment.

The current arrangements on the treatment of maintenance in bankruptcy were covered in the consultation undertaken prior to the bankruptcy reforms that came into force in April 2015. The consultation responses received at that time supported a continuation of the existing arrangements in relation to the treatment of child maintenance debts. A forthcoming public consultation and policy review focusing on the impact of the 2015 bankruptcy reforms will seek further views on this issue.

Question reference: S5W-19274

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 05 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 24 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have had their child maintenance and aliment debts written off under the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 1985.

The Accountant in Bankruptcy does not hold the information requested. The reason for this is that data held on debts discharged on the closure of proceedings under the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 1985 and the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016 do not distinguish between aliment and child maintenance arrears that are written off and those that survive bankruptcy.

AiB captures creditor information and the type of debt involved in each self-nominated bankruptcy awarded following a debtor application. In bankruptcies arising from court procedure following a creditor petition, the format of information provided to AiB does not enable specific creditor information to be extracted. In order to provide some context, debtor application bankruptcies awarded in financial years 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18 include 136 cases where child maintenance debts have been recorded. Of these, the bankrupt person has been discharged in 113 cases (as of October 2018). This equates to 1.5% and 1.2% respectively of debtor application bankruptcies awarded during this period. Over the same period, two debtor application bankruptcies included aliment debts and neither the bankrupt person nor the trustee are discharged in these cases.