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: S5O-00520

Asked by: Peter Chapman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 December 2016
Current Status: Awaiting answer

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions Police Scotland has had with local authorities regarding the management of unauthorised camping by Gypsy/Travellers.

Question reference: S5O-00496

Asked by: Peter Chapman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 21 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to prevent the spread of diseases that affect woodland and forests.

Question reference: S5F-00640

Asked by: Peter Chapman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 December 2016
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 December 2016

To ask the First Minister, in light of recently reported issues, what action the Scottish Government is taking to ensure that farmers can have confidence in the National Basic Payment Support Scheme.

Question reference: S5W-05093

Asked by: Peter Chapman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 9 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of funding for mental health services in NHS Grampian.

The Scottish Government sets national direction of policy on mental health and provides funding to agencies, including NHS boards and local authorities, to support implementation of policy.

The management of local actions in implementing national policy, and decisions on local spending priorities are the responsibility of relevant local agencies. It is therefore the responsibility of local Integration Authorities, NHS boards and local authorities to work together with their partners and regularly review spending decisions to ensure they deliver fit for purpose services which respond to the needs of their local population.

Funding on mental health promotion, early intervention and appropriate services and treatment for people with mental health problems will continue to be drawn from the overall funds allocated to NHS Scotland and Local Authorities by the Scottish Government.

In addition, direct funding from the Scottish Government to support mental health improvement in NHS Grampian this year is expected to include:

£798,500 to support delivery of the provisions of the Mental Health Act, specialist child and adolescent mental health services, and increase capacity in the specialist child and adolescent mental health psychology workforce.
£427,219 to support NHS Boards to increase capacity to deliver improved access to mental health services and meet the requirements of mental health waiting times standards within the Local Delivery Plan (LDP) Guidance for 2016-17.
£395,259 to support better access to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, and to develop innovative approaches to delivering mental health services.

Question reference: S5W-05099

Asked by: Peter Chapman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 November 2016
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 8 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the uptake of the National Loan Scheme for (a) farmers and (b) crofters for common agricultural policy (CAP) payments.

Question reference: S5W-05132

Asked by: Peter Chapman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 November 2016
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 8 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what allowance it has made for overpayment of CAP payments for (a) 2015 and (b) 2016.

Question reference: S5W-04830

Asked by: Peter Chapman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 18 November 2016
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 1 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on allowing new applicants to join the Beef Efficiency Scheme.

Question reference: S5W-04829

Asked by: Peter Chapman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 18 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 30 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the letter from the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment to the Minister for Immigration on 1 June 2012, whether it will provide an update on how many crew members in the commercial fishing sector in (a) North East Scotland and (b) the rest of the country (i) have earned and (ii) are studying for qualifications relevant to their employment, broken down by nationality.

Marine Scotland recently published the 2015 Scottish Sea Fisheries Employment Survey report, which presents fishing related qualifications for crew on a sample of vessels. The report estimates that for all of Scotland:

99.9% of the crew had at least the minimum qualification (or Basic Safety Training) for working on fishing vessels;

0.1% of the crew were enrolled on the Basic Safety Training course and 0.3% on training for other qualifications. All of them were Scottish;

43.9% of Scottish crew were qualified above the Basic Safety Training, and mainly hold skipper and engineering qualifications; and,

Only 8.2% of crew employed on Scottish vessels from the European Economic Area (EEA) countries and 1.4% from non-EEA countries were qualified above the Basic Safety Training.

It is not possible to disaggregate the survey data by region.

Question reference: S5W-05013

Asked by: Peter Chapman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 30 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how it supports Doric language and culture in the North East Scotland parliamentary region.

The Scottish Government is a strong supporter of the Scots language in all its regional and local variants, including Doric. We have taken a number of steps to promote Scots throughout the country including the development of our Scots language policy which underlines our commitment to the language. As part of this, we encourage relevant stakeholder groups to develop and implement Scots language policies where appropriate. In addition, we have funded a number of Scots language initiatives which are supporting Doric in the north east and Scots in other areas.

Question reference: S5O-00380

Asked by: Peter Chapman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 November 2016
Current Status: Awaiting answer

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that every eligible child has access to their entitlement to 1,140 hours of free childcare provision.