Questions and answers

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 ��˿�� 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-12159

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 January 2013
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 23 January 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether Gamesa has created the 300 jobs referred to on page 84 of the Scottish Spending Review 2011 and Draft Budget 2012-13.

Question reference: S4W-12162

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 January 2013
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 23 January 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether Amazon has created (a) 750 permanent new jobs and (b) a further 1,500 temporary jobs during the peak Christmas period at its fulfilment centre at Dunfermline as announced in the Scottish Government news release of 15 November 2011, Amazon opens in Fife.

This project was supported by a £1.4 million regional selective assistance (RSA) grant from Scottish Enterprise.

All job numbers associated with RSA grants are the company's forecast figures, and are subject to change depending on future economic conditions and other factors affecting the businesses concerned. Payment of RSA is made in instalments, typically over several years during the lifetime of a project and only when job and capital expenditure targets are met.

As this is an ongoing project, we cannot release details of associated job numbers, as this could impact on the company's commercial operations.

Figures covering temporary jobs during the Christmas period are currently being collated by Amazon and an announcement on these jobs numbers will be made in the next couple of weeks.

Question reference: S4W-12158

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 January 2013
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 23 January 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether Doosan Power Systems has created up to 1,700 jobs through its offshore wind plans, as referred to on page 84 of the Scottish Spending Review 2011 and Draft Budget 2012-13.

Doosan Power Systems plans for investing in Scotland’s offshore wind market changed in mid-December 2011. With that, the company decided not to press forward with its 10 year plan to invest £170 million in Scottish wind power, which had the potential to create 1,700 jobs. The company cited the overall economic conditions and liquidity issues in Europe as the reason for its decision. However, Doosan Power Systems remains a major employer in Scotland with over 1,200 staff and the company continues to be committed to its Scottish operations.

Question reference: S4W-12156

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 January 2013
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 23 January 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether Steel Engineering has created at least 120 jobs as stated on page 85 of the Scottish Spending Review 2011 and Draft Budget 2012-13.

In April 2011 Steel Engineering announced it would create 120 jobs when it opens a new plant and builds a "mini-port" in Renfrew to transfer large structures on to ships in the Clyde. This project will be supported by a £1.8 million Regional Selective Assistance (RSA) from Scottish Enterprise. To date £80,000 has been paid.

All job numbers associated with RSA grants are the company’s forecast figures, and are subject to change depending on future economic conditions and other factors affecting the businesses concerned. Payment of RSA is made in instalments, typically over several years during the lifetime of a project and only when job and capital expenditure targets are met.

Question reference: S4W-12160

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 January 2013
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 23 January 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many of the 180 jobs referred to on page 84 of the Scottish Spending Review 2011 and Draft Budget 2012-13 Gamesa has created at its offshore wind technology centre at Strathclyde Business Park.

In June 2011, Gamesa announced it would create up to 180 jobs as part of a new offshore wind technology centre. This project was supported by a £1.5 million regional selective assistance (RSA) grant from Scottish Enterprise.

All job numbers associated with RSA grants are the company’s forecast figures and are subject to change depending on future economic conditions and other factors affecting the businesses concerned. Payment of RSA is made in instalments, typically over several years during the lifetime of a project and only when job and capital expenditure targets are met.

As this is an on-going project, we cannot release details of job numbers associated it as it could impact on the company's commercial operations.

Question reference: S4O-01638

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 December 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 December 2012

To ask the Scottish Government when it will announce its plans for the Highlands and Islands superfast broadband pilot.

Question reference: S4W-11518

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 23 November 2012
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 6 December 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what each Highlands and Islands ambulance station's response time was for (a) category A and (b) all emergencies in each of the last 12 months.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government, this is an operational matter for the Scottish Ambulance Service. However, related performance information held by the Scottish Government is set out below.

In 2011-12, the national response time target for category A calls (life threatening) across mainland Scotland was that 75% of all incidents should be reached within 8 minutes. The Scottish Ambulance Service reached 73% of category A incidents within 8 minutes across mainland Scotland. Within that, the performance achieved was 69.2% for the NHS Highland area. There is no all emergency target for mainland Scotland for the Scottish Ambulance Service, however the average response time for all emergency incidents was 9.2 minutes across all of Scotland and 9.7 minutes for the NHS Highland area.

In 2011-12, the national response time target for the island boards was that 55% of all emergency incidents should be reached within eight minutes. Performance for the year was 54.5%.

Both the Scottish Government and the Scottish Ambulance Service are committed to driving continuous improvement in the care provided to patients. A range of annually agreed targets are the subject of on-going performance management, including the public annual review meeting. The Scottish Ambulance Service is required to account publically for the level of performance it achieves each year through a published annual report.

Question reference: S4W-11520

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 23 November 2012
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 6 December 2012

To ask the Scottish Government for how many dropped shifts per Highlands and Islands ambulance station a risk assessment has been carried out in the last 12 months.

Question reference: S4W-11519

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 23 November 2012
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 6 December 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how many shifts per Highlands and Islands ambulance station have been (a) delivered by single crewed ambulances and (b) dropped in the last 12 months.

The information requested is not held centrally, this is an operational matter for the Scottish Ambulance Service.

However, across Scotland the Scottish Ambulance Service have advised that total incidence of single crewing for July to September 2012 (inclusive) were 516 shifts, representing 1.1% of all shifts that were rostered to be double crewed. Of that total, some of the instances of single crewing occurred due to exceptional circumstances. Exceptional circumstances might, for example, include short notice sickness absence or weather/travel disruption, meaning someone cannot arrive for their shift. Excluding these, the figure for single crewed shifts under non-exceptional circumstances was 0.9% across Scotland.

For the North Division of the Scottish Ambulance Service, which includes the areas covered by NHS Highland, NHS Grampian, NHS Orkney, NHS Western Isles and NHS Shetland, total incidence of single crewing for July to September 2012 (inclusive) were 168 shifts, representing 1.4% of all shifts that were rostered to be double crewed. Of that total, some of the instances of single crewing occurred due to exceptional circumstances. Excluding these, the figure for single crewed shifts under non-exceptional circumstances was 1.3% across the North operating division.

Question reference: S4W-11514

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 23 November 2012
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 6 December 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how many jobs and how many pipeline jobs will be created as a result of its memorandum of understanding with Areva; what type of jobs; where they will be based, and when they will be created.