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-17452

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 September 2013
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 7 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made on clarifying the Rent (Scotland) Act 1984 in relation to charges made while granting a tenancy.

The Rent (Scotland) Act 1984 states that it is an offence to require payment of any premium (in addition to rent and a refundable deposit of no more than two months’ rent), as a condition of the grant, renewal or continuance of a tenancy.

As many tenants were being charged a range of additional fees in order to access privately rented accommodation, section 32 of the Private Rented Housing (Scotland) Act 2011, which came into force on the 30 November 2012, clarified the law by amending the definition of a premium in the 1984 Act, to make clear that a premium means “any fine, sum or pecuniary consideration, other than rent, and includes any service or administration fee or charge”.

Question reference: S4O-02440

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 26 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what help it provides for people who have had a stroke.

NHSScotland has made great progress in improving outcomes for people with stroke:

Over the last ten years mortality rates for stroke have reduced by over 41%.

Between 2010 and 2011 mortality rates dropped by 5.7%

Our Better Heart Disease and Stroke Action Plan, backed by over £1 million of funding each year, contains actions aimed at ensuring people with stroke get access to effective, safe and person-centred care, as quickly as possible.

Full implementation will help ensure we maintain momentum and continue to improve the quality of care and support available to people with stroke.

Question reference: S4W-16933

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 13 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) whole-time equivalent and (b) headcount places were available in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects at each college in (i) 2011-12 and (ii) 2012-13.

The latest data on students in colleges in Scotland are Scottish Funding Council data for 2011-12. Data for 2012-13 will be published in January 2014.

Table 1 contains student numbers expressed as headcount and full-time equivalent (FTE).

Table 1 – Number of students studying on STEM courses at colleges in Scotland, 2011-12

College	Headcount	FTE
Aberdeen College	3,572	2,312
Adam Smith College	4,575	1,522
Angus College	1,669	524
Anniesland College	1,206	649
Ayr College	1,090	577
Banff and Buchan College of Further Education	3,157	827
Barony College	12	0*
Borders College	389	119
Cardonald College	1,358	717
Carnegie College	1,887	1,054
Clydebank College	1,586	569
Coatbridge College	622	423
Cumbernauld College	735	416
Dumfries and Galloway College	1,251	415
Dundee College	2,070	1,139
Edinburgh's Telford College	789	627
Elmwood College	247	23
Forth Valley College	2,502	1,507
Glasgow Metropolitan	3,048	1,943
Inverness College	963	476
James Watt College of Further & Higher Education	2,457	1,341
Jewel and Esk College	1,483	826
John Wheatley College	5,918	471
Kilmarnock College	1,057	502
Langside College	1,019	628
Lews Castle College	371	93
Moray College	819	293
Motherwell College	2,693	1,547
North Glasgow College	539	446
North Highland College	1,135	241
Oatridge College	26	0*
Orkney College	131	27
Perth College	898	343
Reid Kerr College	3,358	931
Shetland College of Further Education	648	90
South Lanarkshire College	184	71
Stevenson College Edinburgh	1,416	825
Stow College	1,427	893
West Lothian College	718	409
Total	59,025	25,819

Source: Scottish Funding Council

Notes:

* at some specialist colleges, general STEM subjects are not part of the core range of subject areas. However, these colleges do offer specialist courses in subjects which are classified as STEM (e.g. welding). Such courses are often very short in duration. For some colleges in the table above this gives rise to a relatively small headcount and an FTE of less than 0.5 which is rounded to 0.

STEM courses include superclass groups:

C - Information Technology and Information

R - Science and Mathematics

X - Engineering

Question reference: S4W-16995

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 12 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many modern apprenticeships it is supporting in the renewable energy and low-carbon sector.

There are a number of Modern Apprenticeship Frameworks relevant to the renewable energy and low carbon sector in Scotland. As at the 28 June 2013 there were 8,299 Modern Apprentices being supported in engineering and related frameworks. Included in this is the Wind Turbine Operation and Maintenance Framework, which is currently the only one relevant solely to renewable energy, and 37 MAs are being supported through this framework.

Question reference: S4F-01536

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 September 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 September 2013

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government is doing to ensure that terminally ill patients with conditions other than cancer are given access to palliative care.

Question reference: S4O-02379

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 September 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to vary the speed limit for heavy goods vehicles on the A9 trunk road.

Question reference: S4W-16527

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 26 July 2013
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 23 August 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the Lawn Tennis Association regarding funding for Tennis Scotland in an independent Scotland.

With Scottish Government policy and priorities, sportscotland enter into investment agreements with Scottish sport governing bodies in taking forward the development plan for their respective sports.

There are regular meetings and dialogue which take place between Scottish Government, sportscotland and Scottish sport governing bodies as part of routine operational business.

Funding arrangements for sport will remain similar to those at present, we will continue to invest our expertise, our time and our money in developing a world class sporting system at all levels in an independent Scotland.

Question reference: S4F-01502

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 24 June 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 June 2013

To ask the First Minister what action is being taken to address the number of cases of type 2 diabetes.

Question reference: S4O-02299

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 June 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 June 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how it will promote a more diverse school education system.

Question reference: S4W-15442

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 June 2013
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 17 June 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many additional needs assistants have been employed in schools in each of the last five years.

The requested information on additional support needs auxiliary or care assistants, is collected as part of the teacher census in September each year and is given in the following table:

Full-time equivalent numbers of additional support needs auxiliary or care assistants, 2008-2012⁽¹⁾

Year	Full-time equivalent
2008	6,046
2009	6,016
2010	6,016
2011	6,077
2012	6,491

(1) Includes all local authority schools and Jordanhill, the mainstream grant-aided school, but excludes all independent schools and the seven grant-aided special schools.