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: S5O-02837

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 30 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how the Five Routes – One Great Adventure initiative could help promote tourism in the Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley constituency.

I recently had the pleasure of announcing £300,000 of Scottish Government funding for the 5 routes project in line with our Programme for Government commitment to promote Ayrshire as a tourism destination.

These Five Routes, and the co-operative working between local businesses and the local authorities involved in developing the initiative, are an innovative and positive development which will help Ayrshire grow as a destination.

The investment provides an opportunity to attract new visitors, which will support and grow the existing tourism business base and provide a launchpad to create jobs and attract further investment.

Question reference: S5O-02817

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 January 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether non-looked after kinship carers should receive the same level of financial support that fosters carers and looked after kinship carers receive when looking after children who have experienced family break-ups or the death of a parent.

Question reference: S5W-20652

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 8 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the work of the Joint Ministerial Committee (EU Negotiations) in 2018.

In 2018 there have been nine meetings of the JMC (EN). We have continued to meet our commitment to issue letters to convenors of the relevant Scottish Parliament committees both before and after each meeting and the communiqués for each JMC(EN) are available on the Scottish Government website, providing further information on individual meetings.

Since the EU referendum we have sought to engage meaningfully and in good faith with the UK Government on the UK’s withdrawal from the EU and we have been clear that we will continue to respect the terms of the engagement, which are laudable in principle. The discussions in the JMC (EN) have however fallen short of the original aim of the committee and of the Prime Minister's own commitment to 'full involvement' of the devolved administrations. Indeed throughout the Brexit process there has been far too little meaningful consultation with the devolved administrations and we have continued to be frustrated by the quality of engagement to date.

The Committee last met on 19 November 2018 and at that meeting the Scottish Government said that it had been completely unacceptable that the devolved administrations did not see the detail of the draft agreement between the UK and EU before it was published on the 14 November 2018. That has unfortunately been characteristic of the UK Government’s approach to engaging with the devolved administrations since the EU referendum.

Question reference: S5O-02728

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 19 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how its homelessness action plan will help to end rough sleeping and homelessness in the Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley constituency.

The Ending Homelessness Together High Level Action Plan published by the Scottish Government and COSLA last month sets out the actions we will take in partnership with others to realise our shared ambitions to end rough sleeping and homelessness.

This will help anyone at risk of homelessness across the country including in the member’s constituency.

Our key actions include a focus on prevention of homelessness and ensuring local authorities respond quickly and effectively when it does happen alongside getting people quickly back to a settled home, with any support they need, as a priority. Local authorities will submit rapid rehousing transition plans to the Scottish Government by 31 December 2018 to support this work.

Question reference: S5W-20476

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 18 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update regarding the number of modern apprenticeship places in the Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley constituency.

Skills Development Scotland does not report on Modern Apprenticeships by constituency area but instead by Local Authority Area. This means that the information and statistics which Skills Development Scotland hold are based on local authority area and cannot be broken down to constituency level.

In terms of East Ayrshire the local authority area which includes your constituency there were;

982 apprentices in training as of 28 September 2018.
In 2017-18 there was 624 MA starts and;
From the 1 of April – 28 September 2018 there were 359 MA starts.

Question reference: S5O-02636

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 November 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 29 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how it will support new research into the emergency treatment of anaphylaxis in order to improve responses to anaphylactic events in hospitals and other settings.

Question reference: S5O-02597

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 November 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 22 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how its various departments support measures to increase GDP in Ayrshire.

The Scottish Government is committed to working with our partners in Ayrshire to support inclusive growth. This involves a wide range of contributions from government departments and agencies. All of this effort is firmly focused on boosting Ayrshire's economy, including enabling an increase in GDP, and creating and sustaining high quality jobs. Central to our ambitions for Ayrshire is agreement of a Growth Deal with regional partners and the UK government. We continue to work hard to secure a Heads of Terms agreement as soon as possible.

Question reference: S5W-19770

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 November 2018
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 13 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what the economic impact would be on Scotland of a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of the Ireland.

A hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland would be the likely result of a Brexit agreement that resulted in the United Kingdom being outside of the European Single Market and Customs Union. The economic implication of such a scenario would be to introduce considerable additional costs for businesses across the UK seeking to trade with the EU. In addition to this, it would also cause considerable disruption to the supply chains that currently exist between Scottish businesses in Ireland and across the EU.

Scottish Government analysis published in Scotland’s Place in Europe: People, Jobs and Investment, assessed the implications for Scotland’s economy if the UK exits the European Union. The analysis indicates that a hard Brexit could lead to a loss of up to 8.5% of GDP (or £12.7 billion in 2016 terms) in Scotland by 2030 – equivalent to £2,300 per individual.

Question reference: S5O-02522

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 October 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the analysis of the UK Budget, which states that the announced changes to tax overwhelmingly benefit the richest households.

Question reference: S5O-02446

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 4 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will ask NHS Ayrshire and Arran to review its policy on providing cataract operations.