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-18368

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 15 November 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 3 December 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-17874 by Fiona Hyslop on 13 November 2013, whether its policy is to keep details of the meetings between the Minister for External Affairs and International Development and the governments of other countries out of the public domain.

Question reference: S4W-18374

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 15 November 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 3 December 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-17874 by Fiona Hyslop on 13 November 2013, whether it has commented publicly on all of the meetings listed in the answer and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.

Question reference: S4W-18378

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 15 November 2013
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-18056 by Humza Yousaf on 13 November 2013, what agreed actions arose from its meetings at the United Nations in September 2013.

Question reference: S4W-18379

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 15 November 2013
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-18056 by Humza Yousaf on 13 November 2013, for what reasons it did not list the topics that were discussed at its meetings at the United Nations in September 2013.

Question reference: S4W-18376

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 15 November 2013
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-18056 by Humza Yousaf on 13 November 2013, for what reason its answer did not include a list of agreed actions arising from its meetings at the United Nations in September 2013.

Question reference: S4W-18377

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 15 November 2013
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-18056 by Humza Yousaf on 13 November 2013, what topics of mutual interest were discussed at its meetings with the United Nations in September 2013.

Question reference: S4F-01714

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 25 November 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 November 2013

To ask the First Minister what issues will be discussed at the next meeting of the Cabinet.

Question reference: S4W-18189

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 08 November 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 21 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what Gini indices for inequality in the UK and China it used to inform the First Minister’s speech at Tsinghua University in China on 5 November 2013.

Question reference: S4W-18190

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 08 November 2013
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 20 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government when it learned of the visa issue for the Confucius Institute teachers as reported by the BBC on 4 November 2013 and when it first contacted the Home Office on the matter.

Question reference: S4W-18191

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 08 November 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 19 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government on what date Professor Stiglitz made the comments on inequality in China referred to by the First Minister in his speech at Tsinghua University in China on 5 November 2013 and whether he has been asked to provide an updated analysis of inequality in China.

<>The First Minister’s speech at Tsinghua University can be read at . The reference to a statement by Professor Joseph Stiglitz is taken from Globalisation and its Discontents, published in 2002. The Scottish Government has not asked Professor Stiglitz to analyse inequality in China.

International comparisons of Gini Coefficients are available from the OECD for 2010, and show the UK as the 28th most equal country of 34.

The version of the UK Gini coefficient used by the OECD is drawn from the Department of Work and Pensions’ Family Resources Survey (FRS) 2010-11. The FRS is the most appropriate source of net disposable weekly household income given its sample size and its focus on all sources of household income.