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-22572

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 September 2014
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 2 October 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will make a submission to the Law Society of Scotland’s independent review of consumer protections for clients buying and selling property.

Question reference: S4W-22569

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 September 2014
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 2 October 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many householders have lost their homes because of fraudulent disposition of deeds in each year since 1999.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

The Scottish Government and the Keeper of the Registers do not know how many frauds there might be in total and how many frauds have led to an action of reduction in the courts. Even when a deed is reduced by the courts, the deed may not necessarily relate to a home – it could, for example, relate to a commercial property.

However, our general expectation is that the number of cases of householders losing their homes because of fraudulent deeds will be low. This is particularly the case as even when fraud does take place, householders may not lose their homes.

Question reference: S4W-22567

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 September 2014
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 2 October 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many cases of fraudulent disposition of deeds have been recorded in each year since 1999.

We do not hold this information.

Registers of Scotland are responsible for the registering of dispositions. However, Registers of Scotland would only know if a fraudulent deed had been registered if the fraud comes to light. Some deeds are registered in the Land Register and others in the Register of Sasines.

In the Land Register, a party affected by fraud can apply for rectification of the register. However, the Keeper of the Registers does not catalogue the applications for rectifications in such a way as to allow her to identify the number of rectifications sought as a consequence of fraud.

In the Register of Sasines, a fraudulent deed can be reduced by a decree of reduction granted by the courts. These decrees may be recorded in the sasines but that is not obligatory. A search of the sasines to examine decrees of reduction granted by the courts following the recording of a fraudulent deed would be time-consuming. In any event, any such search would not give a definitive answer given that some fraud may be undetected and, in other cases, the decree of reduction may not have been recorded.

Question reference: S4O-03588

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 October 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 October 2014

To ask the Scottish Government when it last discussed education issues with Aberdeen City Council.

Question reference: S4F-02311

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 29 September 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 October 2014

To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government is taking to support people affected by UK Government welfare reforms.

Question reference: S4O-03512

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 September 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 September 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many consultants work in NHS Scotland.

Question reference: S4O-03486

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 August 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 August 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to recent reports that the North Sea could hold more than £40 billion worth of unforeseen oil reserves.

Question reference: S4O-03479

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 August 2014
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 13 August 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has undertaken of the potential effect of the UK Government’s bareboat charter tax on the oil and gas industry.

The Scottish Government shares the view and analysis expressed by industry figures that the loss of just one field could outweigh the notional additional revenue that the UK Treasury expect the bareboat charter tax changes to generate.

This tax change is the precise opposite of the stable and predictable fiscal regime the industry needs and deserves, but has not enjoyed from successive UK Governments.

Question reference: S4W-22165

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 July 2014
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 11 August 2014

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-22030 by Nicola Sturgeon on 15 July 2014, whether it has information regarding the length of sanction imposed for people in each category in each year.

<>As mentioned in response to question S4W-22030, the Scottish Government does not collect information on the number of individuals who have been sanctioned as benefits are reserved to the UK Government. The Scottish Government does not have any further information on sanctions other than what is publicly available on the Department for Work and Pensions Stat-Xplore tool, available at the following link: .

Due to the complexity of this request, as sanction length varies depending on the type of sanction and the number of failures at that level, we would recommend requesting this information from the Department for Work and Pensions.

Question reference: S4W-22031

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 July 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 16 July 2014

To ask the Scottish Government which projects have been funded by the Welfare Reform Resilience Fund in 2014-15.

The Welfare Reform Resilience Fund is supporting 11 projects across Scotland which will assist in mitigating the worst impacts of the UK Government’s welfare reform policies and build resilience into Scottish public services regardless of any future changes to the welfare system imposed by the UK Government.

The following table gives a brief overview of each of the projects. Further details can be found on the Scottish Government website at: .

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Local Authority	Project Description
Aberdeen City	Improving the coordination of local support services for clients with mental health issues.
Aberdeenshire	Providing holistic housing and money advice service for new social sector tenants.
Dundee City	Providing enhanced access to ICT and creating innovative digital tools to improve the accessibility and clarity of information on welfare reform.
Falkirk	Improving support for customers with complex/multiple mental health needs to access welfare benefits/advice services.
Fife	Adding consistency to local welfare reform action plans and supporting people in their communities through improved triage, digital and financial inclusion.
Inverclyde	Tackling the issues of high cost lending and developing a robust case management system.
Midlothian	Creating a digital access point in a local library for vulnerable people affected by welfare reform.
Moray	Creating a welfare benefits 'portal' giving information on, and access to, support services.
Renfrewshire	Providing fuel advocacy services to vulnerable families and families experiencing financial hardship.
Shetland Islands	Developing the ICT skills of individuals and their access to the internet throughout rural Shetland.
West Dunbartonshire	Providing financial wellbeing advice and support for families with additional support needs relating to parenting challenges (via local family support centre).