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: S5W-09383

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 May 2017
Current Status: Answered by Annabelle Ewing on 7 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-05868 by Annabelle Ewing on 10 January 2017, whether it will provide an update on what progress it is making in facilitating the transfer of the administrative responsibilities.

Question reference: S5W-09380

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 May 2017
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 7 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government which of the recommendations that have been made by the Scottish Energy Advisory Board in each of the last five years have led to the commissioning of consultants or facilitators, broken down by the (a) the name of the project, (b) person or organisation commissioned and (c) cost of comissioning, and which recommendations have not been taken forward by ministers.

There have been a number of recommendations agreed by the Scottish Energy Advisory Board that have led to work being commissioned. These are set out in the following table:

Project Name	Recommendation	Organisation	Cost	Year of recommendations
Scottish Security of Supply Assessment	National Grid to respond to the Board’s call for an annual capacity assessment for Scotland, working with the ILG for Thermal Generation and CCS	National Grid	£0	2016 ��
SEAB Supply Chain Report	Agreed that a short life subcommittee focusing on the supply chain in Scotland be established	SEAB appointed working group	£30,912	2016
Assessing Scotland’s security of supply in the GB Electricity market	Agreed commissioning of further analysis security of supply issues, impacts and potential solutions	KPMG	£103,240.80	2014
Green Growth Action Plan	Agreed that a structured short-life group be established to produce a detailed routemap to enable “green growth”.	SEAB appointed working group	£28,755	2015

There have been no recommendations agreed by the Board that have not been taken forward by Ministers.

Question reference: S5W-09377

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 22 May 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 7 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-09158 by Jeane Freeman on 22 May 2017, how many staff currently administer assessments for Atos Healthcare in Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-09367

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 22 May 2017
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 1 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with (a) ScotRail and (b) trade unions regarding the establishment of an employee gain sharing scheme, as required by the franchise agreement with Abellio, and what the reason is for the reported delay in establishing this.

Question reference: S5W-09368

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 22 May 2017
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 1 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what (a) dividend and (b) other payments ScotRail has made to its parent company, Abellio, since April 2015.

Question reference: S5O-01074

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what issues were discussed during its recent meeting with the Ambassador of Israel to the UK.

Question reference: S5W-09160

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 12 May 2017
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 31 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish details of its (a) meetings, (b) discussions and (c) correspondence with Ineos in the last two years.

Question reference: S5W-09162

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 12 May 2017
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 31 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given in the last five years to taking the operations of the Grangemouth refinery into public ownership.

Scotland’s oil and gas sector continues to offer major economic opportunities. It is estimated that, with the right fiscal, regulatory and market environment, as many as 20 billion barrels of recoverable oil remain under the North Sea and wider UKCS basin and the industry supports almost 125,000 Scottish jobs.

The Scottish Government is supportive of investment which is consistent with our economic strategy, is beneficial for the Scottish oil and gas sector, and good for the Grangemouth petrochemical plant and refinery and its workforce.

Question reference: S5O-01064

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 May 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the retirement age for prison officers, and what discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding this.

Question reference: S5W-09163

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 12 May 2017
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 23 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take if Ineos continues to be categorised as "poor" in its compliance by SEPA.