Parliamentary questions

Karen Gillon

705 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.

12 Sep 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will guarantee that the establishment of a Scottish futures trust, as promised in the SNP manifesto, will not cause the scheduled replacement of the Milton Primary School building in Lesmahagow to be postponed or cancelled.

Answer · Maureen Watt: The replacement ofMilton Primary School in Lesmahagow is a matter for South Lanarkshire Council,which has a statutory responsibility to provide and maintain school buildings.There are severalprocurement options open to public sector procuring bodies an…

12 Sep 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will guarantee that the establishment of a Scottish futures trust, as promised in the SNP manifesto, will not cause the scheduled replacement of the Forth Primary School building in Forth to be postponed or cancelled.

Answer · Maureen Watt: The replacement ofForth Primary School in Forth is a matter for South Lanarkshire Council, which hasa statutory responsibility to provide and maintain school buildings.There are severalprocurement options open to public sector procuring bodies and it …

12 Sep 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will guarantee that the establishment of a Scottish futures trust, as promised in the SNP manifesto, will not cause the scheduled replacement of the Biggar High School building in Biggar to be postponed or cancelled.

Answer · Maureen Watt: The replacement ofBiggar High School in Biggar is a matter for South Lanarkshire Council whichhas a statutory responsibility to provide and maintain school buildings.The establishmentof the Scottish Futures Trust does not have a bearing on the replacem…

12 Sep 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will guarantee that the establishment of a Scottish futures trust, as promised in the SNP manifesto, will not cause the scheduled replacement of the Robert Smellie Primary School building in Larkhall to be postponed or cancelled.

Answer · Maureen Watt: The replacement ofRobert Smillie Primary School in Larkhall is a matter for South LanarkshireCouncil, which has a statutory responsibility to provide and maintain school buildings.There are severalprocurement options open to public sector procuring bod…

12 Sep 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will guarantee that the establishment of a Scottish futures trust, as promised in the SNP manifesto, will not cause the scheduled replacement of the Hill Mill Primary School building in Carluke to be postponed or cancelled.

Answer · Maureen Watt: The replacement ofHigh Mill Primary School in Carluke is a matter for South Lanarkshire Councilwhich has a statutory responsibility to provide and maintain school buildings.There are severalprocurement options open to public sector procuring bodies and…

12 Sep 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will guarantee that the establishment of a Scottish futures trust, as promised in the SNP manifesto, will not cause the scheduled replacement of the Lanark Grammar School building in Lanark to be postponed or cancelled.

Answer · Maureen Watt: The replacement ofLanark Grammar School in Lanark is a matter for South Lanarkshire Council whichhas a statutory responsibility to provide and maintain school buildings.The establishmentof the Scottish Futures Trust does not have a bearing on the repla…

12 Sep 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will guarantee that the establishment of a Scottish futures trust, as promised in the SNP manifesto, will not cause the scheduled replacement of the Crawfordyke Primary School building in Carluke to be postponed or cancelled.

Answer · Maureen Watt: The replacement ofCrawforddyke Primary School in Carluke is a matter for South Lanarkshire Councilwhich has a statutory responsibility to provide and maintain school buildings.There are severalprocurement options open to public sector procuring bodies …

3 Sep 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 addresses the principle of aggregation identified in the Transco case.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: The Scottish Governmentconsiders that the senior management test and the objective test of a gross breachof a relevant duty of care set out in the act combine effectively to address thedifficulties in proceeding under the common law that were highlighted by t…

3 Sep 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to increase the powers available to community wardens and, if so, within what timescale.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: We have no currentplans to increase the powers available to community wardens.

14 Aug 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-940 by Jim Mather on 21 June 2007, when it now expects ministers to reach and issue a decision on the Clyde wind farm application.

Answer · Jim Mather: The applicationis currently being considered and a decision will be made after careful andthorough consideration of all material issues, in accordance with the relevantlegislative and planning obligations. Details of the decision will be placed onthe Executiv…

2 Aug 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what additional funding is being made available to the Scottish Ambulance Service to enable it to improve emergency response times in areas such as Clydesdale.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The Scottish AmbulanceService’s budget allocation from the Scottish Government for 2007-08 was £177.8million, an increase of 6% on the baseline allocation for 2006-07. It is for theambulance service to decide how to use that funding in providing emergency amb…

2 Aug 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to review the legislation in relation to homelessness.

Answer · Stewart Maxwell: I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-1133 on 26 June 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at <ahref="http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.se…

2 Aug 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to continue funding the provision of community wardens in each local authority area.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-2617 on 20 August 2007. Allanswers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website,the search facility for which can be found at <ahref="http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.s…

2 Aug 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to increase the number of community wardens employed in Scotland.

2 Aug 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to increase the powers available to police and local authorities to tackle antisocial behaviour.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: There are currentlyno plans to increase the powers available to the police or local authorities totackle antisocial behaviour but we will consider the effectiveness of existing powersas part of the review of our national antisocial behaviour strategy.

2 Aug 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when it intends to increase the number of police officers; how many new officers there will be; when they will be available for operational duties, and how they will be allocated, broken down by police force area.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-1666 on 26 July 2007. Allanswers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website,the search facility for which can be found at <ahref="http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.sea…

2 Aug 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will review time bar restrictions in bringing child sex offenders to justice.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: Currently, the only sexual offenceagainst a child for which a time bar remains in place is section 13(5)(c) of theCriminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995. This criminalises the commission of a homosexualact where the act is carried out with a person …

2 Aug 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how it intends to reduce the number of young people who are not in education, employment or training.

Answer · Fiona Hyslop: Early interventionis critical to reducing the number of young people who are not in education, employmentor training – identifying those who are most at risk of disengaging and targetingthe support they need. We must also ensure that the right learning experi…

2 Aug 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what additional revenue will be made available to South Lanarkshire Council as a result of the extension of pre-school nursery provision.

Answer · Adam Ingram: South Lanarkshire Council will receive an additional £818,000in 2007-08 to fund the increase in hours of pre-school education. An indicativeincrease of a further £410,000 has been provisionally allocated for 2008-09, givinga total increase of £1,228,000 over …

2 Aug 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people, including members of the public, have been injured in each year since 1999 as a result of work-related incidents.

Answer · Jim Mather: I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-2884 on 21 August 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website the search facility for which can be found at <ahref="http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.s…

2 Aug 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people, including members of the public, have died in each year since 1999 as a result of work-related incidents.

Answer · Jim Mather: The official sourcefor information on work related injuries and deaths is the Health and Safety Executive(HSE). Statistics on work related injuries and deaths in Scotland can be found onthe HSE website at the following link <ahref="http://www.hse.gov.uk/stati…

2 Aug 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will support the reopening of a train station at Symington in Clydesdale.

Answer · Stewart Stevenson: In March 2005, thefinal report of the study into the feasibility of introducing a local passengerrail service on the West Coast Main Line and reopening railway stations at Symington,Beatock and Abington was submitted to the Scottish Executive. The report did …

2 Aug 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what assistance is being made available to the Museum of Lead Mining to enable it to gain Museum of Significance status.

Answer · Linda Fabiani: In addition tothe one-off funding of £40,000 which the government gave in 2003 to the Museumof Lead Mining in Wanlockhead to address the museum’s financial deficit, the governmentgave a further £30,000 one-off funding in 2006-07, again to address a financiald…

2 Aug 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it believes that the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 will close a loophole in Scots Law following the Transco appeal court judgment.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: The Scottish Governmentwelcomes the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 and we are nowfocused on working closely with the UK Government to support its successful implementationin Scotland. We consider that this legislation addressesthe iden…

28 Jun 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how it will encourage and enable the use of renewable power sources in conservation areas.

Answer · Jim Mather: A study in 2001 identified apotential renewables resource in Scotland of around 60 GigaWatts – around 10 times our currentpeak demand. The study excluded from its analysis those areas withenvironmental designations. We will aim to strike a balance between mak…

28 Jun 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what support it will provide to organisers of the World Schools’ Championship Orienteering, to be held in Scotland in 2008.

Answer · Maureen Watt: The ScottishGovernment is not involved directly in the organisation of the World Schools’Orienteering Championship. This is being organised by the Scottish SchoolSports Federation (SSF).In terms offinancial support, sportscotland provide the SSF with £…

28 Jun 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients in Clydesdale are currently waiting more than 26 weeks to obtain inpatient treatment in the NHS.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: On 31 March 2007, nopatients from Clydesdale Parliamentary constituency with a waiting timeguarantee had waited more than 18 weeks for in-patient or day case treatment.

28 Jun 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether, in the interests of openness and transparency, the independent review panel to be established to review the plans of NHS Lanarkshire following the ministerial directive to retain accident and emergency services at Monklands Hospital will be allowed to make assessments on the same…

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: I will look to theIndependent Scrutiny Panel to assess the safety, sustainability, evidence-base andvalue for money of the revised proposals, and to be satisfied that account has beentaken of local views.It will be for theIndependent Scrutiny Panel to …

28 Jun 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when it expects the new State Hospital to be completed.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The redevelopmentof the State Hospital is expected to be completed by mid 2011.Patient, staff andpublic safety will remain a priority throughout all stages to completion.

28 Jun 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients from Clydesdale have been treated at the Golden Jubilee Hospital in Clydebank in each year since it has been within the NHS.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The information on thenumber of patients treated at the Golden Jubilee National Hospital from the Parliamentary constituency of Clydesdale isnot available.The number of proceduresundertaken by the Golden Jubilee National Hospital on patients referred b…