Parliamentary questions
Gordon Lindhurst
228 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.
18 Jan 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take to educate drivers on the risks of driving the day after consuming alcohol, in light of the increase in the number of drivers found to have been over the limit after drinking the night before during Police Scotland's recent four-week enforcement activity.
Answer · Michael Matheson: ted between 0600-1000hrs. However, this represented a rise from the enforcement campaign period in 2015-16. The News Release issued by the Scottish Government to announce the Festive Campaign highlighted the importance of drivers thinking about any journeys…
18 Jan 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how it can work with Edinburgh City Council to bring the reported 5,000 empty homes in the city back into use in order to tackle housing shortages.
Answer · Kevin Stewart: The Scottish Government supports the work of the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership, which in turn provides support and advice to local authorities across Scotland on dealing with empty homes. This includes support for Empty Homes Officers, one of whom works fo…
18 Jan 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what changes it will make to future drink driving awareness campaigns, in light of the increase in the number of drivers found to be over the limit during Police Scotland's four-week enforcement activity.
Answer · Michael Matheson: The results of the 2016-17 Police Scotland Festive enforcement campaign indicate that there is still a minority of drivers who persist in driving after consuming alcohol. We will carefully consider the results of the enforcement campaign to help ensure that f…
18 Jan 2017 · General Question
To ask the Scottish Government what action it can take to ensure that communities and town centres provide at least a basic level of banking access for older and disabled customers and small businesses.
11 Jan 2017 · Portfolio Question
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to assist in the upskilling of workers on an ongoing basis.
Answer · Jamie Hepburn: The education system, along with employability and training programmes, aim to ensure that all of our people are equipped with the skills to successfully enter the labour market and contribute to our economy. We consulted on our response to the UK Government…
11 Jan 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what resources each of its enterprise agencies are allocating to develop trade relations with Canada ahead of the ratification of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).
Answer · Keith Brown: Scotland's trade and investment work in Canada is led by Scottish Development International (SDI). SDI currently have a team of 8 based in Canada across offices in Toronto and Calgary. In addition to the trade and investment staff working for SDI in Canada, m…
11 Jan 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports that £65 million will be required over the next 10 years to keep Historic Environment Scotland's properties in a satisfactory condition, whether it plans to make further funding available to the agency in addition to the £6.6 million recently announced and, if so, ho…
Answer · Fiona Hyslop: Our built heritage infrastructure is a key asset which contributes strongly to the Scottish economy and must be maintained. For the first time ever, we now have a thorough assessment of the condition of Scottish Ministers’ estate of properties in care. The re…
11 Jan 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how much has been spent on drug prevention education in schools in each of the last 10 years.
Answer · Shona Robison: It is the responsibility of local authorities and schools to determine how they will best resource and deliver substance misuse education to suit the children and young people in their area, in line with the Curriculum for Excellence experiences and outcomes.
11 Jan 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how it will monitor the effectiveness of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 in terms of community involvement in public sector decision-making.
Answer · Kevin Stewart: The Scottish Government will keep under review the different Parts of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 to look at the impact on improving outcomes for people and communities across a number of aspects including participation in decision making. …
11 Jan 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what funding it will provide to communities in the Lothian parliamentary region so that they can participate in the additional local decision-making opportunities expected as a result of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015.
Answer · Kevin Stewart: In 2017-18 we will continue to invest £20m in the Empowering Communities Fund, to ensure that communities are well equipped and supported to deliver long-term solutions that tackle poverty and inequality on their own terms and are able to participate in and m…
19 Dec 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many air weapon licence applications have been submitted since 1 November 2016, and how long it should take to process these.
Answer · Michael Matheson: As at 31 December 2016, there had been 5,436 air weapon certificate applications submitted since 1 November 2016. Police Scotland are processing these applications as quickly as possible.
19 Dec 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many Scottish court orders in each of the last 10 years under the Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011 have placed children in secure accommodation in England and Wales.
Answer · Mark McDonald: There have been no Scottish court orders in each of the last 10 years under the Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011 that have placed children from Scotland in secure accommodation in England and Wales.
19 Dec 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it has had with the UK Government regarding any deficiencies in legislation regarding the cross-border recognition of orders relating to the custody and care of children in Scotland and those in England and Wales.
Answer · Mark McDonald: The placing of children from England in Scottish secure units under orders from an English court is essentially a matter for local authorities in England and for the Scottish secure care providers. However, following the 12 September 2016 High Court judgment…
19 Dec 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it made any submissions to the UK Government regarding Scotland's future trade relations with India ahead of the Prime Minister’s visit to the country in November 2016.
Answer · Keith Brown: The Scottish Government was not afforded an opportunity to make such a submission. Scotland’s trade and investment work in India is led by Scottish Development International (SDI) which has three offices in India and works with a number of partners to support…
19 Dec 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5T-00231 by Mark McDonald on 29 November 2016 (Official Report, c. 3), whether it will provide additional resources to Police Scotland to deal with the claims of child sex abuse in football.
Answer · Michael Matheson: The Scottish Government is committed to protecting the police revenue budget in real terms for the entirety of this Parliament, delivering an additional £100 million of investment over the next five years, in addition to £55 million of reform funding in 2016-…
19 Dec 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many of (a) its and (b) its agencies' staff work on trade relations with India, broken down by (i) directorate and (ii) agency.
Answer · Keith Brown: Scotland's trade and investment work in India is led by Scottish Development International (SDI). SDI currently have a team of 6 FTEs and 1 contractor based across offices in Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad. SDI are in the process of recruiting a further 3 FTEs i…
19 Dec 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of exports from Scotland to outside of the EU in each of the last 10 years has been to India.
Answer · Keith Brown: The Scottish Government produce estimates of international exports in the Exports Statistics Scotland publication. The latest published figures show Scottish exports to India were worth £205 million in 2014. This is equal to 1.4% of total exports to non-EU co…
19 Dec 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what action it can take to reduce the costs of work carried out to conserve historic (a) buildings, (b) monuments and (c) tenements.
Answer · Fiona Hyslop: It is the responsibility of the owners of historic buildings, monuments and tenements to ensure the conservation and repair of their properties. The cost of conservation work is usually determined by the scale of the problem needing rectified. In view of this…
19 Dec 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce the numbers of deaths and injuries on roads due to winter driving conditions.
Answer · Humza Yousaf: Transport Scotland is responsible for preventing snow and ice endangering the safe passage of pedestrians and vehicles on trunk roads in Scotland. Significant planning is undertaken in advance of winter to ensure that the trunk road operating companies are pr…
14 Dec 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many Court of Session civil actions have been brought in each of the last 10 years, broken down by type of action, and how many were (a) successful, (b) dismissed or absolvitor granted and (c) abandoned.
Answer · Annabelle Ewing: Tables ‘[Table 1 of 2: Court of Session - Initiated Cases]’ and ‘[Table 2 of 2: Court of Session - Disposed Cases]’ are available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre – BiB number 58464.
5 Dec 2016 · Portfolio Question
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to provide a skilled workforce that meets the needs of the labour market.
Answer · Jamie Hepburn: In August, the Scottish Government published 'Scotland's Labour Market Strategy' to set out how a strong labour market will help drive inclusive growth. The strategy demonstrates the action we are taking to ensure that every person, regardless of background, …
25 Nov 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many state schools have offered courses in (a) Mandarin and (b) other non-European languages in each of the last five years, and what the take-up rate has been.
Answer · John Swinney: Schools provide language learning opportunities to pupils in many flexible and innovative ways, including non-certificated courses, clubs and master classes. The Scottish Government’s 1+2 languages policy is supporting this in both primary and secondary conte…
25 Nov 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many sheriff court civil actions have been brought in each of the last 10 years, broken down by (a) sheriffdom and (b) court, and how many were (i) successful, (ii) dismissed or absolvitor granted and (iii) abandoned.
Answer · Annabelle Ewing: Tables ‘[Table 1 of 2: Sheriff Courts - Initiated Cases]’ and ‘[Table 2 of 2: Sheriff Courts - Disposed Cases]’ are available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre – BiB number 58465.
25 Nov 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many 999 calls have been made to the (a) police, (b) fire and (c) ambulance service in each of the last 10 years, and how many were hoax calls.
Answer · Michael Matheson: This information is not held by the Scottish Government.
25 Nov 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) high and (b) sheriff court criminal prosecutions there have been in each of the last 10 years, broken down by type of crime, and how many led to a conviction.
Answer · Michael Matheson: Table titled 'Number of people proceeded and convicted in High Courts, Sheriff Solemn Courts and Sheriff Summary Courts, by crime type, 2005-06 to 2014-15' is available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre – BiB number 58466.
23 Nov 2016 · Portfolio Question
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce obesity levels.
Answer · Aileen Campbell: We are committed to addressing Scotland's excess weight and in line with the evidence we are maintaining activity across the whole of society that makes it easier for people to be more active, to eat less and to eat better. We are investing in a range of are…
18 Nov 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many instances of vehicle vandalism have occurred in the Lothian parliamentary region in each of the last 10 years.
Answer · Annabelle Ewing: The information requested is not held centrally. The Scottish Government publishes annual statistics on crimes of vandalism recorded by the police, however this data is not broken down into the specific types of property that has been vandalised, or for geogr…
18 Nov 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what the street value of cannabis seizures in the Lothian parliamentary region was in each of the last 10 years.
Answer · Aileen Campbell: The information requested is not held centrally. The Scottish Government publishes annual statistics on drug seizures by Police Scotland, however this data is only available at the Scotland level. We also do not hold information on the total monetary value of…
17 Nov 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many electrical fires have been recorded in the Lothian parliamentary region in each of the last 10 years.
Answer · Annabelle Ewing: This is a matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS). The information requested is not held centrally. The SFRS produces its own statistics, which are available on the SFRS website: http://www.firescotland.gov.uk/about-us/fire-and-rescue-statistic…
17 Nov 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to curb the posting online of "hate tweets" in Scotland.
Answer · Angela Constance: The Scottish Government is committed to doing all that we can to prevent and eradicate hate crime and prejudice, and build community cohesion. We are clear that any form of hate crime is totally unacceptable and we are committed to tackling all forms of crim…