Parliamentary questions

Alison Johnstone

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

25 Sep 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of statutory obligations under the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009, how planning authorities should take into consideration climate change issues when reviewing applications for open cast coal mining and what (a) support and (b) guidance is available to them to assist with t…

Answer · Derek Mackay: Open cast mining proposals over 25 hectares require an environmental impact assessment (EIA) to be undertaken in accordance with the Environmental Impact Assessment (Scotland) Regulations 2011. Open cast mining proposals of under 25 hectares may require an EI…

15 Sep 2014 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Government what the turnout was of the referendum.

27 Aug 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many seals were shot under licence in the (a) first and (b) second reporting periods in 2014.

Answer · Paul Wheelhouse: The number of seals shot under licence in the first and second reporting periods in 2014 is outlined in the following table: Quarter 1 Quarter 2 Grey seals 25 68 Common seals 10 9 These figures, of 35 seals shot in Q1 and 77 seals shot in Q2, comp…

14 Aug 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what evidence it has on the contribution of antibiotic use in livestock farming to human resistance to medicinal drugs.

Answer · Richard Lochhead: Research indicates that antimicrobial resistance in micro-organisms of human health significance is driven by the use of antimicrobial in humans. Nevertheless, the Scottish Government continuously monitors developments in antimicrobial resistance in animals …

14 Aug 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce the use of antibiotics on animals.

Answer · Richard Lochhead: The Scottish Government has signed up for the UK Five Year Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy 2013-18, developed in collaboration with public health and veterinary authorities across all UK administrations. The strategy has seven key areas for future action t…

14 Aug 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Scottish Management of Antimicrobial Resistance Action Plan 2014-18 includes actions to reduce the use of antibiotics in livestock farming.

Answer · Richard Lochhead: The Scottish Management of Antimicrobial Resistance Action Plan 2014-18 only contains human health initiatives. However, the Scottish Government has signed up for the UK Five Year Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy 2013-18, developed in collaboration with pub…

29 Jul 2014 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Government what impact the introduction of employment tribunal fees has had on youth and women's employment.

21 Jul 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to improve the proportion of lung cancer patients seen by a clinical nurse specialist.

Answer · Alex Neil: Whilst recognising that it is NHS boards’ responsibility to plan and deliver services, including specialist nursing services, taking account of national priorities and local need, there is awareness within the Scottish Government of the increasing prominence …

21 Jul 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what arrangements are in place to measure the experiences of lung cancer patients at a (a) national and (b) local level.

Answer · Alex Neil: The Scottish Cancer Taskforce discussed the possibility of a cancer patient experience survey in Scotland in their meeting on 27 June 2014. The taskforce agreed that further investigation should take place, including examination of the methodology behind the …

21 Jul 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to increase the surgical resection rates for non-small-cell lung cancer.

Answer · Alex Neil: Under the auspices of the Scottish Cancer Taskforce, National Cancer Quality Performance Indicators (QPIs) have been developed to drive continuous quality improvement in cancer care across NHS Scotland. QPIs for lung cancer were published in November 2013. Q…

21 Jul 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) one-, (b) two-, (c) five- and (d) ten-year lung cancer survival rates are, broken down by (i) cancer network and (ii) NHS board.

Answer · Alex Neil: Tables 1a, 1b and 1c show survival rates (percentage) up to a) one year; b) two years and c) five years after diagnosis of lung cancer for patients aged 15 years and over in Scotland. As 10 years of follow-up information is not yet available for the cohort in…

9 Jul 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the delivery of its carbon management plan and the development of future plans.

Answer · John Swinney: The Scottish Government published its first Carbon Management Plan (CMP) in 2009. It committed the Scottish Government to a 30% reduction in its CO2 emissions by 2020 against 2007-08 baseline levels and contained a range of projects including voltage optimisa…

25 Jun 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish guidance on supporting its planning policy on onshore oil and gas exploration and production; what the status of this guidance will be, and how it will be informed by (a) the findings of the Independent Expert Scientific Panel on Unconventional Oil and Gas and (b) EU…

Answer · Derek Mackay: Updated Scottish Planning Policy (SPP) published on 23 June 2014 contains strengthened policy on promoting responsible extraction of resources, including the following key changes: confirmation that buffer zones should be applied to all proposals; making expl…

17 Jun 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its pilot project to deliver Healthy Start through community pharmacies and dispensing practices.

Answer · Michael Matheson: The decision has been taken to extend the Healthy Start Vitamins Community Pharmacy pilot scheme for another year until May 2015. During this period an evaluation will take place to assess the Scheme’s impact upon uptake of vitamins. We expect the evaluation …

17 Jun 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what the uptake rate is for the (a) Healthy Start voucher scheme and (b) vitamin supplements available as part of the scheme, broken down by NHS board area and also expressed as a national average.

Answer · Michael Matheson: (a) The uptake rate for the Healthy Start Voucher Scheme is shown in the following table:- NHS Board 5 May 2014 to 1 June 2014 (latest available figures) % Ayrshire and Arran 3,112 75 Borders 521 72 Dumfries & Galloway 801 73 Fife 2,798 …

12 Jun 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether the periodic safety review of a nuclear power station requires an environmental impact assessment.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: Periodic safety reviews (PSRs) of nuclear power stations do not require an environmental impact assessment. UK nuclear site licensees must carry out PSRs every 10 years as agreed with the regulator, Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) and provide a systemat…

12 Jun 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government when the next periodic safety review is due for (a) Hunterston B and (b) Torness nuclear power station.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: The next periodic safety review (PSR) for Hunterston B is due to be submitted by the site licensee in January 2016, and the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) will make a decision on this in January 2017. For Torness, the PSR is due to be submitted by the s…

11 Jun 2014 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the away aspect of its Legacy 2014 Scottish Sport Relief Home and Away Programme.

9 Jun 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the use of electric shock dog collars.

Answer · Richard Lochhead: As noted in part of the answer to S4W-17063 from Christine Graham on 19 September 2013, the latest Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) funded research into the effect of electronic shock collars found no evidence of long-term or sig…

2 Jun 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many councils take disability related expenditure into account when calculating social care charges for older and disabled people.

Answer · Alex Neil: I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-21571 on 11 June 2014. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybu…

2 Jun 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance is provided to councils about taking into account disability related expenditure for older and disabled people when calculating social care charges.

2 Jun 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether local authorities should take into account disability related expenditure for older and disabled people when calculating social care charges.

Answer · Alex Neil: Guidance on charging for residential care is set out in the Charging for Residential Accommodation guidance published on the Scottish Government website at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Health/Support-Social-Care/Support/Older-People/Care-Homes The Con…

29 May 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what research it has carried out on barriers to increasing business enterprise research and development spending.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: The Scottish Government uses data from the UK community innovation survey and has committed to boost the size of the Scottish sample in the 2015 survey. The survey includes sections on factors that hamper innovation, the impact of innovation on the business a…

29 May 2014 · Written Question

Answer · Fergus Ewing: Boosting business investment in research and development is a key priority for the Scottish Government. A range of support programmes to help address this is being delivered by our enterprise agencies, working in collaboration with the Scottish Funding Counci…

21 May 2014 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Government who sits on the working group on supporter involvement in football clubs.

14 May 2014 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take to improve the care of older patients in the Lothian region.

30 Apr 2014 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Government what plans Scottish Water has to promote the use of its assets for the generation of renewable energy.

22 Apr 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what financial resources it is committing to improving air quality and how many civil servants are working on it.

Answer · Paul Wheelhouse: Improving air quality in Scotland is a cross cutting issue. Policy leadership is provided by the Environmental Quality Division, which works closely with other business areas across the Scottish Government, particularly transport, climate change, health, plan…

26 Mar 2014 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on applications to the Community Links Programme for cycle infrastructure improvements.

12 Mar 2014 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the Co-operative Group regarding the potential sale of agricultural assets.