John Mason

4 Oct 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it considers that there should be a limit to the height of trees in urban settings.

Answer · Derek Mackay: The Scottish Government does not consider there should be a limit to the height of trees in urban settings. The Scottish Government supports the High Hedges (Scotland) Bill, the objective of which is to provide a solution to the problem of high hedges which …

17 Sep 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what the average (a) male and (b) female life expectancy in the Glasgow Shettleston constituency has been in each year since 2000.

Answer · Michael Matheson: Life expectancy estimates by Scottish Parliamentary Constituency were first published by National Records of Scotland (NRS) on 2 October 2009 for the period 2005-07. These estimates have been updated annually to coincide with NRS publications on life expectan…

30 Aug 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many convictions have been secured using the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act 2012.

Answer · Roseanna Cunningham: According to figures provided by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service on 4 September 2012 there have been 24 convictions from the 28 cases that have come to court so far. The act came into force on 1 March 2012 and of the cases completed 85.7% have …

20 Aug 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what the Student Awards Agency for Scotland’s target is for answering incoming calls.

Answer · Michael Russell: SAAS has no set target for dealing with incoming calls. At peak times, it is for the operational management of SAAS to balance processing applications with customer contact. The primary customer service commitment is to meet, annually, the SAAS Guarantee Dat…

20 Aug 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what the Student Awards Agency for Scotland’s average call handling time is.

Answer · Michael Russell: Since SAAS opened for applications for the 2012-13 academic year on 4 April 2012, the average call handling time, time spent with customers, is 10 minutes and 52 seconds. Our average call waiting time is 13 minutes and 24 seconds.

20 Aug 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what contingency action the Student Awards Agency for Scotland takes in case of an increased volume in the number of calls it receives prior to the start of an academic year.

Answer · Michael Russell: The peak processing session for SAAS is from April to October. During this time SAAS employs additional temporary staff in its dedicated Contact Centre as well as elsewhere across the agency, including student placements. In recent years the guarantee date h…

20 Aug 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many staff are employed by the Student Awards Agency for Scotland to answer incoming calls.

Answer · Michael Russell: As a frontline delivery agency, all staff at SAAS have some level of customer contact including telephone contact. However the majority of calls are routed through the dedicated contact centre. The total number of staff currently employed in the contact cent…

20 Aug 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what the average number of monthly calls is for the Student Awards Agency for Scotland.

Answer · Michael Russell: Since SAAS opened for applications for the 2012-13 academic year on 4 April 2012 until the end August 2012, the total number of attempted calls is 255,235. The number of calls per month varies significantly however this gives an average of just over 51,047 ca…

16 May 2012 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether schools in close proximity to Commonwealth Games venues will undergo refurbishment before 2014.

23 Apr 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S4O-00887 by Derek McKay on 19 April 2012, whether it will list the (a) five councils that have confirmed that they already pay the current level of the living wage through their existing wage structures, (b) nine councils that have introduced the living…

Answer · Derek Mackay: The five councils that have confirmed that they already pay the current level of the living wage through their existing wage structures are: East Dunbartonshire Council, Orkney Islands Council, Perth and Kinross Council, Shetland Islands Council, Western…

11 Apr 2012 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether future legislation relating to Getting It Right for Every Child principles will take a whole-child approach and cover social work and other services as well as education services.

4 Apr 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many suicides have been recorded in each of the last five years, broken down by parliamentary constituency and expressed as a percentage of the national average.

Answer · Michael Matheson: Please see the following table showing the number of suicides (intentional self harm and events of undetermined intent) for each of the new Parliamentary Constituencies, for the years 2006-2010. Figures for 2011 will be available in August. Figures for 20…

28 Mar 2012 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many local authorities are committed to paying a living wage.

Answer · Derek Mackay: The current position in local authorities regarding implementation of the living wage is as follows: Five councils have confirmed that they already pay the current level of the living wage through their existing wage structures; Nine councils have introduce…

20 Mar 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average life expectancy is of a person living in the east end of Glasgow.

Answer · Michael Matheson: The average life expectancy of a person living in the east end of Glasgow1 is 74.5 years. Note: 1. The east end of Glasgow has been defined to be the area covered by the Glasgow Provan and Glasgow Shettleston Scottish Parliamentary Constituencies.

14 Mar 2012 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how the new National 4 qualification will be monitored to ensure consistent grading standards nationally.

8 Mar 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what benefits people living in the east end of Glasgow can expect as a result of the Commonwealth Games being primarily based there.

Answer · Shona Robison: Glasgow 2014 will be the biggest multi-sports event that Scotland has ever hosted, and will bring significant opportunities and benefits for Glasgow and for Scotland. The Scottish Government works closely with a wide range of partners, including all local aut…

8 Mar 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many jobs will be created as a result of the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Answer · Shona Robison: 2014 games-related contracts have provided job opportunities locally and nationally and will continue to do so up to and beyond the Games. To date, thousands of jobs have been supported to construct some of the key infrastructure crucial for staging the games…

8 Mar 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) economic and (b) congestion impacts have been on (i) Glasgow and the (ii) west of Scotland of the M74 motorway extension.

Answer · Keith Brown: Journey times, across and through Glasgow have been reduced by between five and 18 minutes during peak periods. Reduced congestion has been observed along the M8 northern flank, across the Kingston Bridge as well as along a number of the surface streets acros…

8 Mar 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to publish a housing Bill in the near future.

Answer · Keith Brown: We plan to consult on a number of housing-related issues this year, which in turn will inform the content of a Housing Bill to cover those aspects which require legislative change.

21 Feb 2012 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the tendering process is for work related to the Forth Replacement Crossing project.

2 Feb 2012 · SPCB Oral Question

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what plans are in place to provide funding or other travel assistance to schools from deprived areas that cannot afford to visit the Parliament.

25 Jan 2012 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when the chief constable will be appointed for the proposed single Scottish police service.

18 Jan 2012 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many businesses in Glasgow Shettleston have received support from the small business bonus scheme.

16 Jan 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when the 2012-13 grant settlement for colleges will be published.

Answer · Michael Russell: The funding of individual colleges is a matter for the Scottish Funding Council. I wrote to the Scottish Funding Council on 25 January 2012 asking it to advise colleges of their funding and student number targets for 2012-13.

21 Dec 2011 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to support the building of more socially rented housing in the east end of Glasgow.

30 Nov 2011 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when a decision will be made regarding the location of the headquarters of the proposed single police force.

16 Nov 2011 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what work it carries out with the African diaspora in Scotland when developing its aid programme.

21 Sep 2011 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the economic and congestion impacts have been on Glasgow and the west of Scotland since the opening of the M74 motorway extension.

15 Sep 2011 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how it is encouraging more people to register as organ donors.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The government continues to run high profile, hard hitting media and publicity campaigns to raise awareness of organ donation and to encourage people to sign up to the NHS Organ Donor Register. In addition, we are fully committed to implementing the recommend…

15 Sep 2011 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many registered organ donors there are.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The information requested is given in the following table, and reflects the position at 15 September 2011. Number on NHS Organ Donor Register Country Scotland 1,934,217 All UK 18,239,989 Source – NHS Blood and Transplant.