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 MSPs 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-01495

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 July 2016
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 3 August 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether, under the Non-Domestic Rating (Unoccupied Property) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2013 (SSI 2013 No. 37) paragraph 6, which inserts “Lands and Heritages to be treated as unoccupied” at 4 (f), it is mandatory that an application has been submitted, in particular that failure by a previous occupant to formally submit an application would prohibit an incoming tenant from accessing a rates discount under the Fresh Start initiative.

Question reference: S5W-00388

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 9 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government which cabinet secretary has responsibility for animal welfare issues.

Question reference: S5W-00219

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 May 2016
Current Status: Answered by Annabelle Ewing on 7 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will revisit the Antisocial Behaviour etc. (Scotland) Act 2004 and, in particular, whether it is effective in dealing with anti-social neighbours.

The Antisocial Behaviour etc. (Scotland) Act 2004 provides a wide range of measures for dealing with anti-social neighbours. Antisocial Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) can be used to prevent persons from engaging in antisocial behaviours which cause alarm or distress to their neighbours, including antisocial noise nuisance. Breaching an ASBO is a criminal offence which can result in a fine or imprisonment for up to five years.

The Scottish Government is currently convening a working group with local authorities to look at the existing guidance to the antisocial behaviour legislation and revise it where necessary. This will include taking newer legislation, such as the Housing (Scotland) Act 2014 giving social landlords additional powers to deal with antisocial behaviour in social housing, into account. These new powers include taking previous antisocial behaviour into account in the allocation of social housing to new applicants, extending the use of the short Scottish secure tenancy for antisocial tenants in social housing and introducing a streamlined eviction process for those social tenants who cause harm to their immediate community.

Question reference: S4F-03287

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 07 March 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 March 2016

To ask the First Minister whether the Scottish Government considers that the rehousing provisions for victims of domestic abuse are satisfactory.

Question reference: S4W-27807

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 20 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government which sections of the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006 have yet to come into force and when.

The provisions of the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006 that are yet to come into force are section 52 insofar as introducing paragraphs 6, 9(b), (d) (insofar as not already in force), (h) to (l), (n) and (p) of schedule 2 to that Act. These relate to powers provided to the Scottish Ministers for the revocation of existing legislation on the welfare of animals.

These powers will be used to present secondary statutory legislation for the approval of the Scottish Parliament when the Scottish Ministers consider it necessary, following the ongoing review of pet animal welfare.

Question reference: S4W-27808

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 20 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on microchipping cats.

Question reference: S4W-27467

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 25 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of paragraphs 61 to 63 of the National Accommodation Strategy for Sex Offenders in Scotland, which deal with out-of-area placements and exceptional circumstances, on how many occasions in each of the last four years sex offenders have been relocated outwith their local area.

The Scottish Government does not collect this information. The National Accommodation Strategy for Sex Offenders (NASSO) explains that the responsibility for making the necessary arrangements for an out of area placement lies with the placing local authority. The NASSO also places the responsibility on local authorities for ensuring that monitoring arrangements are in place to track the incidence of out-of-area placements.

Question reference: S4T-01103

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 07 September 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what benefits it considers there will be for Midlothian and the Borders from the Borders Railway.

Question reference: S4W-26991

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 August 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 27 August 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider amending Regulation 7 (2) (d) of the Public Services Reform (Social Services Inspections) (Scotland) Regulations 2011 (SSI 2011/185) regarding interviewing employees to include former employees who were employed at the premises during the period to which a complaint applies.

Regulation seven of SSI 2011/185 does not prevent former employees from being interviewed as part of an investigation into the provision of care standards, should they consent to doing so. Regulation seven (1) confers broad powers in relation to interviews while Regulation 7 (2) provides examples of the use of that power. As I explained in earlier correspondence, there is no provision on former employees to participate in an investigation against their will, however they often do so at their own choosing. I am aware that in a few cases this may have resulted in some employees choosing not to participate in an investigation into a care service they were employed in at the time of a complaint. It is important that scrutiny organisations such as the Care Inspectorate are empowered to fully investigate all aspects of complaints against care service providers.

The Care Inspectorate’s view is that this is not a significant barrier to allowing them to investigate complaints. However in order to ensure complaints can be suitably investigated I have asked them to keep this under review.

Question reference: S4W-26149

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 June 2015
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 10 July 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-20420 by Kenny MacAskill on 10 June 2014, what the most recent information is that it has on how many dog wardens there are, also broken down by local authority.

The most recent figures provided by local authorities are contained in the following table:

Local Authority	Number of Dog Wardens
Aberdeen City	2
Aberdeenshire	3
Angus	1
Argyll and Bute	8
Clackmannanshire	2
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	0
Dumfries and Galloway	3
Dundee City	2
East Ayrshire	1
East Dunbartonshire	2
East Lothian	2
East Renfrewshire	18 Full Time 2 Part Time
City of Edinburgh	1
Falkirk	2
Fife	3
Glasgow City	2
Highland	7
Inverclyde	1
Midlothian	2
Moray	2
North Ayrshire	1
North Lanarkshire	3
Orkney	n/a
Perth and Kinross	3
Renfrewshire	2
Scottish Borders	0
Shetland Islands	2
South Ayrshire	1
South Lanarkshire	1
Stirling	2
West Dunbartonshire	1
West Lothian	2

*Orkney Council have not provided up-to-date figures.

It should be noted that not all of the figures provided by local authorities are for dedicated dog wardens. In some local authorities, dog warden duties are carried out by officers together with a range of other duties such as pest control and fly tipping enforcement in their capacity as community wardens or animal welfare and pest control officers. It is also the case that some authorised officers in terms of the Control of Dogs (Scotland) Act 2010 carry out general dog warden duties within their role of authorised officer.