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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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S5W-27385

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 26 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to increase the frequency of rail services in areas that currently have an hourly service.

Question reference: S5O-04155

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how it will grow the live music industry in Scotland, given the closure of the O2 ABC.

Question reference: S5W-27379

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 19 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what funding is available to support disabled people who wish to stand for electoral office.

Political parties should support their disabled candidates with additional costs , however we recognise that this may not always be possible.

In February 2016 the Scottish Government launched the Access to Elected Office Fund to provide support for disabled people seeking to stand for selection or election in the 2017 local government elections. The Fund offered financial assistance to disabled people to help meet the additional costs they face when seeking election. It was initially delivered on a pilot basis by Inclusion Scotland however, after achieving positive outcomes, the fund has been continued for local and Scottish Parliamentary elections to 2021.

For the 2017 local authority elections, 44 disabled people were supported by the Fund with 39 becoming official candidates. Of those, 15 disabled people were elected to local councils, covering a wide geographical area and a range of political parties and impairments.

Question reference: S5O-04116

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on introducing a single consent form to allow benefit claimants to agree to share their data for the purpose of benefit take-up.

Question reference: S5O-04026

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2020
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 22 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding the transfer of powers to Scotland following Brexit.

Question reference: S5O-03964

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 December 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to calls for it to no longer offer contracts to private firms that employ people on zero-hours contracts.

Question reference: S5F-03806

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 December 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 December 2019

To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government is taking to prevent people with mental health conditions becoming homeless.

Question reference: S5O-03946

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 December 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking in response to reports that there are regular breaches of the time limits aimed at preventing delay in High Court trials.

Question reference: S5W-26472

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 5 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what actions and commitments were agreed at the energy suppliers roundtable, which it hosted on 19 January 2018, and what progress has been made in taking forward each of these, including those concerning compiling Scotland-specific data covering (a) pre-payment meters, (b) warrants, (c) smart meter installs and (d) the number of customers enrolled on (i) the Priority Services Register and (ii) standard variable tariffs.

The Scottish Government’s Energy Consumer Action Plan, published in May 2019, builds on the outcomes of the Vulnerable Energy Consumer Summit in January 2018. It was developed with support from an expert advisory group. It takes into account recent development in energy systems and markets and addressed the remaining actions from the summits. A full list of actions can be found at https://www.gov.scot/publications/energy-consumer-action-plan-putting-consumers-heart-scotlands-energy-transition/pages/3/ .

These include commitments to:

establish an energy consumer commission to amplify the voice of Scottish energy consumers,
developing an energy consumer charter that will set guiding principles to support the collective effort needed to address issues impacting Scottish consumers and,
sharing more consumer data through an interactive data hub.

We have called on Ofgem to provide more detailed data on Scottish consumers and they have agreed to amend the social obligation reporting requirements for energy suppliers from 2021 to gain more insight into Scottish Energy consumer issues. We will continue to work closely with Ofgem to build on this data to improve our understanding of issues affecting vulnerable consumers. In addition we have drawn on other data sources to gain insight into the number of consumers using pre-payment meters amongst other issues.

Whilst we currently have no plans for further summits, the Scottish Government continues to engage with individual energy suppliers and stakeholders as part of our commitment to advocate for the needs of Scottish energy consumers to the UK Government, Ofgem and energy suppliers.

Question reference: S5W-26452

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 5 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what representations it will make to Ofgem and the UK Government as part of the Supplier Licencing Review.