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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: S3W-31140

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 January 2010
Current Status: Answered by Elish Angiolini on 28 April 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list all advice that it has received from the Lord Advocate that has been put in the public domain.

Question reference: S3W-33142

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 12 April 2010
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 28 April 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list the official engagements of the First Minister for April 2010.

Question reference: S3W-33139

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 12 April 2010
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 23 April 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what special advisers have taken unpaid leaving during the period of the 2010 UK general election.

Question reference: S3W-32504

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 March 2010
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 22 April 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions ministers have had with directors or officials of Caledonian MacBrayne regarding the status and operations of Caledonian MacBrayne Guernsey (Crewing) Ltd.

Question reference: S3W-32505

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 March 2010
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 22 April 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what consideration ministers have given to the relationship between David MacBrayne Ltd and Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd and whether any action is proposed as a result.

Question reference: S3W-32506

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 March 2010
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 22 April 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it was consulted on and agreed proposals from David MacBrayne Ltd regarding the employment of a number of its staff by a subsidiary based in Guernsey where it is not liable for the payment of employers’ national insurance contributions.

The Scottish Executive was first consulted in December 2004 by the then Caledonian MacBrayne Ltd regarding the transfer of its crew to offshore status. This request was made in accordance with legislation passed by the UK Government in 2003, where a national insurance payments concession was agreed by the UK Parliament as part of a set of rules that were viewed as necessary to allow British shipping companies to compete on an equal footing with international shipping companies and to protect jobs. Scottish ministers in the previous Administration subsequently approved the request to allow the company to offshore its crew and following a formal 90 day consultation process with the affected crew, the transfer took place in February 2006.

Question reference: S3W-32652

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 22 March 2010
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 20 April 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) date and (b) location was of each ministerial visit to the Edinburgh South parliamentary constituency by each cabinet secretary in (i) April 2009, (ii) May 2009, (iii) June 2009, (iv) July 2009, (v) August 2009, (vi) September 2009, (vii) October 2009, (viii) November 2009, (ix) December 2009, (x) January 2010, (xi) February 2010 and has been in March 2010.

The information requested is listed in the following table:

Cabinet Secretary	Date of Visit	Location
John Swinney MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth	8 October 2009	Parclife Housing Development, Niddrie Mains Road EH16
	16 November 2009	Prestonfield House Hotel, Prestonfield Road EH16 5UT
	19 November 2009	Prestonfield House Hotel, Prestonfield Road EH16 5UT
	16 December 2009	John McIntyre Centre, Pollock Halls, Holyrood Park Road EH16 5AY
Mike Russell MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning	3 December 2009	Prestonfield House Hotel, Prestonfield Road EH16 5UT
Fiona Hyslop MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning (May 07- December 09)	16 April 2009	University of Edinburgh, Informatics Building, 10 Crichton Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9AB
	29 April 2009	Edinburgh First, The University of Edinburgh, 18 Holyrood Park, Edinburgh, EH16 5AY
	2 June 2009	Nairn''s Oatcakes Ltd, 90 Peffermill Road, Edinburgh, EH16 5UU
	8 September 2009	Informatics Forum, 10 Crichton Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9AB
	9 September 2009	South Hall, Pollock Halls of Residence, Holyrood Park Road, EH16 5AY
Nicola Sturgeon MSP,Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing	9 March 2010	SHAPE, Unit 16/17 11 Harewood Road EH16 4NS
	17 February 2010	Boroughloch Medical Practice, 1 Meadow Place, EH9 1JZ
	23 April 2009	Royal College of Nursing HQ, 42 South Oswald Road, EH9 2HH
	16 June 2009	Boroughloch Medical Practice, 1 Meadow Place, EH9 1JZ
	6 October 2009	Prestonfield House Hotel, Prestonfield Road EH16 5UT
Richard Lochhead MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Environment	24 September 2009	John McIntyre Centre, Pollock Halls, Holyrood Park Road EH16 5AY
Kenny MacAskill MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Justice	19 November 2009	Prestonfield House Hotel, Prestonfield Road EH16 5UT
	22 December 2009	Private Address
	2 February 2010	Gracemount Primary School, Lasswade Road, Edinburgh EH16 6UA

Question reference: S3W-33175

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 April 2010
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 20 April 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what the purpose was of the First Minister’s visit to stay at Livingston on 9 April 2010; what officials accompanied him, and how he travelled to the visit.

Question reference: S3W-33140

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 12 April 2010
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 16 April 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive (a) what public bodies have been adversely affected by investment in Icelandic banks and (b) what action it is taking to assist them.

Seven councils, a fire board and a non-departmental public body had deposits with Icelandic banks at the time that they were placed into administration or receivership in 2007. The non-departmental public body made an impairment charge to its 2008-09 accounts. Scottish ministers issued statutory accounting guidance in March 2009 to permit the local authorities involved to postpone the financial impact from making an impairment charge for these deposits until 2010-11. COSLA recently requested that this guidance be extended to cover 2011-12 and this request is currently being considered.

Question reference: S3W-32521

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 March 2010
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 14 April 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how much was spent on overnight accommodation for the Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism in (a) Glasgow, (b) Edinburgh and (c) elsewhere in 2008-09.