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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.

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Question reference: S4W-18249

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 11 November 2013
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 20 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether there has been a reduction in the number of students training as educational psychologists in the last three years.

There has been a slight reduction in the number of students training as educational psychologists in the last three years. Numbers are set out in the following table.

Year	Dundee	Strathclyde
2011-12	22	22
2012-13	21	22
2013-14	21	17

The Scottish Government is working in partnership with the National Scottish Steering Group for Educational Psychologists to look at appropriate workforce planning at a national level.

Question reference: S4W-18050

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 01 November 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 19 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made on introducing low-energy LED bulbs in street lights since May 2013.

Substantial progress is being made across Scotland in the development and delivery of street lighting energy efficiency projects. This programme is being supported by the following:

Production of a Street Lighting Toolkit to assess potential financial and carbon savings, accessed at the following link

(http://www.scottishfuturestrust.org.uk/publications/low-carbon-and-energy-efficiency/)

Provision of £2 million from the Scottish Governments’ Sustainable Action Fund to support local authorities work on increasing energy efficiency of street lighting;

Availability of 0% finance from SALIX to fund energy efficiency work with awards made to Dundee, and Perth and Perth and Kinross Councils for LED street lanterns this financial year;

Establishment of a steering group to identify and co-ordinate the support required by local authorities to take projects forward.

Following the recommendation of the joint Scottish Government /COSLA settlement distribution group, the distribution of the £2 million, was approved at the COSLA leaders meeting on 27 September 2013. The council’s share of the £2 million will be paid as General Revenue Grant in the last two weeks of March 2014.

Question reference: S4W-18048

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 01 November 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 19 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what level of carbon emissions is caused by street lighting in each local authority area and what the cost saving would be of using low-energy LED bulbs.

Question reference: S4T-00508

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 11 November 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what assistance it is providing to the Philippines through its International Development Fund following Typhoon Haiyan.

Question reference: S4O-02587

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 November 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has dropped plans to withdraw recognition from the Orkney Fish Producers Organisation.

Question reference: S4O-02557

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 October 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what representations it has received regarding the roll-out of high-speed broadband services in Orkney.

Question reference: S4W-17545

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 28 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether it considers that cyclists being nicer to motorists will result in a reduction in road accidents involving cyclists.

Question reference: S4W-17538

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 28 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what impact assessment was carried out in advance of the launch of the Nice Way Code campaign.

The Nice Way Code campaign was undertaken following the success of Cycling Scotland’s Give Me Cycle Space campaign, which asks drivers to watch out for children cycling to school and give them plenty of space when passing. In 2012, 85% of drivers surveyed in the target areas said the campaign would make them give children more space on the road, 58% of parents surveyed in the target areas said the campaign made them more confident about children cycling to school and across the participating schools there was an average increase in levels of cycling of 22%. The development of the Nice Way Code campaign was undertaken in order to continue this successful approach and speak to a wider range of road users to encourage mutual respect in the shared road space.

The impact of the Nice Way Code will be assessed when the evaluation is carried out.

Question reference: S4W-17544

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 28 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether it considers the Nice Way Code campaign to have been good value for money.

Question reference: S4W-17542

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 28 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what feedback it has received from cycling groups regarding the Nice Way Code campaign.

There has been positive feedback from various cycling groups such as CTC, Sustrans, Scottish Cycling and Cycling Scotland who all supported the campaign. There has been concerns from some other cycling groups and individual cyclists who for various reasons do not like the campaign. These responses are detailed in my answer to Parliamentary Question S4W-17540 on 28 October 2014.

The development of a Mutual Respect campaign aimed at all road users was requested by respondents to the consultation with key stakeholders, undertaken by Transport Scotland as part of the refresh exercise of the Cycling Action Plan for Scotland. Therefore, the creation of the Nice Way Code campaign was as a direct result of feedback from cycling groups.

Cycling Scotland held extensive stakeholder consultations and focus groups during the creative process for the Nice Way Code. The stakeholders consulted included cycling groups, B-Spokes, Spokes and Pedal on Parliament. Stakeholders gave feedback on different creative options which included the Nice Way Code and also chose which messages they felt that the campaign should deliver through workshops.

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/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.