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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: 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.

Question reference: S4W-17543

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

The campaign was run in August and September and the following table shows

accidents involving pedal cyclists in August and September from 2010 to 2012:

	August	September
2010	105	92
2011	74	83
2012	104	104

The statistics for 2013 are still being collected. Provisional figures for 2013 will become available in June 2014, following the publication of Key Reported Road Casualties Scotland 2013.

Question reference: S4W-17539

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 the planned outcomes were of the Nice Way Code campaign and whether they were achieved.

The planned outcomes of the campaign were to educate all road users about the importance of mutual respect, highlighting key behaviours that would help foster better relations between different road user groups and stimulate debate about these issues. The main aim was to make the road a less intimidating place for more vulnerable users. The evaluation of the campaign is still being finalised and once completed will show to what extent these outcomes were achieved. Cycling Scotland, who developed the campaign, anticipate that this will be completed by the end of October.

Question reference: S4W-17540

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 how many complaints (a) it, (b) the campaign's advertising agency and (c) any other body received about the Nice Way Code campaign and what the nature was of any such complaints.

(a) Scottish Government received nine complaints directly though the Ministerial correspondence system. The nature of these complaints was as follows:

Four did not like the campaign materials

Three felt the money spent on the campaign could be better spent elsewhere

One complained that campaigns do not change people’s behaviour

One complained about the ‘Give Cyclists Enough Space’ advertisement

During this time Scottish Government also received five letters or emails requesting that more money be allocated to such campaigns, three of these requesting adverts aimed at irresponsible cyclist behaviour.

Cycling Scotland has received 10 complaints directly. These can be broken down as follows:

Three of these raised concerns about the overall campaign

Three complaints were about the bus back advertising

Two were specifically about the “Give Cyclists Enough Space” execution which showed an illustrated cyclist swinging an illustrated cat with the text “Give Cyclists Enough Space”

Two complaints raised concerns over the TV adverts

(b) Newhaven Communications, the campaign’s advertising agency, has not received any formal complaints.

(c) Two organisations who are not official partners contacted Cycling Scotland to highlight a complaint they had received about the “Give Cyclists Enough Space” poster. These were SSSPCA and Cats Protection League.

The SCOTS Traffic and Safety Group received four comments, two about the messaging on the bus backs and two about the overall campaign messaging.

Cycling Scotland were made aware of five complaints received by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) about the lack of a helmet and road positioning in the final scene of the “Think Horse” television advert.

The ASA received a further two complaints objecting to the “Give Cyclists Enough Space” execution. None of these complaints were upheld by the ASA.

Of the supporting partner organisations:

CTC (UK) received a number of comments about the campaign

Scottish Taxi Federation received one complaint about the “Give Cyclists Enough Space” execution.

Police Scotland received one comment regarding improvements in enforcement measures

Sustrans Scotland received two letters of complaint about the overall campaign

Scottish Cycling received one complaint about the overall campaign

Lothian Buses received one complaint about the bus backs

British Horse Society received one complaint about the “Give Cyclists Enough Space” execution.