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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: S5W-05990

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 19 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the most recent Bank of Scotland Business Digital Index.

The Scottish Government welcomes the results of the recent UK wide Bank of Scotland Business Digital Index, which explores attitudes and usage of digital technology and measures how SMEs are adopting digital technologies in their day to day business.

Advances in technology continue to transform our economy. The Scottish Government wants to help all of Scotland’s businesses achieve their full potential in this increasingly digital world, which is why we've invested £15.5 million over the past four years to work with a range of partners on tackling digital skills gaps and helping Scottish businesses become more digitally able.

This investment and partnership approach is now showing dividends, as this index highlights – it shows particularly strong growth in Scotland, with an overall digital maturity index higher than London. Fewer than a third of Scottish small businesses lacked basic digital skills, compared to a UK average of 38%; Only London rivals Scotland in terms of this measure.

Later this year the Scottish Government will be repeating its Digital Economy Business Survey, first undertaken in 2014, which will provide its own more detailed and Scotland-specific update on the digital maturity of Scotland's businesses.

Question reference: S5W-05582

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 11 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to improve the lives of disabled people and break down barriers to opportunity.

On 2 December 2016 we launched A Fairer Scotland for Disabled People: Our Delivery Plan to 2021 for the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Plan has five long term ambitions: support services that meet disabled people’s needs; decent incomes and fairer working lives; places that are accessible to everyone; protected rights; and active participation. The ambitions have 93 actions to help make a positive difference to the lives of disabled people.

We will ensure that there is opportunity for disabled people to hold us to account on progress with this plan. We will lay a progress report before Parliament in early 2021 to determine where we need to focus our efforts in the next parliamentary session.

Through engagement with stakeholders, principles underpinning our approach to Social Security in Scotland were developed which include placing dignity and respect at the heart of all we do. In addition, we have carried out an extensive consultation to help inform our approach and will be publishing a report on the consultation responses early this year. This will help to inform the work of the Disability and Carers' Benefits Expert Advisory Group which will also be established early this year to provide recommendations and guidance on issues including assessment for benefits in Scotland.

We will continue engagement through our stakeholder groups and the establishment of ‘Experience Panels’ involving at least 2,000 people, with recent experience of applying for or receiving benefits, to help us design, build and improve the new system, and support our work on a longer-term basis.

Question reference: S5O-00469

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 December 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what actions it is taking to remove the barriers to employment for disabled people.

Question reference: S5O-00398

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 November 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met NHS Ayrshire and Arran and what matters were discussed.

Question reference: S5O-00355

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 November 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how it is tackling poverty, including fuel poverty, in the Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley constituency.

Question reference: S5O-00304

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 November 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish a timetable for the installation of superfast broadband indicating when the service will be available in each area.

Question reference: S5O-00257

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 26 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what level of response there has been to its consultation on social security in Scotland.

The consultation on social security launched on 29 July and will close at the end of the month. As of today, around 120 events have been held, or are due to be held, across Scotland including Rugby Park where we held a discussion earlier this month.

As of today we have received around 175 formal responses. We will include final numbers of responses in our analysis report on the consultation.

Question reference: S5O-00185

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 September 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what action it takes to ensure that there is equality in admissions to university places for people who meet the entrance requirements.

Question reference: S5O-00033

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 June 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how it will ensure fair access to universities for young people from every community.

Question reference: S4O-05675

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 March 2016
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 16 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how it will use the funding to be raised from council tax as well as that announced as part of the budget to address educational attainment.

An additional £100 million a year will be invested in schools across Scotland as a result of a package of reforms to council tax outlined earlier this month by the First Minister.

The Scottish Attainment Fund is already delivering dedicated support to more than 300 primary schools in the most deprived parts of our country. The additional funding announced by the Deputy First Minister as part of the budget will see this intensive support deliver more across our most deprived communities in Scotland - further details on how that will be allocated will be announced in due course.