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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-07362

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with the City of Edinburgh Council regarding traffic congestion and what support it is providing to the council to help it alleviate this.

Although the mitigation of congestion on local roads within Edinburgh is a matter for the City of Edinburgh Council, the Scottish Government recognises the important contribution that Edinburgh makes to the economy of Scotland. With this in mind, Transport Scotland is currently working with regional and local planning and transport authorities, including City of Edinburgh Council, to undertake a cross boundary multi-modal transport study.

This will assess the impact of current and projected future travel demand on the strategic transport network in the South East of Scotland. It will also assist in identifying options for infrastructure and for other measures which can be considered to improve transport in the Edinburgh area.

Question reference: S5O-00736

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 March 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how it ensures that schools have adequate numbers of support staff.

Question reference: S5W-06783

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 1 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many multiple burials have taken place in Scotland in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority.

It is the responsibility of individual burial authorities to maintain accurate burial records and registers. The information requested is, therefore, not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

The figures in the table have been provided for local authority burial authorities. No information is held for private burial authorities. The figures show where more than one burial has taken place in the same lair at the same time. These figures do not include the interment of ashes or shared burial for early pregnancy loss.

Local Authority

Aberdeenshire

Do not hold the information for these years

Argyll and Bute													1
Dumfries & Galloway	1	1	1	1	2		1	1			2	3	1	2		1
East Dunbartonshire		3														1
East Lothian	1	1			1	1				2			2
Inverclyde				1				1					1			1	1	2
North Lanarkshire	2		1	1	2							1	3	1	4	1	1	1
Perth & Kinross									3					2
Scottish Borders		1													1			1
Shetland Islands						2			2
Stirling																	2	1
Western Isles							1											1

No multiple burials took place in Angus, Edinburgh, Glasgow, highland, Moray and Orkney Islands in the time scale.

The information is not recorded by Aberdeen City, Clackmannanshire, Dundee, East Ayrshire, East Renfrewshire, Fife, South Lanarkshire, and South Dunbartonshire. The information could only be obtained by carrying out a physical search of all the paper based burial registers in North Ayrshire, South Ayrshire and West Lothian.

No response was received from Falkirk, Midlothian and Renfrewshire councils.

Question reference: S5W-06880

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 1 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that Edinburgh's Inverleith Medical Practice will close this summer; what discussions it has had with NHS Lothian regarding this, and how it will support NHS Lothian to ensure that alternative GP services are provided for people registered with the practice.

The Scottish Government expects Health Boards to work with practices as constructively and as flexibly as is appropriate to ensure that all patients have access to GP services. Edinburgh’s Health and Social Care Partnership, NHS Lothian and the team at the practice are working together to ensure that Inverleith Medical Practice patients continue to receive safe, effective and timely care.

NHS Lothian has made the Scottish Government aware of concerns around particular recruitment issues in Lothian which will be taken into account as the 2017 GMS contract negotiations. Additionally as part of the Primary Care Fund we have invested over £2 million to test a range of GP recruitment and retention initiatives, including within Lothian taking forward an early career GP fellowship.

In 2017-18 the Scottish Government has committed £72 million of investment for improvements to primary care and GP services, going towards an additional £500 million being invested in this area each year by the end of this Parliament. This commitment will mean that by 2021-22, for the first time, more than half of the NHS frontline spending will be in our Community Health Service.

Question reference: S5W-06952

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 1 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many convictions there have been involving cases of people shining (a) laser pens and (b) other laser devices at transport operators in each year since 1999, broken down by transport type.

The information requested cannot be identified from the Criminal Proceedings database. Offences involving cases of people shining (a) laser pens and (b) other laser devices at transport operators would be prosecuted under either the common law offence of culpable and reckless conduct or, with regards to aircraft, as a contravention of a statutory Air Navigation Order. In addition, legislation does not separately identify lasers from other lights and our database does not contain further detail with regards to the common law offence.

The Scottish Government holds information on the number of convictions under the air navigation order 2009 (Article 222). The following table contains data on convictions for offences relating to endangering aircraft and lights which dazzle or distract.

	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2014-15	2015-16
THE AIR NAVIGATION ORDER 2009 ARTICLE 222	1	1	2	1	1

Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database.

Question reference: S5W-06785

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 24 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many health checks have been carried out in each year since 1999, also broken down by how many 40-year-olds were given a check.

Question reference: S5W-06764

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 24 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to (a) reduce the number of young people who commit housebreaking and (b) ensure that youths who commit housebreaking are appropriately sentenced.

Sentencing in criminal cases including for housebreaking is a matter for the court. The Scottish Government does not comment on nor intervene in any specific cases.

Housebreaking is generally prosecuted under the common law with maximum penalties up to life imprisonment available depending on the level of court in which a case is prosecuted.

The Whole System Approach is the Scottish Government's programme for addressing the needs of young people involved in offending. It aims to put in place tailored support and management based on the needs of each individual child. Offending by children is either dealt with by the criminal courts where necessary or otherwise through the Children's Hearings System which has a range of options available including Compulsory Supervision Orders.

The independent Scottish Sentencing Council has recently published their first Business Plan for the period up to September 2018 and this includes a commitment to prepare a guideline on the sentencing of young people. Although the guideline will be general to young people, it will include young people who commit acts of housebreaking.

Question reference: S5W-06763

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 24 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how it ensures that sentencing for housebreaking is (a) appropriate and (b) acts as a deterrent.

Sentencing in criminal cases including for housebreaking is a matter for the court. The Scottish Government does not comment on nor intervene in any specific cases.

Housebreaking is generally prosecuted under the common law with maximum penalties up to life imprisonment available depending on the level of court in which a case is prosecuted.

The independent Scottish Sentencing Council has recently published its first Business Plan for the period up to September 2018. Included within this Plan is a future commitment to consider preparing sentencing guidelines in the area of property theft during the Council's next business planning period.

Question reference: S5W-06699

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 24 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on introducing fixed recoverable costs in lower-value clinical negligence claims and whether it plans to launch a consultation on this.

The Scottish Government does not have plans to launch a consultation on introducing fixed recoverable costs in lower value clinical negligence claims. However, under current plans, from September 2017, as part of the new Simple Procedure in Scotland, there will be limits to the awards of expenses in all cases with a monetary value of under £3000.

The Expenses and Funding of Civil Litigation (Scotland) Bill, which will be introduced in May, will implement Sheriff Principal Taylor’s 2013 Review of the Cost and Funding of Civil Litigation in Scotland and is an important part of the Scottish Government's commitment to making the civil justice system more accessible, affordable and equitable. It will introduce measures to make the costs of civil action more predictable, to extend the funding options for pursuers, and to bring more equality to the funding relationship between claimants and defenders in personal injury actions.

Question reference: S5W-06705

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 24 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what support it provides to people with agoraphobia and whether it plans to review this.

The Scottish Government promotes evidence based practice for psychological therapies and has funded NHS Education for Scotland to publish the Matrix, which provides a summary of the information on the current evidence base for various therapeutic approaches and guidance and advice on psychological therapies services. The latest version of the Matrix was published in 2015 and includes a section on the range of treatments available, including for panic disorder with agoraphobia.

http://www.nes.scot.nhs.uk/education-and-training/by-discipline/psychology/the-matrix-(2015)-a-guide-to-delivering-evidence-based-psychological-therapies-in-scotland/the-matrix-(2015)-a-guide-to-delivering-evidence-based-psychological-therapies-in-scotland.aspx