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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: S5W-16464

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 May 2018
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 15 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-13788 by Angela Constance on 17 January 2018, whether the cabinet secretary has received a response from the secretary of state regarding the plan to facilitate the exploration of a citizens' basic income scheme.

Question reference: S5W-16191

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 8 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how much was made available for stage one of the Aspiring Communities Fund; how many applications the stage received, and how many projects were awarded funding.

Question reference: S5W-16192

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 8 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been made available for stage two of the Aspiring Communities Fund; how many applications the stage has received, and when the successful projects will be announced.

Question reference: S5W-16057

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 26 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government by what date it will publish its response to the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee’s 1st Report, 2018 (Session 5), Air Quality in Scotland Inquiry (SP Paper 117).

Question reference: S5O-02027

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 April 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what support it can provide to teachers in Fife regarding reports of over £2 million of reductions in the secondary school education budget.

Question reference: S5W-15906

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 13 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 24 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has made available for a new health centre in Lochgelly in Fife, and when its construction is due to begin.

Question reference: S5O-02022

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 April 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing Fife Health and Social Care Partnership to recruit GPs and primary care staff in order to alleviate pressure on service delivery.

Question reference: S5W-14513

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 27 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made on the commitment in its Programme for Scotland 2017-18 to (a) raise the Student Loan repayment threshold to £22,000 and (b) reduce the repayment period for Student Loans to 30 years.

We are committed to raising the repayment threshold for student loans to £22,000 and to reducing the maximum repayment period to 30 years, as announced in the Programme for Government.

A range of operational and legislative adjustments are required to practically deliver on this commitment. Scottish Government officials are engaging with stakeholders, including: the Student Awards Agency Scotland, the Student Loans Company, HMRC and the UK Government Department for Education to undertake the necessary work.

Question reference: S5O-01826

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 February 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is giving to Dunfermline Heritage and Tourism Partnership to help develop the town into a major visitor destination.

Question reference: S5W-14061

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 1 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is on target to meet its commitment to deliver 35,000 homes for by the end of the current parliamentary session, and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.

The Scottish Government is on track to meet its commitment to deliver 35,000 homes for social rent by the end of the current parliamentary session.

We have backed up our ambitious five year target with investment of over £3 billion. For the first time ever, all Councils have received long term resource planning assumptions totalling £1.754 billion to March 2021, and we have increased housing subsidies by up to £14,000 for social and affordable homes for rent being delivered by councils and registered social landlords.

As announced in our recent draft budget speech, over £756 million will be available in 2018-19, a 28% increase from 2017-18. Nearly 70% of available funds continues to be capital funding for the affordable housing supply programme, chiefly for new social housing which will enable councils and housing associations to maintain the momentum needed to increase the pace of delivery.

We know that such an ambitious increase in our target, from 30,000 to 50,000, would mean that figures in the earlier years would show a more gradual growth. However, encouragingly when comparing the first 18 months of the current target period with the first 18 months of the previous target period, we have approved 85% more homes.

The target is deliberately ambitious and challenging, but as our track record shows, we can deliver on housing.