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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

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Question reference: S4T-00162

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 10 December 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 December 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what impact the Jobcentre Plus system of encouraging work experience is having on its policies that support people into paid employment.

Question reference: S4W-10299

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 October 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 12 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how many mothers have been identified as drinking alcohol during pregnancy in each year since 1999, broken down by parliamentary constituency.

Data on the numbers of mothers identified as drinking alcohol during pregnancy have been collected on the Scottish Morbidity Record 02 (SMR02) form by Information Services Division Scotland from April 2003. Recording of this information has improved year on year but was not made mandatory until April 2011. It is anticipated that the figures for 2011-12 onwards will be more robust.

Copies of tables holding the requested data have been placed in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 54455).

They show the numbers recorded for each component of this variable, the total number of mothers giving birth and the percentage of records that were not completed in each Parliamentary Constituency for years ending 31 March 2004 - 2011. Please note that data for year ending 31 March 2011 is provisional.

Figures for 2011 provisionally show that 3.7% of women reported drinking alcohol during their pregnancy.

Question reference: S4W-10297

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 October 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 8 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how many people are known to have fetal alcohol syndrome.

National information derived from routine data collection relating to Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) is considered to be incomplete at present. Information is collected from systems which capture data relating to the health of babies shortly after they are born. Data are also available from inpatient or day-case admissions and also from the Child Health Surveillance Programme.

However, a diagnosis of FAS may not be obvious at the time of birth, and the only definitive diagnosis may be made as an outpatient and hence not available nationally.

A national surveillance programme for FAS has been in place since January 2010, funded by the Chief Scientist Office and Scottish Government for four years. In the first two full years of operation, this surveillance programme has identified
40 children under the age of six with FAS.

Question reference: S4W-10298

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 October 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 8 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what action it takes to discourage mothers from drinking alcohol during pregnancy.

The Chief Medical Officer for Scotland's advice is that alcohol should be avoided when pregnant or contemplating pregnancy as there is no known safe time, type or amount of alcohol during pregnancy.

This advice is incorporated into all relevant Scottish Government and Health Scotland publications and is included in Ready Steady Baby, a publication given to all expectant mothers.

In addition, the Scottish Woman-Held Maternity Record (SWHMR) includes a mandatory question on alcohol use, which midwives ask as part of the routine first midwifery or ‘booking’ assessment.

Through funding provided to the Alcohol and Drug Partnerships, work has been undertaken in maternity services to embed alcohol brief interventions (ABI) as part of routine clinical care at booking for those pregnant women who have been screened as requiring advice and support on stopping alcohol consumption during pregnancy. For women whose alcohol use during pregnancy is deemed as unsuitable for an ABI, care pathways into treatment services and additional support are available.

Question reference: S4T-00097

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 November 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what support will be provided to staff at the Freshlink factory in Shettleston, who have been told that the factory is closing and moving its business to England.

Question reference: S4W-10111

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 October 2012
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 30 October 2012

To ask the Scottish Government whether it considers that there should be a limit to the height of trees in urban settings.

Question reference: S4W-09696

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 September 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 24 September 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what the average (a) male and (b) female life expectancy in the Glasgow Shettleston constituency has been in each year since 2000.

Life expectancy estimates by Scottish Parliamentary Constituency were first published by National Records of Scotland (NRS) on 2 October 2009 for the period 2005-07. These estimates have been updated annually to coincide with NRS publications on life expectancy. The figures quoted are a three-year average, produced by aggregating data zone population estimates and number of deaths registered over a three year period. Aggregation is necessary to provide numbers which are large enough to ensure that the life expectancy estimates are sufficiently robust.

Glasgow Shettleston Scottish Parliamentary Constituency

Period	Male life expectancy at birth (years)	Female life expectancy at birth (years)
2005-07	67.2	76.4
2006-08	67.2	76.0
2007-09	68.2	76.5
2008-10	71.3	78.2

Question reference: S4W-09330

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 31 August 2012
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 13 September 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how many convictions have been secured using the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act 2012.

Question reference: S4W-09186

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 August 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 6 September 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what contingency action the Student Awards Agency for Scotland takes in case of an increased volume in the number of calls it receives prior to the start of an academic year.

The peak processing session for SAAS is from April to October. During this time SAAS employs additional temporary staff in its dedicated Contact Centre as well as elsewhere across the agency, including student placements.

In recent years the guarantee date has been introduced to incentivise early applications.

SAAS have also invested in technology to ensure students can complete routine tasks online. There is extensive information on the SAAS website and through social media to assist students in completing applications and to answer the most common queries.

Question reference: S4W-09188

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 August 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 6 September 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what the Student Awards Agency for Scotland’s target is for answering incoming calls.

SAAS has no set target for dealing with incoming calls. At peak times, it is for the operational management of SAAS to balance processing applications with customer contact.

The primary customer service commitment is to meet, annually, the SAAS Guarantee Date. The Guarantee Date, usually 30 June each year, is not a deadline but SAAS aim to process all applications received by the Guarantee Date in time for the start of the student’s course.

This year SAAS received 105,405 applications by the Guarantee Date. All these applications have now been processed.

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