Chamber and committees

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: S6W-26522

Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Falkirk West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 15 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has considered amending the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 (Contingency Planning) (Scotland) Regulations 2005 to include local resilience structures for MSPs in their constituencies or regions, including notifications and communications with all relevant partners.

The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 (CCA) and the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 (Contingency Planning) (Scotland) Regulations 2005 is the legislation which identifies categorised responders, and their duty to prepare for civil emergencies within Scotland.

The CCA divides responders into two categories, category 1 and category 2. The CCA imposes a set of duties on each category of responders. It does not confer any powers upon the categorised responders.

Under the terms of the amendment regulations, the structure which supports multi-agency co-ordination is the Regional Resilience Partnership (RRP). Currently there are three such groups in the North, West and East of Scotland. Within each RRP area are a number of Local Resilience Partnerships (LRPs) determined by the RRPs themselves.

The RRPs and LRPs bring together all the relevant organisations in an area to develop an effective approach in dealing with emergencies in accordance with the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality.

The Scottish Government does not currently have any plans to review the accompanying regulations to the CCA to include MSPs as a categorised responder under the CCA.

Question reference: S6W-26495

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by George Adam on 15 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the UK Secretary of State for Scotland's letter to the First Minister on 21 March 2024, in which he offered "the UK Government's assistance in introducing a recall mechanism for MSPs".

Question reference: S6W-26713

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 15 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what impact its reported proposed reduction of £500,000 to the Gaelic Education, Culture and Arts budget will have on (a) (i) Sabhal Mòr Ostaig and (ii) Storlann and (b) the ability of each organisation to deliver their respective services.

Following the 2024-25 budget settlement, the Scottish Government reviewed a number of budget lines in Education and Skills. In relation to Gaelic the outcome of this review is that there will now be no reduction to the MG ALBA funding for 2024-25. There will also be no reduction of the Gaelic, Education and Culture budget line which would have had an impact on the funding of Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Storlann and other organisations and the Scottish Government has now provided additional funding to enable Bòrd na Gidhlig to continue its support for the Gaelic Officers’ Scheme in 2024-25.

Question reference: S6W-26569

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 15 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it has had with the (a) Keeper of the Registers of Scotland and the (b) King’s and Lord Treasurer’s Remembrancer (KLTR) in relation to the reported application to register a title to the MacLeod Estate, including the Cuillin, in the Land Register, and whether it will consider applying to the KLTR to take ownership of any ownerless land identified in the process of land registration.

Question reference: S6W-26501

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 15 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to protect people and properties, in light of SEPA's recently reported warning that around 400,000 homes are at major risk of flooding within 50 years due to climate change, which is an increase of 40%.

SEPA’s 2018 National Flood Risk Assessment set out the numbers of properties at risk of flooding now and in the future. The numbers have not changed since that assessment, which are that 284,000 properties are at risk of flooding now and by the 2080s this number is expected to increase by 110,000 through climate change.

Improving resilience to flooding is a priority for the Scottish Government and we continue to work with, and support, local authorities to fulfil their obligations to deliver flood risk management. To support flood protection measures, the Scottish Government provides £42 million each year to local authorities. In August 2020, the Programme for Government also committed an additional £150 million over 5 years to support flood risk management actions.

It is clear that climate change must become a core consideration in decision making for our places and communities if they are to achieve a level of flood resilience. We will consult on a Flood Resilience Strategy for Scotland this spring. The Strategy will initiate a transformational change to flood management to adapt our places and set Scotland on a long-term course towards a sustainable level of flood resilience.

Question reference: S6W-26240

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 15 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding has been distributed in each local authority area from the £50 million Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund since 2020.

Funding for Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Supports and Services for children, young people and their families has been distributed to each local authority area as follows:

	2019-20 £	2020-21 £	2021-22 £	2022-23 £	2023-24 £
Aberdeen City	62,500	144,000	576,000	585,000	577,000
Aberdeenshire	62,500	197,500	790,000	797,000	809,000
Angus	62,500	81,500	326,000	322,000	324,000
Argyll and Bute	62,500	61,250	245,000	246,000	247,000
City of Edinburgh	62,500	34,750	139,000	135,000	136,000
Clackmannanshire	62,500	108,250	433,000	430,000	430,000
Dumfries and Galloway	62,500	111,250	445,000	434,000	427,000
Dundee City	62,500	83,000	332,000	326,000	328,000
East Ayrshire	62,500	67,000	268,000	270,000	271,000
East Dunbartonshire	62,500	73,500	294,000	290,000	291,000
East Lothian	62,500	65,250	261,000	268,000	271,000
East Renfrewshire	62,500	335,750	1,343,000	1,361,000	1,339,000
Falkirk	62,500	22,250	89,000	88,000	89,000
Fife	62,500	104,750	419,000	419,000	419,000
Glasgow City	62,500	261,750	1,047,000	1,040,000	1,036,000
Highland	62,500	434,250	1,737,000	1,759,000	1,755,000
Inverclyde	62,500	178,000	712,000	707,000	713,000
Midlothian	62,500	50,500	202,000	192,000	191,000
Moray	62,500	62,000	248,000	249,000	254,000
Na h-Eileanan Siar	62,500	68,750	275,000	274,000	276,000
North Ayrshire	62,500	92,500	370,000	360,000	359,000
North Lanarkshire	62,500	234,500	938,000	935,000	940,000
Orkney Islands	62,500	17,500	70,000	71,000	71,000
Perth and Kinross	62,500	103,500	414,000	418,000	423,000
Renfrewshire	62,500	113,500	454,000	453,000	452,000
Scottish Borders	62,500	82,250	329,000	334,000	335,000
Shetland Islands	62,500	20,750	83,000	84,000	85,000
South Ayrshire	62,500	70,750	283,000	283,000	282,000
South Lanarkshire	62,500	210,250	841,000	835,000	840,000
Stirling	62,500	73,250	293,000	291,000	281,000
West Dunbartonshire	62,500	58,250	233,000	231,000	231,000
West Lothian	62,500	144,000	511,000	513,000	518,000
Total	2,000,000	3,750,000	15,000,000	15,000,000	15,000,000
Total				£50,750,000

A further £15 million has been committed for financial year 2024-25.

Question reference: S6W-26265

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 15 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on the Childsmile programme in each of the last five financial years, also broken down by NHS board area.

Childsmile funding is provided annually to Boards through i) the Outcomes Framework and ii) direct allocation from the General Dental Services (GDS) budget.

The Outcomes Framework is a single source of funding to NHS Boards which provides for local flexibility on resource allocation to deliver clearly defined outcomes. The Framework has a strong focus on delivering strategic priorities such as prevention and reducing health inequalities.

Following years of non-recurring funding, £72 million was provided to NHS Boards in 2023-24 on a recurring basis to deliver all Outcomes, including deliverables on Childsmile. Funding for individual components of the Outcomes Framework, including Childsmile, is not separately identifiable within the total allocation and therefore no meaningful disaggregation can be provided.

In addition to Outcomes Framework funding which is provided to every Board, some Boards also receive direct programme allocations from the GDS budget to support Childsmile activities on a national and/or regional basis. Allocations provided to these Boards are therefore not indicative of activity undertaken within the geographic location given the co-ordinating role they undertake, and have not been provided in breakdown although they are included in total programme allocation.

The total value of allocations associated with Childsmile in each of the last five financial years is set out in the following table:

Year	Programme Allocation (£m)	Total Outcomes Framework (£m)
2019-20	2.3	62.9
2020-21	2.2	68.9
2021-22	1.4	74.1
2022-23	2.4	74.1
2023-24	2.7	72.2

From 2022-23, additional funding has been provided to all Territorial Boards and National Services Scotland to scale up Childsmile activity through the provision of additional toothbrushing packs and recruitment of additional Dental Health Support Workers. A breakdown of this funding by NHS Board for 2022-23 and 2023-24 is provided in the following table.

	2022-23 funding (£)	2023-24 funding (£)
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	113,739	113,739
NHS Borders	37,387	34,637
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	38,963	38,963
NHS Fife	98,984	88,834
NHS Forth Valley	79,240	68,271
NHS Grampian	108,700	90,338
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	475,008	475,008
NHS Highland	62,647	53,203
NHS Lanarkshire	226,952	213,812
NHS Lothian	203,482	189,267
NHS Orkney	21,068	18,068
NHS Shetland	21,068	16,068
NHS Tayside	99,509	92,338
NHS Western Isles	21,067	20,867
National Services Scotland	242,000	337,000
Total	1,849,814	1,850,413

Question reference: S6W-26606

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 11 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government in what month it will publish (a) its annual report in relation to the incentivisation of selective fishing gear and low impact techniques and (b) its response to the consultation on additional quota that closed on 11 January 2024.

Question reference: S6W-26347

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 11 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many public sector vehicles are exempt from the (a) Glasgow and (b) Edinburgh Low Emission Zone.

There is no specific exemption for public sector vehicles.

The national exemptions set in the LEZ legislation include: vehicles for disabled persons, emergency service, military, historic and showman vehicles.

As stated in the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019, each local authority may offer local time-limited exemptions.

The number of public sector vehicles exempt from each Low Emission Zone is a matter for the relevant local authorities as the information requested is not held centrally.

Question reference: S6W-26267

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 11 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on whether it plans to make eligibility for business rate reliefs conditional on payment of the real Living Wage, as part of its Fair Work Action Plan, and, if so, which rate reliefs it anticipates will be in scope.

The Scottish Government’s Fair Work Action Plan sets out actions to promote fair and inclusive workplaces across Scotland. We are committed to using all levers at our disposal to extend Fair Work conditionality with clear standards and minimum requirements to cover all forms of Scottish Government support within the limits of devolved competence.

The exploratory action to consider including the use of reliefs does not reflect a definitive position on if and how these can be used. Officials continue to explore, within the limits of devolved competence, if and how these levers can be deployed.