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-28013

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 June 2024
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 11 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will meet with (a) MSPs and (b) relevant industry leaders to discuss the reported concerns of people living in oil-heated homes in relation to its proposals for the decarbonisation of buildings, in light of its recent announcement that it will review regulations on wood-burning stoves.

Question reference: S6W-28010

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 June 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 11 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many reports of short-term lets operating without a licence have been received by each local authority to date.

The Scottish Government does not hold the information that has been requested. Local authorities will have local arrangements in place for managing reports of licence breaches and non-compliance. I also refer the member to the answer to question S6W-28008 on 11 June 2024. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Question reference: S6W-28008

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 June 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 11 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many short-term lets it estimates are currently operating without a licence.

Question reference: S6W-27988

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 June 2024
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 11 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is still committed to its policy to promote the translocation of beavers outside of their current range, to reduce or avoid negative impacts and help reintroduce beavers to appropriate areas of the country.

The Scottish Government is committed to expanding the range of beavers in Scotland to maximise the environmental, social and economic benefits that they can bring in consultation with local communities and land managers.

We appreciate that beavers can have negative impacts on agricultural land in certain circumstances. NatureScot have a range of mitigation measures that can reduce impacts and licensed control or translocation remains an option where there are no other satisfactory alternatives.

NatureScot will continue to work through the licensing process to ensure that beavers are reintroduced into appropriate areas where they can help enhance biodiversity and wider environmental gains and avoid potential negative impacts.

Question reference: S6W-27972

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 June 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 11 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider strengthening provisions within the Housing (Scotland) Bill to support prospective tenants in addition to those with existing tenancies.

The Bill provides a number of rights for existing tenants and only some would relate to availability of housing which will be the main concern of prospective tenants.

The rights created in the Bill mainly apply to those who have a tenancy and there is a clear difficulty in extending those rights to prospective tenants as those rights could then apply to anyone with an interest in renting a property even if they may never take up a tenancy of the property.

Question reference: S6W-27948

Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Alba Party
Date lodged: Friday, 31 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 11 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will outline the current size of Scotland's civil service in terms of full-time equivalent staff count, and whether it expect this number to increase over the next two financial years.

At the end of December 2023, the Scottish Government directly employed 8,824 (full time equivalent) civil servants and engaged 1,436 contingent workers.

The latest available workforce statistics are at this link: Scottish Government workforce statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). This will be updated with end March 2024 data on Tuesday 11 June 2024.

The Scottish Government is proactively addressing the need to reduce in size to remain fiscally sustainable and has been on a reducing trajectory since March 2022. We continue to progress public sector reform, and workforce numbers are regularly and carefully reviewed to ensure that we are delivering for the people of Scotland as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Question reference: S6W-27820

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 11 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to improve the processing of accessing care records for care experienced people.

The Digitisation of records is an operational responsibility of individual Health Boards GP practices and Local Authorities, and their partner organisations commissioned to deliver care. At a national level and building on the existing use of electronic record systems, we are focussed on allowing records to be stored, linked, and shared securely.

Our national work recognises, however, that we need to improve the way this works for people across Scotland in a nationally consistent manner. As set out in our integrated health & social care record and a digital front door so that we can introduce a national approach to improving the process for accessing care records for care experienced people, and those around them.

Question reference: S6T-02044

Asked by: Michelle Thomson, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 10 June 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of reports that Scottish universities' budgets have been impacted by £100 million due to a 20% drop in applications from international students in the last academic year as a result of new UK Government immigration rules.

Question reference: S6T-02037

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 10 June 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether bowel cancer screening is being carried out to detect cancer at the earliest possible stage or whether it is being determined by NHS capacity for colonoscopies and treatment.

Question reference: S6F-03233

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 June 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 June 2024

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to reports that hundreds of rapes and sexual assaults that had been reported by sex workers were not acted upon.