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-26026

Asked by: Annabelle Ewing, MSP for Cowdenbeath, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 15 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-25697 by Joe FitzPatrick on 4 March 2024, how many projects in the Cowdenbeath constituency have received funding through the Vacant and Derelict Land Investment Programme since it was established, and how much each project received.

Question reference: S6W-26028

Asked by: Annabelle Ewing, MSP for Cowdenbeath, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 15 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-25697 by Joe FitzPatrick on 4 March 2024, how much funding has been awarded through the (a) Regeneration Capital Grant Fund and (b) Vacant and Derelict Land Investment Programme in the last five years, broken down by local authority area.

The funding awarded through the Regeneration Capital Grant Fund (RCGF) and the Vacant and Derelict Land Investment Programme (VDLIP) over the last five years, from 2019-20 to 2023-24 by local authority area, is detailed in the following table. This table excludes projects that were subsequently withdrawn by local authorities.

Local Authority Area	RCGF grant awarded £	VDLIP grant awarded £
Aberdeen City	5,308,965	0
Aberdeenshire	4,768,313	0
Angus	2,560,000	0
Argyll and Bute	5,395,313	0
City of Edinburgh	8,686,186	2,467,784
Clackmannanshire	640,000	500,000
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	9,714,812	0
Dumfries and Galloway	9,749,488	0
Dundee City	1,652,708	0
East Ayrshire	5,613,101	0
East Dunbartonshire	2,050,000	1,676,000
East Lothian	1,184,266	0
East Renfrewshire	699,000	1,084,661
Falkirk	0	582,808
Fife	2,225,000	491,582
Glasgow City	32,802,584	8,784,088
Highland	7,706,568	2,550,000
Inverclyde	5,163,933	990,000
Midlothian	0	3,667,000
Moray	270,200	0
North Ayrshire	4,881,478	1,000,000
North Lanarkshire	6,446,270	350,911
Orkney Islands	1,135,460	0
Perth and Kinross	3,130,000	93,808
Renfrewshire	1,814,000	0
Scottish Borders	1,588,110	0
Shetland Islands	1,770,000	0
South Ayrshire	3,106,713	0
South Lanarkshire	10,574,384	1,244,150
Stirling	1,599,100	0
West Dunbartonshire	747,000	1,350,000
West Lothian	1,400,000	0
TOTAL	144,382,952	26,832,792

*Note: For those projects that cover two local authority areas the grant award has been apportioned.

Question reference: S6W-26009

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 15 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when it plans to introduce legislation that would prevent any person who is subject to sexual offender notification requirements from being a councillor.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of building and preserving a society where the rights and freedoms of individuals are respected and communities can trust their elected representatives.

The Scottish Government has set out its plans, on preventing individuals included on the sex offenders register from being councillors or MSPs, to the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee who are currently considering the Scottish Elections (Representation and Reform) Bill.

Question reference: S6W-26024

Asked by: Annabelle Ewing, MSP for Cowdenbeath, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 15 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-25697 by Joe FitzPatrick on 4 March 2024, what criteria will be used in the forthcoming round of Regeneration Capital Grant funding.

Question reference: S6W-26021

Asked by: Annabelle Ewing, MSP for Cowdenbeath, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 15 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-25697 by Joe FitzPatrick on 4 March 2024, what the provisional deadline is for the next round of Regeneration Capital Grant funding, and how this will be advertised to groups within the Cowdenbeath constituency.

Question reference: S6W-25984

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 15 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact on rural GP training of the reported decision by NHS Education for Scotland to withdraw funding for face-to-face GP Educator Supervisors’ workshops and conferences in the north of Scotland.

In November 2023, the NHS Scotland Chief Executive wrote to all Health Boards, requesting that they review their financial forecast for the remainder of the 2023-24 financial year and minimise any discretionary spend.

NHS Education for Scotland (NES) play a critical role in supporting the education, training and wider development of the NHS Scotland workforce and is responsible for ensuring best use of available resources to support delivery of services and strategic objectives.

NES will continue to provide training and education, taking a flexible approach to its delivery across Scotland, while ensuring quality is maintained.

Question reference: S6W-25981

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 15 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the implementation of the Town Centre Action Plan.

The Town Centre Action Plan (TCAP) sets out our shared ambition for the future of town centres and is a call to action for partners, both locally and nationally, to re-build, re-energise and re-imagine our towns. This is a joint endeavour with responsibilities shared across the sectors.

We continue to take forward actions that we have direct responsibility for, working closely with cross-sector partners to support the delivery of TCAP. In collaboration with Scotland’s Towns Partnership, progress towards town centre regeneration has been showcased via a number of forums, including recent workshops on town centre living, place-based investment and the annual Scotland’s Towns conference.

Support for town centre action is also backed by our multiple capital investment programmes, including the Place Based Investment Programme, Regeneration Capital Grant Fund and the Vacant and Derelict Land Investment Programme, all of which help to accelerate shared ambitions for town centre action. However, following the UK Government's Autumn Statement and Spring Budget, a reduction in our capital budget will adversely impact the support that we can provide in 2024-25.

Question reference: S6W-25959

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 04 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 15 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-25155 by Jenny Gilruth on 1 March 2024, whether any secondary schools were unsuccessful in their applications for grants from the investment in computing science hardware for schools.

Question reference: S6W-25910

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 15 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, as part of its work to tackle online bullying and harassment, what its position is on (a) the current regulation of mobile app companies and (b) in-app support tools for users to report online bullying and harassment.

We take online safety very seriously and our expectation is that online service providers will act responsibly.

Though regulation of the internet is a reserved matter and falls to the UK Government, the Scottish Government is committed to securing the online safety of our children and young people. That is why the First Minister urged the UK Government to include additional measures in the Online Safety Act 2023 to protect children and vulnerable adults online and go further to encourage tech firms to design out illegal and harmful material.

Question reference: S6W-25958

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 04 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 15 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-25155 by Jenny Gilruth on 1 March 2024, what monitoring and evaluation it has carried out of the funding provided as part of the investment in grants for computing science hardware for schools.