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-25672

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its estimate of the future potential costs of delivering a new national digital academy.

Question reference: S6W-25671

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what plans it has to deliver a new national digital academy.

Question reference: S6W-25434

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 12 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what lessons have been learned from the COVID-19 pandemic in relation to hospital size and design, and how any such findings have impacted on the consideration of the Monklands Replacement Project.

The OBC from NHS Lanarkshire considered in great detail the impact of the pandemic within their design. The new facility has considered best use of space and layout alongside ventilation to ensure consideration has been given to any future pandemic so that areas like Critical Care and Operating Theatre suites can accommodate reconfiguration to continue to provide services to high-risk infected patients. NHS Lanarkshire continues to embrace digital technology, brought on as a requirement in the pandemic, to reduce unnecessary patient attendances.

Question reference: S6W-25281

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the potential impact on the Scottish economy of the UK Government's decision to grant approval of the Rosebank oil field.

Offshore oil and gas licensing and the associated fiscal regime are both reserved to the UK Government. The Scottish Government does not undertake detailed assessments of the economic impacts of individual oil and gas field developments.

We are aware that Equinor, as 80% owner of the Rosebank field, has stated that they expect it to create £8.5 billion of total direct investment (of which 77% is expected to be in UK-based businesses).

The Scottish Government recognises, and welcomes, the positive contribution that North Sea oil and gas continues to make to the economy. The answer to question S6W-25271 on 27 February 2024 on includes information on the Gross Value Added by the oil and industry as a whole to Scotland's economy. It is also the case that the North Sea basin is declining and unlimited extraction of fossil fuels is inconsistent with the climate emergency and our just transition commitments.

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-25312

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government from where the release of £6.2 million from the Lifelong Learning and Skills budget to support other Scottish Government priorities came, as outlined in the 2023-24 Autumn Budget Revision.

The published 2023-24 Autumn Budget Revision at the link below shares that this funding came from the release of emerging/planned underspends from Lifelong Learning and Skills to support other SG priorities. Autumn Budget Revision 2023 to 2024: supporting document - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
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Further detail on this was confirmed in the Deputy First Minister’s letter to the Finance and Public Administration committee (FPAC) available at this link: Letter from the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance to the Convener of 21 November 2023 (parliament.scot)

Annex A confirms that the £6.2 million is in respect of a reduction in grant spend on Higher Education International Activity.

Question reference: S6W-25321

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much one psychological therapies appointment costs the NHS.

The Scottish Government does not collect data on how much a psychological therapies appointment costs the NHS.

Every presentation for psychological treatment represents a unique individual with their own specific needs. Treatment can often involve working with multidisciplinary professions as needed, meaning it is not possible to provide a cost per appointment.

The range of this psychological treatment is described in detail in the Scottish Psychological Therapies Matrix and how this treatment should be delivered is set out in the National Specification for Psychological Therapies and Interventions.

Question reference: S6W-25309

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it can instruct its enterprise agencies to engage with Gibson's Engineering Ltd, in light of its reported reopening of the St Rollox "Caley" Railway Works in Springburn.

Engagement between Scottish Enterprise and Gibson's Engineering Ltd led to a Business Gateway referral in 2022. In addition, the Find Business Support website ( findbusinesssupport.gov.scot ) provides information on the advice and funding offered by Scottish Enterprise and Business Gateway and I would encourage Gibson’s Engineering to consider the full range of support available.

Specialist support is also available through the Rail Cluster, an initiative designed and funded by Scottish Enterprise and Transport Scotland which is being delivered by Scottish Engineering. The aim is to connect Scottish SMEs with the country’s top manufacturing innovators and supply chain partners to help deliver the decarbonisation of Scotland’s railways. I understand that Gibson’s Engineering has already engaged with the Rail Cluster.

Question reference: S6W-25296

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what objectives it set for any funding that it has provided to the North East Edinburgh Counselling Service since 2019.

Question reference: S6W-25658

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what work it has done with relevant bodies to support them in the development of resources that contribute to a gender-competent, gender-equal curriculum.

Education Scotland’s Improving Gender Balance and Equalities (IGBE) programme aims to establish interventions to effect long term cultural change with a particular focus on challenging gender stereotypes, and addressing the impacts of unconscious bias to encourage greater gender balance across occupations. The IGBE Programme works with school clusters to explore and assess interventions to address gender imbalances in participation, curricular preferences and learner pathways at every stage (3-18 years). The Programme is supported by £300,000 of Scottish Government funding in the current financial year.

Question reference: S6W-25673

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on when it expects to deliver on its reported commitment to establish a new professional teaching qualification related to climate change.

In Scotland, climate change is part of the cross-curricular entitlement of Learning for Sustainability (LfS).

As part of the 2021-22 Programme for Government the Scottish Government committed to work with the General Teaching Council of Scotland (GTCS) to: “ensure the climate emergency is properly reflected through initial teacher education, growing our strong existing suite of professional development resources to ensure our teaching workforce has all the up to date knowledge and skills they require to be able to offer young people the in depth education they need on the global climate crisis.”

To achieve this, LfS was further strengthened in the refreshed and restructured General Teaching Council of Scotland (GTCS) Professional Standards for teachers, which came into mandatory use for all teachers on 2 August 2021. In June 2023, the Scottish Government published the refreshed LfS Action Plan which contains several further actions in relation to professional learning for educators.

There are already a number of teaching accredited professional qualifications on LfS which can be found on the GTCS website at the following link: , https://www.gtcs.org.uk/professional-update/professional-recognition/accredited-professional-recognition-programmes/

The GTCS Hub also provides freely-available resources, self-evaluation tools, professional learning, professional reading, curated resources, and regular opportunities for educators to connect and network with each other.

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with the GTCS to ensure that LfS is embedded in teaching practice. The Scottish Government also continues to work with the Scottish Council of Deans of Education to develop an LfS Framework for Higher Education institutions to better support them in embedding LfS into their initial teacher education programmes.

Additionally, Education Scotland is developing a new dedicated LfS online portal to provide examples for educators on good practice approaches to embedding LfS.