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-12721

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 12 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what evaluation it has carried out on the effectiveness of the Scottish Prison Service's (a) assessments for and (b) support for and/or treatment of (i) substance use and (ii) mental health issues for remand prisoners, and whether this has been published.

The Scottish Government published prison population health needs assessments for mental health and for substance use ( Prison population health needs: synthesis report - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) and Prison population health needs: synthesis report - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . These reports aim to provide stakeholders, including the SPS, with a better understanding of the health needs of the prison population and help align services to support people whilst in prison, along with their transition into and out of prison custody.

The SPS is currently working in partnership with mental health experts to co-produce a revised mental health strategy for those in custody.

Question reference: S6W-12812

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 12 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the World Health Organization's announcement that mpox is the new preferred term for monkeypox, with the name monkeypox to be replaced after one year, what action it is taking to ensure that the public is aware of the change.

Question reference: S6W-12785

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 12 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the total cost of an (a) adult, (b) concession and (c) young person Direct Debit membership for Historic Scotland has been in each year since 2007.

Question reference: S6W-12797

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 12 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to encourage dentistry students to specialise in orthodontics.

The Scottish Government is not taking any specific actions with respect to encouraging orthodontics as a specialty.

A degree in dentistry offers students a well-rounded dental education that sets them up for a strong career. There are three dental schools across Scotland in Aberdeen, Dundee and Glasgow, which offer a common curriculum, and on completion of their degree students are free to choose whether they wish to specialise in any particular area. Those students who wish to specialise in orthodontics can undertake a further three-year postgraduate qualification to allow them to register as a specialist orthodontist.

Question reference: S6W-12703

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 12 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what (a) funding and (b) support it will provide to Hourglass Scotland, whose 24/7 service is reported to be at risk of closure in March 2023 should no further grant be made available.

With regard to funding, I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-12704 on 12 December 2022 on the Parliament website, the search facility for which can be found on https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers Given that there are currently no open sources of Scottish Government funding, it will not be able to provide funding to Hourglass at this current time.

Hourglass Scotland are valued members of the Older people's Strategic Action Forum (OPSAF). We will ask our fund manager Inspiring Scotland to work with Hourglass to help them identify alternative funding options, such as those detailed in the answer to S6W- 12704.

Question reference: S6W-12663

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 12 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the level of research being undertaken in Scotland into the (a) understanding and (b) treatment of brain tumours.

The Scottish Government does not directly hold information on the research spend of other funders.

An interrogation of the NCRI (National Cancer Research Institute) database indicated that £17,631,882 was spent on brain tumour research in the UK in 20/21 by charity and public funders.

This breaks down to £6,290,512 on biology, £872,201 on aetiology, £67,606 on prevention, £2,846,401 on Early detection, diagnosis and prognosis, £6,690,871 on treatment and £864,290 on cancer control, survivorship and outcomes research.

Question reference: S6W-12729

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 12 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many handheld music devices provided through Creative Scotland’s Youth Music Initiative are currently in use, and how much funding it has made available for the future use of these devices.

Question reference: S6W-12722

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 12 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in each of the last three financial years, how many remand prisoners have been assessed for (a) substance use and (b) mental health issues; what proportion of those on remand this represents, and, of those assessed, how many have accessed (i) drug treatment services and (ii) mental health services.

Question reference: S6W-12695

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 12 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many buildings it (a) has assessed and (b) is due to assess for unsafe cladding through the Single Building Assessment pilot.

Question reference: S6W-12637

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 12 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it can provide the attendance figures for (a) Dandelion project and (b) any other Scottish UNBOXED events.

Unboxed was a major UK-wide programme celebrating creativity and innovation, featuring ten large-scale commissioned projects designed to reach millions on-line and in person, bring people together and showcase the Four Nation's creativity.

Scottish Ministers appointed EventScotland as the Strategic Delivery Body for the commission and delivery of the Scottish UNBOXED project, Dandelion, which was funded by the Scottish Government through EventScotland.

The detailed external evaluation of all ten of the Unboxed programme, including Dandelion, is due to be published in Spring 2023. In the interim, the latest details are set out below under the relevant headings.

(a) attendance figures for Dandelion projects

Live events and hands-on schools activities

The following table shows the engagement figures to date for Dandelion, involving over 1,000 events at over 500 locations across Scotland.

	Overall Dandelion Attendance
Live & Participation	336,927
Schools Participation – including 89,101 pupils and families in 468 schools	252,134
Total In Person Attendance/Participation	589,061

In total over 589,000 people took part in person in live events and hands-on schools activities, across Scotland. The figures in the table above detail the number of people who took part in activities in person; both those that took part in person in the festival and public events elements of the programme (336,927) and those pupils and family members that took part in person in the learning and participation programme involving schools (est. 252,134).

These events included (but are not limited to):

Two free outdoor Dandelion festivals in Kelvingrove Park in Glasgow (17 – 19 June 2022) and in Inverness (2- 4 September 2022) which attracted almost 67,000 attendees to two three-day festivals celebrating community growing and sustainability, with programmes featuring live music, locally food, workshops, talks, hands-on activities for all ages, representation from activists and community groups, plus free plants to take home encouraging audiences to ‘grow-their-own';
Events in the 12 Unexpected Gardens (and a ‘Floating Garden’ which toured Scotland’s canal network) which hosted over 500 events engaging more than 18,000 audiences and participants from communities, in particular young people, during the arc of the growing season from March-September 2022;
20 Free For All (FFA) events involved Dandelion giving away thousands of seeds and plant plugs to over 13,000 visitors to try their hand at growing;
The "Schools Growing Initiative’’ saw an estimated 89,101 pupils (plus their family members) in 468 schools become citizen scientists using vertical farm growing cubes. (The cubes are miniature vertical farms, growing hundreds of seedlings under LED light in an accelerated setting, combining design craft, traditional horticultural expertise and technological innovation). Schools across Scotland also took part in the "Big Tattie Experiment’’, which included sowing 258,000 potatoes in 2,000 tonnes of specially made, sustainably sourced, growing medium taken home by pupils to grow;
In addition to the school cube growing initiative, over 96,000 people at 17 locations across Scotland experienced ‘Show Cubes’ (integrated with multiple speaker systems) that either toured Scotland on cargo bikes or were installed in key locations such as the V&A Dundee, connecting with local bike clubs and introducing eleven local communities to future food growing technologies.

Digital and broadcast

In addition to the in person attendances detailed above, Dandelion’s digital and broadcast content allowed the programme to reach a broader audience who might not have been able to take part in events and activities in person, or the schools programme. Dandelion's digital and broadcast content engaged with 869,960. This included specially commissioned digital short films and featured broadcast content.

(b) Attendance figures for other Unboxed projects within Scotland

Four Unboxed projects toured to Scotland, providing free events and experiences in Paisley, Edinburgh, Dundee, Dumfries, Orkney Islands, and the Highlands. As the Strategic Delivery Body for Scottish activity, EventScotland offered advice and support to those cross-UK Unboxed events with a delivery footprint in Scotland, when asked to do so by the individual project.

Responsibility for, and funding of, these events remains with the central Unboxed organisation and the UK Government’s Department of Culture, Media and Sport, and therefore the Scottish Government does not hold attendance information for these projects.