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-11478

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 9 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government on what basis it awarded a contract to Anderson Anderson & Brown LLP, which is reportedly worth £46,749, in relation to National Care Service VAT Support.

Question reference: S6W-11986

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6W-11985

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6W-11718

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 8 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether liquified natural gas-fuelled ferries have a role to play as part of its decarbonisation and net zero targets.

Question reference: S6W-11720

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 8 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what research it has carried out into the viability and effectiveness of hydrogen-fuelled ferries.

Question reference: S6W-11658

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 21 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 8 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many children in the (a) North Ayrshire and (b) Inverclyde local authority area are eligible to receive a free laptop or tablet, and, of those, how many (i) have received and (ii) are yet to receive a free laptop or tablet.

The following table shows how many pupils are in each of the named local authorities (taken from the most recent pupil census data from 2021) and how many devices have been distributed by these local authorities, using £25m digital inclusion funding made available by Scottish Government in 2020-21. In total, this funding supported the provision of 14,000 internet connections and 72,000 devices for learners across all local authorities.

Local Authority	Pupils (2021 pupil census)	Devices Distributed (via SG digital inclusion funding 2020/21)
North Ayrshire	17,887	1,734
Inverclyde	9,805	1,107

Individual local authorities across Scotland have also undertaken their own digital inclusion schemes. The latest information we have available indicates that almost 280,000 devices have been, or are in the process of being, rolled out to learners across Scotland.

We continue to work with local authorities on plans to ensure every school-aged child has access to a device and connectivity by the end of this parliamentary term in 2026.

Question reference: S6W-11678

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 21 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 8 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-10792 by Neil Gray on 3 October 2022, whether it will provide the information requested regarding how many nights' accommodation have been booked for Ukrainian refugees under the Super Sponsor scheme with Booking.com since 1 March 2022, and for any such bookings, what the (a) lowest, (b) highest and (c) average cost per night is, and what the (i) shortest, (ii) longest and (iii) average length of a stay in a hotel is.

Question reference: S6W-11828

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 8 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Islands last met with representatives from the Scottish Crofting Federation, either in person or virtually.

Question reference: S6W-11810

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 8 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of pupils in each year group have received free school meals in each local authority area in each year since 1999.

The Scottish Government does not collect data on the uptake of free school meals broken down by year group.

The Schools Healthy Living Survey Supplementary Statistics provides a breakdown of school meal uptake by pupils in primary, secondary and special schools dating back to 2006. Previous School Healthy Living Survey Supplementary Statistics datasets, back to 2012, are available through the following web link: School Healthy Living Survey supplementary statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

The uptake of free school meals as a percentage of the total number of pupils since 2006 is contained within the following table:

Free School Meals uptake by school sector 2006-2022

	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022
P1-P3 (2015-2020) / P1-P5 (2022)	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	75%	78%	77%	76%	75%	72%	#	63%
P4-P7 (2015-2020) / P6-P7 (2022)	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	16%	15%	14%	13%	14%	15%	#	12%
Primary	15%	14%	14%	14%	16%	18%	18%	18%	17%	42%	42%	42%	40%	40%	39%	#	48%
Secondary	8%	7%	7%	7%	8%	8%	9%	10%	10%	9%	9%	9%	9%	9%	9%	#	8%
Special	55%	55%	48%	48%	48%	47%	51%	51%	52%	51%	44%	54%	51%	50%	58%	#	48%
Total	12%	12%	11%	11%	13%	14%	15%	15%	14%	29%	29%	28%	28%	27%	27%	#	31%
Total excluding P1-P3 (2015-2020) / P6-7 (2022)	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	13%	12%	12%	11%	12%	12%	#	10%

# = data not collected

Question reference: S6W-11835

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 8 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has considered the finding of the National Dental Inspection Programme statistics, published by Public Health Scotland on 25 October 2022, that 58.4% of Primary 1 children were estimated to have no obvious decay experience in the most deprived areas, compared with 85.8% in the least deprived areas.

Over the extended-period we have seen significant improvements in child oral health in Scotland. The first year of the National Dental Inspection Programme in 2002/03 showed that 45% of primary 1 children had no obvious decay experience. Despite the unique challenges of the pandemic this figure has increased to 73% in 2021-22.

This is a demonstration of the success of prevention-based oral health programmes such as the Childsmile Programme - a flagship programme at the leading edge of prevention-based oral health care provision - where nursery and schoolchildren receive regular tooth brushing instruction and fluoride varnish application.

We recognise that oral health inequalities in children continue to present a considerable challenge, and have been exacerbated by the pandemic restrictions on NHS dentistry during the pandemic.

Which is why as part of the recovery of NHS dental services we have increased funding to child dental services by introducing for the first time an enhanced examination fee from 1 February 2022. The latest monthly activity statistics from Public Health Scotland show that 330,000 child examinations have been provided this year with almost 60,000 in the month of August alone.