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-00821

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 June 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 28 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government which (a) domestic, (b) UK and (c) international shipowners Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd has contacted since January 2020, in pursuit of additional tonnage to increase resilience and capacity on Clyde and Hebrides ferry services.

Question reference: S6W-00820

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 June 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 28 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) value and (b) full potential duration is of the time charter agreement that it has signed with Pentland Ferries Ltd for the MV Pentalina, for services on contracted Clyde and Hebrides routes.

Question reference: S6W-00824

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 June 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 28 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) passenger and (b) vehicle carrying capacity is of vessels that are leased by CalMac, on routes where the MV Pentalina has been time chartered to provide relief capacity.

The maximum passenger and vehicle carrying capacity of the vessels in the CalMac fleet that normally operate the routes they will consider deploying the MV Pentalina on, if chartered, are detailed in the following table.

Vessel	Passenger Capacity	Vehicle Capacity **	Deck Space (metres)
MV Caledonian Isles	1,000	92 cars	150 m
MV Coruisk *	249	35 cars	70 m
MV Isle of Arran *	447	55 cars	103 m
MV Isle of Mull	951	66 cars	150 m
MV Loch Seaforth	700	130 cars	372 m
MV Finlaggan	550	79 cars	180 m
MV Herbridean Isles	465	60 cars	125 m

* Summer timetable only

** Maximum capacity for cars, this can vary dependant on operational requirements and if mezzanine deck is deployed (where applicable)

In accordance with Scottish Government guidance for transport, allowing 1 metre physical distancing, passenger capacity is currently below the figures quoted.

Question reference: S6W-00816

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 28 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to figures recording that 85.19% of people from Angus who were referred to the Fair Start Scotland (FSS) programme did not remain in work for more than six months and, in light of this, what action it is taking to address reported concerns that the FSS scheme in the county is not adequately resourced.

Question reference: S6W-00743

Asked by: James Dornan, MSP for Glasgow Cathcart, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 28 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the work that it is carrying out to deal with sexual abuse in schools and colleges, in light of Ofsted’s review of this issue in England.

The Scottish Government is taking forward a wide range of action in schools and colleges to address gender based violence and sexual harassment.

To support schools to deliver learning on relationships, sexual health and parenthood education, Education Scotland have produced experiences and outcomes which set out what each pupil is expected to learn and how their learning is expected to progress through the four levels of learning.

In addition to this, we are funding a number of targeted programmes to support positive behaviour and relationships. This includes the Mentors in Violence Prevention Scotland Programme which is working to tackle gender stereotyping and attitudes that condone violence against women and girls; pilot of a whole schools approach to tackling gender based violence with Rape Crisis Scotland and Zero Tolerance; and, running up to three Fearless campaigns nationally to educate and support young people to speak up about crime, making their lives and that of their communities safer.

We are also developing a National Approach guidance document, with partners on the Gender Based Violence in Schools Working Group, to ensure consistency in messages on sexual harassment and gender based violence to everyone working with children and young people.

In colleges and universities, institutions are expected to adopt and adapt the Equally Safe in Higher Education Toolkit, and in doing so adopt a Gendered Analysis to this issue, assess their own policies and practices against the Toolkit and put in place policies, reporting processes and support arrangements to keep students safe.

The Scottish Government continues to fund several projects aimed at support the further and higher education sector, by developing online training and resources, particularly for the college sector; developing an institutional GBV Charter Mark and the parameters of effective risk management approaches to work already undertaken by Universities Scotland; and, to purchase an online tool to enable staff and students in certain Glasgow-based institutions to anonymously report gender based violence and racial harassment issues.

Question reference: S6W-00794

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 June 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 28 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether Ferguson Marine (Port Glasgow) Ltd is actively considering a tender for the new national flagship vessel that was recently announced by the UK Government, and which will be procured via Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S), given that a design competition is to be started soon and that the contractor will be determined by September 2021.

Question reference: S6W-00829

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 June 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 28 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what assurances it has received from the UK Government that the (a) MV Pentalina, and (b) MV Alfred are safe to operate on ferry routes in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-00644

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 14 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 28 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of each source of funding for the fibre optic undersea cable project, between Ormsary and Jura.

Question reference: S6W-00660

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 14 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 25 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many students will be graduating as nurses in the 2021-22 academic year, and how many nurses posts will be available for the graduates.

Students who will be graduating as nurses in the 2021-22 academic year are still completing their education programmes and most are not due to graduate until September. While it is still therefore early in the recruitment process, the following table shows the number of graduates expected from Scottish universities by September and the estimated number of posts to be offered by NHS Boards for newly qualified nurses. At present the number of posts available equates to 87.1% of the total graduate workforce. These numbers are subject to revision as the recruitment process continues and more graduates are offered posts.

No. of graduates expected by September 21 (data based on university predictions)

No. of posts specifically available for newly qualified nurses in NHS Scotland Boards

Nursing

2,963

2,582

Question reference: S6W-00519

Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 25 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what safeguards it has put in place to ensure that the investment it has made in the (a) research and development and (b) manufacturing in Livingston of Valneva’s inactivated whole virus COVID-19 vaccine, will not be used to fund shareholder pay-outs when the company lists on the New York Stock Exchange.

The Scottish Government has provided in-kind support to Valneva via Scottish Enterprise. There has been no financial investment made in this facility by the Scottish Government.

The decision for any company to list on the Nasdaq is a commercial decision made by the organisation itself and the company already has a stock exchange, listing on the Paris Bourse (Euronext).

Vaccines Taskforce and BEIS have provided the following commentary that the UK Government has supported Valneva by providing funding for its early clinical trials and has also made a multi-million-pound investment to upgrade and expand Valneva’s Livingston manufacturing facility, as part of its supply agreement for COVID-19 vaccines.