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-10952

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 27 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what work it is undertaking to secure further supplies of Imvanex and Jynneos in order to be able to offer a Modified Vaccinia Ankara (MVA) vaccine against monkeypox to those living in the Glasgow region who are considered to be at risk of exposure, currently understood to include gay and bisexual men, other men who have sex with men, and the medical staff who treat them.

Question reference: S6W-10586

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 22 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what expectations it has of local authorities regarding the timescales associated with connecting children seeking adoption with families who have applied for adoption.

Question reference: S6W-10585

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 22 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how long the process for a family to adopt a child in Scotland should normally take.

There are no prescribed timescales within regulations in Scotland for the adoption process to be completed.

Where adoption is the right route for a child or young person, the Scottish Government want this to happen as swiftly as possible. However, we recognise that the process is complex and involves multi agency working to ensure the welfare and safeguarding of the child. No two cases will be the same and the circumstances of each child need to inform the approach taken, within the context of the Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) approach.

Question reference: S6W-10587

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 22 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how long each step of the adoption process should take for children and families seeking adoption through adoption services.

Question reference: S6O-01404

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 September 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the recent ballot for industrial action by members of the Educational Institute of Scotland trade union.

Question reference: S6W-10525

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 21 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on reports that charities that normally qualify for water charge rebates, but were involved in dispersing grants in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, have had their turnover artificially inflated to above £300,000, meaning they no longer qualify, and whether it will undertake to provide an exemption in such cases.

The water and sewerage charges exemption scheme is open to charities which have an income of less than £300,000. Eligibility is assessed based on gross income information as obtained from the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) and there are no disregards in respect of capital grants or restricted income. This position was agreed in light of a public consultation and reflects the fact that in many cases restricted income/capital grants are not clearly set out in annual accounts.

In recognition that restricted income such as grants or asset disposals would elevate, temporarily, a charity’s income, the income threshold for eligibility was increased from £65,000 to £200,000 for full exemption and £300,000 for partial exemption. Setting a higher income threshold ensures that the administrative costs of the scheme are kept to a minimum as there is no need for individual assessments to be made in relation to the nature of the restricted income. Furthermore, as charities are required to submit annual applications, this means that if an organisation does not qualify in one financial year, it will not be prevented from applying in future years should it meet the criteria of the scheme.

Question reference: S6W-10605

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 26 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason annual house completion rates (combining private and social housing) per 100,000 population in the Glasgow City Council area have reportedly not recovered to pre-2008 levels and continue to lag behind rates in other Scottish cities.

It is for Glasgow City Council as the statutory housing and planning authority to set out local housing requirements. The Glasgow Local Housing Strategy 2017 sets a Housing Supply Target of 15,000 new homes over five years, including 7,500 new affordable homes. Scottish Government published new housebuilding statistics, based on private-led completions data provided by Glasgow City Council along with social sector housing association new build completions data from the Affordable Housing Supply Programme, and these show a total of 4,923 all-sector completions over the four year period 2017-18 to 2020-21, with more than half of these being social sector housing association homes.

The Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown significantly impacted the construction sector across Scotland with associated delays to delivery of homes.

Question reference: S6W-10425

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will take steps to support Glasgow City Council to establish a city-wide Common Housing Register, expanding upon the Glasgow North West pilot of 13 housing associations in 2017.

We continue to see Common Housing Registers as a key way of simplifying and maximising access to social housing. It is up to individual local authorities and housing associations to determine the most effective application process and allocation policy for allocating their housing stock. Guidance on Common Housing Registers can be found on the Scottish Government’s website: Common Housing Register (CHR) - building a register: a practitioner's guide - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . We have no plans to provide support to Glasgow City Council to expand their Common Housing Register which is a matter for them.

Question reference: S6W-10438

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how it will ensure impartial scrutiny from the National Drugs Mission Oversight Group, given that it is chaired by the Minister for Drugs Policy and in light of reports that the membership of the group is at the invitation of the Minister.

Following the first Oversight Group meeting in June, David Strang, former chair of the Drug Death Taskforce, has accepted my offer to become Chair of the group, ensuring its independence from government. I will of course continue to attend as a member of the group. This will begin from the next meeting scheduled for 22 September 2022.

To ensure independence from government, a steering board of members has been nominated to co-ordinate the agenda for Oversight Group meetings.

Question reference: S6W-10417

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it will take to ensure that Scottish Canals has the financial support required to reduce the reported £50 million backlog of repair works to maintain the historic canal network.

Scottish Canals, as with all public bodies, is operating in an unprecedented challenging environment for public funds. Despite this, the Organisation has benefitted from significant increases in both its resource and capital Grant in Aid budget allocations in the last few years. Since 2019, the Scottish Government has increased the Organisation’s capital grant allocation by 87%.

In the last 2 years, and as a consequence of the significant increases in its capital budgets, Scottish Canals has managed to reduce its backlog of works by 20%. This has been achieved alongside significant Scottish Government support for unplanned events such as the Union Canal breach at Muiravonside in 2020. This highlights the importance of the Scottish Government’s support for Scottish Canals.