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-28400

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 June 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 25 July 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce teacher workload.

We recognise the concerns around teacher workload, which is why we remain committed to reducing class contact time by 90 minutes giving teachers more time out of the classroom.

To help inform this discussion the WPI report which was commissioned by the Scottish Government and published on 7 May contains a number of high-level future scenarios and assesses their broad compatibility with any changes to teachers’ contracted class-contact time.

These scenarios will help to facilitate our discussions with SNCT partners on how we can best deliver this commitment and ensure effective and evidence-informed workforce planning we have commissioned an external modelling and research exercise.

We continue to explore with the SNCT how we can best make progress. Any changes to teachers’ terms and conditions require tripartite agreement through the SNCT.

Question reference: S6W-28697

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 July 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 21 August 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of Sight Scotland and Sight Scotland Veterans’ report, Enhancing Accessibility: Venues and Visual Impairment, whether it will support the recommendation to develop a (a) standardised booking system for accessible seats at venues in Scotland and (b) designated accessible (i) phone line, (ii) website and (iii) app that allows disabled people to book seats at venues across Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-27963

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 June 2024
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 23 July 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to its response to the report of the Independent Review of the Skills Delivery Landscape, what steps it has taken to ensure that any barriers that women and girls face in accessing the skills system, such as gender segregation in subject choice, gender stereotypes around work, occupational segregation, caring responsibilities, sexism and sexual harassment, are fully considered in the skills review.

An initial Equalities Impact Assessment , Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA): Purpose and Principles (www.gov.scot) for the Purpose and Principles for Post-School education, research and skills Post-school education, research and skills - purpose and principles - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) was published on 4 July 2023. Consideration of all protected characteristics, including gender, will continue to inform the design and delivery of post school education and skills reform.

This will build on our existing work to address barriers for women and girls, including:

•A range of resources developed by Education Scotland to address gender segregation in subject choices in schools

•Duties on colleges and universities to tackle inequality, including gender disparities within STEM subject areas

•Working with the Equally Safe in Colleges and Universities Core Leadership Group to address gender-based violence.

•The refreshed Fair Work Action Plan which was published in December 2022 and aims to take an intersectional approach, where possible, to tackling the structural labour market barriers faced by disadvantaged groups in Scotland’s labour market including women.

On the specifics of skills planning, consideration of all protected characteristics, including gender and socio-economically disadvantaged groups, will be embedded throughout the process.

Question reference: S6W-27964

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 June 2024
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 23 July 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to its response to the report of the Independent Review of the Skills Delivery Landscape, what steps it has taken to embed consideration of gender in the exercise to be undertaken in summer 2024 to develop a better understanding of the specific skills needed across the country.

Question reference: S6W-28641

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 July 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 15 August 2024

To ask the Scottish Government by what the date the Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence levels will be published, and how it will ensure that there will be sufficient time for MSPs to scrutinise this ahead of Christmas 2024.

Question reference: S6W-28630

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 July 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 14 August 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-27967 by Jenni Minto on 14 June 2024, for what reason it does not collect data on fracture liaison services centrally.

Question reference: S6W-28631

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 July 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 14 August 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-27967 by Jenni Minto on 14 June 2024, how it evaluates the effectiveness of fracture liaison services across Scotland in the absence of any centrally held data.

Question reference: S6W-28564

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 12 July 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 9 August 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of how the withdrawal by Microsoft of its Office 365 A1 Plus licenses for schools will impact on (a) teachers and other school staff and (b) pupils.

Question reference: S6W-28563

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 12 July 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 9 August 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the withdrawal by Microsoft of its Office 365 A1 Plus licenses for schools, what plans it has to ensure that pupils and staff across the country have access to Microsoft tools..

Question reference: S6W-28560

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 12 July 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 9 August 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how the withdrawal by Microsoft of its Office 365 A1 Plus licenses will impact on school devices.