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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 1097 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-21813

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 26 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government on what date it plans to publish its new guidance on school uniforms.

Question reference: S6W-21823

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 26 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has a long-term staffing strategy for education.

The aim of our long-term staffing strategy for education is to ensure there continues to be a high-quality education workforce that is empowered to deliver improved learning and societal outcomes for all children and young people, and has access to a wide range of effective professional learning.

We are supporting the recruitment of teachers by providing local authorities with £145.5m in this year's budget to protect increased teacher and support staff numbers. We also work with partners on the Teacher Workforce Planning Advisory Group (TWPAG) to determine the number of initial teacher education students required across Scotland.

To help support recruitment and retention of high-quality professionals, we have agreed the most generous pay deal for teachers since 2001, meaning that Scottish classroom teachers on the main-grade scale are the best paid in the UK. The impact of this is shown by the fact that Scotland has the most teachers-per-pupil in the UK.

We are also supporting existing teachers with their wellbeing and ensuring that they have access to high-quality professional learning.

To ensure effective and evidence-informed longer-term teacher workforce planning, the Scottish Government has commissioned an external analysis and research exercise that will bring together a range of factors including current teacher numbers, pupil teacher ratios and the projected decline in the number of school-aged children. This analysis will inform decisions on education workforce planning for future years.

The Programme for Government 2023-24 set out major new commitments on childcare, including how we will test, for the first time, what an all-age childcare system will look like for Scotland in six local authority areas. We are working closely with communities, our partners and providers to consider how the early learning and school age childcare workforce can support these systems, and what they will need to do so. This includes regulation, qualifications, professional development and recruitment planning. We are also supporting a sustainable childcare profession by providing funding to increase pay to £12 per hour to early learning and childcare professionals working in the private, voluntary and independent (PVI) sector who are delivering funded provision.

Question reference: S6W-21812

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 26 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reported claims from charities that there has been a spike in families that are not eligible for school clothing grants turning to their back to school bank services.

We are committed to reducing the cost of school uniform and supporting families so that every child in Scotland can attend school feeling comfortable, confident, and ready to learn.

It is for local authorities to determine the eligibility criteria for school clothing grant and respond to the individual needs and circumstances of pupils in their area. This vital support for families has increased to at least £120 for eligible primary school pupils and £150 for eligible secondary school pupils. As part of action to further reduce the cost of the school day for families, we have committed through the
‎ 2023-24 Programme for Government to uplift funding by inflation to local authorities for school clothing grant in the next financial year.

We recognise that not all families will be eligible to receive school clothing grant. Therefore, we will introduce national guidance on school uniform to support schools to work with families to develop and implement affordable and sustainable uniform and clothing policies that recognise the individual needs, circumstances and identities of all pupils. It is anticipated that the guidance will be published in spring 2024.

Question reference: S6W-21824

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 26 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reported claims from the Educational Institute of Scotland that there is a lack of job security in the teaching workforce.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting the recruitment of teachers. It is for this reason we are providing local authorities with £145.5 million in this year’s budget to protect teacher numbers. Where this is not being delivered by a local authority, we will withhold or recoup funding given for this purpose.

In addition, the Strategic Board for Teacher Education, which is made up of a range of key education stakeholders, is looking at issues around the recruitment and retention of teachers in Scotland in detail.

Since 2010 the number of permanent teaching posts in Scotland remains at approximately 80%.

Question reference: S6W-21945

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 02 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don on 26 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to promote the consultation on the statement of intent for its National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy.

We are working in collaboration with key stakeholder groups, including representatives of parent carers; local authorities; the third sector; health; social care; education; and employment, to share the Statement of Intent and promote completion of the questionnaire amongst relevant stakeholders with a role or interest in supporting disabled young people’s transition to adulthood. In addition, we are working with a number of organisations to seek feedback on the Statement of Intent from more young people.

Question reference: S6W-21839

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 26 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-20561 by Graeme Dey on 21 August 2023, when it will publish its (a) delivery plan and (b) workforce action plan to support students' mental health.

Question reference: S6O-02675

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 October 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy, following its statement of intent on 28 September.

Question reference: S6W-21772

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don on 25 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has provided in grant funding to the Association for Real Change (ARC) Scotland in each of the last 10 years.

The Scottish Government has provided a total of £4,367,590.00 of grant funding to the Association for Real Change (ARC) Scotland between 1 April 2013-30 September 2023 to support a number of areas of their work. This is broken down per financial year as follows:

Year	Total Funding
2013-14	£263,257.00
2014-15	£421,746.00
2015-16	£460,127.00
2016-17	£464,389.00
2017-18	£408,079.50
2018-19	£345,842.50
2019-20	£361,191.00
2020-21	£429,351.00
2021-22	£456,045.00
2022-23	£507,671.00
2023-24	£249,891.00
TOTAL	£4,367,590.00

Question reference: S6W-21776

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 25 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-20525 by Graeme Dey on 28 August 2023, whether it anticipates that the review of purpose-built student accommodation will publish its recommendations ahead of the Scottish Parliament's October 2023 recess.

Question reference: S6W-21790

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 25 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to using some of the funding allocated to the Young Person's Guarantee to promote or fund increases in young people's earnings to the National Living Wage.

The Scottish Government announced the launch of the Young Person’s Guarantee in November 2020, with the aim of protecting young people against the immediate economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Guarantee aimed to ensure every young person between 16 and 24 had the opportunity of a job, apprenticeship, further or higher education, training or volunteering. Between November 2020 and March 2023 we invested over £175m in additional support from Covid-related funding.

We have now mainstreamed this work across Government and, through our championing of the payment of the real Living Wage (which has a higher hourly rate than the National Living Wage), we continue to promote increases in young people’s earnings.