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-06635

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 15 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government in which local authorities grants from the Gypsy/Traveller Accommodation Fund have been awarded since its launch.

Question reference: S6W-06638

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 15 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what monitoring processes it has in place to ensure that money allocated via the Gypsy/Traveller Accommodation Fund is adequately and efficiently spent.

It is a condition of grant under the Gypsy/Traveller Accommodation Fund that projects are developed in line with the Interim Site Design Guide, published by the Scottish Government in December 2021 to assist in the development of high quality accommodation. Grant offers are being phased, based on tendered costs, to help manage the risks attached to current supply chain issues. Local authorities will report regularly to the Scottish Government on progress and draw down funding in line with evidenced spend on their projects. Plans for learning from and evaluation of the Gypsy/Traveller Accommodation Fund include a comparative cost analysis, to improve our understanding of the costs of modern Gypsy/Traveller accommodation.

Question reference: S6W-06634

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 15 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many applications to the Gypsy/Traveller Accommodation Fund have been successful since it was launched.

Question reference: S6W-06639

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 15 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to local authorities to accommodate and support unaccompanied asylum-seeking children arriving through the national transfer scheme.

The Scottish Government works closely with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities to support local authorities to accommodate and support unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) arriving in Scotland through the National Transfer Scheme (NTS).

In light of the unprecedented rise in UASC arrivals the Scottish Government has provided additional revenue funding of £0.5 million to local authorities and funded extra age assessment training for local authority staff.

I wrote to the Home Secretary on the 25 of November ( https://www.gov.scot/publications/mandatory-participation-in-national-transfer-scheme-letter-to-the-home-secretary/ ), and jointly with the Welsh Government on 14 December ( https://www.gov.scot/publications/nationality-and-borders-bill-joint-letter-to-the-home-secretary/ ) setting out the serious concerns of the Scottish Government regarding the decision to mandate Scottish local authorities to participate in the NTS and calling for urgent additional financial support.

The Scottish Government continues to press the Home Office to provide the necessary financial support. Work is ongoing to monitor UASC arrival numbers in Scotland and the need for additional financial assistance is being kept under review.

Question reference: S6W-06629

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 15 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when it expects the working group on the temporary accommodation standards framework to publish its proposals.

Following our consultation in 2019, a short-life working group was established in October 2021 to help produce a new temporary accommodation standards framework, identify if legislative changes are required, consider how the framework can be applied and regulated and produce the processes to support this.

The working group has met five times to date and aims to produce a temporary accommodation standards framework later in 2022.

Question reference: S6F-00918

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 14 March 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 March 2022

To ask the First Minister whether the Scottish Government anticipates meeting the interim targets set out in the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017.

Question reference: S6W-07025

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 14 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what action it plans to take to reduce waiting times for audiologist tests to obtain NHS hearing aids.

Excessively long waiting lists are not acceptable and we offer our sympathies to all patients waiting for treatment. Pausing of non-urgent activity has taken place across the health system and has inevitably led to a build-up of patients waiting for treatment, and the emergence of Omicron is continuing to have an impact on existing significant pressure.

Remaining covid restrictions and infection prevention control measures mean that Audiologists are working on reduced capacity and a reduced numbers of patients have access to the services.

Additionally, all services have seen a surge in referrals since restrictions have started to ease and GPs have become more accessible. Waiting lists have grown as a result and services have to balance ensuring that patients receive good quality, efficient and effective treatment with reducing waiting times.

We published an NHS Recovery Plan in August 2021 which sets out our plans for health and social care, including audiology services, over the next 5 years.

Backed by over £1 billion of funding, the Plan will support an increase in inpatient, daycase, and outpatient activity to address the backlogs of care, which will be supported by the implementation of sustainable improvements and new models of care.

Question reference: S6W-06648

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 18 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 11 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has plans to gather data on the number of people with no recourse to public funds (NRPF) who receive the Young Carer's Grant.

Question reference: S6W-06630

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 18 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 11 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding recruitment campaigns for Social Security Scotland, of those roles that are (a) being advertised and (b) at interview stage as of 18 February 2022, how many will be located in (i) Dundee and (ii) Glasgow.

In response to the question regarding the locations of recruitment campaigns for Social Security Scotland at advertisement and interview stage as of 18 February 2022, please find below a breakdown of current campaigns and roles by location. For the purposes of this response, we have interpreted the term roles to mean the number of full time equivalent posts we intend to fill through recruitment.

	Dundee		Glasgow		Dundee or Glasgow
	Number of Campaigns	Number of Roles	Number of Campaigns	Number of Roles	Number of Campaigns	Number of Roles
Advertisement Stage	1	4	1	4	23	58
Interview Stage	4	150	6	245	12	76
Total	5	154	7	249	35	134

Question reference: S6W-06625

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 11 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to promote its Best Start Grant School Age Payment.

There are a number of actions in place to promote Best Start Grant School Age Payment. We are promoting this payment as part of the Five Family Payments campaign. This campaign focuses on the three Best Start Grant payments, Best Start Foods and Scottish Child Payment. It includes paid-for television and radio advertising that encourages parents and carers to access the support to which they are entitled.

We are also promoting the School Age Payment through tailored and targeted social media posts, as well as news stories and press releases. This includes interviews containing School Age Payment case studies which ran on TV last year when the new school year started. Through all of this activity, we have been highlighting the deadline for applications which is the 28 February 2022.

Using information from DWP and HMRC, Social Security Scotland writes directly to families who may be eligible, inviting them to apply for School Age Payments. This proactive approach to maximising benefit uptake is a first for Social Security Scotland.

Social Security Scotland has written to all nurseries and primary schools in the country, ahead of the application deadline, to raise awareness of the payment. Through their monthly stakeholder newsletter, Social Security Scotland continually promotes the School Age Payment.