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-06677

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 18 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 4 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what meetings ministers have had with ministers from the Republic of Ireland regarding cultural matters and cultural exchange in (a) 2019 (b) 2020 (c) 2021 and (d) 2022 to date.

Michael Russell, the then Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, Europe and External Affairs met with Simon Coveney, Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs on 14 January 2021 to discuss the Scotland Bilateral Review. Culture was one element of this meeting.

Angus Robertson, Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture met with Catherine Martin, Irish Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media on 8 March 2022.

Scottish Ministers attended the 36 th British Irish Council (BIC) Summit hosted by Welsh Government which had the theme of Indigenous Minority and Lesser-Used Languages. Shirley-Anne Somerville, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, attended a virtual work sector meeting on 17 November 2021, and Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister and Kate Forbes, Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Economy attended the Summit on 19 November, when Ms Forbes gave her update on economic recovery to the pandemic in Gaelic.

Question reference: S6W-06880

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 25 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 4 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing in 2022 for independent music festivals.

The Scottish Government understands the important role independent music festivals play in Scotland’s cultural scene, and wants to help ensure festivals will be able to take place in 2022. Support for music festivals that is provided in 2022 builds on the previous £240 million of financial support which the Scottish Government has provided to the culture, heritage and events sector to support its recovery from the COVID 19 pandemic.

The Scottish Government recently announced £2 million of events sector funding through VisitScotland’s National and International programmes. Depending on their circumstances, independent music festivals could have been eligible to apply to the 1st round of the National Programme which closed on 11 February. This is for events taking place from 1 April to 31 August 2022. Round 2 is now open and covers the period 1st September – 31st December. Grants of up to £25,000 are available.

The Scottish Government would also encourage Scottish Music Festivals to apply to Creative Scotland’s Open Fund. This Fund is open to projects from across the Culture sector, and as music is one of the creative industries, music festivals are able to apply.

The £750,000 Scotland on Tour fund, managed by Active Events, will support musicians, venues and festivals to bring new and additional concerts to venues and festivals in Scotland during 2022. The Scotland on Tour working group consisting of representatives from the music sector, Creative Scotland and the enterprise and skills agencies, will actively be looking at how the project can support festivals in future funding rounds.

The Scottish Government is also working with partners to consider what more we can do to support public confidence to return to events and cultural performances.

Question reference: S6W-06921

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 25 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 4 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many applications to the COVID-19 Cancellation Fund for Creative Freelancers have been made, also broken down by how many have been (a) approved and (b) paid in full.

The Cancellation Fund for Creative Freelancers opened on 6 January and closed on 21 January. It provided much-needed support to creative freelancers experiencing cancellations due to the rapid spread of the Omicron variant.

The total number of applications received by Creative Scotland was 1,946. The number of approved applications was 1,766. Of these approved applications, so far 1,763 have been paid in full.

Question reference: S6W-06525

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 28 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it reduced the budget under the heading, National Records of Scotland, by £3.7 million in its Budget for 2021-22, compared with 2020-21.

The budget for National Records of Scotland is made up from two elements. The core budget for service delivery and the programme budget for Scotland’s Census. The Census Programme budget runs to 2024/25 with peak spend in the years around Census day. Scotland’s Census 2022 ‘goes live’ on 28th February, with Census day being 20th March 2022. Throughout the lifecycle of the Census Programme the budget requirement has fluctuated year on year in line with the requirements to deliver this key digital programme. Over the last two years the budget allocation to NRS for the Census Programme element has been £38.4m and £35.1m for 2020-21 and 2021-22 respectively.

While the Census Programme budget allocation has reduced over the last two years, reflecting requirements for spend, the remainder of the resource funding allocated to NRS, which funds the core operating costs of the organisation, have not seen a similar reduction. Funding for NRS core operating costs has remained stable across the two years.

Question reference: S6W-06528

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 28 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government by what date the £2 million from the Festivals Expo Fund will be distributed to festivals.

Since 2008 the annual Festivals Expo fund has invested over £30 million in the festivals to support innovation, collaboration and artist development. This year funding will also support festival resilience plans following the Covid-19 pandemic.

The recipients of this year’s £2 million Expo Fund were announced on 8th February 2022. The fund is managed by Creative Scotland who have noted that all eligible festivals should receive their contracts and first payments from this year’s fund, by mid-April 2022 in line with timescales from previous years.

Question reference: S6W-06527

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 28 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide details of the review process of its development programmes and small grants programmes in Malawi, Zambia, Rwanda and Pakistan.

Again, I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-35666 of
3 March 2021 which sets out in detail the review process of the development and small grants programmes in Malawi, Zambia, Rwanda and Pakistan undertaken by the Scottish Government. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Question reference: S6W-06526

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 28 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what development programmes it is considering as part of its international development aid.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-35666 of 3 March 2021 which sets out in detail the programmes the Scottish Government has decided upon as part of its contribution to international development. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Question reference: S6W-06538

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 28 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how much of the £375 million committed to support businesses impacted by COVID-19 has been allocated, and whether it will provide a breakdown of how it has been distributed.

All of the £375 million identified by the Scottish Government to provide businesses with support has now been allocated, including underspend from some of the funds, where business demand has been less than initially forecast.

I wrote to all MSPs in January to provide an update on how the initial £276 million of the £375 million Omicron business support package had been allocated.

On 10 February, I set out how a further £39.5 million of the funding package would be allocated, and on 21 Feb we announced the £80m Covid Economic Recovery Fund for local authorities to support local economies and cities recover from the pandemic.

As with all our previous business support funding, we are publishing management information on the funding paid out to businesses from this support package on a weekly basis.

Question reference: S6W-06058

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 23 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the (a) Strategic Framework Business Fund and (b) COVID-19 Restrictions Fund has been distributed from its total allocated funding in each month since its inception.

The Strategic Framework Business Fund made payments to businesses from November 2020 to March 2021. The Local restrictions fund made payments to businesses made from May to July 2021. The Scottish Government has regularly published management information and statistics on all Covid-19 business support funds covering payments made from January 2021 to January 2022: Coronavirus (COVID-19): business support funding statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

A summary of business support funding paid out since the start of the pandemic is available on the Scottish Government website, providing Scotland-wide management information on the funds delivered up to January 2022: Coronavirus (COVID-19): summary of Scottish business support funding - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Question reference: S6W-06529

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 23 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many applications have been submitted to the COVID-19 Cancellation Fund for Creative Freelancers to date.

The Cancellation Fund for Creative Freelancers has provided much-needed support to creative freelancers experiencing cancellations due to the rapid spread of the Omicron variant.

Since opening the fund on 06 January, Creative Scotland received 1,946 applications to their Cancellation Fund for creative freelancers, totalling £3.33m.

On 21 February, Creative Scotland announced a further £8m support would be available to creative freelancers via a Hardship Fund for Creative Freelancers. This fund opened for applications on Wednesday 23 February and will support creative freelancers experiencing hardship due to lost income from work or practice in the creative sector due to Covid-19.