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-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-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-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-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-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-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-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.

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-06530

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 22 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of its international and European relations spending plans for the next two years.

The International and European Relations budget of £33.3m for 2022-23 will be spent pursuing our engagement at home and internationally to enhance Scotland's reputation and increase economic success, prosperity and wellbeing, and promote Scotland as a great place to live, visit, work, study and do business. The Scottish Budget and supporting documents have been published on the Scottish Government website at https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-budget-2022-23/documents/ and a detailed breakdown of how this has been distributed across the various International and European Relations budget lines can be found in the Scottish Budget 2022-23 - Level 4 Data document (rows 71 to 89 on the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture tab).

Spending in future years will be considered and implemented through the Resource Spending Review and subsequent 2023-24 budget setting process

Question reference: S6W-06082

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 18 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what evidence it has to support the view that a 2-metre distancing rule for choirs helps prevent the spread of COVID-19.

A person who is performing indoors does not need to wear a face covering if there is a partition between that person and other people or if there is at least one metre between that person and other people. The distance was reduced from 2 metres to 1 metre with effect from 28 January.

There is an exemption as set out in regulation 5(1)(j) of the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Requirements) (Scotland) 2021 which allows individuals to perform or rehearse for a performance without face coverings in situations on stage where the wearing of a face covering, one-metre distancing or partitioning would materially affect the performance.

The 1 metre distancing requirement or wearing of face covering or partition is required to ensure that choirs can return safely to singing given transmission of Covid19 in indoor spaces. The Scottish Government published a report on the impact of physical distancing in reducing the spread of the virus in June 2021. This is available at the link below:

Coronavirus (COVID-19): review of physical distancing in Scotland - June 2021 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The Scottish Government will continue to review the remaining restrictions on a three weekly basis. The next review is due on 22 February.