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-30114

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 8 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it has taken to tackle the so-called evidence gap in assessing rural poverty and deprivation, as described in the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation’s Rural deprivation: Evidence summary, which was published in November 2016.

The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation rural deprivation evidence summary included sections describing the main issues associated with using SIMD in rural areas, as well as ways of overcoming these through using the wide range of available data sources alongside SIMD for exploring particular topics or communities of interest. The evidence summary was published alongside two case studies Fuel poverty in Dumfries and Galloway and Child poverty in the Orkney Islands which illustrated how this could be done. The SIMD 2020 introductory booklet included a case study on using SIMD in a rural area.

Scottish Government has also published (or funded) a number of reports and resources on poverty and deprivation in rural areas, including Poverty in rural Scotland: evidence review, The cost of remoteness - reflecting higher living costs in remote rural Scotland when measuring fuel poverty: research report, National Islands Plan Survey: final report, Improving our understanding of child poverty in rural and island Scotland, A design based approach to understanding and tackling rural child poverty,Scottish Islands Survey 2023: main findings,Rural Scotland data dashboard: overview and Review of evidence on rural community interventions.

The Scottish Government Office of the Chief Social Policy Adviser has recently funded a UKRI/ESRC Policy Fellow to carry out research on trends in rural and island poverty.

National Records of Scotland are in the process of developing the 2022 Census-based household level deprivation indicator which will allow analysis of key household variables by deprivation for very small geographies.

There are numerous other reports and resources produced by a range of external stakeholder organisations.

Question reference: S6W-30112

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 8 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has made any assessment of its current ability to provide additional childcare to (a) parents and (b) guardians of nursery-age children with (i) short- and (ii) long-term additional support needs.

Education authorities have a duty under the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 (as amended) to identify, provide for and review the additional support needs of their children, including in respect of funded early learning and childcare (ELC). The Scottish Government provides funding to education authorities for additional support for learning as part of their block grant. It is for individual education authorities to manage their own budget and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

Question reference: S6W-30216

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 27 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 8 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is able to directly attribute any decline in rates of teenage (a) smoking, (b) drinking and (c) drug-taking to either (i) the Planet Youth pilot scheme or (ii) pre-existing anti-substance abuse health campaigns.

No. We are investing in Planet Youth over 2 years, from 2023-2025. Planet Youth, sometimes referred to as the Icelandic Model, is an approach to prevention which empowers communities to support their young people to reduce the risk of substance use and harms. In Iceland, this approach instigated a decline in teenage substance use. Whilst Planet Youth in Scotland is in its early stages, Winning Scotland who lead on this initiative, are currently developing evaluation tools to measure outcomes.

Question reference: S6W-30209

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 8 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what the minimum number of road workers is that are required to be onsite at the (a) A83 Rest and Be Thankful and (b) Old Military Road when operating under convoy control.

Question reference: S6W-30218

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 27 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 8 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it can share the results of the Planet Youth pilot scheme in each year since the scheme was established across participating schools in the Highlands and Islands region.

The information requested is not held centrally. Highland is one of 6 local authority areas implementing Planet Youth in Scotland. Data on the Highlands and Islands schools participating in the Planet Youth pilot is held by the Highland Alcohol and Drug Partnership and the charity Winning Scotland.

Winning Scotland has been carrying out research on the progress of the pilot in participating local authorities in Scotland, including Highland. Five communities are involved in the pilot in Highland and the data has, and continues to be, shared with the local coalitions which have formed around those communities. This includes community planning partners, schools, third sector, businesses and others.

Question reference: S6W-30217

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 27 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 8 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has provided to Winning Scotland to fund its Planet Youth in Scotland programme in each year since the programme was established.

Question reference: S6W-30111

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 8 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has made any assessment of the domestic shipbuilding sector’s ability to meet future demand for (a) new ferries and (b) ferry-related infrastructure in (i) Argyll and Bute and (ii) the Western Isles.

This analysis has not been carried out by the Scottish Government or by Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) on our behalf, although CMAL are aware of the shipyard capabilities in the UK. There is a UK Department for Transport body called the National Shipbuilding Office which has carried out this assessment for both military and commercial shipbuilding capabilities - CMAL are well connected with them and share information and best practices for the benefit of exploring future opportunities.

New vessel and infrastructure tenders are usually let by CMAL to enhance and improve the Clyde & Hebrides Ferry Services fleet and associated infrastructure and these are procured on the open market. These tenders are international and cannot be focussed on a subset of UK only contractors or yards. So, when CMAL tender, they invite UK as well as Global yards to submit interest.

Question reference: S6W-30221

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 27 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 8 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many successful reductions of substance abuse have been produced by the Planet Youth pilot scheme, compared with the rates of reduction produced by pre-existing anti-substance abuse campaigns.

Planet Youth is a long term, upstream preventative approach and as such we would not yet expect to see a reduction in the substance use. The purpose of the pilot, which only started last year, is to build capacity in local communities to allow them to better use and understand data directly from their young people. There is significant evidence from Iceland that the approach works to reduce the number of young people engaging in health harming behaviours, and in increasing the age of first use. The pilot should allow us to ascertain the challenges and opportunities in transferring this model to Scotland, thanks to the 6 local areas who are pioneering the approach. There is an ongoing learning evaluation which will be published after the pilot ends in March 2025. Preliminary findings indicate there has been progress so far both in terms of taking a whole systems approach and at a community level. We are also seeing increasing interest in investing in prevention at a national and local level. It is clear from the numbers that pre-existing campaigns on substance use among teenagers are not as effective as we would like, hence the investment in a longer term, more systemic approach. There may be a misunderstanding about what Planet Youth is and colleagues from national charity Winning Scotland, who are facilitating Planet Youth in Scotland, would be happy to provide more information to interested members.

Question reference: S6W-30113

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 8 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is providing any support towards the Poverty Alliance’s Taking Action on Rural Poverty campaign, and, if so, whether it will provide details of this.

We continue to work alongside the Poverty Alliance and others to support the aims of Taking Action on Rural Poverty.

Scottish Government officials are currently working in partnership with the Poverty Alliance in preparation for Challenge Poverty week, including presenting at the event launch on the 4th of October.

As part of Challenge Poverty Week, both myself and the Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity will visit rural projects supported by the Scottish Government’s Community Led Local Development fund which aim to tackle Child Poverty.

In June 2024 officials also attended a Taking Action on Rural Poverty - Learning Partnership, meeting with rural poverty stakeholders, including the Poverty Alliance to explore further opportunities to address rural and island child poverty.

Question reference: S6W-30197

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 8 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what the maximum number of vehicles is that can travel single-file along the Old Military Route at any given time while the road is operating under convoy control.