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: S5W-20906

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 17 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will meet the MoD to discuss the Education Support Fund and, if so, when.

Officials will continue to regularly meet representatives of the MoD to discuss a wide range of matters, including education matters, as part of our commitment to working in partnership with the MoD to improve outcomes for the people of Scotland. The UK-wide Education Support Fund has been discussed at several of the Scottish Service Children Strategy Group quarterly meetings chaired by the Scottish Government.

Question reference: S5W-20904

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 17 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the number of children from forces families in schools, broken down by local authority.

Question reference: S5W-20827

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 11 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 17 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what new forms of communication developed since the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 was passed must be disclosed by public bodies in response to Freedom of Information requests.

The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 defines information as "recorded in any form”, so information held on any new form of communication developed since the introduction of the Act may be within the scope of a Freedom of Information request.

Scottish Government guidance is explicit that official information held in media including, but not limited to: email accounts, social media accounts (eg Facebook, Twitter), text messaging, mobile messaging (eg WhatsApp, Skype, Snapchat), cloud storage and collaboration tools, is subject to the Act.

Our guidance is available to view on an external sharepoint site that can be accessed from the Scottish Government FOI webpage: https://www.gov.scot/publications/freedom-of-information-document-collection/.

Question reference: S5W-20681

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 16 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to increase the support services available to male survivors of domestic abuse.

Question reference: S5W-20680

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 16 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what support it provides to services that specialise in supporting male survivors of domestic abuse.

The Scottish Government recognises that all victims and survivors of domestic abuse deserve access to support.

Funding for domestic abuse services includes support for services who work with male victims. Over 2017 to 2020, these include nearly £85,000 to run the Respect Helpline which signposts male survivors of domestic abuse to support services, over £3 million to ASSIST who, as part of their work, provide advocacy support to male survivors of domestic abuse in the Lothians and over £180,000 to Committed to Ending Abuse which supports all victims and survivors of domestic abuse in the Falkirk area, which includes those who identify as male.

Of funding for support services of domestic abuse, 17.9% goes to services who offer support to adult victims who identify as male. The remaining 82.1% goes to services supporting women and children.

Question reference: S5W-20679

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 16 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what support is available to the children of survivors of domestic abuse.

The Scottish Government is investing over £12 million from the Equality Budget to tackle all forms of violence against women and girls. This includes funding for local services to support children who have experienced domestic abuse, such as children's support services provided by local Women's Aid centres. National organisations such as Barnardo’s and Children 1 st also offer support to children who have experienced domestic abuse. A full breakdown of funding under the Equally Safe (Violence against Women and Girls) Fund can be found at https://www.gov.scot/publications/vawg-fund-2017-2020/ .

Question reference: S5W-20810

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 16 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of 87 out of 107 respondents to its consultation, Investing in and Paying for Your Water Services from 2021, indicating that the single occupant discount of 25% should not be reduced to 10%, whether it plans to proceed with a reduction.

Question reference: S5W-20806

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 16 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-19740 by Roseanna Cunningham on 9 November 2018, when the multi-stakeholder group was established; what its initial terms of reference were; who its members are; by whom they were appointed, and for what period of time.

The Water Industry Commission for Scotland began a series of multi-stakeholder meetings in October 2017 to discuss key themes for the 2021-27 Strategic Review of Charges. Throughout 2017 and 2018 they provided a forum to explore topics included within the Commission’s 2017 and 2018 Decision Papers. These are available on the Commission’s website at https://www.watercommission.co.uk/view_Decision_Papers.aspx .

The multi-stakeholder group consists of representatives from the Scottish Government, the Water Industry Commission for Scotland (WICS), the Customer Forum, Citizens Advice Scotland, the Drinking Water Quality Regulator (DWQR), the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and Scottish Water. The Stakeholder Advisory Group is expected to continue until the Price Review process concludes in 2020.

Question reference: S5W-20811

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 16 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has published all of the responses received to its consultation, Investing in and Paying for Your Water Services from 2021.

Question reference: S5W-20812

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 16 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what further examination it plans to undertake of the available discounts, exemptions and reductions following responses to its consultation, Investing in and Paying for Your Water Services from 2021.