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-08404

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 24 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 18 April 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with organisations in Glasgow regarding tackling (a) homelessness and (b) rough sleeping.

The Scottish Government has ongoing discussions with organisations in Glasgow on homelessness and rough sleeping. Discussions are held with Glasgow City Council and the third sector to ensure that the Scottish Government is fully informed of Glasgow’s homelessness and rough sleeping issues.

The Minister for Local Government and Housing met with Glasgow Homelessness Network in December to explore issues behind rough sleeping in Glasgow and some possible options for improving outcomes such as the development of the Housing First model across the city.

The Scottish Government also has regular discussions with the Scottish Housing Regulator, who have been working closely with the Council to focus on improvement.

Question reference: S5W-08405

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 24 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 18 April 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what funding it has made available in each year since 2007 to tackle (a) homelessness and (b) rough sleeping in (i) Glasgow and (ii) the rest of the country.

Since 2007, the vast majority of the total funding is provided as a block grant and it is the responsibility of each local authority to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including funding to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

Despite on-going cuts to the Scottish Budget by the UK Government, the funding package for 2016-17 amounted to over £10.3 billion and this year it will increase to over £10.4 billion. All local authorities, including Glasgow City Council, continue to receive their fair share of this total funding.

Additionally, the Scottish Government is providing funding to local authorities of approximately £22.5million in 2017-18 following the transfer of funding from the UK Government resulting from welfare reform and its changes to the funding of temporary accommodation.

Further funding is provided to facilitate five regional Housing Options Hubs across Scotland, which include all local authorities working together to promote the prevention of homelessness and funding is also provided to third sector organisations tackling homelessness in Glasgow and elsewhere through the Housing Voluntary Grant Scheme.

Question reference: S5W-08222

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 17 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 29 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the (a) £260 million allocated to its resource budget and (b) £90 million allocated to its capital budget arising in Barnett consequentials from the 2017 UK Budget will be allocated to (i) supporting disabled people, (ii) supporting unpaid carers, (iii) programmes to ensure that social care services are provided on a more preventative basis and (iv) other social care spending.

Question reference: S5O-00826

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 23 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what progress it is making in implementing the recommendations of the Commission for Widening Access.

In line with the recommendation made by the Commission, and informed by the statement from the First Minister in Parliament on 25 May 2016, the Government will publish a formal report on progress against the Commission’s recommendations in May this year.

In terms of early action, the Government immediately accepted the targets proposed by the Commission, has appointed a Commissioner for Fair Access and will ensure provision of a care experience bursary for eligible students studying in 2017-18.

Question reference: S5O-00830

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 March 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the local government budget allocation to Glasgow City Council since 2007.

Question reference: S5O-00694

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 February 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met groups representing survivors of child sexual abuse and what issues were discussed.

Question reference: S5O-00589

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 25 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how it ensures that there is support for the range of needs of survivors of child sexual abuse.

The provision of support services for survivors of childhood abuse is the responsibility of local Health and Social Care Partnerships. However, the Scottish Government works alongside statutory, voluntary and third sector organisations to build greater capacity and capability to address the needs of all survivors.

To support improved access and the integration of services the Scottish Government has since 2007, invested £10 million in third and voluntary sector organisations enabling a wide range of local services to support all survivors of abuse across Scotland. This works enables survivors to access a wide range of services which can reduce the impact of inequalities and disadvantage experienced as a result of abuse.

In 2016-17 the Scottish Government Survivor Support Innovation and Development Fund awarded a further £300,000 to organisations across all sectors enabling greater integration and partnership working between services.

Question reference: S5W-05865

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 17 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how it ensures that child abuse survivors who were abused in communities have the same access to support as survivors who were abused in institutions.

The provision of support services for survivors of child abuse is the responsibility of local Health and Social Care Partnerships.

To support improved access and the integration of services for survivors across statutory and third sector the Scottish Government has since 2007, invested £9 million in third and voluntary sector organisations enabling a wide range of local services to support all survivors of abuse across Scotland.

Additionally In September 2015, the Scottish Government announced that an additional £1.85 million would be invested in providing support for victims of sex crimes across Scotland, including survivors, through the services provided by Rape Crisis Scotland. The 14 rape crisis centres in Scotland will each receive £40,000 in 2016 and 2017. The additional funding will also be used to support the development of new local services in Orkney and Shetland and to expand the local service in West Lothian. In December 2015 twenty organisations that provide services for all survivors received grant funding of £1 million in total under the Survivor Support Innovation and Development Fund.

Question reference: S5W-05866

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 10 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how much the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry is expected to cost.

Question reference: S5O-00445

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 7 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has with local authorities regarding equalities issues.

The Scottish Government values its relationship with Local Government and engages with it in a variety of ways with regard to equalities issues.

CoSLA is represented on the Equality Budget Advisory Group and Cllr Mary Montague, along with myself, co-chairs the Joint Strategic Board on Violence. COSLA and the Scottish Councils Equality Network are both represented on the BSL National Advisory Group.

In addition the Scottish Government has regular discussions with local authorities and with CoSLA about reducing poverty and inequality and these will be built upon as we take forward the Child Poverty Bill next year.