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-29843

Asked by: George Adam, MSP for Paisley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 June 2020
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 11 June 2020

To ask the Scottish Government when the Restricting Foods Promotions Bill will be introduced to the Parliament.

We are no longer planning to introduce the Restricting Foods Promotions Bill in this Parliament.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact, including on the food and drink and retail industries and on consumer behaviour. It is not yet clear what its long term impact will be. It is important we understand this fully and that we assess the economic and equality impacts of our proposed measures post-pandemic.

Pausing the introduction of the Bill provides us with an opportunity to take stock. It enables us to take into account the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown, including on people’s diet and healthy weight. We will be able to consider fully whether a more wide-ranging Bill is required to tackle Scotland’s diet and weight problem after the pandemic.

Tackling poor diet and overweight is a public health priority and remains a priority for this government. We are taking wide-ranging action to help people make healthier eating choices. As set out in our 2018 Diet and Healthy Weight Delivery Plan, our ambition is to halve childhood obesity by 2030 and significantly reduce diet-related health inequalities.

We remain fully committed to restricting the promotion and marketing of foods high in fat, sugar or salt where they are sold to the public and will seek to progress this measure as soon as it is possible to do so. Work already underway to further improve the evidence base to underpin the proposals will continue. We will also continue to engage with the other administrations in the UK to explore the scope for the possible alignment of policy and legislation.

Question reference: S5W-29362

Asked by: George Adam, MSP for Paisley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 8 June 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has fulfilled any requests from other UK administrations for mutual aid in the supply of PPE during the COVID-19 pandemic, and, if so, what items were supplied, and by what volume.

Coronavirus is a shared challenge and so it is critically important that the Scottish Government works closely with the other UK nations to slow its spread and boost our capacity to respond.

This has resulted in consideration of a number of mutual aid requests for PPE items.

11 million pieces of PPE have been authorised for use in the frontline in Scotland under the 4 Nations Agreement.

On 20 April we agreed to provide 1 million Type 11R Masks to Wales.

On 3 May we received a mutual aid request from England for eye protection items (of any volumes) which we were unable to provide due to low stock levels.

On 12 May we agreed to provide 2 million Type 11R Masks to England.

To note: The 1 million Type IIR masks issued to Wales - Wales returned 1.2million Type IIR masks. The 2 million Type IIR Masks issued to England - these have not yet been returned. SG is arranging for re-supply with DHSC.

Question reference: S5W-29363

Asked by: George Adam, MSP for Paisley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 8 June 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has requested any mutual aid for the supply of PPE during the COVID-19 pandemic from other UK administrations, and, if so, what items were supplied, and by what volume.

Question reference: S5W-29266

Asked by: George Adam, MSP for Paisley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 May 2020
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by John Swinney on 21 May 2020

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish further details on Scotland’s approach to reviewing the COVID-19 restrictions currently in place.

We have today published COVID-19: Framework for Decision Making – Scotland’s route map through and out of the crisis , which sets out a phased approach to carefully and gradually changing current restrictions in place to suppress the spread of Covid-19, subject to the evidence supporting that. It makes clear that we will continue to take a cautious approach that ensures that the virus is suppressed, while seeking to restore as much normality as possible when it is safe to do so.

We will also publish a summary of what we have heard through our online platform – open between 5 May and 11 May – through which we received more than 4,000 ideas and almost 18,000 comments on a range of themes.

Question reference: S5W-28832

Asked by: George Adam, MSP for Paisley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 May 2020
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Jeane Freeman on 4 May 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will set out its strategy for the introduction of Test, Trace, Isolate in Scotland.

COVID-19: A Framework for Decision Making set out the approach and principles that will guide us as we make decisions about transitioning out of the current lockdown arrangements. One of the range of public health measures we will deploy in order to ensure low levels of community transmission is the “Test, Trace, Isolate, Support” approach.

The Scottish Government today published a paper titled Test, Trace, Isolate, Support - a Public Health approach to maintaining low levels . The paper sets out the Government’s approach and the extensive work that is now underway to prepare for its implementation. This paper can be accessed here: www.gov.scot/isbn/9781839607271

The framework and paper describes the steps we are taking, and the steps we are asking the public to take, to return as much normality to daily life.

Question reference: S5W-28662

Asked by: George Adam, MSP for Paisley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 April 2020
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by John Swinney on 23 April 2020

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish more detail on Scotland’s approach to transition through the COVID-19 crisis.

The Scottish Government has today published COVID-19: A Framework for decision-making . It sets out some of the challenges Scotland faces and outlines the approach and principles that will guide us as we make decisions about transitioning out of the current lockdown arrangements. As a government we will listen to the best scientific advice and to the people of Scotland as we make our judgements. This is a living document and will be updated as evidence, modelling, and our assessment of the different options open to us develops. We will seek to engage at every opportunity and be open and transparent as our thinking evolves.

Question reference: S5W-27219

Asked by: George Adam, MSP for Paisley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 31 January 2020
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Michael Russell on 31 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking in response to the Prime Minister’s letter to the First Minister of 14 January 2020.

The Scottish Government is committed to giving the people living in Scotland a choice over their future, as the Scottish Parliament voted for on 29 January.

We will ask the Electoral Commission to test the question, ‘‘should Scotland be an independent country?’.

We will invite Scotland’s elected representatives—MSPs, MPs, MEPs and Council Leaders—to establish a new Constitutional Convention, and endorse a modern Claim of Right for Scotland.

And we will publish a series of ‘New Scotland’ papers that will give the people of Scotland the information they need to make informed choices about the future of the country.

Question reference: S5W-27081

Asked by: George Adam, MSP for Paisley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2020
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Jeane Freeman on 23 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made since publication of the National Health and Social Care Integrated Workforce Plan on 16 December 2019.

The Scottish Government is working to strengthen the approach to the strategic challenges the Plan identifies, by introducing a new unit. Building on the published guidance and scenarios for health and social care employers, the unit is already:

discussing actions to improve and further integrate approaches to workforce planning;
overseeing the coordination of workforce planning across health and social care in implementing the Plan’s measures;
working directly with NHS Boards on how they can support this.

These developments address recommendations by Audit Scotland and support a more coordinated, strategic approach by the Scottish Government to workforce planning.

Question reference: S5F-03831

Asked by: George Adam, MSP for Paisley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 January 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 January 2020

To ask the First Minister whether she will provide an update on the proposed Glasgow Metro rail system that will connect Glasgow Airport to the rail network.

Question reference: S5W-26805

Asked by: George Adam, MSP for Paisley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 December 2019
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Graeme Dey on 19 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide the names of each Special Adviser, broken down by (a) responsibility and (b) pay band, and what the total cost of employing special advisers was in 2018-19.

Special Advisers are appointed in accordance with Part 1 of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 by the First Minister as a Special Adviser for the purpose of providing assistance to the Scottish Ministers.

The total cost of the 14 Special Advisers employed during the financial year 2018-19 was £1,105,289. Total cost includes all salary costs, ERNIC and employer pension contributions. The level of the employer ERNIC and pension contributions is not a matter for the Scottish Government.

Their specific responsibilities are as follows:

Name

Role

Katy Bowman

Special Adviser

Culture, Tourism and External Affairs

Policy support to the Chief of Staff.

Support for the First Minister and the First Minister’s Private Office.

Outreach and stakeholder engagement.

Jeanette Campbell

Special Adviser

Communities, Social Security, and Equalities (apart from Local Government and Planning).

Ewan Crawford

Senior Special Adviser

Europe and Constitutional issues

Government Strategy

Leanne Dobson

Special Adviser

Environment and climate change

Land reform

Kate Higgins

Special Adviser

Rural Economy & Connectivity.

Age of Criminal Responsibility (Scotland) Bill

Davie Hutchison

Special Adviser

Health & Sport

Broadcasting

First Minister Questions

Ross Ingebrigtsen

Deputy Political Spokesperson for the First Minister

Strategic communications planning

Liz Lloyd

Chief of Staff to the First Minister

First Minister’s Strategic Programme in Government including Inter-governmental relations.

Co-ordination of the Special Adviser team.

John MacInnes

Special Adviser

Political Research.

Support for First Minister’s Questions and parliamentary debates.

Support to Communications and Policy Special Advisers.

Stewart Maxwell

Special Adviser

Business, the Economy, Skills and Fair Work.

Business and Economy outreach

Veterans

Colin McAllister

Head of Policy

Programme for Government.

First Minister’s Questions

Senior Special Adviser to the Deputy First Minister.

Education – apart from Age of Criminal Responsibility (Scotland) Bill.

Callum McCaig

Special Adviser

Finance

Local Government and Planning

Energy

John McFarlane

Special Adviser

Justice

Transport

Parliamentary Business and Parliamentary liaison

Stuart Nicolson

Head of Communications

Senior Political Spokesperson for the First Minister

Strategic communications

The Special Adviser Pay Bands and Ranges currently in place are:

Pay band	Pay Range (£)	Number of SpAds in Band
1	39,445 – 52,904	2
2	52,905 – 65,016	6
3	65,017 – 86,964	5
3 (premium)	86,965 - 100,942	0
4	86,965 - 104,462	1