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-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

Question reference: S5W-23929

Asked by: George Adam, MSP for Paisley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 June 2019
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Jeane Freeman on 20 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on funding for NHS employers' pension costs, and whether the cost will be fully funded by the UK Government.

The UK Government has taken decisions on pension costs and funding that result in a shortfall of £48.4 million for the NHS in Scotland. This comes on top of a reduction to health funding of £55 million applied through the UK Budget, and therefore a total future shortfall for Scotland of over £100 million per year.

I can confirm today that the Scottish Government will provide additional funding of £48.4 million to meet the increased pension costs for the NHS in Scotland, including GPs and hospices that are members of the NHS pension scheme. By doing this we will continue to prioritise and protect frontline health services in Scotland.

Question reference: S5T-01676

Asked by: George Adam, MSP for Paisley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 May 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the results of the European elections.

Question reference: S5W-22402

Asked by: George Adam, MSP for Paisley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 March 2019
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Jeane Freeman on 29 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on when it plans to publish a medium-term plan for capital investment in the NHS.

Question reference: S5W-20712

Asked by: George Adam, MSP for Paisley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 December 2018
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by John Swinney on 20 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made on establishing an independent review of P1 standardised assessments.

In my statement to Parliament on P1 standardised assessments on 25 October 2018, I announced the establishment of an independent review of these assessments. Following advice from Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, I have appointed David Reedy to lead this review.

David Reedy was Co-Director of the Cambridge Primary Review Trust from 2013-17 and has served as both General Secretary and President of the United Kingdom Literacy Association (UKLA). He has also previously held the post of Principal Adviser Primary Schools in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Mr Reedy has a wealth of relevant experience and also I believe the necessary distance from the recent debate on P1 assessments in Scotland to bring a fresh and impartial perspective to the review.

Mr Reedy will be supported by a small review team who are familiar with the Scottish context. The team will be assembled by the Chief Inspector and will include Scottish practitioners, representation from the early years sector and a member of the Inspectorate.

The review will consider and provide recommendations on the following issues:

- the compatibility of the assessments with the play-based curriculum model in the early level of Curriculum for Excellence;

- the alignment of the assessments to the benchmarks for the early level;

- the effect on P1 children of taking an on-line assessment;

- the usefulness of the diagnostic information provided to teachers and how it supports their professional judgement;

- the implications of the review for the ongoing implementation of the national Gaelic-medium education standardised assessments; and

- the future of the assessments, considering in particular whether they continue in line with the current continuous improvement model; be substantially modified; or whether they should be stopped.

The detailed remit and terms of reference for the review will be agreed with Mr Reedy and published early in the New Year, along with the details of the review team.

The review will start in January 2019, with a report being submitted to the Scottish Ministers by the end of May 2019. This will allow time for the recommendations of the review to be considered by the Parliament ahead of the Summer recess.

Question reference: S5W-20270

Asked by: George Adam, MSP for Paisley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 November 2018
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Ash Denham on 29 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government when its response to the independent strategic review of legal aid in Scotland will be published.

Question reference: S5W-19901

Asked by: George Adam, MSP for Paisley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 November 2018
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Graeme Dey on 14 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an updated action plan on its Freedom of Information practices to the Scottish Information Commissioner, as requested in his letter of 9 October 2018.

I am pleased to record that the Commissioner’s letter noted that the 13 September draft plan was thoroughly constructed and that he was content that the majority of the proposed actions will achieve the desired outcomes.

He asked for minor revisions to improve the clarity of three proposals and these were submitted on 30 October. He replied on 8 November, approving the plan, subject to one further minor change, which has been made. The agreed plan has been published on the Scottish Government website at https://www.gov.scot/publications/freedom-of-information-document-collection/ and we will now work with the Commissioner on its implementation.

I am also happy to report that the Commissioner noted the significant improvement the Scottish Government has made to our FOI response times and has formally ended his intervention on that aspect of our performance. He has asked that we continue providing monthly performance reports for the time being and we will, of course, do so.

I remain grateful for the Commissioner’s constructive approach throughout both his interventions.

Question reference: S5W-19910

Asked by: George Adam, MSP for Paisley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 November 2018
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Humza Yousaf on 14 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its plans are for taking forward the development of a Hate Crime Bill, and how people can take part in the process.

A consultation document based on Lord Bracadale’s recommendations from his independent review of Hate Crime Legislation will be available to the public via Citizen Space from 14 November until 24 February 2019. In parallel we will be undertaking a series of consultation events across Scotland from December until early February to increase the opportunity for stakeholders and the public to respond to the consultation in part or in whole.

The consultation will also explore the findings of the Working Group on Defining Sectarianism in Scots Law, and the Working Group’s report will also be published on 14 November. The findings from the consultation exercise will inform the content of consolidated and modernised Hate Crime legislation.