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: S4W-30268

Asked by: Jim Eadie, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 March 2016
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 15 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has made representations to (a) the UK Government, (b) non-governmental organisations and (c) children's charities regarding the impact of the proposals in the Immigration Bill 2015-16 on the welfare and status of asylum seekers and refugees in Scotland.

I have written to the Immigration Minister four times (on 13 August, 10 September, 8 December and 16 December 2015) to express the Scottish Government’s concerns about the impact on asylum seekers of proposals contained in the Immigration Bill relating to asylum. The Scottish Government has not made representations to non-governmental organisations or children’s charities about the Immigration Bill, although ministers and officials are in regular contact with organisations working with refugees and asylum seekers, including on this issue.

Question reference: S4W-30295

Asked by: Jim Eadie, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 March 2016
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 11 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to help minimise the use of temporary B&B accommodation in the City of Edinburgh local authority area.

The Minister for Housing and Welfare wrote to City of Edinburgh Council about the use of B&B accommodation for households with children and pregnant women in September 2015.

This correspondence made clear that such accommodation should only be used in exceptional circumstances for a short period of time. The response from City of Edinburgh Council was encouraging and the council have outlined the priority that they are giving to this issue.

Question reference: S4W-30296

Asked by: Jim Eadie, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 March 2016
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 11 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to support (a) households with children and (b) pregnant women in temporary accommodation.

The Scottish Government has put in place a number of measures to ensure that the experience of temporary accommodation is as positive as possible for children and pregnant women before they move to settled accommodation.

This includes a strengthening of the Homeless Persons (Unsuitable Accommodation) (Scotland) Order 2014, which makes it clear that a number of standards need to be met in temporary accommodation for households with children and pregnant women. These standards ensure accommodation is ‘wind and watertight’ and also address proximity to schools and health services and provision of room to play.

Local authorities have a legal duty to provide housing support to homeless households with children, where this has been assessed as being required. The Scottish Government has also published guidance on Meeting the Best Interests of Children Facing Homelessness in 2011.

Question reference: S4W-30297

Asked by: Jim Eadie, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 March 2016
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 11 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to households looking for permanent accommodation.

Scotland has strong housing rights for homeless households with all those assessed as being unintentionally homeless by local authorities entitled to settled accommodation.

The Scottish Government is increasing affordable housing supply to expand settled accommodation options for households. We are investing over £1.7 billion to deliver 30,000 affordable homes and we have now met and exceeded the current target, and within that the constituent parts – 20,000 social homes including 5,000 council homes. We have also increased the grant funding available for next year by over £90 million, as the first stage in our determination to boost housing supply still further.

We are committed to continual improvement and consistency in the delivery of the housing options approach with guidance published on 2 March 2016. A training toolkit is being developed to assist in delivering housing options and the Scottish Government recently announced continued funding of £150,000 to the five Housing Options Hubs for 2016-17.

Question reference: S4W-30294

Asked by: Jim Eadie, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 March 2016
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 11 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to help improve existing B&B temporary accommodation in the City of Edinburgh local authority area.

The provision and use of B&B accommodation to provide temporary accommodation in meeting its legislative duties on homelessness is a matter for City of Edinburgh Council.

The Homeless Persons (Unsuitable Accommodation) (Scotland) Order was strengthened by the Scottish Government in 2014, and outlines a number of standards that need to be met in temporary accommodation for households with children and pregnant women.

Question reference: S4O-05657

Asked by: Jim Eadie, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 March 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with head teachers and other stakeholders on closing the education attainment gap.

Question reference: S4O-05633

Asked by: Jim Eadie, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 March 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met Creative Scotland and what matters were discussed.

Question reference: S4F-03224

Asked by: Jim Eadie, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 01 February 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 February 2016

To ask the First Minister what recent discussions the Scottish Government has had with the UK Government regarding the fiscal framework.

Question reference: S4W-29374

Asked by: Jim Eadie, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 January 2016
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 1 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to ensure that all teachers are trained to tackle homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying.

The Schools (Health Promotion and Nutrition) Act (Scotland) 2007 places a number of duties on local education authorities including ensuring that schools are health promoting. This includes promoting physical, social, mental and emotional wellbeing by supporting pupils to make positive lifestyle choices in relation to their health and wellbeing. Under Curriculum for Excellence, all adults who work in schools have a responsibility to support and develop mental, emotional, social and physical wellbeing.

Our National Approach to Anti-Bullying for Scotland’s Children and Young People forms part of our wider attempts to improve the health and wellbeing of our children and young people and is currently being updated to reflect recent legislative and policy developments.

The approach sets out a common vision and aims to make sure that work across all agencies and communities is consistently and coherently contributing to a whole school approach to anti-bullying in Scotland.

We fully fund respectme, Scotland's national anti-bullying service to build confidence and capacity and deliver free training to schools and local authorities to address all types of bullying including homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying. respectme has trained, to date, 6,463 adults in Scotland. 52% (3,377 adults) are working in education and have attended training which includes a specific component on prejudice based bullying. respectme have approximately 700 teachers/education staff trained as anti-bullying trainers.

Education Scotland also continue to provide support around promoting positive relationships with children and young people, which includes providing support and resources for schools around anti-bullying strategies.

Question reference: S4W-29372

Asked by: Jim Eadie, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 January 2016
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 1 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to develop a national strategy on tackling homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying in schools.

The Scottish Government launched A National Approach to Anti-bullying for Scotland’s Children and Young People in 2010. The approach forms part of our wider attempts to improve the health and wellbeing of our children and young people. The approach sets out a common vision and aims to make sure that work across all agencies and communities is consistently and coherently contributing to a whole school approach to anti-bullying in Scotland.

There have been many policy developments since the publication of the national approach and a working group was established in January 2015 to refresh the approach. There are many expert stakeholders involved in this working group including Stonewall Scotland and LGBT Youth Scotland. The updated guidance will be published in spring 2016.

To support this we have established and wholly fund respectme, a national anti-bullying service, to build confidence and capacity to tackle all types of bullying effectively, aligned to the national approach to anti-bullying in Scotland. respectme provide direct support to local authorities, schools, youth groups and all those working with children and young people and is jointly managed by the Scottish Association for Mental Health and LGBT Youth Scotland.

We funded LGBT Youth Scotland to develop a toolkit – Dealing with Homophobia and Homophobic Bullying in Scottish Schools (2009) to support teachers in recognising, challenging, and reducing homophobia and homophobic bullying in their schools; and we will be working with the relevant partners to update this toolkit to ensure it remains current and continues to support teachers and children and young people.