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: S6W-16842

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 April 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 2 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many veterans have used and been encouraged to take up educational opportunities through the ADVANCE Network, previously known as the HE:FE Veterans Champions' Network.

Veterans are assets to our society and my ambition remains to make Scotland the destination of choice for Service leavers and their families, offering high living standards, great educational opportunities and a society that respects and values their contribution.

The work of Armed Forces and Veterans Champions throughout Scotland is crucial to ensuring veterans can access the right support, guidance and services. The Scottish Government supports fully the work of the Champions in public sector organisations including Police Scotland, Local Authorities, the NHS, Department for Work and Pensions and Higher and Further Education institutions.

The ADVANCE Network was established by the Veterans Group to provide a single point of contact in each of Scotland's colleges and universities for veterans, ex-armed forces and their families. While the Network is not specifically designed to provide educational opportunities to the armed forces community, it does have a role in promoting Higher Education and Further Education to those from within the armed forces community, and many institutions have educational options available for the armed forces community. The Scottish Government does not hold data on the number of veterans who use the Network to access educational opportunities.

Question reference: S6W-16837

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 April 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 2 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many businesses are signed up to, or have otherwise used, its toolkit aimed at encouraging businesses to proactively recruit and benefit from employing veterans, since its launch in March 2017.

Question reference: S6W-16835

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 April 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 2 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made towards the goals set out in the joint policy paper between the UK, Scottish and Welsh governments, The strategy for our veterans.

The Scottish Government provides an annual update to Parliament on our support for veterans and the Armed Forces community in Scotland. This sets out progress made in delivering the commitments we have made in our Veterans Strategy Action Plan, which is focused on achieving the vision and long term outcomes of the five cross-cutting factors and six key themes in The Strategy for Our Veterans. The accompanying written report from 2022 can be found at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/support-veterans-armed-forces-community-2022/

Question reference: S6W-16836

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 April 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 2 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it can provide an estimate of how many veterans have used the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework Partnership’s qualifications and skills mapping tool since its launch in February 2022.

The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) Partnership's military skills discovery tool formally launched in March 2023 after the completion of work to expand the number of military job roles within the tool as the result of feedback and testing with service leavers. As such there are limited statistics on the number of users to date, but SCQF Partnership are working with Skills Development Scotland, who host the tool on their My World of Work website, to develop usage statistics and to use them to drive future development of the tool.

Question reference: S6O-02102

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 April 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether all farmers will have the ability to apply for, and be granted, all conditionality payments under its new agricultural support scheme.

Question reference: S6O-02055

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 March 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when it will begin to set out its proposals for the NHS Scotland Infrastructure Investment Plan, post-2026, in relation to new-build hospitals.

Question reference: S6W-14908

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 8 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-13553 by Angus Robertson on 13 January 2023, when it anticipates the work will be completed.

Question reference: S6T-01236

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 March 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recent comments by the Chief Executive of CalMac, what action it is taking to prevent island residents being impacted by any reliability issues affecting their ferry services over the next two years.

Question reference: S6O-01944

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 February 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether all victims of crime are given notice in advance of their case going to court.

Question reference: S6O-01842

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 January 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on when it will start publishing information collected via Scotland’s Census 2022.