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-33294

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 23 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding has been provided to neighbourhood watch schemes in each year since 1999.

The Scottish Government has provided £1.19m to Neighbourhood Watch Scotland since 2014.

A breakdown of funding per financial year is provided in the following table.

Financial Year	Total
2024-25	£ 105,000.00
2023-24	£ 140,000.00
2022-23	£ 140,000.00
2021-22	£ 118,000.00
2020-21	£ 107,000.00
2019-20	£ 115,000.00
2018-19	£ 115,000.00
2017-18	£ 103,725.00
2016-17	£ 103,725.00
2015-16	£ 103,725.00
2014-15	£ 40,758.83
Grand Total	£1,191,933.83

Information on funding provided to Neighbourhood Watch Scotland prior to 2014 could only be obtained at disproportionate cost and has therefore not been provided.

Question reference: S6O-04275

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the education secretary has had with ministerial colleagues regarding action to improve access to books for, and encourage reading by, children and young people.

Question reference: S6W-33300

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 22 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to develop educational standards.

The Scottish Government published the National Improvement Framework (NIF) for Scottish education in December 2024. The 2025 NIF has been streamlined and refreshed to include a long-term strategy for improvement which will provide clarity and focus to our work on improving standards in Scottish education.

Given the impact of COVID-19 and the financial pressures on schools as a result of austerity, the NIF highlights that the short term focus (this year and for the remainder of this parliamentary term) will be improving the ABC - attendance, achievement, behaviour and the curriculum in schools - to boost standards.

The draft Scottish budget 2025-26 provides £186.5m to local authorities to help protect teacher numbers, freeze learning hours and make meaningful progress on reducing class contact time for teachers. The budget also sets out an additional £29 million of investment for Additional Support Needs (ASN). This will include an allocation for local and national programmes to support the recruitment and retention of the ASN workforce. The Scottish budget 2025-26 is subject to parliamentary approval in February.

In addition, we have included 7 key outcomes that we expect to achieve to deliver excellence and equity for all of our children and young people. In order to deliver these outcomes, the 2025 NIF sets out the joint responsibility of Ministers and local authorities for education and the requirement for national and local government to work together, with a collective responsibility to improve educational outcomes.

The 2025 Improvement Plan, which accompanies the NIF, will be published later in January. It will set out the full details of the actions that will be taken to deliver the key outcomes, the evidence to support them, and how we will measure progress against them.

Question reference: S6W-33270

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 21 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what funding grants are available for home owners to help make their property more environmentally-friendly.

The Home Energy Scotland (HES) Grant and Loan Scheme is available to homeowners in Scotland and provides a grant, interest free loan or a combination of both to support the installation of energy efficiency measures and clean heating systems.

The scheme provides up to £7,500 of grant funding for heat pumps as well as £7,500 for energy efficiency measures. In addition, the scheme offers optional interest free loan funding of up to £7,500 and a remote rural uplift of £1,500 to supplement both of these grants.

Further information on the available measures and how to apply can be found at: https://www.homeenergyscotland.org/home-energy-scotland-grant-loan.

In addition, the HES advice service also acts as the gateway to a number of other Scottish Government funding schemes and provides free, bespoke, impartial advice on energy efficiency, renewable heating and fuel poverty support available. HES can be contacted on 0808 808 2282 or via their online portal https://www.homeenergyscotland.org/.

Question reference: S6W-32491

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 17 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding any implications for child protection issues and policy in Scotland, what assessment it has made of the Sara Sharif case.

Sara Sharif experienced unimaginable abuse during her life and was murdered by someone she trusted. It is essential children and young people are protected from harm and the Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that robust child protection measures are in place across Scotland, and continue to be followed at all times.

The Scottish Government published revised National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland on 31 August 2023. The non-statutory guidance describes the responsibilities and expectations of everyone who works with children, young people and their families in Scotland. It aims to support improved cross-agency working and outcomes for children at risk.

The National Child Protection Guidance makes clear that, no matter the circumstances, concerns about risk to a child or young person should be reported without delay to social work or, in situations where risk is immediate, to Police Scotland. Child protection procedures are initiated when police, social work or health determine that a child may have been significantly harmed or may be at risk of significant harm. All concerns which may indicate risk of significant harm must lead to consideration of an inter-agency referral discussion (IRD). Again, this applies whether or not the child is in school. A practitioner’s failure to report child abuse could constitute a breach of their employment contract, lead to disciplinary action, or give rise to a claim for civil damages. Practitioners could also be struck off from social work, teaching, or medical registers for gross misconduct.

As outlined in the guidance, the decision to home educate a child should not, in itself, be regarded as a child protection concern. The Scottish Government is determined to ensure children and young people are fully engaged in their learning and Ministers recognise home education as a valid choice alongside sending a child to school.

Where a child is on a school roll in a local authority area, a parent must seek that local authority’s consent before withdrawing their child from the school. Whilst the authority must not unreasonably withhold consent to withdraw, local authorities can refuse to give their consent for a child to be withdrawn from the school roll in certain circumstances, including:

where a child has been referred to social work, police or health for child protection reasons, and the matter is being investigated
where a child is on the child protection register
where a child has been referred to the Children’s Reporter on care and protection grounds, and the referral is being considered
where the child is the subject of a supervision requirement.

The Scottish Government have been reviewing the home education guidance, working with stakeholders, and will publish updated guidance shortly.

Scottish Government officials are monitoring progress of the UK Government’s Children’s Wellbeing Bill and what implications this might have for child protection processes in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-33299

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 January 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 30 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether there have been any consequences for any of its officials as a result of any investigations into any leaking of ministerial statements or other information to the media, and, if so, what the consequences were.

Question reference: S6W-33307

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 January 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 30 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on how many children and young people have been reported to (a) the police, (b) social work services and (c) education support services for carrying a knife or weapon in school since 1999.

Question reference: S6W-33309

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 29 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to introduce a child and young person exploitation offence.

Question reference: S6W-33297

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 29 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many play parks have been upgraded in each local authority area in each year since 2021.

Question reference: S6W-33305

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 29 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on how many children and young people have been placed on part-time timetables in schools in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area.