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-22005

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 26 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to encourage people to choose nursery education as a career.

The Scottish Government is taking a suite of actions to encourage people to choose Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) as a career.

A major component of our strategy to increase the workforce to deliver the 1140 hours expansion from 2020 is our ongoing national recruitment campaign. The campaign utilises a range of channels, including TV, radio, digital and press advertising as well as roadshows touring the country in schools and high footfall areas in public places, such as shopping centres and train stations. The campaign directs potential recruits to a national campaign website where a comprehensive suite of information on what is required to be an ELC practitioner sits, alongside advice on training and job opportunities.

To ensure there is sufficient capacity in the training system to train the additional recruits required, we have worked with the Scottish Funding Council to create additional HNC and BA Childhood Practice places in 2017-18 and 2018-19, and will create further additional places in 2019-20. We are also committed, jointly with Skills Development Scotland, to increasing the number of Modern Apprenticeship places for ELC by 10%, year on year, until 2020.

The expansion of ELC entitlement to 1140 hours also represents an opportunity to build a more diverse workforce. To increase the number of males in the sector, we are providing funding in financial year 2018-19 to the Scottish Funding Council for a new Challenge Fund for Men in Early Years, to give colleges the opportunity to trial innovative and replicable approaches to attracting more males onto ELC courses.

We are also working directly with our ethnic minority communities via our partnership with the Council of Ethnic Minority Voluntary Organisations, to raise awareness of employment opportunities for the sector and to ensure appropriate training pathways are in place to allow those from our ethnic minority communities to enter the sector.

Question reference: S5W-21805

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 25 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 14 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what the full revenue budget allocation to the Scottish Prison Service is for 2019-20, and how this compares with 2018-19.

Question reference: S5O-03038

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 March 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment the Scottish Prison Service carries out of prisoners when they are first convicted.

Question reference: S5W-21915

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 04 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 13 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it takes of (a) cycling and (b) walking in its transport projections.

Scotland’s Transport Forecasts, published in October 2018, ( https://www.transport.gov.scot/media/43316/transport-forecasts-2018.pdf ) sets-out a number of future transport scenarios, which considers changes in population; economic growth; fuel cost and car ownership. In developing these forecasts, people’s trip making patterns are considered by all modes, including (a) cycling and (b) walking. These trip making patterns are also influenced by a range of factors including the distance to be travelled, the purpose of journey and the availability of a car to make that trip.

In addition, the development of the National Transport Strategy and the second Strategic Transport Projects Review has provided an opportunity to adopt a new Scenario Planning Process. This will include making forecasts of trip making by all main modes of travel including (a) cycling and (b) walking.

Question reference: S5W-21900

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 01 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 13 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to open a railway station at Winchburgh; what finance is available for this, and when it would expect a station to be fully operational.

Question reference: S5F-03147

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 11 March 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 March 2019

To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government has taken following the recent meeting between the health secretary and mesh survivors.

Question reference: S5W-21559

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 7 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how the reduction to its funding for the Scottish Legal Aid Board programme, Making Advice Work, supports its commitment to reducing child poverty.

The Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan was published in March 2018 and sets out cross-government action to contribute towards reductions in child poverty levels. The Plan, covering the period 2018-22, is backed by a multi-million pound package of investment, including a new £50 million Tackling Child Poverty Fund.

As part of our action to eradicate child poverty, on 2 November 2018 the Scottish Government launched the Financial Health Check service for low income families and older people. The service offers free personalised advice to ensure people can maximise their income and avoid paying the ‘poverty premium’, where the least well-off often pay more for basic goods and services. This new service is delivered by the Citizens Advice network in Scotland and backed by funding of £3.3 million over two years.

Question reference: S5O-02985

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 March 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the justice secretary has had with ministerial colleagues regarding the impact of reductions to Scottish Legal Aid Board funding on child poverty.

Question reference: S5W-21738

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 6 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it carries out of the user experience reported by deaf and hearing impaired people who do not use BSL when accessing NHS services, including those who use systems such as Minicom, Next Generation and Text Relay, and how it assures the quality of the services provided.

Ensuring that the views of people who use healthcare services are heard and can influence the design and delivery of healthcare services is a priority for the Scottish Government.

We have introduced a range of ways for people to tell us what they think about their NHS Service:

We support NHS Boards to engage with the independent website Care Opinion, where people can share their stories of care in Scotland - whether good or bad - anonymously online and engage in constructive dialogue with healthcare service providers about how those services could be improved.
We have funded and supported the Our Voice Citizens' Panel, which has enabled the voices of people to be heard on a range of important issues including how to make communication between health and care services and those that use them more inclusive.
The Scottish Care Experience Survey Programme is a suite of national surveys which aims to provide local and national information on the quality of health and care services from the perspective of those using them. Surveys within this programme ask a series of demographic questions to allow further analysis of responses by different groups of people, including a question on long-term conditions, such as deafness and severe hearing impairment. However, these surveys do not capture data on whether individuals who report being deaf / having a severe hearing impairment do or do not use BSL as it is likely that the sample size for this specific sub-group would make the value of any analysis very limited.

Each NHS Board is committed to improving the services it provides, and we expect NHS Boards to listen to, and take account of, feedback from people about their experience of care.

Question reference: S5W-21746

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 6 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government which universities offer degree courses in audiology, and what plans there are for other institutions to offer these.

Glasgow Caledonian University offer an integrated BSc in Clinical Physiology made up of four specialities, including Audiology. This course is unique, developed to provide a high quality honours degree which can meet the needs of the profession and of the NHS in Scotland. Individuals are employed by their NHS board and released for the educational component, specialising within their profession. Additionally, Queen Margaret University offers a 2 year Diploma in Higher Education in Hearing Aid Audiology. It is a matter for universities, as autonomous institutions, to make decisions over course provision.

	18-19 (£m)	19-20 (£m)
Fiscal resource	312.2	312.2
Non cash	33.0	34.0
Capital	16.2	47.5
Total	361.4	393.7