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: S6F-00633

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 December 2021

To ask the First Minister how many missing person investigations have been carried out in 2021.

Question reference: S6W-04789

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 03 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 20 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many COVID-19 vaccine doses have not been used within their expiry date, broken down by (a) NHS board and (b) type of vaccine.

Question reference: S6W-04967

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 20 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when it will next meet (a) COSLA and (b) teaching unions in relation to pay restoration for teachers.

Teachers’ pay negotiations are a matter for the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT), comprising membership from local authority employers, teacher unions and Scottish Government.

The last SNCT pay negotiation meeting was held on 17 November. The next meeting will be arranged at the appropriate time.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting a fair pay offer for teachers and remains committed to working with our partners in the SNCT to bring these discussions to a successful conclusion.

Question reference: S6W-04794

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 03 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 20 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has launched an Incident Management Team in response to the identification of cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 in Scotland, and, if so, (a) when it first met, (b) who the chairperson is and (c) whether it involves international public health agencies, in addition to national ones.

An Incident Management Team was stood up on 27 November specifically for Omicron. The team has met daily since and continues to do so. The group is chaired by Public Health Scotland’s Incident Directors. The team meets with other UK nations and wider partners to share intelligence on a four nations basis. The team’s composition does not extend to international public health agencies but they do receive information on the latest international situation with Omicron.

Question reference: S6W-04796

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 03 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 20 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide more information about the location of the single event linked to the identification of nine cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-05114

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 20 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to introduce pop-up COVID-19 vaccination centres in supermarkets and shopping centres.

Local teams look at available space within their area when considering appropriate locations for COVID-19 vaccination centres to meet local requirements, that have the right reach and size of venue for their population. Pop-up clinics can be located in a variety of venues with local health boards considering, amongst other things, the flow of queues; the time of year; and the health and safety of staff and the public when scoping out new locations.

Since the vaccine rollout began, we have made the vaccine as accessible as possible and drop in clinics are available throughout Scotland’s mainland health boards. The most up to date list of which can be found at: https://www.nhsinform.scot/vaccinedropinclinics.

Question reference: S6W-04922

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 17 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether the terms of reference for the public inquiry into the handling of COVID-19 will make provision for people who are seeking asylum and living under immigration control to be included within the scope of the inquiry.

The terms of reference for the Scottish COVID-19 Public Inquiry are designed in such a way that they do not constrain the chair in seeking views and evidence from any group or individual affected by the matters the inquiry is asked to investigate.

Scottish inquiries set up under the Inquiries Act 2005 cannot investigate reserved matters. However we recognise that learning lessons from the pandemic will involve analysis of devolved and reserved issues across a spectrum of topics. To that end, we are engaged with the UK Government to understand the approach to the UK-wide COVID-19 inquiry. We will use our position as a statutory consultee on the terms of reference for the UK inquiry to make clear the importance of examining the impact of policies during the pandemic on those seeking asylum and living under immigration control in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-04841

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 17 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance is in place for local authorities regarding restrictions on school nativity plays.

Our reducing risks in schools guidance sets out the current COVID-19 mitigations in schools.

Current guidance reflects the best scientific and clinical advice, as well as the current state of the pandemic and the anticipated trajectory of infections. The restrictions, which limit non-essential visitors in schools and early learning and childcare settings, include attendance by parents for nativity plays and similar events. However, we know that many schools and settings plan to use other creative means to present these activities, such as streaming them online or holding them outdoors.

Question reference: S6W-04787

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 03 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 16 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many children and young people in each local authority area have received a free (a) laptop, (b) tablet and (c) Chromebook, in light of its commitment to deliver devices with free internet connection to 700,000 P1 to S6 pupils within 100 days of the May 2021 election.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all school-aged children and young people in Scotland have access to a digital device by the end of this parliament. Given the scale and complexity of this programme of work, the 100 days commitment was to commence planning not to deliver the devices.

In 2020/21, we provided £25 million of funding to councils across Scotland to tackle digital exclusion, resulting in over 72,000 pupils receiving a device to support their learning.

The following table shows the number of devices distributed via that funding, as reported by individual local authorities.

Local Authority	Devices Distributed
Aberdeen City	1777
Aberdeenshire	5008
Angus	2420
Argyll and Bute	1317
City of Edinburgh	2605
Clackmannanshire	828
Dumfries and Galloway	2371
Dundee City	2050
East Ayrshire	1837
East Dunbartonshire	1015
East Lothian	1806
East Renfrewshire	623
Falkirk	1840
Fife	5465
Glasgow City	7240
Highland	4499
Inverclyde	1107
Midlothian	1235
Moray	1315
Na h-Eileanan Siar	357
North Ayrshire	1734
North Lanarkshire	6026
Orkney Islands	275
Perth and Kinross	1507
Renfrewshire	1800
Scottish Borders	316
Shetland Islands	475
South Ayrshire	1512
South Lanarkshire	5544
Stirling	1794
West Dunbartonshire	2084
West Lothian	2905
Total	72687

Question reference: S6W-04797

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 03 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 15 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that children and young people are not without warm and weatherproof clothing this winter due to poverty.

Tackling child poverty is a national mission for this government and we are delivering a range of direct support to families.

The Scottish Child Payment is currently supporting around 106,000 children under 6 with £10 a week payments. Together with Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods this provides families with £5,300 of financial support by the time their first child turns 6.

For children of school age, we are paying £520 this year through Bridging Payments, supporting around 150,000 children and young people from low income families ahead of the roll out of the Scottish Child Payment to under-16s by the end of 2022 – with £160 to be paid this month. We have also increased the School Clothing Grant to a new national minimum of £120 for primary school and £150 for secondary school children – helping to meet the cost of the school day for families.

Additionally we delivered a £130 Low Income Pandemic Payment for around 500,000 low income households by the end of October, helping to meet increased costs of living for families.

We have also announced plans to invest a further £41 million in a Winter Support Fund for low income households to help people struggling financially during the winter. This includes £10 million to help people who are struggling to pay fuel bills, £25 million of flexible funding for local authorities to help support wellbeing and respond to financial insecurity based on local needs, and £6 million for third sector partners to support low income families.