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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 2186 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-20775

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 19 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to engage with local authorities to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in primary and secondary schools during the school year 2023-24.

The Scottish Government COVID-19 guidance for schools remains in place and we know that schools continue to find the health protection principles in that guidance to be helpful in protecting the health of staff and pupils.

We have however been working with Public Health Scotland, local authorities and other stakeholders to develop updated guidance that better reflects current circumstances and will help schools continue to prevent the spread of COVID, other respiratory infections and infectious diseases in general.

This will provide a practical guide for staff on managing cases of infectious diseases across educational settings without placing additional significant burden or demands on staff. As has always been the case, Health Protection Teams and local NHS Boards will continue to work closely with schools to provide any advice and support needed to deal with specific situations that arise.

Question reference: S6W-20761

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 21 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 19 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown by local authority area of the 371 bursaries awarded to teachers in the last three years, and how many have been awarded in 2023 to date.

The breakdown for STEM bursaries awarded by local authority is available in the STEM Teacher bursary evaluation reports on the Skills Development Scotland (SDS) website: Search Results | Skills Development Scotland .

The previous STEM bursary scheme has been expanded this year to include Gaelic and renamed to the Teaching Bursary in Scotland bursary scheme. As of 31 August, 61 Teaching bursaries have been awarded.

Question reference: S6W-20964

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 19 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on whether it plans to carry out an assessment of the cost of fixing any elements of the school estate that have reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete present; whether any such costs will be met by local authorities or the Scottish Government; if they are to be met by local authorities, whether it anticipates that they will be met from existing funding or funding from other sources, and, if other sources, which sources.

Local authorities have a statutory responsibility to ensure that their schools are safe for pupils, staff and their users. Those local authorities affected have now published a list of any schools where RAAC has been identified, and it would be for those individual local authorities to decide if they publish the projected cost to remedy any issues within their school estate.

In addition, the First Minister has been clear, while we do not have contingencies within Scottish Government to spend on RAAC.

The UK Government’s Chancellor of the Exchequer recently committed to spend what was necessary, and we would expect to see new funding made available. Continual UK Government cuts to capital budgets make responses across the public sector more difficult.

This is an issue we have been alive to for some time. On 16 th August, the Deputy First Minister wrote to the UK Government’s Treasury seeking clarity on new capital funding to deal with RAAC. Then, on 3 rd September, I wrote to the Secretary of State for Education seeking clarity on funding. Thus far, neither letter has received a response.

Question reference: S6W-20705

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 19 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its School support staff 2022 statistics, whether it will provide a breakdown by local authority of the increase of 2,803 pupil support assistants in schools between 2018 and 2022.

The number of full time equivalent pupil support assistants by Local Authority is available in the school support staff statistics: https://www.gov.scot/publications/school-support-staff-statistics/

A summary of the changes from 2018 to 2022 is provided in the following table.

Local Authority	2018	2022	Number change
Aberdeen City	508	557	49
Aberdeenshire	736	752	16
Angus	266	363	97
Argyll & Bute	393	396	3
City of Edinburgh	864	1,352	488
Clackmannanshire	149	180	31
Dumfries & Galloway	463	448	-15
Dundee City	290	419	129
East Ayrshire	322	381	59
East Dunbartonshire	304	316	12
East Lothian	219	314	96
East Renfrewshire	204	225	21
Falkirk	402	485	83
Fife	848	1,126	278
Glasgow City	1,584	1,847	263
Highland	966	1,029	63
Inverclyde	322	332	10
Midlothian	249	361	112
Moray	268	374	106
Na h-Eileanan Siar	84	117	33
North Ayrshire	345	443	98
North Lanarkshire	893	767	-126
Orkney Islands	46	83	37
Perth & Kinross	324	375	51
Renfrewshire	318	444	126
Scottish Borders	272	341	70
Shetland Islands	112	156	44
South Ayrshire	276	272	-4
South Lanarkshire	701	1,019	317
Stirling	189	303	115
West Dunbartonshire	273	285	13
West Lothian	609	735	127
All local authorities	13,797	16,598	2,801
Grant-aided	6	7	1
Scotland	13,803	16,606	2,803

Question reference: S6W-20742

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 18 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 18 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government where the details underlying the four objectives set out in the publication, Scottish Government's Plan for School Research 2023-2026, which explain how each objective will be pursued and what practically each objective means, are published.

Scottish Government's Plan for School Research 2023-2026 sets out how each objective will be pursued, specifically:

delivering robust and timely evidence to support the policy making process – through publishing a suite of research reports and official statistics, aligned to the Government’s research needs.
collaboration with key partners – via the National Advisory Group and Academic Reference Group.
supporting independent education research – through improved routes for knowledge exchange (such as the Education Research Seminar Series) and expanding membership of the Academic Reference Group to include early career researchers.
continuing to improve data access – by continuing to make datasets available on Administrative Data Research Scotland platform and promoting available datasets and how to access them to the wider education research community.

Question reference: S6W-20743

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 18 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 18 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much it cost to produce the publication, Scottish Government's Plan for School Research 2023-2026, and how many civil servants were allocated to its production.

Question reference: S6W-20774

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 12 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to the milestones for the Aberdeen to Central Belt 2026 Enhancement project, as set out on page 11 of the Scotland's Railway July 2022 publication, Enhancements Delivery Plan, whether the target date for "Approval in principle" of August 2023 has been "Achieved", or whether this target has been "Missed", and whether the target date for "Entry into Service" of December 2026 remains "On Schedule".

Question reference: S6W-20658

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 12 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-19662 by Jenny Gilruth on 28 July 2023, and in light of the reported commitment by the former Minister for Higher Education and Further Education, Youth Employment and Training in 2022 to look at changing the recording of those not completing the college courses on which they were enrolled, what work has been done to fulfil this commitment.

In line with the Code of Practice for Statistics, Scottish Funding Council (SFC) publications including those reporting on college withdrawals, undergo systematic and periodic reviews on the strengths and limitations of the data.

As an example of the continuing work in this area, the SFC has initiated collection of students’ reasons for withdrawal from colleges. Experimental data has previously been collected, and SFC will be working with Colleges Scotland and College Development Network to improve the capture of student withdrawal data for publication in future years.

The SFC is also progressing an internal review of the definitions of college student outcomes metrics, to ensure that they provide the most appropriate measures of success for students.

Question reference: S6W-20659

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 12 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-19662 by Jenny Gilruth on 28 July 2023, (a) when and (b) for what reason it ceased tracking the reasons for students not completing the courses on which they were enrolled at university.

The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) collect information for all UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and will have taken the decision as the information collected could not adequately reflect the interlinked, complex reasons for students ending their studies.

As part of the new HESA Data Futures Collection, the Reason for Engagement Ending has been adapted to focus on whether a student has achieved any qualifications or credits when they withdraw. This will provide more robust and meaningful data.

Further information on the new variable is available from the HESA website here:

codingmanual.hesa.ac.uk/22056/Leaver/field/RSNENGEND

Question reference: S6W-20600

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 7 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to expand the eligibility for the shingles vaccine, including when those aged 65 to 69 will be able to access the shingles vaccine free of charge.

The Scottish Government has accepted the recommendation of the Joint Vaccination of Immunisations and Vaccinations (JCVI) that the age cohorts for the Shingles vaccination programme be expanded to protect individuals at an earlier age.

The vaccine will be offered free of charge to those aged 65 and 70 as defined by the patient’s age at 1 September 2023. NHS Health Boards are responsible for delivering vaccination programmes in Scotland and will invite eligible individuals forward for their appointments ahead of the programme commencing.

The changes to the programme have been outlined in the Chief Medical Officer Letter published on 31 July 2023 and can be accessed here: sehd.scot.nhs.uk/cmo/CMO(2023)11.pdf