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-27421

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 June 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 18 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it still plans to add the data from 134,000 children gathered in the Health and Wellbeing Census to the Administrative Data Research Scotland system; what its position is on whether the data was captured ethically and legally, and whether it will implement measures to mitigate any risks of being able to link the data back to the respondents, in light of the Information Commissioner's Office advice to the Scottish Government in August 2023 that the arrangements for processing the data did not meet requirements of Article 4(5) of the UK GDPR around pseudonymisation, and Article 25 around Data Protection by Design and Default.

The Scottish Government is fully committed to making best use its data, including making this available for further statistical analysis and research, subject to data protection legislation. The 2021-22 Health and Wellbeing Census data was added to Administrative Data Research Scotland (ADR-S) in May 2024. Further information on ADR-S can be found here: ADR Scotland - ADR UK

The HWB Census underwent an Ethics Peer Review in line with the Scottish Government social research: protocols and guidance. Scottish Government social research: protocols and guidance - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Data provided into the ADR-S infrastructure does not include the Scottish Candidate Number (SCN). The SCN is replaced with a pseudonym for this purpose.

In light of the ICO's recommendations, the Scottish Government is introducing enhanced technical and organisational measures to ensure that any data which contains the SCN and is processed for statistical and research purposes will have a pseudonym created. The SCN and the method of pseudonymisation will be held separately. These enhanced measures have been agreed with the ICO.

Question reference: S6O-03589

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 June 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to mitigate against crop damage over the coming months.

Question reference: S6O-03494

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 May 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its plans to restart the GP Sustainability Loan Scheme, including by what date it expects to restart the scheme.

Question reference: S6W-27067

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 1 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to reopening a Scottish Development International office in Taiwan.

Question reference: S6W-26880

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 29 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how it will utilise the Medium Term Financial Strategy to progress its commitment to Fairer Funding by 2026, beyond multi-year funding.

Question reference: S6W-26879

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 29 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to use the Medium Term Financial Strategy to provide clarity on its commitment to introduce multi-year funding for the voluntary sector in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-26878

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 29 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to use the Medium Term Financial Strategy to ensure greater certainty and security for the voluntary sector in Scotland.

Question reference: S6O-03387

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 April 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has followed the advice issued by the Information Commissioner's Office regarding appropriate governance and controls for the use of children’s Scottish Candidate Numbers for research in the education system.

Question reference: S6W-26428

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 17 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that its new Renters' Rights Campaign reaches older private renters, in light of the recently published report, Homing in: How to improve the lives of older renters in Scotland, by Independent Age, which found that only 30% of older renters feel fully informed of their housing rights.

The Scottish Government's Renters' Rights campaign ran from 27 February to 26 March 2024, aiming to increase awareness of both new and existing rights for all private tenants in Scotland.

We worked collaboratively with public and third sector partners to disseminate the campaign information, enabling them to reach minority audiences, specialist groups and those who are less likely to be online. This included the Older People’s Strategic Advisory Forum (OPSAF), who represent the following organisations: Age Scotland, Generations Working Together, LGBT Age Project, Outside the Box, We are Hourglass, Independent Age, Scottish Trades Union Congress, The Scottish Older People’s Assembly, Faith in Older People, LGBT Health and Wellbeing, Glasgow Disability Alliance and Minority Ethnic Carers of People Programme.

Renters’ Rights information was also directly provided to Citizens Advice Bureaux, Crisis, Living Rent, Property Mark, Scottish Landlords, Scottish Land and Estates, UK Finance, Poverty Alliance, Generation Rent, the Scottish Property Federation, the Chartered Institute of Housing Scotland, Local Authorities, NHS Health Boards, Social Security Scotland and third sector equality partners such as BEMIS and CEMVO.

It is vitally important that all tenants, including older renters, are aware of the strong rights and protections available to them and we will continue to identify opportunities and work with a range of key partners in order to continue to raise awareness.

Question reference: S6W-26018

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don on 20 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the policy proposal to remove the Disclosure Scotland fee waiver for volunteers in qualifying voluntary organisations and replace this with a fee discount, what its position is on whether such a proposal reflects its commitment to volunteering through the Volunteering Action Plan.

I have asked Gerard Hart, Chief Executive of Disclosure Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:

Disclosure Scotland is consulting on how disclosure fees could be discounted in future. No decisions have been made on this. The consultation response from stakeholders and the public will help to shape decisions by Scottish Ministers. Since 2011, Disclosure Scotland has fully subsidised qualifying voluntary organisations to get free PVG disclosures for volunteers. Reviewing the policy on fee waivers and discounts helps to ensure the effective use of public finances and the potential impact of any changes, whilst providing an effective public service.

Wider Scottish Government initiatives and guidance, including the Volunteering Action Plan and the Scottish Public Finance Manual, form part of the consideration given to any changes to fees policy at Disclosure Scotland.