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-10587

Asked by: Bill Bowman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 30 August 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to expand and enhance the data available on loneliness and social isolation.

As part of the development of our strategy to tackle social isolation and loneliness, we are considering carefully the appropriate data sources to measure progress in this area. This will be dependent to an extent on any agreed outcomes and indicators which are formed around the Strategy. Data sets we currently use include the Scottish Household Survey, Scottish Health Survey, Scottish Health Behaviours of School-aged Children Study and the Scottish Social Attitudes Survey (SSA).

Question reference: S5W-10585

Asked by: Bill Bowman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 30 August 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that (a) small third sector organisations, (b) individual carers and (c) people affected by loneliness are represented in the consultation on its strategy to tackle social isolation.

The Scottish Government will launch a draft strategy to tackle social isolation and loneliness for consultation in the autumn. Prior to this, we hosted 120 representatives from stakeholder organisations at an event in April to explore what the Strategy should contain. Attendees included representatives from the third sector as well as individuals with lived experience. In consulting on the Strategy, we plan to host a series of roundtable events across the country and will ensure that details are disseminated to third sector organisations including those who support carers. We are also developing a toolkit to allow local groups to contribute to the consultation in a way that works for them. It is important that the Strategy is informed and shaped by people with lived experience and we are actively exploring with stakeholders how best to do this.

Question reference: S5W-10586

Asked by: Bill Bowman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 30 August 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has provided from all funding streams to groups and projects aimed at tackling loneliness and social isolation in each year since 2007.

In seeking to support activity that addresses social isolation and loneliness, we have invested significant resources in local community based projects. Our Social Isolation and Loneliness Fund (£500K over 2016-17) supported a wide variety of local community projects across Scotland, ranging from basic life skills, creative activities, friendship groups, and support for vulnerable communities. Other funding streams have also supported work to build social connections, including the Promoting Equality and Cohesion Fund (£23.6m over 2008-17), the People and Communities Fund (£38.645M between 2012 to 2017) and the Community Choices Fund (£101K over 2016-17).

Question reference: S5W-10583

Asked by: Bill Bowman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 16 August 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many businesses in the north east it has met with in the last year to discuss business rates.

Question reference: S5W-10584

Asked by: Bill Bowman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 16 August 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what planning it has undertaken to offer additional business rates support between the publication of the Barclay Review of Business Rates and implementation of the report’s recommendations.

Question reference: S5W-10582

Asked by: Bill Bowman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 16 August 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has carried out on the potential impact to businesses in the hospitality sector of not extending the present cap on business rates beyond the current financial year.

Question reference: S5O-01138

Asked by: Bill Bowman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 June 2017
Current Status: Awaiting answer

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to support NHS Scotland's recruitment of nurses and midwives.

Question reference: S5O-01118

Asked by: Bill Bowman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 June 2017
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 14 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the action it is taking to close the attainment gap.

The Scottish Government has committed £750m during the course of this Parliament through the Attainment Scotland Fund to provide targeted support for children, schools and communities to close the poverty related attainment gap. In 2017-18 this includes £120m which will be allocated directly to schools on the basis of the numbers of pupils in P1-S3 known to be eligible and registered for free school meals, at a rate of £1,200 per pupil. This funding is on top of the existing £50m Attainment Scotland Funding that will continue to provide targeted support to authorities and schools in the communities with high levels of deprivation.

The National Improvement Framework addresses a key OECD recommendation that we develop a mechanism for robustly monitoring young people’s progress. In December, the Scottish Government will publish this year's National Improvement Framework and Improvement Plan. This will provide a complete picture of how children are progressing with their learning and the action to be taken to close the poverty related attainment gap.

Question reference: S5O-00698

Asked by: Bill Bowman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 23 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with businesses regarding the implementation of the apprenticeship levy from April 2017.

From the outset the Scottish Government has undertaken extensive engagement and consultation with employers to understand the impact that the UK Government's levy will have and how they would like Scottish Ministers to respond.

As part of this process we ran a consultation involving employers and other interested parties during the summer of 2016. In addition, the Minister for Employability and Training and officials have held discussions with employers, businesses, training providers and representative bodies.

Those discussions have involved: CITB, COSLA, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Royal Society for Chemistry, FMB, Balfour Beattie, OPITO, Colleges Scotland, Scottish Gas Centrica, SecuriGroup and the CBI to name but a few.

Question reference: S5O-00641

Asked by: Bill Bowman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 February 2017
Current Status: Awaiting answer

To ask the Scottish Government what support it can offer the employees of NCR in Dundee who are facing potential redundancy.