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-27739

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 6 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has undertaken an analysis to establish any reasons for students withdrawing from college courses between weeks five and 12 of their courses.

The Scottish Government hasn’t carried out analysis to establish reasons for students withdrawing from college, by week of course.

Information on college withdrawals is collected by the Scottish Funding Council. Some data on the reason for withdrawing is included in the technical annex of the College Performance Indicators publication, though this isn’t broken down to week of course. College Performance Indicators 2022-23 - Scottish Funding Council (sfc.ac.uk)

Question reference: S6W-27796

Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Alba Party
Date lodged: Friday, 31 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 6 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what steps it has taken to implement the recommendations of the Independent Strategic Review of Funding and Commissioning of Violence Against Women and Girls Services, and whether it plans to update the Parliament on its progress.

The Scottish Government is focussed on addressing violence against women and girls which is why we are implementing Equally Safe, our strategy to prevent and address all forms of violence against women and girls, specifically violence, abuse, and exploitation directed at them because of their gender.

The Scottish Government response to the Independent Strategic Review of Funding and Commissioning of Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Services was published in November 2023 and can be found here ( https://www.gov.scot/publications/violence-against-women-and-girls-joint-statement-with-cosla ). Since then we have established a VAWG Sustainable Funding Project Board to take forward our commitment to develop a flexible and stable funding model for VAWG services and the Review’s report will be considered as we develop a new funding model.

Question reference: S6W-27806

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Ruth Charteris on 6 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of hate crime charges or hate crime aggravations have been recorded in Lothian region, to date, under the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021.

Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) uses a live, operational database to manage the processing of reports submitted to Procurators Fiscal by the police and other reporting agencies throughout Scotland. It is designed to meet business needs in the processing of criminal cases, rather than for statistical purposes and the information within it is structured accordingly. Information provided is at date of extract and may therefore be subject to change as data and systems are updated for operational reasons.

From 1 April to 28 May 2024, 170 hate crime charges and 615 charges with one or more hate crime aggravations in terms of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 have been reported to COPFS for the whole of Scotland. The total, therefore, is 785 charges.

From 1 April to 28 May 2024, 33 hate crime charges and 98 charges with one or more hate crime aggravations in terms of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 have been reported to COPFS in the Lothian region. For the purposes of this answer, the ‘Lothian region’ been restricted to charges reported to COPFS from the Edinburgh and Livingston Sheriff Court Districts. The total 131 hate crime charges and aggravations for Lothian region represents 16.7% of the total for the whole of Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-27743

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 6 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to benchmark staffing (a) costs and (b) ratios in the college sector, relative to other sectors.

Question reference: S6W-27744

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 6 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to review (a) pay structures and (b) staffing costs in colleges.

Question reference: S6O-03573

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 June 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when it will end the reported practice of children and young people being admitted to adult services for treatment, rather than an NHS specialist child and adolescent mental health ward.

Question reference: S6O-03574

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 June 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider increasing funding for empty homes officers, in light of the First Minister’s reported statement that empty homes are key to tackling the housing emergency.

Question reference: S6O-03575

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 June 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with NHS Lothian and NHS Borders regarding financial stability in the 2024-25 financial year.

Question reference: S6O-03577

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 June 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what steps it is taking to increase the number of GPs.

Question reference: S6O-03578

Asked by: Collette Stevenson, MSP for East Kilbride, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 June 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its work to tackle poverty, in light of recent analysis by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation showing that 86% of low-income households receiving Universal Credit were going without the essentials and that nearly one million people in the UK are "only £10 a week away from poverty".