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-22419

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don on 9 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it is working to increase the number of carers who provide social and personal care for children at home.

We have made a commitment to increase pay for those delivering direct social care to children and adults to £12 per hour from April 2024. Pay and conditions are of central importance in the wellbeing and retention of the social care workforce. We will continue to work with partners, including those representing Personal Assistants who support children and families, to build a more sustainable workforce who feel valued.

We have set up a short-life working group to better understand the pressures facing the children’s services workforce and to create and access more regular, real-time data about the workforce and vacancies, to achieve better planning of resources, improve workforce development and assist with career planning and pathways. This will also assist with retention of staff and more successful recruitment in the sector. We are committed to attracting and retaining the right people, developing them in their roles and raising the status of social care as a profession.

Question reference: S6W-22197

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 9 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on when it plans to announce the long-term formal governance structure to replace the Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Programme Board, which disbanded in March 2023.

Following the planned conclusion of two previous governance structures, the Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Programme Board and the Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Joint Delivery Board, the Scottish Government and COSLA have agreed to progress this work through a new combined strategic board. This new strategic board will retain a strong focus on perinatal and infant needs and ensure that there is good integration with provision for older children, young adults and families. Embedding an equity led approach is also a key part of this work. We are currently working with key partners to agree membership.

The first meeting of the new strategic board is planned for later this year. Further information will be available on the Scottish Government website in due course.

Question reference: S6W-22177

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 9 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when it anticipates that payments for the Winter Heating Payment for 2023-24 will be made.

I refer the member to my letter of 6 November 2023 to the Social Justice and Social Security Committee. Subject to the necessary client data being provided by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) on the dates and to the quality standards agreed, Social Security Scotland will begin processing Winter Heating Payments from mid-December. Payments will be made in batches and those clients receiving payment in the initial batches can expect to receive their Winter Heating Payment before the end of December. We anticipate that the vast majority of payments to the remaining clients will be made by the end of January 2024.

Question reference: S6W-22187

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 9 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown by age group of the number of women in Scotland with endometriosis.

Question reference: S6W-22017

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 9 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to the reported recommendation that Higher Education widening access targets should take regional context and under-represented areas into account.

We fully recognise that we have more to do, and all institutions have to work hard to ensure students from deprived areas receive opportunities to achieve their potential.

The Scottish Government is engaging with the sector to develop a consistent and robust set of measures to actively identify students who would benefit from our Widening Access policy.

We have established an Access Data Short-life Working Group to consider proposals and to investigate other widening access measures and data sources alongside existing SIMD measures. The group is due to report its findings to Ministers this autumn.

Question reference: S6W-22186

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 9 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its most recent estimate is of the cost to the Scottish economy of endometriosis in (a) treatment, (b) healthcare costs and (c) loss of work.

Question reference: S6W-22184

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 9 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many women currently waiting for a diagnosis of endometriosis have been waiting more than (a) one year, (b) five years and (c) 10 years.

Question reference: S6W-22185

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 9 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its most recent estimate is of the number of women in Scotland with endometriosis.

Question reference: S6W-22527

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 30 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 9 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many groups are currently being supported by the Community and Renewable Energy Scheme, broken down by local authority area.

The Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) supports communities across Scotland to participate in, and benefit from, the energy transition. CARES has advised over 1,000 organisations, offered funding of over £61 million to over 800 projects, and helped support the installation of 58.6 MW of renewable energy.

311 organisations are currently progressing live projects through CARES. A breakdown by local authority area is provided in the following table.

These figures relate to the date when CARES funding was offered, and so do not necessarily correlate to when the funding is drawn down or spent by organisations.

Local Authority areas	No of Organisations supported
Aberdeen City	10
Aberdeenshire	18
Angus	3
Argyll and Bute	25
Clackmannanshire	2
Dumfries & Galloway	18
Dundee City	8
East Ayrshire	14
East Dunbartonshire	1
East Lothian	5
East Renfrewshire	2
Edinburgh City	14
Falkirk	3
Fife	15
Glasgow City	13
Highland	43
Inverclyde	1
Midlothian	3
Moray	14
North Ayrshire	9
North Lanarkshire	6
Orkney Islands	11
Perth & Kinross	10
Renfrewshire	2
Scottish Borders	18
Shetland Islands	9
South Ayrshire	7
South Lanarkshire	9
Stirling	6
West Dunbartonshire	1
West Lothian	3
Western Isles	8
Grand Total	311

Question reference: S6W-22458

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 9 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take to support care home services that are at risk of closure due to the reported loss of funding in the National Care Home Contract Fee, in light of reported concerns that the provision of care for older people is increasingly complex.

The National Care Home Contract sets the rate for publicly funded care home placements and is negotiated annually between COSLA, Scottish Care and Scotland Excel. The Scottish Government is not a contractual party to it. We are pleased Scottish Care members voted to accept the 6% uplift offer from COSLA to agree the contract for 2023-4.

The Scottish Budget for 2023-4 provides record funding of over £19bn for health and social care, providing new investment of over £1bn and supporting recovery and reform to secure sustainable public services.

However, we recognise the challenges facing social care services such as energy costs, the costs of living and Brexit which has impacted the recruitment and retention of staff.

We continue to engage with the sector and other partners regularly to build a more sustainable workforce that feels truly valued and properly rewarded for their work.