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: S6O-01963

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 February 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it is making towards fulfilling its commitment to introduce a national system of rent controls by the end of 2025.

Question reference: S6O-01957

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 February 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to tackle homelessness, in light of reports that the number of people classified as homeless has reached a record high.

Question reference: S6W-15257

Asked by: Emma Roddick, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 February 2023
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Mairi McAllan on 22 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish its consultation document on the development of future grant support for forestry that the Minister for Environment and Land Reform announced in her opening statement in the parliamentary debate on Forestry’s Contribution to Net Zero Scotland, on 9 November 2022.

Question reference: S6W-14721

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 22 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many secondary schools have a Skills Development Scotland presence.

Question reference: S6W-14548

Asked by: Collette Stevenson, MSP for East Kilbride, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 22 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many people were employed by the (a) Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, (b) Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service and (c) Scottish Prison Service in (i) 2006-07 and (ii) 2021-22.

Question reference: S6W-14805

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 22 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-14221 by Neil Gray on 31 January 2023, whether it will provide an update on the property matching app that it is developing.

Question reference: S6W-14658

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 22 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many knives have been confiscated in schools in each year since 2019, broken down by the age of pupil.

The Scottish Government does not hold data on the number of knives confiscated in schools, though information is available on the number of recorded crimes of having in a school an article with a blade or point. This is provided in the following table. At least part of the reduction in cases during 2020-21 (and subsequent increase in 2021-22) will likely reflect the closure of the school estate during the pandemic related lockdowns.

Possession of articles with a blade or point in schools

	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22
Having in a school an article with a blade or point not used in other criminal activity	91	112	56	98
Having in a school an article with a blade or point used in other criminal activity	34	21	9	37

Source: Police recorded Crime Statistics: March year-end data

Question reference: S6W-14563

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 22 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many sites Forestry and Land Scotland has identified as suitable for the translocation of beavers, and by what date it anticipates that beavers will have been successfully translocated to these sites.

Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) have identified eight sites on Scotland’s national forests and land where within range translocations of beavers are considered to be ecologically feasible. We anticipate beavers to be moved to these sites after the kit dependency period in 2023.

A further three projects for range expansion translocations are at early stages of investigation and the number of suitable sites is as yet undetermined. It is expected these sites to be ready to accept beavers from 2024 onwards.

Question reference: S6W-15258

Asked by: Audrey Nicoll, MSP for Aberdeen South and North Kincardine, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 February 2023
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Keith Brown on 22 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when it will provide an update on the work of the Independent Advisory Group on New and Emerging Technologies in Policing.

The final report of the independent group chaired by Professor Elizabeth Aston, was published today https://www.gov.scot/ISBN/978-1-80525-352-5 .

The final report has been published alongside five associated reports that helped contribute to the Group’s work. The final report confirms that Scotland is in a strong position to seize the opportunity to become world leading in adopting a rights-based, ethical, evidence-based, consultative approach to innovation and adoption of emerging technologies in policing.

The Scottish Government’s response to the report has also been published today www.gov.scot/publications/emerging-technologies-in-policing-report-scottish-government-response

The Scottish Government stands ready to work with policing stakeholders on how they plan to follow up the recommendations made by the Group. This will enable the Scottish Government to continue to work with policing bodies to ensure that new technology will be used in ways which help in the detection and prosecution of crime, as well as protecting our communities first and foremost.

Question reference: S6W-14779

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 22 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-14449 by Neil Gray on 2 February 2023, whether it will publish another Two Year Annual Report on Activities of the National Performing Companies in the future.

As noted in my answer to question S6W-14449, work on the two-year report on the activities of the National Performing Companies was suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

I will consider whether this work should be restarted given the National Performing Companies all publish their own annual reports on their individual websites including information relating to their community and education programmes, financial figures and key artistic achievements.

	Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service	Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service	Scottish Prison Service
2006-07	1525.8	1,184	4,119
2021-22	2220.7	1,922	4,589