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-01787

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it will take to support businesses in key sectors of Glasgow's economy.

Question reference: S6O-01786

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the comments by the Scottish Chambers of Commerce regarding the Budget 2023-24 that it represents “a clear disadvantage for Scotland’s businesses and workers”.

Question reference: S6O-01783

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee City West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on any investment arising from the Tay Cities Deal.

Question reference: S6O-01774

Asked by: Marie McNair, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of a new report by the Resolution Foundation stating that the average household will be £2,100 worse off by the end of next financial year, how ministers across government are working to prioritise support for low-income households, as set out in its Covid Recovery Strategy.

Question reference: S6W-13574

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 11 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what support its agencies are providing to businesses to improve resilience and implement systems to prevent cyber attacks.

Under The Strategic Framework for a Cyber Resilient Scotland , the Scottish Government works closely with our delivery partners to improve the cyber resilience of Scottish businesses.

Between January 2021 and July 2022, 3,410 businesses that received the Scottish Government Business Gateway Digital Boost Programme funding undertook a Cyber Health Check, where qualified assessors performed a pre-assessment of their critical technical controls, in line with Cyber Essentials (considered a national standard by the National Cyber Security Centre).

Before the end of this financial year, businesses can access a cyber security professional upskilling fund - managed by ScotlandIS - where up to 100 cyber security professionals employed by at least 25 employers will be able to train to improve their cyber security skills.

We are funding ScotlandIS to work with Scottish Managed IT Service Providers to improve the cyber security advice and support services they provide to Scottish SMEs.

The CyberScotland Partnership, a partnership of key delivery organisations, such as the Scottish Business Resilience Centre, Skills Development Scotland and Police Scotland, holds an annual awareness raising week, CyberScotland Week (27 February to 5 March 2023). Businesses are among the target audience for this Week.

Monthly technical and non-technical Bulletins are disseminated across all sectors to amplify cyber messaging and advice on cyber resilience protection. Both Bulletins are available on the CyberScotland.com portal.

The Scottish Government funds the Scottish Business Resilience Centre to deliver awareness training to business executives and provide businesses with a cyber incident response support helpline when they experience cyber incidents. This helpline can be accessed by calling 0800 1670 623.

Question reference: S6W-13573

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 11 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many cyber incidents were reported to it by public bodies, under the Scottish public sector notifiable cyber incident procedure and policy, in each month in 2022.

In 2022, the Scottish Government was notified of 12 cyber incidents under our Notifiable Scottish Public Sector Cyber Incidents Policy and Procedure.

The Scottish Government will not provide further details as this would likely cause substantial harm to the effective conduct of public affairs and the secure delivery of our public services.

This, combined with other publicly available information, would likely allow identification of the organisations that reported cyber incidents under the procedure. It would therefore undermine the confidentiality of the policy procedure and adversely affect the trust and openness with which organisations currently report incidents and participate in the reporting process.Making further information on the timing of past cyber incidents publicly available would have a negative impact on the cyber security and resilience of the public sector.

Question reference: S6W-13476

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 11 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on its Enhanced Psychological Practice (EPP) programme.

The majority of spend relating to the Enhanced Psychological Practice programme relates to salaried posts in NHS Health Boards, creating additional capacity within the workforce and enabling delivery of evidence based psychological interventions at enhanced level. The allocated spend to date is as follows (please note numbers of learners/practitioners are cumulative and there are ongoing discussions with partners about the programme for future years):

2021-22 - £377,446

£224,538 funding towards salaries/backfill for 18 months for 20 practitioners – learner phase followed by post qualification consolidation phase
£152,908 towards development and delivery of education and training, and programme infrastructure – NES staffing, eLearning development, teaching support and consultancy, learning resources

2022-23 - £2,193,767*

£1,925,908 funding towards salaries/backfill for 18 months for up to 81 practitioners – learner phase followed by post qualification consolidation phase
£267,859 towards development and delivery of education and training, and programme infrastructure – NES staffing, teaching support and consultancy, eLearning development, SQA fees and learning resources

*salary costs included in this figure are based on 2021-22 Agenda for Change rates and will need to be amended on confirmation of the Pay Award for 2022-23.

Question reference: S6W-13384

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 11 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made since 2018 under each of the articles of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

The Scottish Government is committed to advancing gender equality in Scotland, and since 2018 has introduced a range of legislative and other measures to implement the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in Scotland.

This includes introduction of the Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Act 2021 to ensure access to free period products, introduction of the Forensic Medical Services (Victims of Sexual Offences) (Scotland) Act 2021 to provide for consistent access to healthcare and forensic medical examinations without first making a report to police, publication of the Women’s Health Plan in 2021 to improve women’s health outcomes, and the expansion of free early learning and childcare provision. In addition, the Scottish government is committed to introducing a new Human Rights Bill which will incorporate CEDAW into Scots Law, as far as possible within devolved competence, andwill consult formally on proposals this year. Through incorporation of CEDAW the Scottish Government will enhance our efforts to eliminate the discrimination, traditional gender roles and stereotypes faced by women and girls. It will ensure a focus on fulfilling their human rights and development.

The UK’s 9th periodic report on the implementation of CEDAW is due to be submitted to the UN CEDAW Committee by the end of March 2023. In addition to contributing to the periodic report, the Scottish Government will publish a standalone Scottish Position Statement in 2023, reporting on progress made since 2018 under each of the articles of CEDAW.

Question reference: S6W-13369

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 11 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reported concerns by the General Secretary of School Leaders Scotland that budget reductions will lead to (a) a reduction in the range of school subjects available and (b) an increase in class sizes.

This Government has delivered the highest school spending, and has more teachers per pupil, than any other UK nation. Our pupil teacher ratio is just 13.2 – its lowest level since 2009 - compared to 18 in England and 18.5 in Wales.

In our Budget we have sought to protect Councils by providing over £13.2 billion in the Local Government Settlement for 2023-24. This funding package represents a real terms increase compared with 2022-23 and enables the continued delivery of high quality education for our children. As part of this, we will continue to provide local authorities with specific funding of £145.5 million per year to support the school workforce.

Question reference: S6W-13743

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee City West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 January 2023
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Kevin Stewart on 11 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made by the Independent Oversight and Assurance Group on Tayside’s Mental Health Services on ensuring that partners across Tayside are making improvements to the delivery of mental health services, and that progress has been made on responding to the findings and recommendations in the report, Trust and Respect, published in February 2020.

The Final Report from the Oversight Group has been published today on the Scottish Government website: https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781805254362

Overall, the report is positive. It highlights where progress has clearly been made but also states a number of areas where further work is required.

The Scottish Government will continue to support sustainable change and improvements in Tayside, to ensure the safe and effective delivery of mental health services. We will work with partners in Tayside to ensure a detailed improvement plan is in place, with clear milestones and deliverables which progress the key areas for action detailed within the Oversight Group’s Final Report.

We will measure progress against agreed key deliverables in this plan, working closely with NHS Tayside, Local Authorities, Integration Joint Boards, the Chief Officer for Mental Health and other Chief Officers in Tayside. These arrangements will inform whether NHS Tayside can be deescalated from Level 3 to Level 2 for Mental Health Services in the future.

The Scottish Government will provide additional support to colleagues across Tayside, including access to advice and support from Professional Advisors and Senior Officials in the Mental Health Directorate to support progress.

I would like to thank the Oversight Group for the meticulous approach to this work. I have particularly welcomed the wide engagement the Chair and Members have had with staff and people with experience of using mental health services across Tayside, which has been a critical aspect in the successful delivery of this very challenging, but extremely important, programme of work.