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: S6T-01236

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 March 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recent comments by the Chief Executive of CalMac, what action it is taking to prevent island residents being impacted by any reliability issues affecting their ferry services over the next two years.

Question reference: S6T-01225

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 March 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports that small shops in Scotland fear they cannot survive because of the costs and impacts of the Deposit Return Scheme, what its position is on Circularity Scotland’s confirmation on 1 March that retailers who use Reverse Vending Machines would have to wait one month for payment for returned bottles, rather than the previously expected seven days.

Question reference: S6F-01899

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 March 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 March 2023

To ask the First Minister whether she will provide an update on the Scottish Government's progress towards reducing the number of people on hospital waiting lists and ending long waits for NHS treatment.

Question reference: S6F-01901

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 March 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 March 2023

To ask the First Minister what impact the proposed pay settlement for teachers, if accepted, will have on other Scottish Government budgets.

Question reference: S6F-01903

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 March 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 March 2023

To ask the First Minister, in light of Scottish Apprenticeship Week this week, how the Scottish Government is supporting people into apprenticeships.

Question reference: S6F-01887

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 March 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 March 2023

To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government is taking to support homeowners seeking to reduce their energy bills.

Question reference: S6F-01875

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 March 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 March 2023

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6F-01876

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 March 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 March 2023

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6W-15343

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 6 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-14658 by Keith Brown on 22 February 2023, whether it will provide a breakdown of the statistics by local authority area.

The requested information on the number of recorded crimes of having in a school an article with a blade or point, split by local authority area, is provided below. As with the national picture, at least part of any reduction at the local authority level during 2020-21 (and any subsequent increase in 2021-22) will likely reflect the closure of the school estate during the pandemic related lockdowns.

Table 1: Having in a school an article with a blade or point not used in other criminal activity

	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22
Aberdeen City	8	3	2	6
Aberdeenshire	8	9	5	14
Angus	1	5	1	4
Argyll & Bute	2	1	0	2
Clackmannanshire	1	3	0	0
Dumfries & Galloway	5	14	1	8
Dundee City	3	2	3	2
East Ayrshire	3	1	0	1
East Dunbartonshire	0	1	1	1
East Lothian	1	1	1	1
East Renfrewshire	0	1	1	0
Edinburgh, City of	11	13	2	7
Falkirk	4	8	3	4
Fife	10	3	7	10
Glasgow City	5	8	8	9
Highland	1	8	0	4
Inverclyde	0	0	0	1
Midlothian	1	2	0	1
Moray	1	4	2	5
Na h-Eileanan Siar	0	1	0	0
North Ayrshire	3	0	2	2
North Lanarkshire	3	4	4	3
Orkney Islands	0	0	0	1
Perth & Kinross	5	4	4	1
Renfrewshire	0	2	1	1
Scottish Borders	2	3	0	1
Shetland Islands	0	0	1	0
South Ayrshire	3	1	0	0
South Lanarkshire	1	3	0	5
Stirling	3	3	0	1
West Dunbartonshire	2	2	3	1
West Lothian	4	2	4	2

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

Table 2: Having in a school an article with a blade or point used in other criminal activity

	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22
Aberdeen City	2	0	1	2
Aberdeenshire	2	0	0	2
Angus	2	0	0	1
Argyll & Bute	1	0	0	0
Clackmannanshire	1	1	0	3
Dumfries & Galloway	6	0	0	1
Dundee City	1	3	2	1
East Ayrshire	0	1	0	0
East Dunbartonshire	0	2	0	0
East Lothian	0	0	0	0
East Renfrewshire	0	0	0	1
Edinburgh, City of	3	1	0	3
Falkirk	2	1	0	2
Fife	3	2	1	4
Glasgow City	3	3	1	5
Highland	1	0	0	0
Inverclyde	0	0	1	0
Midlothian	0	0	0	0
Moray	0	2	0	1
Na h-Eileanan Siar	0	0	0	0
North Ayrshire	2	1	1	0
North Lanarkshire	1	1	0	0
Orkney Islands	0	0	0	0
Perth & Kinross	1	0	0	1
Renfrewshire	2	0	0	2
Scottish Borders	0	0	0	0
Shetland Islands	0	0	0	0
South Ayrshire	0	1	1	0
South Lanarkshire	0	0	1	5
Stirling	1	1	0	3
West Dunbartonshire	0	0	0	0
West Lothian	0	1	0	0

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

Question reference: S6W-15314

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 24 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 6 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on local authorities pursuing parents for school meal debt during a cost of living crisis, and what plans it has to prevent this.

We recognise that rises in the cost of living are putting a huge strain on some families and they are facing unforeseen challenges.

The management of debt is an issue for education authorities and their finance departments. Councils have the power to make discretionary offers of free school meals to families, where they are experiencing financial hardship due to exceptional circumstances, who do not meet the regular eligibility criteria.

COSLA, working with partners from across Local Government, have developed a set of good practice principles for the management of school meal debt, which were published on 20 February 2023. The intended audience for these principles is local authority staff across a range of departments (including education, catering, finance and debt collection) as well as Head Teachers, class teachers and other school staff. The principles can be accessed through the following link: COSLA Publish Good Practice Principles for Managing School Meal Debt - 20th February 2023 | COSLA