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-14899

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 6 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what additional support the Scottish Qualifications Authority is providing to Ukrainian pupils in Scotland wishing to sit examinations, including with the translation of exam papers.

The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) has confirmed that the approach for Ukrainian students sitting exams in Scotland is consistent with the approach that is taken for all candidates for whom English is an additional language. Any candidates undertaking SQA external assessments who have English as an additional language may be allowed the use of a bilingual dictionary and have a standard extra time allowance of 10 mins for each hour of any assessment, subject to teacher assessment of the candidate’s needs. The use of the dictionary, and any additional time requested for using the dictionary, should reflect the candidate’s way of working in teaching and learning.

This approach is consistent with that taken by awarding bodies across the rest of the UK.

More widely, Education Scotland has provided resources to help schools and teachers support Ukrainian children’s mental health and wellbeing and to meet their learning needs.

Question reference: S6W-14924

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 6 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how long the current board members of Scottish Rail Holdings (a) have been and (b) are due to be contracted in those positions.

Details of the current membership of Scottish Rail Holdings Board is available on Companies House via the following link:- https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/SC548826

The Chief Executive Officer, Rail Business Director, Finance Director and General Counsel of Scottish Rail Holdings are normally permanent roles. The Non-Executive Directors of Scottish Rail Holdings Board were appointed on an interim basis to the 31 March 2023.

Question reference: S6W-14762

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 6 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider further regulating the (a) collection and reporting of data related to, (b) management of and (c) release of non-native gamebirds.

We have no current plans to legislate on (a) collection and reporting of data related to, (b) management of and (c) release of non-native gamebirds. However, as outlined in response to S6W-14758 on 1 March 2023, we plan to gather further information on the impact of non-native gamebird releases.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Question reference: S6W-14613

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 6 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it has had with Circularity Scotland, in light of the reported concerns of producers that the Deposit Return Scheme registration process for glass is too detailed to complete before the registration deadline.

Question reference: S6W-14720

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 6 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the announcement by the UK Government of a fund to stimulate innovation in occupational health, and whether it will investigate establishing a similar fund.

The Scottish Government has long recognised that health and work are inextricably linked. Creating workplaces which support and promote good physical and mental health benefits both employees and employers.

While health and safety legislation itself is reserved to Westminster, the Scottish Government is using its devolved healthcare powers to support the physical and mental health of the Scottish workforce. This includes the Healthy Working Lives service which provides advice and guidance to employers and the services offered by NHS Scotland. We are also considering Occupational Health provision as part of our update of the Fair and Healthy Work for All strategy this year.

Additionally, last year, together with Public Health Scotland and in partnership with a range of employers, Trade Unions, mental health organisations and public sector partners we launched a new mental health and wellbeing platform to help Scottish employers actively support and promote mental health at work.

Question reference: S6W-14732

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 6 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to provide so-called 50/50 funding for adult hospice care places.

Question reference: S6W-14576

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 6 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it can provide an update regarding the selection process of patient representatives with lived experience of chronic pain to the pain management panel.

Question reference: S6W-15332

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 6 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been convicted of a crime of animal cruelty, of any kind, in each year since 2016, and, of those, how many were given a (a) lifetime and (b) temporary ban on owning animals.

The latest available information on convictions is for the financial year 2020-21 and is provided in the following table.

Number of people convicted for animal cruelty offences, where main charge, 2016-17 to 2020-21.

	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21
Total convicted	60	75	63	56	33

Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database.

Note: Main charges were under Animal Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006 sections 19-23,29(1)(A)(B) and 29(2)(A)&(B); Protection of Badgers Act 1992 Section 2; Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002 Section 1(1); Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 Sections 10A(1), 11(1)(A), 11A(2)(B)&(6), 11(1)(AA), 11C(B), 11(G)(1) and 11(2)(A)&(F); Welfare of animals (Transport) (Scotland) Regs 2006 Regulation 3(1)(A); Protection of Animals (Scotland) Act 1912 Section 7.

(a), (b) The number of disqualifications on owning animals is not held centrally.

Question reference: S6W-14915

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 6 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-12081 by Mairi McAllan on 24 November 2022, whether it will provide the information requested regarding how many (a) ministers, (b) civil servants, (c) ministerial staff and (d) other Scottish Government representatives attended COP27, and what (i) travel, (ii) accommodation and (iii) other expenses were incurred for this delegation.

Question reference: S6W-14651

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 6 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many applications to the SME Loan Scheme have been (a) received, (b) approved and (c) rejected in each year since 2020-21, also broken down by the (i) annual expenditure on the scheme and (ii) average size of (A) loan and (B) cashback awarded.

The Scottish Governments SME Loan and Cashback scheme has provided significant financial support to SMEs in Scotland to decarbonise, improve their energy efficiency, cut energy bills and become more economically competitive over the Scheme’s lifespan.

The tables below show the requested information between the relevant financial years. The data provided does not include applications yet to be decided or where further information has been requested from the applicant. The most common reasons for querying an application include incompleteness and missing supporting documents.

Information regarding financial year 2022/23 can be made available at the end of the current financial year.

Table A

Financial Year	Applications Received	Applications Approved	Applications Rejected
2021-22	461	320	126
2020-21	286	211	75

Table B

Financial Year	Value of loans paid	Value of grants paid
2021-22	£4,579,125	£1,838,233
2020-21	£3,954,576	£945,647

Table C

Financial Year	Average loan value	Average grant value
2021-22	£15,682	£6,963
2020-21	£20,384	£5,802