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-10025

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 22 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government where in Scotland it anticipates Scotland's renewables jobs will be located by 2030.

Question reference: S6W-09949

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 25 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 22 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider including sunscreen products in the Baby Box.

At its heart, Scotland’s Baby Box strongly signals our determination that every child, regardless of their circumstances, should get the best start in life by ensuring that every family with a new-born has access to essential items needed in the first six months of a child’s life.

NHS Inform advice is to keep children aged under six months out of direct strong sunlight and promotes staying safe and healthy in the summer Summer health | NHS inform .

We do not propose including sunscreen products in the Baby Box at this time, however, we will continue to evaluate how Scotland’s Baby Box is helping families and continue to monitor how it can be improved.

Question reference: S6W-09471

Asked by: Collette Stevenson, MSP for East Kilbride, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 22 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what estimate it has made of the number of pupils in the East Kilbride constituency who will (a) benefit from and (b) be included in the roll-out of the provision of universal free school meals to all children in primaries 1 to 5 in the coming academic year, and whether it will provide an estimate of the average saving per family.

Information on the number of children receiving free school meals, broken down by parliamentary constituency, is not available. The Pupil Census of 2021 reported there were 274,938 children in primaries 1 to 5 at all schools across Scotland, and 17,482 of those were registered with schools managed by South Lanarkshire Council.

Free school lunches are available to all children in primaries 1 to 5 during school term-time, therefore all children within this age group are automatically registered to receive them if they wish. We estimate that providing free school meals will save families around £400 per child, per year on average.

Question reference: S6W-10165

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 19 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, whether it will prepare a medium-rise inventory, in light of the Building (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2022, which ban combustible cladding on buildings with any storey at a height of more than 11 metres above the ground.

Question reference: S6W-10116

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 19 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what meetings (a) it has had recently (b) are planned with COSLA to explore all options available regarding the funding by local authorities of any pay increases.

A series of meetings to explore the issues and options available were held between officials on 30 June, 13 July and 1 August.

Following these meetings, the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government and myself met with a delegation of COSLA’s political leadership on 3 August and held a further meeting with their Resources Spokesperson on 8 August.

Those discussions resulted in the Scottish Government committing an extra £140m on a recurring basis to support councils and COSLA with the local government pay negotiations.

We again met with representatives of COSLA’s political leadership on 17 August.

Question reference: S6W-10151

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 19 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether Ukrainian refugees will have access to free NHS dental treatment.

Question reference: S6W-10129

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 19 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when it anticipates that its proposed Housing Bill will be published.

Question reference: S6W-10134

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 19 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what role it plays in monitoring whether best practice is followed by Scottish universities, regarding the moderation and cross-marking of student assessments.

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) has a statutory obligation under section 13 of the Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Act 2005 to secure that provision is made for assessing and enhancing the quality of higher education provided by fundable bodies in Scotland.

On our behalf, to meet this obligation the SFC, supported by the Quality Assurance Agency, works with institutions so that they meet an agreed set of expectations for academic standards and quality, as measured against agreed sector reference points such as the UK Quality Code, to ensure that best practice is followed regarding moderation and marking of assessments, including the use of external expertise and examiners.

Question reference: S6W-10199

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 19 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-09252 by Shona Robison on 21 July 2022, whether these sums of money are included in the Single Building Assessment programme: spending information, which was released on 12 May 2022, and how much has been spent on contractors (a) prior to July 2021 and (b) in July and August 2022.

Question reference: S6W-10194

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 19 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-08297 by Shona Robison on 12 May 2022, whether it will provide an update on how many properties are at each stage of assessment, how many single building assessments have been supplied to building owners, and what the average amount of time is that each phase has taken.

Single Building Assessment applicants are supported through the process to complete the application form and commission professional services ahead of receiving the final survey report. 10 pilot blocks are within the Application Phase and 15 pilot blocks are within the Delivery Phase. The Single Building Assessment provides an individualised process therefore timescales vary on a building by building basis.