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-01574

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 November 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when it expects the Scottish COVID-19 Inquiry to conclude.

Question reference: S6O-01596

Asked by: Clare Adamson, MSP for Motherwell and Wishaw, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 November 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what support is in place to help tackle fuel poverty in the Motherwell and Wishaw constituency, including for people with prepayment meters who are worried about rising energy costs.

Question reference: S6O-01592

Asked by: Marie McNair, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 November 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to bus companies that are currently facing driver shortages.

Question reference: S6W-12102

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 16 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to its letter of 12 September 2022 to Integration Joint Boards, how much it expects to recoup in COVID-19 reserves.

IJBs were given a funding allocation in 2021-22 to support a range of Covid pressures. This was a ring fenced allocation specifically for Covid.

There have been a number of significant changes to Public Health policies in relation to Covid over the summer, resulting in the profile of Covid spend reducing significantly compared to when funding was provided to IJBs.

In response to this, we communicated the action to reclaim surplus Covid reserves to be redistributed across the sector to meet current Covid priorities. We will continue to work with IJBs to understand their financial forecasts and further detail will be communicated later in the financial year. The detail will follow at an IJB level and the process and timetable will follow through further communications.

Question reference: S6W-12030

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 16 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to local authorities to help them to remobilise day centre services for children and adults with learning disabilities.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of day services to adults with learning disabilities, their families and carers. Decisions about individual services are made by local authorities. However, the Scottish Government maintains regular contact with local authorities to encourage and support the re-opening of services. The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care wrote to all local authorities and Health and Social Care partnerships on 25th May 2022 requesting that they undertake a survey of registered day centre services in their area with a view to identifying which services have re-opened, which have only partially opened (or opened with reduced capacity), and why. The purpose of this was to gain insight into the challenges around re-opening and capacity to inform the development of Scottish Government policy advice and guidance.

The findings from the survey identified that Covid-19 restrictions such as physical distancing, which were in place at the time were a barrier to services returning to full capacity. Covid-19 guidance for building-based day services was updated in both May and September and there is no longer a requirement for physical distancing between services users or staff. The survey also identified challenges in relation to the workforce. These exist across social care and work is under way to improve recruitment to the sector. This has included funding to extend the Myjobscotland website, the creation of a recruitment portal with the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC), and working with Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) colleagues to host a series of social care job fairs across Scotland.

The survey will be repeated in November 2022 in order to establish how much progress has been made towards increasing capacity since the original survey was undertaken.

Question reference: S6W-11858

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 16 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it expects Scottish Enterprise to recoup any of the cost of the financial assistance that the body reportedly provided to Stoneywood Mill, Aberdeen, pre-2022.

Question reference: S6W-12021

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 November 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 16 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will fund a dedicated space to address Scotland's colonial and slavery history, in light of recommendations by the Empire, Slavery and Scotland's Museums Steering Group. R

The Scottish Government is actively considering its response to the Empire, Slavery and Scotland's Museums steering group recommendations. Discussions to help inform our response are continuing with, amongst others, representatives from Museums Galleries Scotland, and members of the steering group themselves, to make sure the complexities and challenges involved are fully understood. After these discussions have concluded, a formal response will be issued in due course.

Question reference: S6W-12027

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee City West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Elena Whitham on 16 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what assistance it is offering to the Fire Brigade's Union's DECON campaign to help firefighters protect themselves and others from harmful contaminants, in light of a reported study from the University of Central Lancashire stating that firefighters are four times more likely to get cancer than the average working person, due to toxic contaminants released during fires.

The safety and wellbeing of all fire and rescue officers is of upmost importance to the Scottish Government.

As the employer of firefighters in Scotland, the FBU DECON campaign is a matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service. SFRS has been engaged with this research for a number of years and met with Professor Anna Stec of the University of Central Lancashire on 1 November to hear directly of the important research she is doing and to offer SFRS cooperation on that work.

SFRS have a Management of Contaminants Group which has already made significant changes in procedures, equipment and facilities to reduce firefighter contact with equipment which could contain contaminants harmful to health and this important work will continue.

Question reference: S6W-11852

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 16 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it was recently approached by any potential buyer of Stoneywood Mill, Aberdeen, for financial assistance.

Question reference: S6W-11668

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 21 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 16 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact of the reported freeze of Modern Apprenticeship funding on the childcare sector.