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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 48968 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-13524

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 20 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it still plans to establish a National Social Work Agency as part of the new National Care Service infrastructure.

The Independent Review of Adult Social Care (IRASC) recommended the establishment of a National Social Work Agency (NSWA) for oversight of professional development of social workers and it is our intention to establish a NSWA as part of the National Care Service.

It’s objectives will be to support and invest in the profession by providing national leadership and overseeing social work – ensuring we attract and retain the right people, developing them in their roles and raising the status of social work as a profession. The NSWA is to be established as part of the National Care Service infrastructure, at a national level, given the important links and function that social work has within the wider National Care Service structure and given the important relationship between social work, social care and community health.

Question reference: S6W-13523

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 20 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to professional registration of any unregistered groups within the social care workforce.

The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) is the professional regulator for the social services workforce in Scotland.

The SSSC will begin work this year to establish what further groups of social service workers should be considered for professional regulation.

On completion of this work SSSC will report to Scottish Ministers who will then decide on what groups should be brought into the scope of professional regulation.

Question reference: S6W-13402

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 20 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will carry out a national audit of secondary breast cancer, in light of NHS England's reported national metastatic breast cancer audit, announced in May 2021.

Question reference: S6W-13740

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 20 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what funding is available to local authorities to support Gaelic-medium education.

The Scottish Government has two streams of funding available to local authorities to help support Gaelic medium and Gaelic learner education across Scotland. These are the Scheme of Gaelic Specific Grant, £4.482m, and the Gaelic Schools Capital Fund, £4m. In 2022-23, 26 local authorities applied and were supported from the Scheme of Gaelic Specific Grant and Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Highland received support for projects that expanded Gaelic Medium Education educational settings.

Question reference: S6W-13837

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 20 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-13629 by Neil Gray on 12 January 2023, when it expects to provide the update mentioned in the response, and whether this will be by the end of January 2023.

Question reference: S6W-13672

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 06 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many houses have been completed for the social rent sector in each year since 2016.

Question reference: S6W-13516

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 20 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has invested in the Social Work Professional Support Service - Scotland.

We acknowledge the immense, highly skilled and unique contribution made by social workers to support individuals and families across Scotland. We also know that social workers face significant challenges and have taken steps to ensure they have the right support.

The Scottish Association of Social Work has been given £200,000 in 2021-2023 to provide a peer support service covering a range of issues including wellbeing and resilience.

Question reference: S6W-13742

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 20 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-10720 by Christina McKelvie on 20 September 2022, when it will publish its refreshed Disability Equality Strategy.

We continue to work closely with the steering group, made up of Disabled People’s Organisations, to co-design the new Disability Equality strategy. The group met several times in 2022 and are focused on listening to the challenges and obstacles disabled people face and finding the solutions that can be delivered.

The group last met in November 2022 and a further meeting is planned for the end of February 2023. It is anticipated that the strategy will be published in Spring 2023 subject to the conclusion of the co-design process.

Question reference: S6W-13814

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 20 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to assist residents in Dumfries and Galloway who are experiencing any difficulties recycling single-use plastic medical blister packs.

The UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is responsible for setting all packaging requirements for medicines. Blister packs are not easily recycled because of strict regulatory requirements for pharmaceutical packaging. The Scottish Government encourages businesses to take steps to increase the recycling rates for this packaging where these are compatible with the waste hierarchy and ensure the high-value recycling of materials.

We are taking action to reduce packaging waste and improve recycling in Scotland, including the £70 million Recycling Improvement Fund, which will make it easier for households to recycle, and work across the devolved administrations to introduce extended producer responsibility for packaging. These actions will help local authorities increase the types of materials they can recycle.

Question reference: S6W-13877

Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Elena Whitham on 20 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact that the freeze on the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) capital budget at £32.5 million will have upon the ability of SFRS to modernise its current estate.

Decisions on the allocation of its capital budget, including how to prioritise fleet, equipment or buildings is a matter for SFRS.

The Scottish Government is in regular contact with SFRS to ensure it has the resources it needs to keep communities safe. SFRS is currently undertaking an assessment of the risks faced by communities and the assets which are needed to deal with those risks and this will inform future discussions on both capital and resource budgets.