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 42727 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6F-00236

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 September 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 September 2021

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6W-02631

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 13 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-31723 by Jeane Freeman on 9 November 2020, whether it will clarify if data on the provision of free personal care for under-65s has continued to be collected throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and, if so, whether it will provide an update on when it expects to publish this data.

Data on the implementation of free personal care to under 65’s, in line with other non-Covid-19 data collections, was temporarily postponed due to the pandemic and redirection of the Scottish Government and Local Authority resources to the pandemic response. The Scottish Government recommenced the collection of data on the implementation of free personal care to under 65’s in August 2021. This data will be collected and quality assured ahead of publication of results in 2022.

Question reference: S6W-02733

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 13 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what plan it has to maintain the Gaelic Capital Fund throughout the current parliamentary session.

Question reference: S6W-02665

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 03 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 13 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to increase the number of childcare settings that have signed up to the Scottish Milk and Healthy Snack Scheme.

We continue to promote registration so more children can benefit from milk and a healthy snack. We are working in close partnership with COSLA and Local Authorities via an Implementation Group. We will shortly be expanding the remit and membership of this Group to include wider stakeholders and to ensure the scheme is meeting the needs of children and settings as we look ahead to scheme Year 2 and beyond.

Question reference: S6W-02579

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 30 August 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 13 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-01420 by Graeme Dey on 6 August 2021, whether it will provide details of (a) the terms of reference for the independent review and (b) the value of the contract between Transport Scotland and the consultants for this work.

Question reference: S6W-02474

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 13 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been spent on fuel for ministerial cars in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-02399

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 13 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what (a) engagement it will have with and (b) assistance it will provide for (i) heat pump manufacturers and (ii) other related stakeholders to ensure that any of its schemes or programmes that are aimed at tackling poverty can benefit from the anticipated increase in heat pump installations.

The Scottish Government funds the Energy Saving Trust to deliver a sustainable energy supply chain programme to help develop capacity amongst installers. This initiative provides support and training in low and zero emissions heating technology installations, webinars and events as well as support for training costs which we deliver in partnership with the Energy Skills Partnership.

Information about procurement opportunities related to our fuel poverty programmes is published on the Public Contracts Scotland website. The Scottish Government and local authorities responsible for delivery of our Area Based Schemes also participate in regular “Meet the Buyer” events organised by the Supplier Development Programme (SDP).

Question reference: S6W-02534

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 13 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many school age children there are in each local authority area, also broken down by how many have been provided with laptops or tablet computers in the last year.

The following table shows how many school-aged children are in each local authority (as at September 2020) and how many devices have been distributed by councils using the £25m digital inclusion funding made available by Scottish Government in 2020-21. Local authorities across Scotland have a range of approaches to provision of technology in schools, including some councils who have undertaken to provide cohorts of their school population with devices using their own budgets. We do not hold information centrally on those local digital inclusion schemes, therefore, the table below only shows devices distributed through the funding made available by Scottish Government in 2020-21.

Local Authority	Pupils (as at September 2020)	Devices Distributed
Aberdeen City	23,695	1,777
Aberdeenshire	36,317	5,008
Angus	15,263	2,420
Argyll & Bute	10,167	1,317
City of Edinburgh	51,958	2,605
Clackmannanshire	6,661	828
Dumfries & Galloway	18,682	2,371
Dundee City	18,347	2,050
East Ayrshire	16,223	1,837
East Dunbartonshire	17,304	1,015
East Lothian	14,882	1,806
East Renfrewshire	17,392	623
Falkirk	21,926	1,840
Fife	50,287	5,465
Glasgow City	70,406	7,240
Highland	30,826	4,499
Inverclyde	9,811	1,107
Midlothian	13,458	1,235
Moray	12,114	1,315
Na h-Eileanan Siar	3,328	357
North Ayrshire	18,061	1,734
North Lanarkshire	49,232	6,026
Orkney Islands	2,804	275
Perth & Kinross	18,197	1,507
Renfrewshire	23,845	1,800
Scottish Borders	14,478	316
Shetland Islands	3,289	475
South Ayrshire	14,267	1,512
South Lanarkshire	45,091	5,544
Stirling	12,747	1,794
West Dunbartonshire	12,522	2,084
West Lothian	27,449	2,905

Scotland	701,029	72,687

Question reference: S6W-02416

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 23 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 13 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what the latest advice is for immunosuppressed people who have received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, and whether this group has the same level of immunity to COVID-19 as non-immunosuppressed people who have received two vaccine doses.

All the UK governments receive their expert clinical advice from the JCVI and the Committee has been closely monitoring the situation, in regard to this cohort of people.

The Scottish Government are waiting for formal advice on this issue from the JCVI and any recommendation made by the Committee will be promptly implemented in Scotland.

The Committee are fully aware of the potential sub-optimal response to two doses of the vaccine by some immunosuppressed individuals and that’s why they recommended that these groups of people should be given highest priority for a booster programme in the autumn.

Question reference: S6W-02459

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 13 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of relevant businesses (a) has access to and (b) participates in separate food waste collections.

Year	Total fuel spend
16-17	£75,277
17-18	£78,276
18-19	£101,360
19-20	£80,812
20-21	£26,760