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 48497 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-04475

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 2 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether loans provided under the previous tenant loan fund will be converted to grants.

Question reference: S6W-04309

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 2 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how it will support funded early learning and childcare providers in the private, voluntary and childminding sectors to deliver on its aim of building a system of wraparound school-age childcare and the ambition to provide funded early learning to one-year-olds from low-income households, in light of the reported recruitment and retention challenges facing the sectors.

We work closely with the childcare sector representative bodies and appreciate the challenges faced by settings in relation to recruitment and retention. We are already providing support to all parts of the childcare sector with regard to recruitment and retention challenges. For example, we have invited those whose registrations to work in childcare have lapsed in recent years to re-join the sector; we are providing work experience in the sector via the National Transitional Training Fund; and our national recruitment campaign provides resources to assist with local recruitment. We continue to support the childminding sector as set out in Our Commitment to Childminding Report, which can be found at: Our commitment to childminding: report - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

We will work in partnership with all parts of the childcare sector to develop delivery plans for school-aged childcare and funded early learning for one year olds and to ensure that the appropriate support is in place. We have also committed to developing a new, five-year Workforce Strategy for the childcare sector. The strategy will address recruitment and retention challenges to build on the support already available, taking into account our commitments to build a system of wraparound childcare and further extend early learning.

Question reference: S6W-04476

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 2 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether applications to the Tenant Hardship Loan Fund can be made by tenants directly, or whether this is restricted to registered landlords only.

The Tenant Hardship Loan Fund provides loans to tenants who are having difficulty paying rent because of the impacts of COVID-19. A loan may be paid to tenants or to landlords directly if authorised by the tenant but landlords are not eligible to apply for this loan directly.

The PRS Landlord (non-business) Covid-19 Loan is available to assist certain registered social landlords experiencing loss of income as a result of COVID 19 restrictions. Landlords may apply directly for this loan.

Question reference: S6W-04497

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 2 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many loans have been provided to customers through the Low Carbon Transport Loan scheme to cover the purchase of new electric vehicles in the Scottish Borders area, and what the total value is of these loans.

The Scottish Government since 2010 has provided funding to the Energy Saving Trust to deliver the Low Carbon Transport Loan, this interest free loan has supported individuals and businesses across Scotland purchase new electric vehicles.

As of the 23 rd November 2021, 141 loans have been provided to individuals and businesses across the Scottish Borders to support the purchase of new electric vehicles to the value of £3,946,087.

Question reference: S6W-04543

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ash Regan on 2 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when it will next review the impact of the sections in the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 regarding occasional licences.

The Scottish Government consulted in 2019 on a number of areas associated with the legislative regime for occasional licences. This included the level of fees and whether or not there should be a limit on the number and duration of occasional licences for premises/personal licence holders. The views offered in response will help inform further consideration of issues in this area in due course.

Decisions about the granting of occasional licences are for independent licensing boards within the framework of the 2005 Act. Each licensing board is required to produce a licensing policy statement explaining how they will approach the operation of licensing within their area in line with the five licencing objectives. This can include details about policy on the granting of occasional licences.

Question reference: S6W-04510

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 2 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many applications to the Women in Agriculture Practical Training Fund there have been, and of those how many (a) were approved, (b) were not approved and (c) following appeal, were (i) approved and (ii) not approved.

In total 585 applications for the Women in Agriculture Practical Training Fund were received. Of this:

- 460 applications were approved.

- Where an application was not approved (125 applications), there was always a reason provided, specific to the application and if sought clarification and discussion on this reasoning was provided.

- There have been no appeals. A number of applications were asked to provide additional information, and where provided the application was reviewed in light of the additional information.

Question reference: S6W-04665

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 29 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 2 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-04126 by Ivan McKee on 12 November 2021, whether it will list the members of the Aerospace and Defence Industry Group.

As indicated in the response provided in answer S6W-04126 on 12 November 2021, the Aerospace and Defence Industry Group (ADIG) is the industry-led successor body to the Ministerial-led Aerospace Response Group (ARG) and membership of ADIG was extended to all members of the previous group.

Secretariat to the ADIG is provided by the industry body ADS Scotland, therefore information regarding membership of ADIG is a matter for them.

Question reference: S6W-04512

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 2 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many successful applications to the Young Farmers Start-Up Grant Scheme there were from women in each year for which the scheme was open for applications.

Question reference: S6W-04498

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 2 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many electric vehicle domestic charge point grants have been provided to customers in the Scottish Borders area, and what the total value is of these grants.

The Scottish Government since 2010 has provided funding to the Energy Saving Trust to deliver the Domestic chargepoint scheme, this scheme provides grant funding to support individuals across Scotland install electric vehicle home chargepoints.

To date Energy Saving Trust have provided 433 grants with a value of £137,423 to individuals across the Scottish Borders to install electric vehicle chargepoints.

Question reference: S6W-04558

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Monday, 22 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 2 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what action Revenue Scotland is taking to reclaim fraudulent or incorrect furlough payments, in light of reports that HM Revenue and Customs has been asked to recover £1 billion from such payments.

Scheme Year	Applications successful from women
2016	25
2017	10
2018	26
2019	1