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-03523

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 21 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide (a) an update on how much of the funding allocated to the improvement of ventilation in school buildings has been spent, (b) a breakdown of how this funding was allocated by local authority, including a summary of how each local authority spent its allocation and (c) an update on how the effectiveness of the funded ventilation upgrades will be measured.

I intend to write to the Education, Children and Young People’s Committee later in October with a fuller update on local authority progress with regard to CO2 monitoring and ventilation in school buildings. At this point in time, I can confirm the following:

A) The Scottish Government confirmed a total of £10m funding allocations to local authorities in its grant letter on 14 October 2021. The funding allocations for all local authorities have been agreed and grant payments will be made in line with standard processes and timelines. Local authorities have confirmed that they have been progressing purchases of CO2 monitors on the basis of confirmed funding allocations. We plan to request formal confirmation that all funding provided has been, or will be, used for the specified purposes at a later date.

B) The following table shows the breakdown of how the £10m funding was allocated to each local authority. We do not hold a detailed breakdown of how each local authority will spend their allocation. However the grant letter to local authorities states that the funding should only be used for specified purposes, including the purchase of CO2 monitors, associated additional staffing costs, and to contribute to any remedial action identified as being necessary following CO2 monitoring.

Local Authority	Total
Aberdeen City	£343,000
Aberdeenshire	£525,000
Angus	£217,000
Argyll & Bute	£164,000
Clackmannanshire	£92,000
Dumfries & Galloway	£276,000
Dundee City	£271,000
East Ayrshire	£225,000
East Dunbartonshire	£233,000
East Lothian	£205,000
East Renfrewshire	£230,000
Edinburgh, City of	£755,000
Eilean Siar	£58,000
Falkirk	£297,000
Fife	£688,000
Glasgow City	£1,077,000
Highland	£464,000
Inverclyde	£141,000
Midlothian	£188,000
Moray	£174,000
North Ayrshire	£253,000
North Lanarkshire	£668,000
Orkney	£48,000
Perth & Kinross	£263,000
Renfrewshire	£332,000
Scottish Borders	£212,000
Shetland	£56,000
South Ayrshire	£198,000
South Lanarkshire	£620,000
Stirling	£179,000
West Dunbartonshire	£175,000
West Lothian	£373,000
TOTAL	£10,000,000

C) Feedback from local authorities to date indicates that most of the remedial work identified as necessary following initial CO2 monitoring of the school estate has been of a relatively minor nature. We are continuing to work closely with local authorities to ensure they have in place appropriate strategies for ongoing monitoring, to provide confidence that good ventilation is continuing to be achieved. It is permissible for the funding provided to be used by local authorities to contribute to the costs of any remedial action that their monitoring activity has identified as necessary, after the purchasing of CO2 monitors has been prioritised.

Question reference: S6W-03420

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 21 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many websites it has launched in each year since 2016.

Question reference: S6W-03419

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 21 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many websites it operates.

Question reference: S6W-03474

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 21 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what measures it is taking to ensure that local authorities carry out their duty to collect and manage waste.

Waste management and collections are the responsibility of local authorities and they are best placed to make decisions regarding the provision of waste and recycling services in their area. As democratically elected bodies it would not be appropriate for Scottish Ministers to get involved in the day to day running of Scottish Councils.

We continue to work closely with local authorities, COSLA and other partners to support waste reduction, increased reuse and recycling and responsible waste management. This includes making our first investments from the £70m Recycling Improvement Fund to support local authorities in improving recycling infrastructure, and developing a route map to help achieve our 2025 targets and beyond. We are also working with local government to review the Household Recycling Charter’s Code of Practice, to help make it easier for householders to recycle the right things and encourage high levels of citizen participation in waste prevention, recycling, and reuse.

Question reference: S6W-03477

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 21 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether the finding by the Equality and Human Rights Commission that the SQA was not meeting its responsibilities under the Public Sector Equality Duty will be taken into account when a final decision is made on appeals that are awaiting a decision following the 2020 National Qualifications.

Following previous calls from stakeholders, I carefully considered the position and concluded that there was no way to reopen, or widen out grounds for appeal for the 2020 appeals process in a fair and equitable manner to all learners.

This decision was announced via a parliamentary question on 21 June 2021 and can be found at: https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers/question?ref=S6W-00913 .

The EHRC’s findings refer to historic omissions at the SQA. Learners can be assured that SQA complied with its equalities duties regarding the awarding of National Qualifications over the last two years including those relating to the 2020 appeals process.

Question reference: S6W-03542

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 21 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many confirmed cases of children having COVID-19 there have been in each primary and secondary school in each month since August 2021.

The COVID-19 Education Surveillance dashboard is updated and published every week by Public Health Scotland and includes weekly data on the rate of COVID-19 PCR testing among children and young people of educational age (2-19 years), the number and rate of positive cases and the percentage of tests taken that are positive.

These figures are not broken down to the level of individual school, and there is an overlap between the age groups and the type of school where nearly all 5-11 and 12-15 are primary and secondary school pupils respectively, and 16-17 year olds a more mixed group.

However, the number of individuals who tested positive for COVID-19 by PCR test at the end of August, compared to w/e 10 October were as follows:

Age range (yrs) W/E 30 August W/E 10 October

5-11 12 3151

12-15 20 1905

16-17 12 382

Question reference: S6O-00270

Asked by: Neil Gray, MSP for Airdrie and Shotts, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 October 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its policies and actions across government to support the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and how these have been impacted by the reported cross-sector labour shortages.

Question reference: S6O-00281

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 October 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has allocated for the upgrade of the A77 in its Infrastructure Investment Plan 2021-22 to 2025-2026.

Question reference: S6O-00274

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 October 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how it is ensuring engagement across government with the public, private and third sectors to ensure that the experiences of people providing frontline support to the most vulnerable help shape the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Question reference: S6O-00286

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 October 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what measures it has taken to improve the rural economy in the Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale constituency.