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 48453 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-01337

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 28 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-35656 by John Swinney on 11 March 2021, what progress has been made regarding updated guidance for schools on supporting transgender children and young people, and whether the guidance will be ready for the return of schools in August 2021.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving the lives of trans and non-binary people in Scotland. Trans people continue to suffer poorer outcomes relative to the wider population, and this needs to change.

We are committed to ensuring that all children and young people are supported in school and are able to reach their full potential, including transgender young people. We committed to develop guidance to support schools to do this and will publish guidance shortly.

Question reference: S6W-00932

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 21 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 28 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to SEPA issuing a "very poor" draft assessment of the Ineos Kinneil terminal for 2019, due to significant non-compliance and the requirement for urgent improvement, and what discussion it has had with (a) SEPA and (b) Ineos about (i) the assessment, and (ii) flaring and effluent breaches.

SEPA has not yet published information on its Compliance Assessment Scheme results for 2019 and expect to publish the results later this year. As such, no discussions have been held with SEPA or Ineos in relation to the assessment.

The draft result for Ineos Kinneil Terminal was included in the information stolen from SEPA in the cyber attack and was subsequently published in the press. The information stolen was an draft of this assessment - and had therefore not been subjected to all the necessary verification processes to finalise the assessment.

Question reference: S6W-01154

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 28 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many school pupils have not returned to full-time education since school buildings reopened.

Question reference: S6W-01121

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 28 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many hours of health and wellbeing education or training are provided to student teachers during each course provided by each of the education institutions.

The General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) is the independent, regulatory body for the teaching profession and are responsible for the accreditation and approval of all Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes. They will only approve programmes which meet the requirements in their Guidelines for Accreditation of ITE Programmes. The Framework specifically asks how student teachers are supported to develop an understanding of a range of pedagogy approaches in a number of key areas. One of the key areas is health and wellbeing education.

ITE providers regularly meet to discuss the quality of their provision and, on 8 June, held a symposium covering health and wellbeing. The learning from this symposium will inform future revisions to programmes.

Question reference: S6W-01187

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 02 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 28 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-00525 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 18 June 2021, whether the meetings on (a) 24 May, (b) 3 June and (c) 24 June were minuted, and if so, whether those minutes will be published.

Since my appointment to the role of Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills I have had a number of introductory discussions with the Chief Examining Officer to develop my understanding of matters pertaining to the alternative certification model and to discuss issues being raised by stakeholders.

The meeting of 24 May informed my understanding of the ACM and the approach to 2021 appeals.

On the phone call of 3 June I discussed my priorities and the upcoming publication of the OECD review ahead of my Parliamentary Statement that day.

At the meeting of 24 June SQA were invited to share thoughts on the Reform of SQA and Education Scotland.

These meetings were informal and as a result no minutes were taken.

Question reference: S6W-01155

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 02 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 28 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether the absence rate for pupils has been 50% or greater since full-time education in school buildings returned, broken down by (a) primary and (b) secondary schools.

No. Absence rates for pupils were never 50% or greater when schools were fully open for all pupils during the 2020/21 school year.

The Scottish Government have published information in relation to school pupil attendance and absence throughout the 2020/21 school year, which can be found here:

COVID19 - Schools and Childcare Information 2021 | Tableau Public

Coronavirus (COVID-19): daily data for Scotland - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Coronavirus (COVID-19): trends in daily data - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

COVID-19 Education Recovery Group: children and young people infographic - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Question reference: S6W-01267

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what funding it has provided for research into long COVID.

Question reference: S6W-01224

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 05 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 28 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether the independent reviewers appointed to undertake the Gateway Review into the go-live date of the Deposit Return Scheme have interviewed representatives of small producers.

Question reference: S6W-01265

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many disabled interns each NHS board has hired in each of the last three years.

Question reference: S6W-01698

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 28 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many complaints against property factors have been brought to the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland housing and property chamber in each year since 2011, and, of these, how many were brought as a result of the property factor failing to (a) carry out their duties and (b) comply with the standards in the Code of Conduct (section 17(1) of the 2011 Act).