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-26828

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 April 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 10 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many out-of-hours doctors have been on call in NHS Dumfries and Galloway on each of the last 30 days, also broken down by the location at which they have been based.

Question reference: S6O-03309

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 April 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment the Ministerial Taskforce on Population has made of the potential impact of the centralisation of services on the sustainability of rural communities.

Question reference: S6W-26109

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 26 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to support the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of police officers in rural and remote communities such as Dumfries and Galloway.

Thanks to an additional £80 million of funding from the Scottish Government in 2023-24, Police Scotland have invested in their workforce - recruiting almost 600 officers in 2023 alone and around 1,480 new officers since the beginning of 2022.

Police Scotland will be welcoming an additional 200 officers in March with further intakes planned throughout the year.

Police Scotland statistics indicate that 355 officers were in the Dumfries and Galloway Divisional area on 31 December 2023 an increase of seven officers on the same point in 2022.

The recruitment and deployment of resources is a matter for the Chief Constable, who is accountable to the Scottish Police Authority, and it is for Police Scotland to determine recruitment and retention approaches both locally and nationally. I am pleased that the Chief Constable has confirmed that the 2024-25 budget will enable Police Scotland to retain numbers in the region of 16,500 to 16,600 officers.

Question reference: S6W-26110

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 21 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has considered the appropriateness of local authorities as statutory consultees accepting any financial incentives from windfarm developers prior to submitting their statutory response on a proposed development.

The Scottish Government is clear that the views of local authorities are an important consideration in the decision-making process for determining energy consents applications.

The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 provides a legal framework for the operation and governance of local authorities in Scotland. While it doesn't specifically address conflicts of interest, it establishes the broader legal context within which local authorities operate and are required to conduct their affairs in accordance with the law.

Local authorities in Scotland are also subject to public procurement regulations, which include requirements to ensure transparency, fairness, and competition in the awarding of contracts. These regulations often include provisions aimed at preventing conflicts of interest in procurement processes.

Question reference: S6O-03261

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 March 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to support the creation of new jobs at the Chapelcross site near Annan.

Question reference: S6W-25968

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 18 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to improve the quality of prevalence data on the number of people in Scotland with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), in light of its publication of experimental statistics in December 2022 in the report, Neurological Conditions: estimating the prevalence in Scotland of selected conditions using General Practice and Hospital Admissions datasets.

Question reference: S6W-25973

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 18 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what the initial predicted contract cost with ACER for Scottish National Standardised Assessments was, and what the actual final cost totalled.

The estimated value in the invitation to tender was £10 million over 5 years. This was not a detailed estimate but a guide price to inform potential bidders – standard practice when issuing an Invitation To Tender of this sort. The contract was extended for a further year due to the impact of Covid and the restrictions it placed on effective public procurement.

The completion cost of the 6-year contract with ACER UK was £17m. This figure includes the initial start-up costs, for the technical development of the assessment platform, annual running costs, and continuous improvement work to ensure that the assessment platform remains engaging for learners and continues to meet teachers’ needs.

Question reference: S6W-25747

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 14 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many disabled members of NHS Scotland staff have been subject to formal disciplinary processes in each of the last five years, and what process is in place to ensure that (a) disabled staff members are treated fairly under conduct policies and (b) disciplinary action takes any disability or health condition into consideration.

The Scottish Government does not hold the requested information that may be available from each Health Board as employer.

The NHSScotland workforce policies and their supporting documents set the standard for employment practice for all NHS Boards in Scotland. They have been developed with full consideration of equality and diversity impacts and to reflect fair work principles. Our expectation is that these policies are applied with a person centred approach to positively impact on eliminating discrimination and to advance equality of opportunity across all protected characteristics.

Question reference: S6W-25971

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Kaukab Stewart on 14 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether any representatives from the Scottish Government attended the World Athletics Championships in Glasgow, and, if so, who.

From Friday 1st to Sunday 3rd March Glasgow hosted the World Athletics Indoor Championships for the first time in Scotland and only the third time in the United Kingdom. A total of 586 athletes from 128 countries across all six continental areas competed in Glasgow, watched by more than 22,000 ticketed spectators from 37 countries, and the event produced two world records, five championship records, ten area records and 54 national records.

The World Athletics Indoor Championships provided yet another opportunity to further enhance Scotland's reputation not only as The Perfect Stage for hosting Major Events but also as a welcoming place to live and work, study, visit and do business.

Given these excellent opportunities for engagement with key stakeholders, the Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport and the Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care attended separate athletics sessions in the Emirates Arena. In addition the Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development attended the Welcome Reception hosted jointly by the World Athletics President and the Glasgow City Council Provost. A senior Scottish Government Official also attended two civic receptions and sporting activity.

The Emirates Arena was also the venue for a meeting of the UK Inter-Ministerial Group for Sport, chaired by the Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport. This was attended by Ministers from all home nations.

Question reference: S6W-25464

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 9 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when Individual Training Accounts administered by Skills Development Scotland will reopen to new applicants.