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-09418

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 3 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance it is providing to local authorities regarding gender-neutral toilets for children within (a) primary and (b) secondary schools.

It is the statutory responsibility of local authorities to manage their school estate. Therefore, it is for them to determine what facilities are appropriate, while complying with the School Premises Regulations and in full consultation with the school community.

In August 2021, the Scottish Government published Supporting transgender young people in schools: guidance for Scottish schools. This guidance sets out the position on support for and provision of single-sex spaces within Scottish schools.

Our Learning Estate Strategy, which sets out the strategic approach for managing Scotland’s school estate, makes clear that good consultation about learning environments, direct engagement with learners and communities about their needs and experiences, and an involvement in decision making processes should lead to better outcomes for all.

Question reference: S6W-09583

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 04 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 2 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will support the grassroots music industry through ventures such as the Music Venue Trust, which seeks to raise funds to build community ownership of grassroots music venues to ensure a sustainable and resilient model of support of grassroots music across the UK.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that there is a thriving music industry in Scotland, including grassroots music venues, which are key to supporting emerging Scottish talent.

That is why the Scottish Government’s Grassroots Music Venues Stabilisation Fund (GMVSF) provided grassroots live music venues with £6.2 million of emergency funds to help address the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and prevent closures. Music venues were also able to apply to the £25m Cancellation Fund for Cultural Organisations in early 2022, which supported creative businesses which had been adversely financially impacted by cancellations or postponement of activities due to the rapid spread of the Omicron variant.

The Scottish Government is content to engage further with the Music Venue Trust to discuss their new initiative to build community ownership of grassroots music venues, including in Glasgow.

Question reference: S6W-09800

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 18 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 2 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government which schools in the Glasgow region are running the Equally Safe at School programme.

Our Equally Safe Strategy for preventing and eradicating violence against women and girls emphasises the importance of challenging the underpinning attitudes which enable such violence to take place. Education settings have an important role in challenging these attitudes through teaching children and young adults about healthy relationships, consent and gender stereotypes which drive gender-based violence.

Our Equally Safe at School (ESAS) project, developed by Rape Crisis Scotland and Zero Tolerance, applies a whole school approach to inequality and gender-based violence in schools. Rape Crisis Scotland have reported that 3 schools in the Glasgow region are currently registered for an ESAS account. This year, Rape Crisis Scotland anticipate the number of schools registered for ESAS will grow as they continue to focus on the promotion of ESAS and work both nationally and with local authorities to develop ESAS implementation strategies.

The Scottish Government also funds and supports other education-based programmes and initiatives aimed at preventing gender-based violence such as our Mentors in Violence peer education programme, the Gender Equality Taskforce in Education and Learning, the Gender-Based Violence in Schools Working Group and Rape Crisis Scotland’s national sexual violence programme for secondary schools

Question reference: S6W-09416

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 July 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether there are any new (a) primary and (b) secondary schools being built with exclusively gender-neutral toilets for children.

Question reference: S6W-09417

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 July 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether there are any (a) primary and (b) secondary schools that have exclusively gender-neutral toilets for children.

Question reference: S6W-09287

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ash Regan on 19 July 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to the supplementary question by Jamie Greene to question S6O-00660, by Ash Regan on 26 January 2022, what progress has been made on addressing the backlog of repairs to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service estate; what urgent action has been taken to address the concerns raised regarding the 14 fire stations where flat roofs were identified as being at risk of collapse, and what detailed plan the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service has for all the fire stations that have been identified as being in a poor, or worse, condition.

Decisions on the allocation of its capital budget including fleet, equipment and buildings is a matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) Board. SFRS has a 10 year capital programme based on risk and decisions on fire station investment forms part of a wider review that the SFRS is carrying out on the assets it needs to protect communities from risk.

The safety of Scottish Fire and Rescue Service staff is paramount and SFRS continues to monitor the remedial measures which were immediately put in place to rectify the potentially defective roofs found in 14 fire stations. All 14 stations have had an options appraisal to identify the best option to rebuild or refurbish.

Question reference: S6W-09408

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 14 July 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reported calls from COSLA, whether it will make additional funding available for local authorities to match the 5% pay offer that has reportedly been made to some other public sector workers.

The Scottish Government greatly values the hard work and dedication of the local government workforce. We also recognise the challenges across the public sector, including local government, in ensuring that pay increases are affordable to employers but are fair to employees against the backdrop of the cost of living crisis.

Local government pay negotiations are entirely the responsibility of local authorities and COSLA. However, both the Scottish Government and COSLA are working to jointly explore all of the options available to find solutions.

Question reference: S6W-09579

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 04 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 8 July 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6O-01292 by Patrick Harvie on 29 June 2022, whether it will publish the referenced data on heat pumps.

The answer to question S6O-01292 does not directly reference any data on heat pumps. However, the answer to the supplementary question does:

"the experience that we have and the comparable data that we have from countries that already have a long history of using heat pumps and heat networks show that they will be effective in Scotland"

The research being referenced here was commissioned by the Scottish Government through ClimateXChange and was published under the title “Heat pump use in Scotland - an evidence review” in October 2021. The paper can be found here:

https://www.climatexchange.org.uk/research/projects/heat-pump-use-in-scotland-an-evidence-review/

Question reference: S6O-01292

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 29 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what range of heating systems it anticipates will replace gas boilers in the near future.

The Heat in Buildings Strategy identifies priority technologies available for deployment in the near term. Those relevant to homes currently using gas boilers are:

Energy efficiency improvements,
Individual heat pumps in certain buildings currently using mains gas – those where assessment indicates short-term cost effectiveness, and areas least likely to convert to hydrogen in future
Heat networks in areas deemed suitable.

These are no and low-regrets as, across all plausible pathways to net zero, they are likely to be the most cost effective zero emissions options in the buildings identified.

Question reference: S6T-00828

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 27 June 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on reports that the Scottish Solicitors’ Bar Association say that the impasse on legal aid payments has meant that the entire criminal justice system is in “imminent danger of collapse”.