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: S5W-32725

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 23 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 9 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government when the £11 million Coronavirus (COVID-19) Restrictions Fund will become available for applications.

On 27 October, we announced that a portion of the Contingency Fund would be used specifically to support nightclubs and soft play centres in recognition of the financial challenges they are experiencing having been closed since March. Nightclubs and soft play centres do not need to apply for this funding as eligible businesses will be contacted directly by local authorities.

We are continuing to consider where the remainder of the Contingency Fund would be most effectively deployed in supporting businesses impact by restrictions.

Question reference: S5O-04743

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 November 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what urgent action it is taking to protect the eggs of the critically endangered flapper skate, which have recently been found off the northwest coast of Scotland.

Question reference: S5F-04525

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 02 November 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 November 2020

To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government will take to prevent a dental health crisis for people living in poverty in the coming months and years.

Question reference: S5W-32346

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 2 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has carried out of the impact on child dental health of the delay in restarting non-private routine check-ups and procedures.

The resumption of routine dental care for both adult and child patients, including check-ups and preventive care, forms part of the wider programme for the remobilisation of dental services which is itself a component of the wider Route Map devised by the Scottish Government to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. The Route Map aims to manage the four key harms of the pandemic - to health, to the delivery of health and social care, to society, and to the economy - and was the subject of an Equality and Fairer Scotland Impact Assessment (EQFSIA) as a whole.

Analysis by the National Dental Inspection Programme (NDIP) has indicated the significant improvement to the oral health of Scotland's children since its inception in 2003, which has been shown to be due to the national Childsmile programme especially the supervised daily toothbrushing in nurseries. We are committed to restoring the Childsmile programme in nurseries and schools as well as in dental practices as soon as it is safe to do so, and we are committed to continuing to evaluate the impact of the Childsmile programme on child oral health in Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-32373

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 2 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it will give to extending the smoking ban to include doorways and entrances in (a) public and (b) residential areas.

It is already an offence to smoke in enclosed entrances and doorways.

The Scottish Government is progressing planned legislation on introducing a mandatory smoke-free perimeter around hospital buildings to prevent people from smoking around doorways and entrances to hospitals. Our Tobacco-Control Action Plan 2018 includes a commitment to ensure that communal landings become smoke-free. In addition we will also explore with local authorities and housing associations the idea of tobacco-free clauses in tenancy agreements and smoke-free housing alternatives being offered in social housing.

Whilst the smoking legislation introduced in 2006 was designed to reduce the negative impact of the practice in enclosed public spaces we have, in recent months, written to retailers requesting that they ask customers to refrain from smoking whilst queuing to enter premises for the comfort and safety of others.

Question reference: S5W-32348

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 2 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on double-testing patients to allow routine dentistry to resume.

Question reference: S5W-32347

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 2 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government when routine dental care appointments will be able to resume.

Question reference: S5W-32168

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 28 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the hospitality sector regarding the potential number of (a) job losses and (b) failing businesses because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Regular engagement with the industry is ongoing on a number of issues affecting the sector, including the risk of job losses and business failures, which the Scottish Government are doing everything possible to avoid through targeted business support, including the recently announced £40 million Covid 19 restrictions fund: https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-restrictions-fund/ .

Question reference: S5W-32166

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 28 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has carried out on the support needed to protect the hospitality industry and the jobs that this supports.

The Scottish Government is regularly monitoring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on all sectors of the economy, including the hospitality sector, to understand needs for support to maintain viability and how to protect jobs.

The Scottish Government’s analysis of data from ONS’s Business Impacts of Coronavirus Survey, published on 8th October, indicates that in the period 7 September to 20 September 2020, around 82.7 per cent of businesses in the Accommodation & Food Services sector with more than 10 employees had resumed trading. It also estimated that, in the period 24 August to 20 September, 75.6 per cent of currently trading businesses in the Accommodation & Food Services sector were experiencing lower turnover than expected for the time of year, and 40.9 per cent of the workforce were on furlough leave.

The Scottish Government’s sectoral analysis, such as that presented in the Chief Economist’s Monthly Economic Brief for July 2020, also indicates that the Accommodation and Food Sector is in need of ongoing support.

The hospitality industry continues to be substantially affected by COVID-19 and the measures necessary to reduce opportunities for transmission of the virus. The Scottish Government is providing substantial support to the hospitality sector. This has included grant support through the Small Business Support Grant Fund and Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund; the Creative, Tourism and Hospitality Hardship Fund; as well as 100% relief for the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors in 2020-21.

The Scottish Government will also provide further support to hospitality businesses affected by temporary restrictions to slow the spread of COVID-19 through the COVID-19 Restrictions Fund, and support for businesses to meet the cost of re-furloughing employees via the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. However it is clear much more support for industries affected by restrictions will be required, which is why together with the Welsh Government and the Northern Ireland Executive, we have repeatedly called on the UK Government to transfer greater financial powers.

Question reference: S5W-32167

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 28 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the hospitality sector to develop sustainable COVID-19 regulations that will be effective for the duration of the pandemic.