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: S6O-03734

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 September 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its work to explore the feasibility of an islands scholarship to support higher education students studying in Scotland’s islands.

Question reference: S6O-03725

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 September 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of police service strength, in light of the decrease in Police Scotland's officer numbers.

Question reference: S6O-03720

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 September 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government about improving relations with the European Union, including on rejoining the single market and customs union.

Question reference: S6O-03739

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 September 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the levels of funding for tertiary education are adequate to support a thriving sector.

Question reference: S6W-29619

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Friday, 06 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 11 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many projects in the Highlands and Islands will be impacted by its announced reduction of £800,000 from the Community Led Local Development collaboration fund.

The allocation of funding to Collaboration projects had not yet been determined, and was intended to be open to applications from all Local Action Groups. Scottish Government officials had therefore not yet been in a position to provide any breakdown of geographical distribution of projects funded by the £800,000. To date this financial year (2024-25), we have allocated funding of £6.65m for Community Led Local Development (CLLD), from which Highlands & Islands-based Local Action groups received £2,086,003.73 (Highlands and Islands is defined here as Highland, Shetland, Orkney, Outer Hebrides and Argyll and Bute)

Despite the reduction of £800k, we will continue to support projects that assist and empower rural communities through the CLLD budget.

Question reference: S6W-29128

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 August 2024
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 11 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-28067 by Tom Arthur on 19 June 2024, whether it will provide details of how exactly it enabled "all parties to achieve what they required from the sale and purchase of the business", and whether or not the transaction would have proceeded without Scottish Government ownership.

The Scottish Government’s involvement in the transaction helped secure the earliest realisation of the commercial and wider economic benefits of the deal, and the selected structure was agreed by all parties.

The statement given by the then Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism and Enterprise to the Scottish Parliament on 15 December 2021 highlighted that one clause in the 2016 transaction, an indemnity from Scottish Ministers to Longs Steel (Tata Steel took over the business), is no longer valid.

Question reference: S6W-29127

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 August 2024
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 11 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-28058 by Tom Arthur on 19 June 2024, what (a) discussions and (b) correspondence Scottish Enterprise has had regarding the repayment of the loan since 2022.

Question reference: S6W-29129

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 August 2024
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 11 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-28065 by Tom Arthur on 19 June 2024, whether it will clarify the reasons for the selected structure being the best available structure.

Question reference: S6W-29400

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 August 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 11 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what financial support is available for bereaved parents who do not qualify for any other benefits or welfare payments.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting bereaved parents and tackling funeral poverty.

We have removed child burial and cremation fees for children under 18 years old and for stillborn babies, financially supporting bereaved parents.

Parents whose baby sadly dies after it was born, or is stillborn, may be eligible for Best Start Grant Pregnancy and Baby Payment. If the parent is under 18 or a dependent aged 18 or 19, they do not need to receive any benefits to be eligible.

Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay and Leave is reserved to the UK Government.

Question reference: S6W-29100

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 August 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 11 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many mid-market rent properties have been built with Scottish Government funding in each local authority area in each of the last five years.

The Scottish Government publishes figures relating to the supply of affordable homes across Scotland, on a quarterly basis, which can be found online at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/housing-statistics-for-scotland-new-house-building/.

The following table provides a breakdown of mid-market rent homes delivered with Scottish Government funding in each local authority area between April 2019 and end March 2024. The figures include Registered Social Landlord mid-market rent and Council mid-market rent homes. The figures also include other mid-market rent homes delivered through programmes such as National Housing Trust, Local Affordable Rent Housing Trust, Places for People Capital MMR Initiative and Rural and Island Housing Funds.

Local Authority Area	2019-2020	2020-2021	2021-2022	2022-2023	2023-2024	Total Homes
Aberdeen City	28	108	97	15	26	274
Aberdeenshire	13		25		87	125
Angus			6		8	14
Argyll and Bute			4	6	22	32
City of Edinburgh	324	336	569	932	231	2,392
Clackmannanshire			21			21
Dundee City	15				86	101
Dumfries and Galloway		5	4	7		16
East Dunbartonshire	21			12		33
East Lothian	87	29	10	8	70	204
Falkirk		13				13
Fife	56	43	33	83	8	223
Glasgow City	271	81	315	189	603	1,459
Midlothian	23	60	15		14	112
Moray			8	16		24
na Eilean Siar	2		1			3
North Lanarkshire		10		18	24	52
Orkney Islands	1		3	1	10	15
Perth and Kinross	12	8	51	49	12	132
Renfrewshire	34	32				66
Scottish Borders	9		1	11	5	26
South Ayrshire		34				34
South Lanarkshire		1				1
Stirling		118				118
The Highland Council	71	36	119	111	102	439
West Lothian				74	48	122
Total Homes	967	914	1,282	1,532	1,356	6,051

Parliament dissolved ahead of election

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