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-13506

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 13 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what work has been undertaken to update the formal conditions associated with continuous professional development opportunities for adult social care workers.

The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) launched a new system for Continuous Professional Learning (CPL), in October 2020. The change allows for a more flexible approach to recording learning, doing so in a way which works best for registered workers and gives employers more of a role in reviewing registrants’ learning.

Through SSSC social services workers have access to free learning resources, interactive webinars that support CPL and career development and new information on nationally recognised learning resources endorsed by SSSC all of which will support CPL.

Question reference: S6W-13282

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 13 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many of its staff receive a salary of over £100,000 per annum, broken down by directorate, and what the total cost of those staff salaries is.

Pay for staff in the Senior Civil Service is reserved and operates within the UK Cabinet Office pay and performance management framework.

As at 30 November 2022, a total of 41 staff earning over £100,000 per annum were employed in Core Scottish Government at a total salary cost of £4,552,993. This represents 0.45% of the total number of staff employed in Core Scottish Government. The following table provides a breakdown by Directorate General area.

Directorate General	Number of Staff
Strategy & External Affairs (1)	12
Communities	3
Corporate	7
Economy	4
Education & Justice	3
Health & Social Care	5
Net Zero	2
Scottish Exchequer	4
Permanent Secretary	1

(1) The increase for Strategy and External Affairs (in comparison to information provided in February 2022) reflects the outcome of a pay restructuring exercise carried out in relation to specialist parliamentary counsel staff so as to bring pay arrangements for those staff more into line with the pay arrangements for parliamentary counsel staff in other Government jurisdictions (e.g. UK Government, Welsh Government) in order to support the recruitment and retention of staff with those specialist skills and expertise. Of the 12 staff reported above: 8 are employed in the Parliamentary Counsel Office; 1 is employed in the Director General office; 1 is employed in the External Affairs Directorate; 1 is employed in the Constitution and Cabinet Directorate; and 1 is employed in the Strategy Directorate.

Question reference: S6W-13642

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 January 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 13 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has undertaken an impact assessment on its proposals to move specialist mental health services to the remit of a National Care Service, and, if so, whether it will publish this information.

Impact assessments published in relation to the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill cover the full range of current services proposed to be transferred to the National Care Service, including both health and social care services. These can be accessed at: www.gov.scot/collections/national-care-service/ .

Further impact assessments will be carried out as the detailed design of the National Care Service is developed and will be provided alongside the necessary secondary legislation. This includes any proposals to include specialist mental health services within the scope of the National Care Service.

The Scottish Government is engaging with stakeholders, the output of this engagement, alongside lessons from the current health and social care arrangements (which will be succeeded by the National Care Service) and further evidence gained during the co-design process, will be used to refine our proposals for the scope of mental health services. Collectively this evidence will inform the development of more detailed impact assessments as part of that process. A summary of the Scottish Government’s engagement on this matter will be published later this year.

Question reference: S6W-13586

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 13 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many transactions the Additional Dwelling Supplement has been applied to in (a) the 2022-23 financial year to date and (b) each of the previous four full financial years, also broken down by local authority area.

Revenue Scotland publishes monthly and annual data on transactions subject to the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) Additional Dwelling Supplement (ADS). This data is available at: Statistics | Revenue Scotland .

The monthly data published by Revenue Scotland includes the number of transactions subject to the Additional Dwelling Supplement per month. Data up to and including November 2022 is currently available at: Monthly LBTT Statistics | Revenue Scotland . In total, 17,970 transactions were recorded for the period of April 2022 to November 2022.

Local authority level data is published on an annual basis, as part of Revenue Scotland’s Annual Summary of Trends in the Devolved Taxes. The report for 2020-21, which provides data for the period from 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2021, is available at: Annual Summary of Trends in the Devolved Taxes 2020-2021 | Revenue Scotland . The report for 2021-2022 is due to be published in early 2023.

Question reference: S6W-13631

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 13 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it supports young people who are school non-attenders or not in mainstream education to have resources similar to the national Relationships, Sexual Health and Parenthood (RSHP) resources.

Local authorities are responsible for the education of all pupils who are registered within their school rolls.

It is for teachers, schools and local authorities to determine how best to deliver learning and teaching on any topic and subject, in line with Curriculum for Excellence. We expect teachers to use their professional judgement, experience and understanding of their pupils to respond sensitively to complex and challenging issues.

The national relationships, sexual health and parenthood (RSHP) resources are part of a wider package of resources available to all schools and teachers to support delivery of RSHP education. A summary of wider resources in use across Scotland is available on Education Scotland's National Improvement Hub at https://education.gov.scot/improvement/learning-resources/a-summary-of-rshp-resources/ .

Question reference: S6W-13532

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 13 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has taken forward recommendations on Fair Work in relation to minimum standards for terms and conditions in social care.

Question reference: S6W-13553

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 13 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-13303 by Angus Robertson on 16 December 2022, whether it will provide the full production costs, including staff costs.

Question reference: S6W-13505

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 13 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it undertook "an 'effective voice' pilot in early 2022, ensuring the experiences and needs of the health and social care workforce underpin the principles and delivery of any changes", as committed to in its National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care in Scotland.

We are working with sector stakeholders to embed the principles of Effective Voice in social care, to enable staff to engage in meaningful, constructive dialogue within their employers to help promote fair working conditions, develop best practice, and deliver high quality care.

The Fair Work in Social Care Group, including key Social Care stakeholders, Trade Unions, representative sector organisations, and care providers, developed an Effective Voice Framework informed by the lived experience of staff. The Framework will support employers and employees to assess the standard of Effective Voice in their workplace and take steps to enhance it, if necessary.

A project to trial this Framework in social care settings will begin in early 2023.

Question reference: S6W-13226

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 December 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 13 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has any plans to reduce the opening hours of any ScotRail ticket offices.

Question reference: S6W-13806

Current Status: Withdrawn