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-12824

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 15 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many members of staff it expects to transfer from local authorities to the National Care Service, broken down by each local authority.

Question reference: S6W-12931

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 15 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to provide training and skills development for people who want to enter the field of ecommerce.

The Scottish Government understands that 13,000 new recruits are needed every year to fill digital technology roles, including roles in e-commerce. That is why we have invested over £4 million since 2020, via Skills Development Scotland, to broaden the digital talent pool. This has included the delivery of reskilling programmes such as the Digital Start Fund, a programme which supports people on benefits or low incomes, and the Digital Skills Pipeline, a modular set of courses running from beginner level all the way through to advanced coding. By giving grant funding to Code Your Future, another training organisation, we have also helped vulnerable people, including refugees, with the skills and networks necessary to progress in education and employment. Going forward, a new Digital Economy Skills Action Plan for Scotland, which is being developed in partnership with industry and stakeholders, will identify the activity that will best support the needs of the digital economy going forward, aligning with the recommendations from Scottish Technology Ecosystem Review (STER) and National Strategy for Economic Transformation (NSET).

Question reference: S6W-12930

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 15 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to improve the collection of data and information in the field of ecommerce.

Question reference: S6W-12827

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 15 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much it expects the transfer of staff to the National Care Service to cost under Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) (TUPE) regulations.

Question reference: S6W-12825

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 15 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what it estimates the value of any liabilities, including pensions, to be of any staff transferred to the National Care Service.

Question reference: S6W-12830

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 15 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether only local authority staff will potentially be transferred to the National Care Service, and not NHS staff, and, if so, what the reasons are for this.

Question reference: S6W-12873

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 15 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of reports that the heaviest 5% of drinkers are consuming 10% more since the introduction of minimum unit pricing.

The pandemic has changed drinking behaviour, particularly for those who were drinking heavily before the pandemic. There is more work to be done to better understand the continuing impact of the pandemic on alcohol harms.

We are working on a range of actions to make alcohol treatment services more accessible to those who need them to support individuals reduce their alcohol consumption.

Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) was introduced to reduce the consumption of alcohol by individuals whose consumption is hazardous or harmful as well as reducing the overall population level of consumption. We are evaluating MUP over the first five years of operation and will report to parliament in summer 2023.

Question reference: S6W-12855

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 15 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports that it has not yet appointed a Women’s Health Champion, despite a plan earlier in 2022 to appoint one “this summer”, what process was followed for the recruitment and appointment; how many prospective candidates were approached, and whether any candidates turned the opportunity down.

Question reference: S6W-12843

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 15 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether Anne’s Law will be included in legislation related to the National Care Service.

Question reference: S6W-12751

Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 05 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 15 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will seek to introduce a duty on preventing sexual harassment under the Scotland-specific regulations of the public sector equality duty, including a requirement to develop a standalone policy on sexual harassment.

The Scottish Government is currently undertaking a review of the operation of the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) in Scotland with the aim of ensuring the effect of the PSED is improved so that it becomes a key contributor to improved lives of people with protected characteristics. The results of a public consultation, which ran between December 2021 and April 2022 on a series of detailed and ambitious proposals for changes to the PSED regime, was published 30 November 2022.

The Scottish Government has not consulted on introducing a duty under the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2012 on preventing sexual harassment, including a requirement to develop a standalone policy on sexual harassment.

Sex is one of the nine protected characteristics listed in the Equality Act 2010. Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 places a general duty (known as the Public Sector Equality Duty, or PSED) on public authorities to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and promote good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.