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-01959

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 February 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how the Clyde Metro project will improve rail services on the existing Milngavie line.

Question reference: S6O-01962

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 February 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to roll out Mobility as a Service across Scotland.

Question reference: S6O-01960

Asked by: Annabelle Ewing, MSP for Cowdenbeath, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 February 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the new medical centre for Lochgelly.

Question reference: S6O-01956

Asked by: Kaukab Stewart, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 February 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its progress on cladding remediation.

Question reference: S6O-01961

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 February 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the £200 million Aberdeen to Central Belt enhancement project, which aims to reduce travel times between Aberdeen and the Central Belt by 20 minutes by 2026.

Question reference: S6O-01957

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 February 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to tackle homelessness, in light of reports that the number of people classified as homeless has reached a record high.

Question reference: S6O-01914

Asked by: Natalie Don-Innes, MSP for Renfrewshire North and West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 22 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the recommendations in the 2023 series on breastfeeding by The Lancet, which include calls for governments to provide more accurate and timely information about breastfeeding and infant behaviours, an end to any exploitative marketing used by the baby formula milk industry, and more recognition of any economic contribution that breastfeeding makes to society.

We welcome the 2023 Lancet Series on breastfeeding and will consider its recommendations in due course.

Scottish Government is committed to supporting breastfeeding as the normal nutrition for babies. We have invested over £7m of additional funding over the past four years to NHS Boards and partners, to improve breastfeeding experiences.

Globally, it is recognised that breastmilk and breastfeeding provide clear health benefits to both mother and baby, over infant milk formula.

We believe that every child should get the best nutritional start in life, and that families should be able to make fully informed choices on how they feed their baby.

Question reference: S6W-14609

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 03 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 22 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a timeline for the publication of the commissioned endometriosis management and treatment research, as set out in Action 32 of the progress report on the Women's Health Plan.

We are jointly funding a £250,000 endometriosis research project with Wellbeing of Women and the recipient of the grant will be announced in March. The funding for the research will cover a period of 3 years, from financial year 2022/23, after which the findings will be published.

Additionally, in January 2023 our Chief Scientist Office announced funding for the ENDOCAN project, led by researchers at the University of Edinburgh, that will investigate whether a large scale, UK-wide trial to determine whether a cannabinoid can reduce endometriosis-associated pain. Funding of £299,509 has been committed to this 30 month project.

Question reference: S6W-14563

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 22 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many sites Forestry and Land Scotland has identified as suitable for the translocation of beavers, and by what date it anticipates that beavers will have been successfully translocated to these sites.

Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) have identified eight sites on Scotland’s national forests and land where within range translocations of beavers are considered to be ecologically feasible. We anticipate beavers to be moved to these sites after the kit dependency period in 2023.

A further three projects for range expansion translocations are at early stages of investigation and the number of suitable sites is as yet undetermined. It is expected these sites to be ready to accept beavers from 2024 onwards.

Question reference: S6W-14654

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 22 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to Police Scotland recording that 30% of the people referred to its Prevent de-radicalisation programme in 2021-22 were aged under 15.

National Security, which includes the Prevent strategy, is reserved to the UK Government but delivered through devolved functions in Scotland. Prevent has been a statutory duty on Policing, Healthcare, Education, Local Authorities and Prisons in the UK as a whole, Scotland included since 2015.

The collective focus of Prevent in Scotland is always on identifying the earliest opportunity to offer support to individuals who may be vulnerable to being drawn into or supporting terrorism, or who are exposed to divisive extremist narratives.

There is no fixed profile for someone who may benefit from support in this context. However, as exposure to radicalisation and a range of extremist narratives has grown in the online space in particular, referrals to Prevent across the UK have indicated an increase in individuals being exposed to such harms at a younger age.

Scottish Government works closely with Police Scotland and other key partners including the education sector to ensure proportionate responses to such challenges across a broad spectrum of threat.

Our alignment of Prevent to existing safeguarding processes such as the Getting It Right For Every Child (GIRFEC), seeks to ensure Prevent works in a supportive, multi-agency way in line with other strategies designed to prevent harm and safeguard children from exposure to such issues as drug use, criminal gangs, physical abuse and sexual exploitation.

A Prevent referral allows for a multi-agency safeguarding assessment to be conducted where appropriate, and all referrals are carefully assessed based on the specific details of the case.

Where a referral is deemed appropriate for Prevent case management, the type of support available is wide-ranging, and can include help with education, parental or carer support or child social care involvement. The ongoing provision of training and online guidance aims to ensure that when a Prevent referral is made, it is robust and appropriately informed, and that the response is considered and proportionate.

The publication of Prevent referral statistics on an annual basis is reflective of efforts to ensure as much transparency as possible in respect of the Prevent programme, within the confines of what is appropriate in line with the protection of individuals’ data.