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: S6F-01100

Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 May 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 May 2022

To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government is taking to support the health and wellbeing of the NHS workforce.

Question reference: S6W-08422

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 06 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 16 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what methods it will use to incorporate understanding of women’s experiences of poverty and training/development into the design of the Child Poverty Delivery Plan interventions on skills and employability.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting and empowering women and girls to reach their full potential through our sustainable and inclusive economic growth ambitions.

In our recently published Best Start, Bright Futures: Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan 2022-26, we committed to building on existing work to remove barriers to employment, taking a strategic and intersectional approach to tackling employment inequalities. We know that the voice of lived experience is vital in developing and implementing policy to tackle poverty, and will continue to work with partners in the delivery of this plan.

To incorporate understanding of women’s experiences, we will be working in partnership with our key stakeholders and partners, as well as key advocacy groups who work directly with parents in the priority families groups outlined within the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan. We have committed to establishing a Parental Lived Experience Panel in Summer 2022, to help inform our activity around employability. This will build on the on the success of our existing Lived Experience Panel, which has been invaluable in co-designing No One Left Behind, and aligns with our wider commitments to embedding the Scottish Approach to Service Design in employability. Work is also underway to develop a lifetime skills offer to support individuals and businesses to develop the skills needed now and in the future, and as these proposals are developed, we will link with key expert groups to inform the process.

Question reference: S6W-08418

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 06 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 16 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when it will announce its preferred location(s) for a national slavery museum as part of action to address historic links to the transatlantic slave trade.

Question reference: S6W-08419

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 06 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 16 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Empire, Slavery and Scotland's Museums steering group has considered the name, Nation Human Right Museum, as part of its discussions on the creation of a national slavery museum, as part of action to address historic links to the transatlantic slave trade.

Question reference: S6W-08401

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 06 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 16 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide the details and outcome of any consideration that (a) the Deputy First Minister and (b) any other member of the Cabinet has undertaken regarding whether the Self-Isolation Support Grant should be paid at the equivalent of the Living Wage.

Question reference: S6W-08204

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 April 2022
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 16 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the kinship care allowance payment is in each local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-08369

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 16 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is aware of schools reportedly reducing subject choice as a result of budget pressures, and whether this was a policy intention when it set local authority budgets.

This Government has delivered the highest spending, and more teachers, per pupil than any other UK nation. It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

Schools and local authorities are encouraged and supported to consider innovative ways to ensure there are a wide choice of courses available to their learners. It is for them, working together with partners, to plan course choices in their areas. Expansion of course choice is reflected in the growth of vocational provision for young people in the senior phase. There has been a year on year increase in the number of school leavers attaining vocational qualifications at level 5 and above of the Scottish Qualifications & Curriculum Framework since 2014. The latest attainment stats reflect an increase from 7.3% in 2013/14 to 26.1% in 2020/21.

Question reference: S6W-08387

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 16 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the accuracy of bullying levels recorded in SEEMiS.

Question reference: S6W-08394

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 16 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it anticipates a shortfall in future staffing levels among Police Scotland officers (a) at each rank and (b) in each area as a result of the McCloud remedy, and, if so, what impact it anticipates this will have on officer capacity (i) at each rank and (ii) in each area.

Question reference: S6W-08166

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 April 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 16 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-03514 by Humza Yousaf on 27 October 2021, whether the outcome of the National Services Division review of NHS Scotland’s genomics services will be published.

The NHS National Services Division (NSD) commissioning team have completed a Major Service Review of the current Genomics service. The final report has been shared with NHS Board Chief Executives, the Scottish Genomics Leadership Group, Trade Union representative, Medical and Laboratory Directors for the boards that host the Genomic Laboratories, the document is now available on the (NSS)NSD website at the following link:

https://www.nss.nhs.scot/specialist-healthcare/specialist-services/genetic-and-molecular-pathology-laboratories/