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-02950

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 23 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many people in each local authority area have applied for self-directed support each year, also broken down by how many applications were rejected.

Self-directed Support (SDS) is Scotland’s mainstream approach to social care. Under the Social Care (Self-directed Support) (Scotland) Act 2013 , all people in Scotland who are assessed as being in need of social care support have a right to choice, control and flexibility to meet their personal outcomes.

SDS is therefore not something that is applied for or denied. Local Authorities are required to ensure that people are offered a range of choices on how they receive their social care support.

Self-directed Support can be provided using one of four different options. Public Health Scotland statistics from 2018-19 indicate that 102,805 people in Scotland were involved in choosing and controlling their support through one of more of the self-directed support options.

Question reference: S6W-02951

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 23 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what criteria are used when determining the use of well-known public figures in public information campaigns, and whether there is any application process.

Every public information campaign has a unique set of objectives and associated target audience.

The Scottish Government carries out research to ascertain the most effective strategy and messaging for all public information campaigns.

In some cases, a well-known public figure can deliver a message in a more compelling way thus increasing the potential impact of the campaign. Where that is the case, the Scottish Government consider various options recommended by their rostered agencies based on the personality and profile of the celebrity required and appointments are made based on suitability, availability and level of budget (if any) required.

A new protocol is being created and put in place by the Scottish Government to improve the approach to vetting public figures used in campaigns. This protocol will improve the sharing of knowledge between public sector bodies and the Scottish Government central communications function regarding the use of public figures.

Question reference: S6W-02861

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 23 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the most common reasons that are given by each NHS board for referrals to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) to be declined.

There are a number of reasons why a referral may not be accepted which include: insufficient information, does not meet the health board provider referral criteria, service unavailable, consent issues, patient refused service. This data is not consistently collected by all Health Boards. A new core dataset, the CAMHS and Psychological Therapies National Dataset (CAPTND) is currently being developed by Public Health Scotland. Public Health Scotland are working with all Health Boards to ensure this data collection is of sufficient quality to report on in full.

Children and young people whose referral is not accepted by CAMHS are sensitively and appropriately signposted to a more suitable service within their community. The Scottish Government accepted all of the recommendations in the 2018 Audit of Rejected Referrals Report 2018.

In addition, we have implemented a National CAMHS Service Specification, which sets out the standards of service that children, young people and families can expect from CAMHS across Scotland and have provided funding to support Boards to implement the specification. The specification includes a clear expectation that services should have appropriate re-engagement policies in place.

Question reference: S6W-02814

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 23 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-02202 by Graeme Dey on 7 September 2021, whether it will provide the information requested regarding whether the adoption of the sustainable investment hierarchy will have an impact on decisions to proceed with any of the road-building projects that it has previously committed to, and for what reason it did not provide this information in its response.

Further to the answer to S6W-02202, all of the trunk road projects currently progressing through the design or statutory processes and which were recommendations from first Strategic Transport Projects Review published in 2008, have been subject of consideration against the sustainable investment hierarchy as part of the appraisal process undertaken at that time.

As work on the trunk roads projects and programmes continues, they are subject to the statutory authorisation and business case processes, this includes revisiting the strategic case for investment at key decision points, which would encompass consideration of the sustainable investment hierarchy amongst other policies.

Question reference: S6W-02815

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 23 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-00480 by Jamie Hepburn on 14 June 2021, whether it will contact universities that have not yet adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's (IHRA) working definition to ask for an update on their consultations with stakeholders and communities.

Question reference: S6W-02779

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 23 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what progress (a) Education Scotland and (b) Creative Scotland has made in "improving cultural experiences for all ages", as set out in its 2020 Culture Strategy for Scotland.

Both organisations already deliver a range of activity, such as Creative Scotland’s delivery of the Youth Music Initiative. The action in the Culture Strategy “Work with Creative Scotland and Education Scotland to help improve cultural experiences for learners of all ages” is driving a programme of joint work between the two organisations.

Education Scotland and Creative Scotland have been working closely together to update their approach to joint working in response to COVID-19, and to implement commitments against two existing frameworks: Scotland’s refreshed Creative Learning Plan and the Culture Strategy for Scotland. The two organisations have jointly developed a new Strategic Agreement which sets out five areas of focus for joint working over the next 3 years:

Learners’ mental health and wellbeing is improved through creativity and arts experiences
Learners are more confident and able to articulate their creativity skills and can apply them in all contexts.
High quality cultural and expressive arts experiences are more widely accessible to all learners.
Learners are directly influencing more of their own creative learning and creative experiences.
Creative approaches are further embedded in curriculum design.

An action plan, aligned to the Strategic Agreement, is now being finalised, putting programmes in place to deliver on these areas of focus. Some of these actions are already underway, including the launch of the Creative Wellbeing Fund , offering six grants of between £12k -£15k to support schools to take a creative approach to addressing learner wellbeing, and the recent opening of the Creative Learning Network Fund for applications, offering grants of up to £7k per Local Authority to support the Creative Learning Networks to implement Scotland’s refreshed Creative Learning Plan. As per the agreement between Education Scotland and Creative Scotland, the Creative Learning Networks are being asked to look across the Culture Strategy for Scotland and explore their role in helping to improve cultural experiences for learners of all ages.

Additionally, the two organisations are currently overseeing artform-led research with both the visual arts and theatre for young audiences’ sectors to map and analyse the current level and extent of provision available in schools across Scotland. The concluding reports will suggest ways the delivery of expressive arts in schools could be enhanced.

Question reference: S6O-00200

Asked by: Karen Adam, MSP for Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 23 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to help provide greener, healthier, eating options for people who have difficulty in making ends meet.

We want everyone in Scotland to eat well and have a healthy weight, yet we know people living on low incomes have poorer health outcomes.

We promote a cash-first approach through the Scottish Welfare Fund and other discretionary supports, and through the Independent Food Aid Network’s Cash-First Pathways.

We have increased the level of the Best Start Food Grant which supports low income families to buy healthy food for children under the age of three and intend to increase eligibility in this parliamentary term.

Our Diet and Healthy Weight Delivery Plan also outlines a range of actions to make access to affordable healthier food options easier for those on low incomes.

Question reference: S6O-00198

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 23 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on when it plans to report on the findings of the consultation on New Year’s Day trading for large shops.

Question reference: S6O-00199

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 23 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the current basic annual salary of £18,604 for local councillors is fair when many are working full time in the role.

The Scottish Government is committed to fair income for our councillors, which is why we introduced a new mechanism in 2017 that ensures Councillors' pay is increased annually in line with the percentage increase in the median annual earnings of public sector workers in Scotland. However, I appreciate that the annual salary of an ordinary Councillor is seen as one of the main contributing factors to the lack of diversity among Councillors in Scotland, and I am open to discussing with COSLA and wider stakeholders how we might support them to address this issue.

Question reference: S6O-00216

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 September 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what measures it has taken to address the consequences of the reduction of universal credit and any potential impact on child poverty.