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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 48968 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6F-00111

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 14 June 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 June 2021

To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government is taking in response to reports that some patients are having to wait over three years to be discharged from psychiatric hospitals.

Question reference: S6F-00102

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 14 June 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 June 2021

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6F-00104

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 14 June 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 June 2021

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6F-00103

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 14 June 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 June 2021

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6T-00085

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 14 June 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the disturbing events at Euro 2020 with a player experiencing a cardiac arrest on the pitch, whether it will consider subsidising automated external defibrillator purchases for amateur sports grounds.

Question reference: S6T-00075

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 14 June 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to a recent survey, which records that more than 2,000 incidents of racism have been reported in schools over the last three years.

Question reference: S6T-00069

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Monday, 14 June 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the allegation made by Jim McColl in The Herald on Sunday that £25 million of public money was wasted on the "forced" nationalisation of Ferguson Marine Engineering Ltd.

Question reference: S6W-00449

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 14 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many apprenticeships schemes have (a) been started and (b) completed in the Central Scotland parliamentary region in each year since 2019.

Skills Development Scotland does not report apprenticeship starts by parliamentary constituency or region, but by Local Authority. Published apprenticeship starts from 2019 in the local authorities within the Central Scotland Parliamentary Region are:

Local Authority	2019-20 Q4 (year end) Modern Apprenticeships	2020-21 Q4 (year end) Modern Apprenticeships
Falkirk	1,068	613
North Lanarkshire	2,402	1,484
South Lanarkshire	1,926	1,250

Local Authority	Foundation Apprenticeships Cohort 4 (2019-2021)
Falkirk	199
North Lanarkshire	457
South Lanarkshire	256

Figures for Foundation Apprenticeship Cohort 5 (2020-22) are due to be published by Skills Development Scotland in June 2021.

Local Authority	2019-20 Graduate Apprenticeships
Falkirk	37
North Lanarkshire	83
South Lanarkshire	63

Published apprenticeship achievers from 2019 in the local authorities within the Central Scotland Parliamentary Region are:

Local Authority	2019-20 Q4 (year end) Modern Apprenticeships	2020-21 Q4 (year end) Modern Apprenticeships
Falkirk	823	542
North Lanarkshire	1,850	1,329
South Lanarkshire	1,517	1,074

Skills Development Scotland does not publish Foundation or Graduate Apprenticeship achievers by local authority. The total achievers for Foundation Apprenticeships can be found here and for Graduate Apprenticeship achievers here .

*It should be noted that starts and achievers are based on the apprentice’s home address.

Question reference: S6W-00480

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 14 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government which universities have adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism

The Scottish Government, Universities Scotland, College Development Network and Colleges Scotland are clear that there is no place for any form of hatred or prejudice, including antisemitism, in further and higher education.

Universities, as autonomous institutions, are aware of the IHRA definition of antisemitism. Many are actively and presently consulting within their diverse communities and stakeholder interests on the definition, with three (University of Glasgow, University of Edinburgh and Abertay University) having adopted it to date. Universities UK is working with the Union of Jewish Students to raise awareness and understanding of antisemitism and to share best practice in tackling and eliminating it.

Universities and colleges are also addressing antisemitism through their ongoing engagement with the Scottish Funding Council to address discrimination and harassment on the grounds of race.

The SFC, in response to the recommendations of the EHRC report, Universities Challenged, published in October 2019, has developed resources to support challenging conversations on all aspects of racial discrimination, including antisemitism. These were developed with input of staff and students and were launched on 16 March 2021.

Question reference: S6W-00457

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 14 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to improve work-related outcomes for referrals to the Fair Start Scotland service, and what its response is to reports that 89.8% of people referred to the service in South Ayrshire did not achieve a 26-week job outcome after their time in the programme.

The percentages quoted have been calculated using statistics published on the number of job outcomes, broken down by local authority area. These do not provide an accurate reflection of performance as they include participants who have not had time to reach outcomes.

Pre-employment support on Fair Start Scotland ordinarily lasts 12 months (it can last up to 18 months), and job outcomes will increase as more participants move through the service into, and sustain work over time. Job outcome rates can only be reported for those cohorts where enough time has passed in pre-employment support (12 months) and also for job outcomes to be achieved (6 months for the figures quoted).

The figures have also been calculated based on the number of referrals to the service. It is worth noting that Fair Start Scotland is completely voluntary, and not everyone who is referred will choose to participate.

As part of our continuous improvement activities and in line with our “test and learn” approach to employability support in Scotland, we continue to work with Providers to improve all aspects of the service.

Our key priority remains ensuring participants receive a quality service in their journey to finding and sustaining fair work, and we continue to work closely with local government, the third sector and other partners to ensure the right employment opportunities are sourced for participants.