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-30643

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 11 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 7 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government which local authorities applied to its school meal debt fund, and how much funding each received.

Question reference: S6W-30532

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 5 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has examined the reasons for the steady decrease in the funds held for colleges in arm's-length foundations over the last decade, from £99 million in 2014 when they were first established to an estimated £9 million by the end of 2024.

Question reference: S6W-30506

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 29 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-29823 by Natalie Don-Innes on 25 September 2024, when it will publish the National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy.

Allowing sufficient time to support the meaningful engagement and participation of those the Strategy will affect, including robust analysis of their views, and ensuring that it can be published alongside a range of accessible formats to meet the needs of those it aims to support has remained of central importance to the Scottish Government throughout the Strategy’s development.

This was reiterated during a recent meeting of the External Strategic Working Group who reviewed the aim of publishing the Strategy by the end of 2024 and concluded that publication in Spring 2025 presents a more favourable timeline to achieving this.

Question reference: S6W-30268

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 30 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 28 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) short- and (b) long-term aims are of its Post-school Education and Skills Reform Programme Board.

Post School Education and Skills Reform is a 10-year transformation programme which will help us to achieve the ambitions set out in the Purpose and Principles for Post-School Education, Research and Skills.

Early priorities include:

leading a new, national approach to skills planning and working with partners to strengthen regional approaches;
reforming the education and skills funding system so it is easier to navigate and is responsive to learners and to skills priorities, initially by introducing a Bill to simplify the post-school funding body landscape;
continuing to work closely with partners to improve careers support;
apprenticeships reform to reduce the complexity, make the system more transparent and maximise the value of investment to learners and the economy; and
building up an understanding of the post-school qualifications landscape alongside defining the oversight role for the new qualifications body.

The Programme Board provides the necessary governance and assurance to support successful delivery of the aims of the Post School Education and Skills Reform Programme.

Question reference: S6W-30049

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 20 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when the National Qualifications Group last met, and what was discussed.

Question reference: S6O-03829

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 October 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether young people have the opportunity to study subjects that they are interested in.

Question reference: S6W-29931

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 1 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when the Assisted Support for Learning Project Board last met, and what was discussed.

The Additional Support for Learning (ASL) Project Board last met on the 12 September 2024. The Project Board discussed the upcoming publication of the ASL Progress Report and updated Action Plan. This included discussions on how the relevant outcomes from the Education, Children and Young People Committee Inquiry on ASL, would be reflected.

The minutes of every Project Board meeting are published on the groups dedicated Scottish Government web page. A more detailed view on discussions held at the last meeting will be published soon.

The Scottish Government continue to work at pace, working closely with local government partners through the Additional Support for Learning Project Board to improve the experience of children and young people with additional support needs at school, implementing the recommendations of the 2020 review of additional support for learning.

Question reference: S6F-03413

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 30 September 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 October 2024

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's position is regarding whether teachers are essential to raising educational attainment and closing the poverty-related attainment gap.

Question reference: S6W-29914

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 30 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to the impact on employment of any delays to interventions on chronic pain.

The Scottish Government is aware that chronic pain can impact on an individual's ability to work. While no specific work has been done to consider the impact on employment of any delays to interventions on chronic pain, work continues to improve service delivery. We also continue to work with people with lived experience to understand the impact chronic pain has on daily life, including employment.

We are working across Economy and Health to focus on how those at risk of leaving the labour market through ill health can be identified at the earliest opportunity so they, and their employers, can receive the right support to prevent this happening. Schemes such as Healthy Working Lives and Working Health Services Scotland provide support to people with ill health in employment on matters related to health, work and wellbeing.

Question reference: S6W-29899

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 30 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Public Sector Employment figures that were published in September 2024, which recorded that, between 23 June 2023 and 24 June 2024, employment in Scotland's further education colleges decreased by 550 (-4.3%).