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-09700

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 11 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 2 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what actions it plans to take to improve recruitment and retention of Marine Scotland seafarers.

Question reference: S6W-09630

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 2 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-08793 by Clare Haughey on 14 June 2022, what progress was made at its meeting with COSLA, in June 2022, regarding the introduction of a national minimum allowance for foster and kinship carers.

Question reference: S6W-09519

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 28 July 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-06701 by Jenny Gilruth on 17 March 2022, whether it will provide an update on any invitations to external consultants to tender for contracts related to the (a) community needs and (b) market assessments.

Question reference: S6W-09517

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 28 July 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-06701 by Jenny Gilruth on 17 March 2022, whether it will list the ferry routes that have been prioritised for assessment.

The Scottish Government is prioritising those routes associated with live investment projects as set out in the answer to the question S6W-06702 on 8 March 2022, namely Mallaig – Lochboisdale Vessel Replacement Project, Oban – Craignure and Gourock – Dunoon – Kilcreggan. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

Question reference: S6W-09518

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 28 July 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-06701 by Jenny Gilruth on 17 March 2022, whether it will provide an update on the timescales for carrying out the (a) community needs and (b) market assessments.

Question reference: S6W-09516

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 28 July 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-06701 by Jenny Gilruth on 17 March 2022, whether it will list the routes within the scope of the Ferries Plan 2013-22 that are provided “without government intervention”.

Question reference: S6W-09515

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 28 July 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-06701 by Jenny Gilruth on 17 March 2022, what the cost was of the (a) community needs and (b) market assessments of the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Service routes undertaken to inform the Ferries Plan 2013-2022.

Question reference: S6W-09836

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 28 July 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it holds any statistics on the number of people currently staying in community-based bail accommodation.

The Scottish Government does not hold statistics on the number of people staying in community based bail accommodation. Officials are currently exploring what further data could be practically recorded beyond the current information collated annually on total bail orders by gender and age and bail supervision cases by Local Authority areas.

The Scottish Government is committed to strengthening alternatives to remand and this year, alongside introducing electronic monitoring for bail, increased investment by £3.2m. We are continuing to work with partners to explore improvements, including the potential to further develop community based bail accommodation in the future .

Question reference: S6W-09504

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 27 July 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what data it holds on how many applications teaching posts receive on average in each local authority.

The Scottish Government does not hold this data.

The recruitment and employment of teachers in local authority schools are matters for individual councils, as they have the statutory duty for education expenditure and to deliver education.

Councils have the responsibility for providing a complement of teachers and all other education staff which best meets the needs of their schools and pupils within the resources available.

Question reference: S6W-09503

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 27 July 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what work it is doing to reduce the number of teachers on temporary contracts.

The recruitment and employment of teachers in local authority schools are matters for individual councils, as they have the statutory duty for education expenditure and to deliver education.

Councils have the responsibility for providing a complement of teachers and all other necessary education staff which best meets the needs of each of their schools and its pupils within the resources available.

This includes providing a complement of teachers and headteachers which meet the needs of each of their schools and its pupils in light of their local needs and circumstances.

The Scottish Government is determined that teachers, who have trained and made a commitment to educate our young people, have strong job opportunities. For that reason, we have provided £240 million of additional investment to local authorities during the pandemic to support the recruitment of additional education staff to support education recovery. We are also providing additional permanent funding of £145.5 million per year to support the recruitment of these extra staff.

We will continue to work closely with COSLA regarding the employment of teachers and do everything we can to maximise the number of jobs available for teachers, including permanent posts.