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 8798 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S5W-34769

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 25 January 2021
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 11 February 2021

To ask the Scottish Government in which priority group for the roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccination programme will teachers in (a) mainstream and (b) special needs schools be included.

The Scottish Government follows the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) Guidance in the planning of vaccine delivery. This evidence based guidance advises that the single greatest risk of mortality from COVID-19 is increasing age, and that the risk increases exponentially with age. Additionally the committee considers frontline health and social care workers who provide direct care to vulnerable people a high priority for vaccination.”

The JCVI priority lists represents 90% of the preventable mortality from COVID-19 and throughout the delivery of the vaccination programme we will be guided by the clinical expertise of the JCVI, the Medicines and Health Regulatory Agency(MHRA), and our own senior clinical advisers.

In line with the UK-wide JCVI clinical advice, staff working with children and young people with the most complex healthcare needs, particularly those with severe neuro-disabilities, are included in those who will be prioritised for the vaccine.

Teachers in the mainstream schools are not on the priority list, however, those who fall in the JCVI priority list due their age or underlying health condition will be offered a vaccine.

Question reference: S5W-34778

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 January 2021
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 11 February 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish the advice it received in regard to the 12-week gap between receiving the first and second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

The decision regarding the 12 week gap between the two Covid-19 doses was made based on the clinical recommendation from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). This information was further communicated by the latest letter by the Chief Medical Officer on 1 st January, 2021.

Statement from the UK Chief Medical Officers on the prioritisation of the first doses can be viewed via the link below:

Statement from the UK Chief Medical Officers on the prioritisation of first doses
of COVID-19 vaccines - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Letter from the Chief Medical Officer can be viewed via the link below:

Coronavirus (COVID-19) - vaccine: letter from the Chief Medical Officer
updating on the vaccination programme - 1 January 2021 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Question reference: S5F-04791

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 08 February 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 February 2021

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S5W-34771

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 25 January 2021
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 8 February 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether student loans will be topped up beyond the current academic year for social work students whose course placements have been postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Students studying a course of Higher Education (HE) who require to repeat a full year of study are able to access an additional year of funding known as a ‘+1’. Care Experienced students studying in HE are able to access two additional years of funding. HE students who have exhausted their funding options and require to repeat a year of studies due to Covid-19 will have their requests considered under compassionate grounds by the Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS). This includes undergraduate social work students.

We are actively considering the issue of part-year repeat or extended study as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic for all Further and Higher education students and the associated financial support to students.

The Scottish Government is also working with the Social Work Education Partnership to ensure that there are sufficient social work student placements for our future workforce. The Social Work Education Partnership comprises HEIs’, employers, Cosla and stakeholder organisations and works to ensure the quality and consistency of practice learning. It has been working closely with all HEIs to find solutions to the placement issues caused by Covid-19 and a number of measures are already in place including the prioritisation of the provision of final placements, the piloting of a simulated placement module for first placements and the roll out of national Link Worker training.

We have also provided £430k at a national level for a resumption of placement fee to HEIs which will help employers with the costs that may be incurred in providing a placements which now involves increased homeworking (to assist with IT costs or additional training for practice educators).

Question reference: S5W-34776

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 January 2021
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 4 February 2021

To ask the Scottish Government who it engaged to provide training for civil servants in preparation for their appearance at the Committee on the Scottish Government’s Handling of Harassment Complaints; how much the training cost, and what the content of the training was.

Question reference: S5W-34772

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 25 January 2021
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 3 February 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many of the deaths related to COVID-19 that occurred in hospitals were care home residents who had been admitted to hospital, broken down by NHS board area.

NRS published one-off analysis in June 2020 regarding deaths of care home residents involving COVID-19 which included deaths in hospital at a Scotland level. In week 20 (week ending 17 th May 2020) there were 154 COVID-19 deaths of people whose usual residence was a care home and who died in hospital. The represents 9.3% of COVID-19 hospital deaths involving people resident in care homes.

The analysis is available here:

https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/files//statistics/covid19/covid-deaths-care-home-residents.xlsx .

Question reference: S5W-34389

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 08 January 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 3 February 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether state aid limits will apply to (a) recent and (b) future grants awarded to businesses under its Strategic Framework Business Fund in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Question reference: S5F-04772

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 01 February 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 February 2021

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S5W-34770

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 25 January 2021
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 29 January 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to introduce repeated routine testing for COVID-19 for teachers in (a) mainstream and (b) special needs schools.

The Scottish Government is operating a number of pathfinder testing programmes with the aim of delivering a sustainable system of regular asymptomatic testing for staff in a school environment. The pilots are primarily intended to help us rapidly identify and understand any logistical and implementation challenges involved in the different models of testing.

Consideration of options to scale up testing of school staff in all schools in Scotland is ongoing, and will be informed by early learning from these pilots. Regular staff testing is just one potential COVID-19 mitigation in addition to the robust package of measures already in place in schools.

Question reference: S5W-34361

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 08 January 2021
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 29 January 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) GPs, (b) dentists, (c) nurses and (d) other health professionals can give COVID-19 vaccinations.

We have written to Health Boards asking that they secure a daily workforce of c. 1,700 Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) vaccinators and c.970 support staff, with a view to delivering 400,000 doses per week by the end of February.

Publication of the National Protocols for COVID-19 Vaccines on 21st January, authorises and enables retired unregistered and returning staff to administer the vaccines. It also extend the groups of healthcare professionals who are authorised to vaccinate, with appropriate education, training and supervision.

More than 8000 vaccinators are currently registered on the vaccination management tool, and at least 640 GP Practices are already actively involved in the programme. We are currently engaging with Health Boards regarding the composition of this workforce.