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: S5O-02766

Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 16 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to improve air quality in urban areas.

The Cleaner Air for Scotland strategy sets out a series of actions for Government, Transport Scotland, local authorities and others to further reduce air pollution across Scotland. Financial and other support is provided to local authorities to assist them with monitoring and implementing local actions to improve air quality. In November I announced that Professor Campbell Gemmell will chair an independent review of Scotland’s air quality strategy, to assess progress and make recommendations for future priorities.

Question reference: S5W-20654

Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 9 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what further relief and support it will provide to businesses affected by the recent Glasgow School of Art fire.

In July 2018 I announced a Recovery Fund of up to £5m available to businesses affected by the fires at Glasgow School of Art and near Victoria's Nightclub. A total of 200 businesses have already received more than £3m from this Fund, providing much-needed relief during challenging circumstances. Besides this Fund, the Scottish Government also expanded its contribution to hardship rates relief and, in partnership with the Council, created a separate emergency fund to support displaced households.

On 14 December I announced that I would make the remaining £1.85m of the Glasgow Fire Recovery Fund available to Glasgow City Council to support business recovery. This sum will allow the Council to ensure businesses in the Sauchiehall Street area are not liable for business rates from January to March 2019. I also announced £150k of support for the Centre for Contemporary Arts to promote recovery of the CCA itself as well as businesses within it.

Question reference: S5O-02740

Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 December 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how a no deal Brexit could impact on Scotland's economy.

Question reference: S5O-02725

Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 December 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to enable local authorities to have the power to review local development plans.

Question reference: S5O-02648

Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 November 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance it provides to local authorities regarding flexibility in the provision of funded childcare at nurseries.

Question reference: S5W-19745

Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 November 2018
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by John Swinney on 2 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on progress with the development and publication of educational resources on Israel-Palestine.

The development of educational resources on Israel/Palestine began in 2015. Following a much publicised incident involving a primary school homework exercise, a working group was established to scope out appropriate education materials dealing with the conflict. The aim was to ensure that schools were better-placed to address the question of Israel/Palestine.

An initial set of resources was made available through Education Scotland’s Glow system in early 2017. The purpose was to allow teachers to post comments as part of a piloting exercise. In May 2017, and following concerns expressed by stakeholders (specifically the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities), I asked Education Scotland to remove a specific animation from the resources.

The resources continued to be available on a password protected basis in order that they could be finalised to the satisfaction of all key stakeholder interests. A period of consultation and further development was then facilitated by Education Scotland. This included the opportunity in autumn 2017 for all interested stakeholders to contribute comments via meetings and in writing. The aim throughout this process was to ensure the production of a set of resources which could be agreed by all key stakeholders.

In February 2018, with no consensus amongst key stakeholders about the suitability of the resources, Education Scotland explored the potential of taking ownership of the resources in order that it could finalise them and make them available on Glow. While all eight local authorities involved in the initial development of the resources were content for ownership to be assumed by Education Scotland, the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) indicated that they would not be content to agree to this. The EIS wrote to Education Scotland in June 2018 to make this clear. The EIS offered, as one of the initial developers and joint owners of the resources, to publish the material on its website.

Education Scotland has therefore been unable to secure ownership of these resources. Education Scotland and the Scottish Government are content to agree to the EIS’s request that as one of the original developers and joint owner of the resources, it is entitled to publish them. As with any educational resource, it will be a matter for individual local authorities and schools to determine if they would like to make use of the resources.

Education Scotland will write to all of the organisations who have been involved in the period of consultation to advise of this and to thank them for their contributions.

Question reference: S5O-02479

Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 October 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 31 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met representatives from the Home Office to discuss the resources that Scotland's local authorities require to support asylum seekers.

Question reference: S5O-02440

Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 September 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with Police Scotland regarding the reported list of flags that it could be a criminal offence to fly.

Question reference: S5T-01154

Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 June 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with relevant bodies regarding the recent fire and ongoing situation at the Glasgow School of Art.

Question reference: S5W-17044

Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 June 2018
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 13 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what support it can provide to the people of Palestine through its International Development Fund.

The Scottish Government’s new International Development Strategy, published in 2016, focuses our work on four partner countries with which we have strong historic and contemporary links to ensure our £10 million International Development Fund has the greatest impact. Those four partner countries are Malawi, Rwanda, Zambia and Pakistan.

However, Scottish based organisations working in any country whose Human Development scores medium or low on the current United Nations Human Development Index are eligible to apply to our Small Grants Programme for Feasibility or Capacity Building grants of up to £10,000. The State of Palestine is currently ranked as a country of medium human development in the UN’s Human Development Index (ranked 114 in the 2016 HDR), and therefore eligible organisations would be able to apply for these two types of grant within our Small Grants Programme.