Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-07678

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 April 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 5 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will issue revised guidance for the High Hedges (Scotland) Act 2013, in light of the opinion of Lady Carmichael regarding the petition for judicial review of 27 February 2020 (CSOH 22).

We currently have no plans to issue revised guidance for the High Hedges (Scotland) Act 2013. Application of the legislation and associated guidance is the responsibility of local authorities and my officials will continue to engage with them to ensure that the legislation (supported by the guidance) is being applied in the manner intended by Parliament when the law was passed whilst identifying current best practice. Lady Carmichael in her judgement endorsed the 2016 guidance (since fine-tuned in 2019) and application of the legislation.

Question reference: S6W-07586

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 7 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when it will consult on its proposed Wellbeing and Sustainable Development Bill.

Questions S6W-07586 and S6W-07587 have been combined for response.

The Programme for Government (2021) outlined the Scottish Government’s proposal to bring forward a Wellbeing and Sustainable Development Bill during this Parliamentary session. This will consider the best way to ensure the interests of future generations are taken into account in decisions made today. The proposed Bill will therefore put duties on public bodies and local government to take account of the impact of their decisions on sustainable development, in Scotland and internationally. We intend to set out more detailed proposals later this year.

Question reference: S6W-07587

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 7 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish its proposals for a Wellbeing and Sustainable Development Bill.

Questions S6W-07586 and S6W-07587 have been combined for response.

The Programme for Government (2021) outlined the Scottish Government’s proposal to bring forward a Wellbeing and Sustainable Development Bill during this Parliamentary session. This will consider the best way to ensure the interests of future generations are taken into account in decisions made today. The proposed Bill will therefore put duties on public bodies and local government to take account of the impact of their decisions on sustainable development, in Scotland and internationally. We intend to set out more detailed proposals later this year.

Question reference: S6W-07185

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 17 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is putting in place to support businesses that are adversely impacted by government guidance on pursuing hybrid working where possible.

Hybrid working is one of the ongoing behaviours that will help to manage COVID-19 effectively for the long term and may have benefits that go beyond the need to control the virus. We will work with employer and business organisations and trade unions to understand the economic impacts, exploring the opportunities and challenges of hybrid working as evidence and practice develops.

As set out in the recently published Strategic Framework, the Scottish Government encourages employers to engage with employees to consider hybrid working models where feasible and appropriate. However we recognise that employers are best placed to understand how their operations work most effectively and their employees’ and requests for flexible working, based on consultation with staff and unions. We trust organisations to make balanced and risk-assessed decisions in line with their business practices.

We recognise the many challenges faced by businesses throughout the pandemic and have provided businesses with £4.5bn of support since the start of the pandemic. In December we announced a £375m support package for firms impacted by the necessary measures introduced to control the spread of Omicron. We have also confirmed an £80m Covid Economic Recovery Fund for local authorities to support local economies and cities recover from the pandemic.

City centres have been heavily impacted and that is why the Scottish Government has convened a City Centre Recovery Task Force, run in partnership with our seven cities, through the Scottish Cities Alliance. It is working to identify innovative actions aimed at assisting city centres through their economic recovery, and will deliver its report this spring. We have allocated £6 million to the City Centre Recovery Fund this year to deliver the priorities of the Task Force and encourage people to return and enjoy all that our city centres offer. We are also working collaboratively with COSLA and partners on ways to support our town centres and prepare a response to the 2021 independent review of the Town Centre Action Plan and its recommendations with a shared action plan by spring 2022.

Question reference: S6O-00881

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 March 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to offer home fee status to refugees and other people displaced from Ukraine who wish to study in Scotland.

Question reference: S6O-00824

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 March 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will meet with the Life after Essure UK and Ireland support group to discuss its concerns about a lack of awareness and understanding of the reported damaging physical and mental health impacts of Essure sterilisation devices.

Question reference: S6W-06283

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 25 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when it plans to empower local authorities to introduce a Transient Visitor Levy; whether it will be for local authorities to decide (a) when and (b) how to use such a levy, and whether it will affect the distribution formula of the block grant to local authorities.

Work towards a draft bill to provide local authorities with a discretionary power to apply a visitor levy, including a series of roundtable stakeholder events and formal consultation, was at an advanced stage but was necessarily paused at the onset of the COVID 19 pandemic in March 2020.

Our Budget confirmed that we would re-commence this work. Given the continuing impact of the pandemic on the tourism sector in Scotland, we consider it prudent to carefully review the work done to date and undertake further stakeholder engagement before making a firm decision on the next steps.

Question reference: S6O-00767

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 February 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its plans for enabling local authorities to bring in a Transient Visitor Levy.

Question reference: S6W-06282

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 16 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the First Minister’s COVID-19 Update on 1 February 2022, what action it is taking to extend "the protection of vaccination to all countries as quickly as possible".

The Scottish Government recognises that COVID-19 is an unprecedented global crisis, leaving no part of the world unaffected. Although Scotland is not a member of the COVAX scheme, we will continue engaging with the UK Government on that matter. On 8 December, the First Minister wrote to the Prime Minister to urge the UK government to end its opposition at the World Trade Organisation and to join over 100 countries who are now supportive of a temporary Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights waiver.

We have also provided international development support to our partner countries to support their COVID-19 responses, including vaccine preparedness.

In December 2020 we provided international development funding to support vaccine preparedness and delivery, including £2M to UNICEF in 2020 to help vaccine distribution, roll-out and online healthcare education in our partner countries.

In September 2021, we provided £250,000 from our international development fund to leverage the provision to our partner countries of £11.2 million worth of PPE – our single biggest ever donation – to aid COVID responses as part of our strategic response.

In February 2022 we provided £1.5m to UNICEF to support equal access to COVID-19 vaccines in our partner countries. The funds will support vaccination programmes in Rwanda, Zambia and Malawi, their provision of safe oxygen supplies, and help the agency deliver equipment, resources and technical support in response to the pandemic.

Question reference: S6O-00738

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 February 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to ensure that children living in temporary accommodation have access to permanent homes.

Chamber and committees