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-01105

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 June 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government when a minister last met representatives of teachers and what issues were discussed.

Question reference: S5W-09400

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 May 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 7 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what action it can take to ensure that local authorities take account of disability-related expenditure when agreeing social care charges.

COSLA's Charging Guidance recommends that local authorities should be proactive in gathering information about additional disability related expenses as part of their financial assessment process. Ideally, questions about disability related expenditure should be included in the financial assessment form. This will enable a local authority to decide whether to disregard more of a person’s income or capital, over and above any existing disregards, to take account of any disability related expenditure.

We set out in A Fairer Scotland for Disabled People in 2016 our ambitions to support services that promote independent living, and make sure disabled people can enjoy full participation with an adequate income to participate in learning, in education, in voluntary work or paid employment and retirement. We will wish to consider the treatment of Disability Related Expenditure as we work towards those ambitions.

We would encourage Local Authorities to consider all Disability Related Expenditure (DRE) to ensure any care charges don’t cause hardship and undermine people’s right to live independently.

Question reference: S5W-09351

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 19 May 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 1 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what support it can provide to health and social care integration boards to ensure delivery of key services, such as the continuation of sleepover arrangements.

We work closely with Health and Social Care Partnership providing support in regards to the integration of health and social care services where appropriate to do so. Partnerships and providers indicated the need for support in regards to sleepover provision and we have agreed a specific programme of work with COSLA and providers to support reform as part of the Living Wage in Care commitment for 2017-18.

This programme of work will consider new delivery models and will support reform where necessary to allow us to get to a position to meet our ambition of all hours being paid at the Living Wage.

Question reference: S5O-01094

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what funding it has provided to third sector organisations to tackle homelessness in Glasgow since 2007.

Question reference: S5W-09352

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 19 May 2017
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 31 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance it can provide to residents of sheltered housing who have had their overnight sleepover warden service removed.

Residents of sheltered housing should feel secure and comfortable at home.

Any person who feels that their needs are not being met should contact their local social services department who can work with them and discuss potential options to ensure their needs are met.

This year, we have made an additional £107 million available to support sustainability in the care sector and ensure providers can continue to meet people's needs, including within sheltered housing provision.

Question reference: S5W-09353

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 19 May 2017
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 31 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with Bield Housing regarding its decision to change its sleepover arrangements in sheltered housing complexes.

Question reference: S5W-08761

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 8 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many people whose spouse or partner died as a result of being given blood products contaminated with hepatitis C have received Skipton Fund stage 1 payments but not stage 2.

The Skipton Fund is aware of 112 people who have been confirmed as deceased without progressing to Stage 2. However, the Skipton Fund does not have data to confirm how many of these individuals died leaving a widow, widower or partner; nor does it have any information to confirm whether Hepatitis C infection caused the death of any of these individuals. Many of those in the Stage 1 group (which represents those with chronic infection) will have died from causes unrelated to their Hepatitis C infection. Stage 2 represents cases where beneficiaries are affected by the most serious conditions associated with Hepatitis C - cirrhosis, liver cancer, the need for a liver transplant or B-cell lymphoma.

The Skipton Fund also does not have reliable data on the number of Stage 1 beneficiaries who have died, as many beneficiaries lost touch with the scheme; therefore there could be some additional Stage 1 beneficiaries who have died.

Question reference: S5O-00877

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 19 April 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to support the introduction of hybrid and electric buses in Glasgow.

The Scottish Green Bus Fund (SGBF) is helping our bus industry invest in the latest emission reducing technology and is another clear indication of the Government's commitment to Scotland's bus industry. Round seven of the fund was launched on 7 April 2017 with a budget of £3 million.

In addition through the Bus Service Operators Grant, operators receive an additional 10.1p/km on top of the 14.4 p/km base rate for low emission buses.

Question reference: S5W-08406

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 24 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 18 April 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what approach it is taking to tackle (a) homelessness and (b) rough sleeping.

With strong statutory rights to housing for homeless households, we are focusing with local authorities and partners on preventing homelessness before it occurs. We are continuing to fund five local authority led Housing Options Hubs across Scotland to promote prevention activity. This approach will be strengthened further with the development of a housing options training toolkit for local authority officers enabling a consistency of the housing options approach across Scotland.

The national focus is through the Scottish Government and COSLA’s Homelessness Prevention and Strategy Group. Its membership involves a range of stakeholders at a national level who meet to develop policy and promote practice in tackling and preventing homelessness and rough sleeping.

This Group’s priorities include working to address homelessness for people with more complex needs, including those who may be sleeping rough, which involves working with partners such as health. Another priority is improving the provision of temporary accommodation, which is a statutory duty for local authorities, against the background of the UK Government’s welfare reform agenda which is reducing the funding available for temporary accommodation.

Question reference: S5W-08405

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 24 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 18 April 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what funding it has made available in each year since 2007 to tackle (a) homelessness and (b) rough sleeping in (i) Glasgow and (ii) the rest of the country.

Since 2007, the vast majority of the total funding is provided as a block grant and it is the responsibility of each local authority to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including funding to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

Despite on-going cuts to the Scottish Budget by the UK Government, the funding package for 2016-17 amounted to over £10.3 billion and this year it will increase to over £10.4 billion. All local authorities, including Glasgow City Council, continue to receive their fair share of this total funding.

Additionally, the Scottish Government is providing funding to local authorities of approximately £22.5million in 2017-18 following the transfer of funding from the UK Government resulting from welfare reform and its changes to the funding of temporary accommodation.

Further funding is provided to facilitate five regional Housing Options Hubs across Scotland, which include all local authorities working together to promote the prevention of homelessness and funding is also provided to third sector organisations tackling homelessness in Glasgow and elsewhere through the Housing Voluntary Grant Scheme.