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-04270

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 17 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how it will improve the teaching of STEM subjects in secondary schools.

The Scottish Government's STEM Education and Training Strategy has set out a range of actions designed to support STEM teaching and learning in Scotland’s secondary schools.

Measures include supporting the STEM enhanced professional learning grants programme operated by Education Scotland. Round 3, operating in financial year 2021-22, will provide professional learning to an estimated 13,400 practitioners in 759 establishments, with funding to the secondary sector benefitting 4,280 practitioners in 233 establishments.

Education Scotland issues annual STEM practitioner surveys to gather evidence about practitioner priorities and provision to ensure grant funding, as well as regional and national support, provides high-quality professional learning that meets the needs of practitioners.

Education Scotland’s regional improvement teams work closely at local authority, regional and national levels to support STEM professional learning and teacher networks to help them improve practice. The Improving Gender Balance and Equalities Team also work within the regions to improve STEM teaching approaches to ensure all learners benefit, irrespective of gender or protected characteristic.

Through the pandemic Education Scotland has worked with partners to collate and develop over 9,000 STEM resources to support remote learning. These are now available nationally to teachers, learners and parents through the National e-Learning Offer website.

Scottish Government is supporting an education bursary initiative designed to offer up to 150 STEM bursaries to encourage more people to train as secondary school teachers in STEM subjects. We are also supporting the Scottish Schools Education Research Centre (SSERC) to provide teacher professional learning opportunities for secondary science, technology and digital skills development. Courses are open to student teachers, probationers, classroom teachers as well as school leaders.

We continue to invest in work to develop the capacity of teachers and school leaders to deliver inspiring STEM courses; including a Young STEM Leader awards programme that aims to inspire and reward young people to take up STEM subjects and encourage their peers to do so.

Question reference: S6W-04272

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 15 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure an adequate supply of STEM teachers for secondary schools, to address any concerns about current shortages.

The Scottish Government is offering 150 bursaries of £20,000 for career changers to do teacher training in STEM subjects where the demand for teachers is at its greatest.

A new phase of our teacher recruitment campaign is underway. The recruitment campaign aims to encourage students and career changers to apply for a teacher education course, with a particular focus on STEM subjects.

In addition, since the start of the pandemic we have provided £240m of additional investment, over two financial years (2020-21 and 2021-22), specifically for the recruitment of more education staff.

Question reference: S6W-04271

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 11 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many vacancies for qualified STEM teachers are unfilled in secondary schools.

Question reference: S6W-03017

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 8 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether its COVID-19 vaccine certification app will include an option for people who have certification for antibodies or previous infection.

On 30 September 2021 we launched the NHS Scotland COVID Status app which was developed for vaccination information initially. We have developed our app to meet the EU requirements so we expect this to be compatible with the IATA Travel Pass. We have and continue to engage with international stakeholders and UK Government to ensure the app is compatible with the other countries requirements of entry.

Question reference: S6O-00366

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 November 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to tackle fly-tipping, in light of reports of there being just three prosecutions from 32 reported cases of fly-tipping in the 2019-20 financial year.

Question reference: S6O-00220

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 September 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to cultural organisations in Mid Scotland and Fife.

Question reference: S6W-02710

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 17 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-32512 by Roseanna Cunningham on 13 November 2020, how many cases of fly-tipping have been recorded in (a) 2020 and (b) 2021 to date.

There is no single dataset of all flytipping incidents in Scotland, as there is no legal requirement for duty bodies or landowners to report on flytipping externally. The figures provided below represent incidents reported via the Litter Monitoring System and FlyMapper.

It is clear that the data varies significantly from year to year but it is not possible to deduce whether this relates to variations in incidents or variations in reporting by relevant bodies.

Year	Flytipping incidents recorded by Flymapper and Litter Monitoring System
2014	3,096
2015	7,295
2016	10,447
2017	10,329
2018	6,613
2019	1,018
2020	4,272
2021*	2,534

*This relates to the number of flytipping incidents up to 8 September 2021.

Question reference: S6W-02351

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 14 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when it next plans to review its contract for the delivery of general dental services.

Question reference: S6W-02348

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 14 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many patients received dental treatment under the NHS between 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021, and how this compares with the same period in each of the previous five years.

Question reference: S6W-02275

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 13 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when it anticipates work will commence on the Birnam to Jubilee Bridge section of the A9 to upgrade it to a dual carriageway.

Following completion of an innovative co-creative process with the community, work to assess four route options, including the community’s preferred route option, is ongoing to identify a Preferred Route option. This is being progressed in accordance with design standards and once a Preferred Route option is announced a timetable for the statutory processes will be set. It is necessary that the correct statutory process is followed to ensure a fair and transparent assessment of options and impacts on local communities and road users.

A market consultation exercise commenced earlier this year to inform an assessment of procurement options for the remaining sections when the statutory process is complete. Determination of the optimal procurement option is a complex exercise which is considering a pipeline of work in a form that can be delivered by the industry, supports the economic recovery post COVID and minimises disruption to users of this lifeline route. It is expected this analysis will be completed in the coming weeks and will inform decision making on our procurement approach and phasing.