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-27811

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 5 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how it supports existing first responder groups and charities to assist with emergency calls received by the Scottish Ambulance Service.

Co-ordination of Community First Responders (CFRs) and Wildcat Cardiac Responders sits within the Scottish Ambulance Service National Risk and Resilience Department (NRRD). The Community Resilience team within NRRD provide governance, recruitment, training, and support to CFR schemes and ensure the consistency of operating practice across Scotland.

CFRs subscribe to an agreed governance framework and clinically approved Scope of Practice. The primary focus of the role is responding to cardiac arrests, heart problems, chest pains, breathing difficulties, stroke and choking. Volunteering is flexible and there is no minimum requirement.

CFRs are dispatched, predominantly via Airwave radio, by the Alternative Resource Desk (ARD) within the Ambulance Control Centre. CFRs may also use the GoodSam app to ensure an expedited response to known and suspected cardiac arrests.

Question reference: S6W-27426

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 28 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking in response to the study, Fair Gig Work: A review of Employment Practices in the Scottish Food Delivery Work 2024, and its findings of harassment and abuse of food delivery industry workers in cities across Scotland.

The findings from the Heriot-Watt study present a disturbing picture of racial and sexual abuse that food delivery drivers have experienced in the course of their work.

The Scottish Government is clear that there is no place for harassment or abuse in the workplace, and everyone deserves to be respected and to feel safe in their working environment no matter their job or industry. All employers have a duty of care to protect the health, safety and welfare of their workers.

While the legal powers governing Health and Safety and Employment are reserved, this government will continue to promote its Fair Work policy, to make workplaces fairer and more inclusive but also safer and healthier environments for all workers. We encourage all employers to have in place robust workplace policies for handling issues such as bullying or harassment.

We are developing, and will publish by summer, a delivery plan for the refreshed Equally Safe Strategy to enable its aims and vision to be progressed in a practical way. This strategy seeks to prevent and address all forms of violence against women and girls, including in the workplace, specifically violence, abuse, and exploitation directed at them because of their gender. This behaviour is predominantly carried out by men and stems from deep-rooted gender inequality.

Question reference: S6W-27427

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 28 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the growth in the food delivery industry in Scotland since 2020, including the estimated number of workers in the sector.

The Scottish Government is aware of the importance of understanding the food delivery industry, and the evolving challenges with measuring activity in this area.

At present, there are no official estimates of revenues or employment in the food delivery industry provided by the Office for National Statistics at UK or Scottish level, or how these have changed in recent years.

Independent organisations such as the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development (CIPD) have provided estimates of the scale of employment within the food delivery industry in the UK in recent years, as part of employment in the wider “Gig Economy”. The CIPD published estimates in 2023 in their report, “The Gig Economy: What Does It Really Look Like?”, based on experimental questions in the January to March 2022 Labour Force Survey. This estimated 82,649 people were employed as food delivery drivers as part of the ‘gig’ economy in the UK overall in the previous 3 months, although there are no estimates specifically for Scotland.

There are currently no Standard Industrial Classification codes that specifically identify food delivery as an industry; there are also currently no Standard Occupational Classification codes that specifically identify food delivery as an occupation. In the absence of these, it is currently not possible to provide robust and consistent estimates of numbers of individuals employed within food service delivery in Scotland from official data sources.

Recent related ONS communications on the issue of the Gig Economy are provided below for reference.

2021: Workers in the 'Gig economy' - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)

2024: Revenue generated from gig jobs in the UK - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)

Question reference: S6W-27428

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 28 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how it is engaging with food delivery industry employers, including on matters of fair work, employment rights and safety.

While there is no specific, separate engagement with food delivery industry employers, the Scottish Government engages broadly with businesses and trade unions across the retail and hospitality sector on a range of issues, including fair work. Many of these businesses also operate food delivery services. There are also Industry Leadership groups for both sectors co-chaired by Scottish Government, which provide strategic oversight of key policy issues and development.

As there are currently no Standard Industrial Classification codes that specifically identify food delivery as an industry; and no Standard Occupational Classification codes that specifically identify food delivery as an occupation, it is not possible to robustly estimate the size of the sector in Scotland.

Our vision, shared with the Fair Work Convention, is for Scotland to be a leading Fair Work Nation by 2025, where fair work drives success, wellbeing and prosperity for individuals, businesses, organisations and society.

Control over employment and industrial relations legislation is currently reserved to the UK Parliament; while this remains the case, we will continue to use our Fair Work policy to drive up labour market standards for workers across the Scottish labour market.

Question reference: S6W-27255

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 16 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the progress of the inquiry into the death of Sheku Bayoh, including the anticipated date for the publication of the final report.

The Sheku Bayoh Public Inquiry commenced evidentiary hearings on 10 May 2022. As of 2 May 2024, 102 days of evidence have been heard by Lord Bracadale including detailed evidence on the events at Hayfield Road on 3 May 2015; post-incident management by Police Scotland, COPFS and PIRC; cause of death; and Police Scotland training. The Inquiry will hear evidence on race, and whether it was a factor in Mr Bayoh’s death, in June 2024.

As the Public Inquiry is independent of Ministers, it is for the Chair to direct how the Inquiry carries out its duties. Lord Bracadale has previously confirmed that he anticipates that all the remaining evidence should be completed by the end of the year and a final report will be prepared and produced once all evidence has been heard and reviewed.

Question reference: S6O-03308

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 April 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what the average waiting time is for a determination on Adult and Child Disability Payments in Mid-Scotland and Fife.

Question reference: S6O-03153

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 February 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its review of how to increase the number of co-operatives, social enterprises and employee-owned businesses, as part of the move to a wellbeing economy.

Question reference: S6W-25530

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 28 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government on what date it plans to publish its consultation on the minimum age of marriage, in light of the concluding observation of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child that all marriages of under-18s should be prohibited in Scotland.

As I said in my answer to question S6W-23651 on 7 December 2023, the Scottish Government is aiming to publish a consultation on a substantial range of family and succession law matters, including the minimum age of marriage, by summer 2024.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Question reference: S6O-03118

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 February 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how it is supporting events to commemorate the 750th anniversary of the birth of Robert the Bruce, which takes place on 11 July this year.

Question reference: S6O-02979

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 January 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what action it is taking to make rail travel more affordable and attractive for passengers in the Mid Scotland and Fife region.