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: S5F-00554

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 21 November 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 November 2016

To ask the First Minister what engagements she has planned for the rest of the week.

Question reference: S5W-04582

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 21 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government when the Violence Against Women and Girls Joint Strategic Board last met and what matters were discussed.

Question reference: S5W-04584

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 16 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has carried out of the impact of the £20 million that it announced in March 2015 to tackle violence against women, and whether it will publish the findings.

Funding decisions from the additional £20m Violence Against Women and Girls Justice Budget (2015-18) are made in line with the Scottish Government’s commitment to tackle all forms of violence against women and girls, to deliver a stronger justice response and are aligned to meet the ambitions of the Scottish Government and COSLA’s joint Equally Safe Strategy, Scotland’s Strategy for preventing and eradicating violence against women and girls.

The Scottish Government will bring forward delivery plans for Equally Safe in 2016/17 and this will include a framework of outcomes and indicators to assist in measuring progress against the Strategy’s objectives.

In addition, the Scottish Government monitors awards of funding from the £20m Violence Against Women and Girls Justice Budget, against the key targets and milestones provided for each proposal. This information is received through progress and financial reports which are submitted by those organisations in receipt of funding.

Question reference: S5W-04583

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 16 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government which organisations have received support from the £20 million that it announced in March 2015 to tackle violence against women, broken down by the amount awarded.

A breakdown of the awards to date from the £20 million additional Scottish Government Violence Against Women and Girls Justice funding is set out in the following table. Remaining funding allocations from the £20m will be made during the current year and 2017-18.

Awards of funding from the £20m Violence Against Women and Girls Justice Budget

Organisation	Amount Awarded	Purpose
ASSIST	£3.000m	Funding of specialist advocacy service for victims of domestic abuse.
Caledonian System	£0.360m	Improvement of specialist court mandated perpetrator programme for men and associated women’s and children’s service and increasing capacity of programmes in existing areas.
Edinburgh Domestic Abuse Court Service	£0.441m	Funding of specialist advocacy service for victims of domestic abuse.
Independent National Scoping Exercise of Advocacy Services Across Scotland	£0.042m	Independent scoping exercise of the availability, provision of and risk assessment standards of specialist advocacy services for victims of gender based violence across Scotland.
National Specialist and Screening Services Directorate	£0.080m	NHS National Services Scotland – short term appointment to work with Health Boards and assess services currently in place for forensic examinations of victims of rape and sexual assault.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	£0.046m	Specialist trauma services for female victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation.
Police Scotland (Disclosure Scheme for Domestic Abuse)	£0.080m	Contribution towards publicity costs for Disclosure Scheme for Domestic Abuse (‘Clare’s law’)
Rape Crisis Scotland	£1.850m	Funding of specialist advocacy service for victims of sexual offences, including new provision in Orkney and Shetland.
Scottish Courts & Tribunals Service and COPFS	£7.200m	Additional resources for Courts and Crown to prioritise the processing of domestic abuse and sexual offences cases through the courts, reducing trauma and distress for victims and families.
Scottish Women’s Rights Centre	£0.665m	Expanded funding to extend the capacity and geographical reach of specialist independent legal advice service for victims of gender based violence.
Scottish Women’s Aid	£0.190m	Pilot service to assist women survivors of domestic abuse into fair employment.
The University of Strathclyde (Equally Safe in Higher Education)	£0.300m	Funding for the development of a ‘toolkit’ to embed Equally Safe in HEIs to tackle stalking, harassment, domestic abuse and sexual violence and to pilot this approach.
Violence Reduction Unit (Programmes: Mentors in Violence Prevention/Medics Against Violence)	£0.565m	Expanded programme in schools training a further 1,860 young mentors in an additional 93 secondary schools across Scotland to safely challenge and speak out against bullying, abuse and violence. Plus, expand programme delivered to healthcare students; NHS staff, allied health professionals and non-health care professions (e.g. hairdressing, beauticians, vets etc.) to spot and document the signs of potential abuse.

Question reference: S5F-00487

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 14 November 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 November 2016

To ask the First Minister when she will next meet the Auditor General for Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-03836

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 8 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to conduct any further research into whether the Sexual Offences (Procedure and Evidence) (Scotland) Act 2002 is protecting rape complainers in the way that it was intended.

Question reference: S5W-03837

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 8 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has any plans to review the Sexual Offences (Procedure and Evidence) (Scotland) Act 2002, which set the rules on the admissibility of sexual history evidence during a trial.

Sections 274 to 275B of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 were introduced in their present form by the 2002 Act to strengthen the existing provisions restricting the extent to which evidence can be led regarding the character and sexual history of the complainer. Under these provisions, such evidence can only be introduced if the court expressly permits it. If the court does not permit it, such evidence cannot be introduced.

The Scottish Government is currently in the process of collecting and analysing data in this area to understand how the law is being utilised. This exercise will inform future consideration of the operation of the law in this area.

Question reference: S5F-00462

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 07 November 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 November 2016

To ask the First Minister when the Cabinet will next meet.

Question reference: S5W-03976

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 24 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 7 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what action it takes to educate young drivers about road safety, and what plans it has to review the (a) amount and (b) quality of the information that it provides.

The Scottish Government recognises driving as a lifelong activity, and our Mid-term Review of 'Scotland's Road Safety Framework to 2020' identified specific outcomes and commitments for pre drivers and drivers aged 17-25. Casualties amongst 17-25 year olds have reduced significantly since the Framework's 2004-2008 baseline with a 64% reduction in fatalities at the 2015 milestone point.

However, the Framework contains an ultimate vision where no-one is killed on Scotland's roads and therefore, working in conjunction with a range of road safety partners, Road Safety Scotland continues to provide a range of interventions to improve attitudes and change behaviours among young drivers, including a full suite of educational sources linked to Curriculum for Excellence and targeted publicity campaigns.

Question reference: S5F-00415

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 31 October 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 November 2016

To ask the First Minister what issues will be discussed at the next meeting of the Cabinet.