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: S5W-34298

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 December 2020
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 12 January 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been paid out each year from the Scottish Growth Scheme, also broken down by how many businesses have received support.

To 30 November 2020, under the Scottish Growth Scheme, £296.5 million of investment has been unlocked for 509 companies, in the form of debt and equity.

The following table contains a breakdown by year of this funding, and the number of businesses that have received support under the Scottish Growth Scheme

Year	Funding delivered	Businesses supported
	£m	Number
2017	22.7	24
2018	83.5	58
2019	69.2	241
2020 (end Nov)	121.1	186
Total	296.5	509

Question reference: S5W-34299

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 December 2020
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 12 January 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much (a) Highlands and Islands Enterprise and (b) Scottish Enterprise has spent on staff overtime in each year since 2007-08.

Question reference: S5W-34062

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 December 2020
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 11 January 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-32339 by Roseanna Cunningham on 10 November 2020, how many people saw its 2018-19 Food Waste Gone Bad campaign, and what the size of the target audience was.

The Food Waste Gone Bad campaign included television, radio and digital campaigns. The TV element was showed on STV, C4 and ITV breakfast Scotland and the following table shows how many times all adults in Scotland will have seen the advert one (1+ reach), three times (3+ reach) and how many opportunities to see (OTS) the advert there are:

TV audience	1+ Reach	3+ Reach	OTS
All Adults (in Scotland)	64%	39%	6.3

This advert was also served digitally; 589,831 impressions on catch up services and 224,595 impressions on YouTube were planned.

The radio advert played across all Local Authorities who have recycling collections. The table below summarises the impact, reach and opportunities to hear (OTH) the advert:

	Impacts	Reach	Reach	OTH
All Adults 15+	33,117,000	2,504,000	57.4%	13.2

The reach of the digital advertising for the campaign was as follows:

1,354,761 impressions on Facebook and Instagram
1,108,864 impressions on Twitter.

Question reference: S5W-34012

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 December 2020
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 11 January 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will review its decision that football clubs in local authority areas that are subject to Level 2 restrictions and above are not permitted to allow fans into their grounds.

Question reference: S5W-34009

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 December 2020
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 6 January 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it can confirm that all community payback orders put on hold during the current pandemic will be fulfilled, and what targeted support will be provided to local authorities to allow them to clear any backlogs.

The difficulties faced by justice social work in delivering community orders during the coronavirus pandemic were acknowledged by the Scottish Parliament through the Coronavirus (Scotland) Act 2020, which extended timescales for completion of unpaid work and other activity requirements, and created new regulation-making powers enabling community orders to be postponed or varied if necessary, subject to Parliamentary approval.

Social Work Scotland raised significant concerns during the summer about the ability of justice social work to deliver outstanding unpaid work and other activity requirements within reasonable timescales, suggesting that the effective operation of the community justice system is at significant risk unless action is taken to reduce the backlog, utilising the regulation-making powers mentioned above. I made clear to the Justice Committee I will keep the situation under review.

The Covid restrictions mean that unpaid work hours are not able to be completed in the same way they were pre-Covid, therefore serious consideration must be given to the options provided within the regulation-making powers, which all parties voted for. I will update Parliament on any decision I make in this regard.

In regards to wider support, an additional £4m in justice social work services has been invested in 2020/21 with flexibility to utilise this in responding to emerging pressures arising because of the pandemic. A further investment of up to £1m was agreed in December 2020 to assist in reducing the backlog of undelivered unpaid work or other activity requirements and there has been regular engagement with Social Work Scotland, local authorities and other partners throughout the pandemic.

Question reference: S5W-34013

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 December 2020
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 5 January 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether evidence from the epidemiologist, Professor Gary Macfarlane, who backed Aberdeen FC’s request for 2,000 supporters to be allowed into Pittodrie stadium, will be considered as part of fans returning to football stadia.

Question reference: S5W-34010

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 December 2020
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 5 January 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the sources from whom it has received advice on the potential risks of allowing fans to return to stadium football matches; when that advice was last received, and when it will next seek to update it.

Our approach and principles remain those we set out in our Framework for Decision-Making , based on clinical evidence, expert advice, and a balanced assessment of the risks.

Ministers, clinicians and officials regularly consider the latest advice and information and reflect this in the decisions we take in managing the return of spectators. Given that the situation with the virus remains fragile – with many cases and continuing pressure on the NHS – we are taking a cautious approach.

Question reference: S5W-34011

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 December 2020
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 5 January 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S5W-32552 and S5W-33181 by Joe FitzPatrick on 10 and 25 November 2020 respectively, whether it will provide the information requested regarding when it last met representatives of the (a) Scottish Football Association, (b) Scottish Professional Football League, (c) Scottish Amateur Football Association, (d) Scottish Premiership club chairmen and (e) Scottish Football Supporters Association.

The Scottish Government last met with the:

Scottish Football Association on 16 December 2020

Scottish Professional Football League on 10 December 2020

Scottish Amateur Football Association on 4 December 2020

Scottish Football Supporters Association on 25 November 2020

We routinely meet with the Chairmen – and senior representatives like Chief Executives – of SPFL Premiership clubs, the last discussion was with the Chairman of Ross County on 18 November.

Question reference: S5W-34063

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 December 2020
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 23 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-32908 by Fiona Hyslop on 9 November 2020, whether it will provide an update on the COVID-19 Restrictions Fund, including details of how many applications have been received for each of the funds, broken down by local authority area, and how many of these (a) have been approved, (b) have been declined and (c) are awaiting a decision.

Question reference: S5W-34082

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 December 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 23 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-33603 by Roseanna Cunningham on 10 December 2020, when the enforcement sub-group of the Litter Managers Network was set up, and on what dates it has met.