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-15265

Asked by: Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 21 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking in response to reported concerns that school uniform policies that require families to purchase branded, rather than generic, items can have a negative impact on their affordability.

Local authorities are responsible for their own school uniform policy, as part of their responsibilities for school rules. The Scottish Government does encourage local authorities to consider how they can work with schools to ensure that uniform policies do not present a barrier to learning for those families living on low incomes.

The Scottish Government believes the wearing of a school uniform is a key part of the drive to improve discipline and raise attainment in schools. There are many advantages to wearing a school uniform, these include reducing competition between pupils in respect of clothing brands, which in turn reduces the causes of bullying; creating a positive image of the school within the local community; and they are also good from a school’s security perspective since it allows school staff to easily identify people who do not belong to the school.

Question reference: S5W-15264

Asked by: Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 21 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking in response to the report, Findings from 2017 School Clothing Grants Survey, by the Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland, One Parent Families Scotland and The Poverty Truth Commission.

The Scottish Government strongly believes that all children in Scotland should have equal access to education regardless of their financial circumstances and we welcome the work of Child Poverty Action Group in detailing the key financial barriers affecting participation and experiences at school for children from low income households.

I met with representatives from the Cost of the School Clothing Group on
‎ 1 February 2018 to discuss the provision of school clothing grants across the country. The discussion was informed by the findings from their 2017 School Clothing Grants Survey. The results of this survey have informed the ongoing, constructive discussions on school clothing grants with CoSLA.

Question reference: S5O-01890

Asked by: Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 March 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made rolling out the Healthier, Wealthier Children approach to income maximisation across Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-14345

Asked by: Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 1 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to encourage sporting estates to practice voluntary restraint on the large-scale cull of mountain hares.

New guidance on sustainable hare management is currently being finalised by Scotland’s Moorland Forum on behalf of Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH). The new guidance encourages collaborative working between estates to develop sustainable hare management plans.

Mountain hare management plans will be informed by count data obtained according to a standard method, based on the recommendations of the recently published joint hare counting study involving the James Hutton Institute, Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, and SNH (SNH Commissioned Report 1022). Estates will be expected to make all cull data available to SNH for monitoring and reporting purposes, to ensure any changes of conservation concern are quickly identified.

Question reference: S5W-14346

Asked by: Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 1 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the EU directive prohibiting “the use of all indiscriminate means capable of causing local disappearance of, or serious disturbance to, populations [of] species”, what assessment it has made of localised declines of mountain hares that has been reported by Scottish Natural Heritage, including the impact this has on the conservation status of predator species, such as the golden eagle.

The available long term data does not suggest a national decline in the mountain hare population, but there is evidence from north east Scotland of declines on some managed grouse moors. In order to assess the current population trend on these sites and provide better information on the Scottish mountain hare population at a local, regional and national level, a new monitoring scheme is being developed based on the counting method recommended in the recently published SNH Commissioned Report 1022.

The intention is to implement the new scheme on selected sites in the autumn of 2018, followed by more widespread coverage from 2019 onwards. The data generated from this monitoring scheme will provide better information on hare populations, which can then be used for various purposes including investigating relationships with predator species such as golden eagles .

Question reference: S5W-14344

Asked by: Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 1 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-04501 by Roseanna Cunningham on 22 November 2016, whether it considers that the culling of mountain hares that was reported by the BBC programme, Countryfile, on 28 January 2018, constitutes evidence of large-scale culling and, if so, whether it will take action to tighten the regulations.

Scottish Natural Heritage’s advice is that the available evidence shows no national decline in mountain hare numbers. An independent group has been established to look at the environmental impact of grouse moor management practices including the management of mountain hares, and to recommend options for regulation, including licensing as well as other measures, which could be put in place without new primary legislation. The group will report in spring 2019.

Question reference: S5W-13709

Asked by: Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 16 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of it appearing under the Support for Sustainable and Active Travel budget line in the Draft Budget, whether all of the £80 million set aside for active travel in its Programme for Government will be allocated to walking and cycling.

All of the £80 million set aside for active travel in the Scottish Governments Programme for Government will be allocated to walking and cycling. This will come from the Support for Sustainable and Active Travel (SSAT) and Future Transport Fund budget lines and includes the maintenance of the figure of £7.36 m for Cycling Walking Safer Streets which is funding outwith the Local Government finance settlement.

Question reference: S5W-13380

Asked by: Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 December 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 9 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what the annual budget is of NHS Research Scotland's Partnership with Industry programme, and how its spending is evaluated.

NHS Research Scotland (NRS) supports clinical research studies and clinical trials from the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical technology industries through a simplified, single point of access to Scotland’s clinical research infrastructure, including world-class facilities, expert investigators and well-characterised groups of patients.

NRS operates a single contract draft and single commercial price for industry-led research under which the full cost of conducting commercial research in the NHS in Scotland is covered by the commercial sponsor. There is therefore no annual NRS programme budget or spend associated with NRS collaborative working with industry.

More details of the role of NRS and how it works in partnership with industry can be found at: http://www.nhsresearchscotland.org.uk/working-with-us

Question reference: S5W-13378

Asked by: Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 December 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 December 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding has been provided by the Chief Scientist Office's (a) Health Improvement, Translational Clinical Studies Research Committee and (b) Health Improvement, Protection and Services Research Committee for research and development in each of the last 10 years, and which commercially available products have been developed (i) in part and (ii) wholly with this funding.

(a) The Health Improvement, Protection & Services (HIPS) and Translational Clinical Studies (TCS) Committees were established in 2016. Each committee has 2 funding rounds per year

In 2016 the following funding was committed

HIPS £2,006,209

TCS £2,169,872

The figures for 2017 correspond to the first funding round only

HIPS £1,843,631

TCS 1,574,019

(b) I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-11754 on 25 October 2017. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

Question reference: S5O-01542

Asked by: Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 29 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its mental health strategy, how it plans to address and reduce levels of self-harm.

In the Mental Health Strategy (2017 – 27), we commit to focussing on self-harm in our forthcoming engagement with stakeholders on the development of a new Action Plan on Suicide Prevention. Self-harm is related but a distinct phenomenon to suicide. We will undertake public engagement on a draft Suicide Prevention Action Plan with a view to publishing a final version in Spring 2018. The engagement will consider self-harm as part of the wider picture on mental health.