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-07993

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 April 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 26 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether Crown Estate Scotland will be permitted to keep and use for the Crown Estate 9% of the gross revenue from the option fees raised via the ScotWind leasing process.

Question reference: S6O-00897

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 March 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of FOI requests made to it were answered in full within 20 working days, within the last 12 months.

Question reference: S6F-00908

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 14 March 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 March 2022

To ask the First Minister when construction of the National Treatment Centres, which are due to open this year, is completed, whether they will have sufficient staff to begin tackling the Scotland-wide patient backlog.

Question reference: S6W-04782

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 17 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when work will resume on developing proposals for an additional medical school in Scotland.

The September 2019 Programme for Government commitment to develop proposals for a new medical school was paused in March 2020 due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. We are currently considering how this commitment can be implemented or linked to the new Programme for Government (PfG) Commitment to increase medical undergraduates by 100 per year and to double the number of Widening Access places over the lifetime of this parliament.

Question reference: S6W-04450

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Jackson Carlaw on 25 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what legal advice it has taken regarding new lease requirements for MSPs’ constituency and regional offices.

In the course of establishing their local offices, Members enter directly into a private contract for their occupation of the premises with a landlord. The SPCB is not a party to Members’ contractual arrangements with their landlords. This arrangement has the advantage that Members are free to choose premises that they consider suitable for their purpose within their own constituency or region. Provided that the rules of the Re-imbursement of Members’ Expenses Scheme are complied with, Members can recover the cost of the initial setting up and subsequent running of their local offices under the Scheme.

Whether to have a local office or not and where that office is within the constituency or region they were elected to represent is a decision for each constituency MSP or through agreement of regional MSPs from the same party who are required to share an office under the Scheme.

Members are free to enter into a lease, a licence to occupy or, for example, a shorter-term arrangement to occupy a unit which is part of larger premises. Each arrangement has advantages and disadvantages for a tenant.

When a Member is contemplating acquiring a local office, they are strongly advised to seek their own legal advice in relation to any proposed arrangement in order to protect their own interests and to ensure they are fully aware of the obligations they are undertaking as they could, at some stage, no longer be eligible for recovery of their expenses and become personally liable for them. The cost of such legal advice can be met from the Scheme.

In order to qualify for the re-imbursement of their expenses, Members must satisfy the SPCB that their private arrangements are clear in their terms and not ambiguous, are binding contractually on the Member claiming and do not constitute an unreasonable drain on the public purse for the period that the Member is able to recover those expenses under the Scheme.

Legal Services are the SPCB’s solicitors and are not authorised by the SPCB to provide legal advice on leases or other arrangements to Members. Legal Services do, on behalf of the Allowances Office, ensure that Members’ arrangements allow them to recover their expenses under the Scheme, by checking that each arrangement sets out clearly an offer to let or occupy specified premises, the term for which the arrangement is to last, and the rent for the premises. Legal Services provide this service to assure the Allowances Office and the SPCB that public finance obligations are met.

The Allowances Office provide advice to Members on what a Member is able to claim under the Scheme and what is required by way of evidence of any expenditure to make a claim. For example, where a Member wishes to claim rent for an office a valid agreement binding them contractually to pay the rental costs would be required.

Question reference: S6W-03082

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 12 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when it expects people who have received one of their COVID-19 vaccine doses in Northern Ireland to be able to access their vaccination status through the (a) online PDF process and (b) COVID-19 Vaccination Status Helpline.

The Scottish Government is working closely with colleagues within the Northern Ireland Executive to establish data feeds that will allow for the automatic exchange of vaccination information between Scotland and Northern Ireland.

People can request proof of the dose or doses received from Northern Ireland. Work is underway to enable people to upload evidence of their doses to NHS Inform and access a vaccine certificate. This upload was completed on 30 September 2021.

People can now update their record of vaccination in Scotland with Covid-19 vaccinations received out-with Scotland, but within the Common Travel Area. More information on how to do this can be found at Request an update to your coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination record | The coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine (nhsinform.scot) .

For the purpose of vaccine certification, we accept proof of vaccination from Northern Ireland.

Question reference: S6W-04142

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 12 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when it will provide an update on funding arrangements for the National Care Home Contract settlement for the financial year 2022-23.

The National Care Home Contract is negotiated annually between Scotland Excel, COSLA (Convention of Scottish Local Authorities), Scottish Care and CCPS (Coalition of Care and Support Providers in Scotland). The Scottish Government is not a contractual party to this agreement.

Decisions on future local government finance settlements will be the subject of negotiations with COSLA on behalf of all 32 local authorities and announced as part of the outcome of future Scottish Budgets and/or Spending Reviews.

Question reference: S6W-03682

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 27 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-02328 by Keith Brown 31 August 2021, whether the contract to design and construct HMP Highland was awarded in September and, if so, to which company.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

The SPS awarded the pre-construction services contract for the HMP Highland project to Balfour Beatty in September 2021.

The SPS are working with Balfour Beatty to further develop the design of HMP Highland, prior to the award of a stage two contract that will deliver the construction element of the project.

Question reference: S6W-02364

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 14 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many specialist teaching staff vacancies there are in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools, broken down by local authority area.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the current number of specialist teaching staff vacancies. The results of the most recent teacher vacancy survey, undertaken in September 2019, are available here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/teacher-vacancy-survey-2016-to-2019/

The number of teachers by subject is shown in Table 3.

The 2016 to 2019 vacancy surveys were jointly administered by the Scottish Government and COSLA. The surveys were suspended in 2020 due to the Covid pandemic. Vacancies are now advertised on “myjobscotland” which allows for easier continual monitoring by local authorities in line with their responsibilities for teacher employment.

Question reference: S6W-02366

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 7 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many of the children currently awaiting a neuro-developmental assessment are (a) six years old or younger, (b) seven to 12 years old, (c) 13 to 16 years old and (d) older than 16 years of age.