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-32883

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 6 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether its practice of pre-release access to statistics is in full compliance with the UK Office for Statistics Regulation’s Code of Practice for Statistics.

The Scottish Government fully complies with the Code of Practice for Statistics which states that;

‘The circulation of statistics in their final form ahead of their publication should be restricted to eligible recipients, in line with the rules and principles on pre-release access set out in legislation for the UK and devolved administrations.’

Eligible recipients are defined as ‘Persons within government granted pre-release access to statistical releases in their final form ahead of their publication in line with Pre-Release Access to Official Statistics legislation’.

The relevant legislation in Scotland is the Pre-release Access to Official Statistics (Scotland) Order 2008, which permits carefully controlled pre-release access. The Office for Statistics Regulation treats this Order as an integral part of the Code of Practice for Statistics during their compliance checks.

The Code of Practice acknowledges that it is the role of the Chief Statistician to determine the appropriate arrangements for pre-release access in Scotland. Scottish Government analysts carefully consider on a case by case basis where the public benefit likely to result from pre-release access outweighs the potential detriment to public trust in official statistics by providing access. The lists of recipients for pre-release access are kept to an absolute minimum to fulfil the functions as set out in the order and reviewed prior to each publication, with anyone failing to provide a legitimate reason for still requiring access being removed. Full and detailed records are kept of any pre-release access granted and all recipients are made aware of the strict conditions on access.

Question reference: S5O-04748

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 November 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how it will ensure that all bed and breakfasts and guest houses will be eligible for financial support in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Question reference: S5O-04722

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 October 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to support older people, including those resident in care homes.

Question reference: S5W-32202

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 12 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what provisions it is making for local authority budgets in order to meet the cost of the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.

The Scottish Government have already taken exceptional measures in every area of government to deal with the challenges of COVID-19 and that is particularly clear in the support for local services.

In addition to the £382.2 million of direct funding already committed, £135 million, over the next two years, to help support the return to school and a total of up to £100 million to support the challenges in the social care sector which will be provided through Integration Authorities, the Scottish Government announced a package of financial flexibilities and extra funding on 8 October for local authorities to meet the ongoing challenges of COVID-19.

Scotland’s councils have been granted additional financial flexibilities to address the pressures caused by COVID-19 which could be worth around £600 million over the next two years. Working with COSLA and local authorities the Scottish Government will finalise a lost income scheme, including support for ALEOs, worth an estimated £90 million which when added to the recently committed £49 million consequentials will provide an extra £139 million of funding.

Taken together these measures will provide councils with an overall financial flexibility and funding package of around £750 million, this brings the value of the overall COVID-19 support package for councils to more than £1 billion.

Question reference: S5O-04679

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 September 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what the prison population is, and how this is projected to change over the next 12 months.

Question reference: S5O-04643

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S5W-31658

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 23 September 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, what work is being done to expedite provision for the flu vaccination (a) for the most vulnerable people and (b) beyond current entitlements.

Those most at risk from the seasonal flu are already eligible to receive the vaccine for free such as healthcare workers. The Scottish Government is expanding free eligibility for the Seasonal Flu Vaccine in 2020-21 to:

Social care workers who provide direct care,
Household members of individuals who are shielding, and
Those aged 55 and over.
50 to 54 year olds as vaccines supply allow

The Scottish Government aims to vaccinate more people within groups with existing eligibility than ever before and is actively engaged with public health partners in planning for the 2020-21 Flu Vaccination Programme that will begin on 1st October.

Question reference: S5W-31681

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 18 September 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what measures are being taken to safeguard the 2021 Scottish Parliament elections from external interference.

Returning Officers have a responsibility for protecting the integrity of electoral processes and the Electoral Commission regulates campaign materials. Police Scotland also have a role in safeguarding elections. To assist with this we intend to legislate to introduce digital imprints to ensure that all online materials can be traced to source in time for the 2021 Scottish Parliament election.

Foreign interference in elections is a matter of national security, which is a reserved subject matter. The Scottish Government takes part in the UK Government Defending Democracy Programme, which aims to protect and secure democratic processes, including cybersecurity and the preparedness of electoral events.

Question reference: S5W-31440

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 August 2020
Current Status: Answered by David Stewart MSP (on behalf of the SPCB) on 10 September 2020

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether it will provide a technical report into the issues experienced with the new voting app; for what reason members have experienced delays with the app displaying votes, and whether these are due to (a) the technical design, (b) network and server infrastructure, (c) user error or (d) other technical issues.

The remote voting web app was developed during the short summer recess and first used the week commencing 11 August. It has been in place for 3 weeks of voting. It was used for votes at Decision Time and in the second week for multiple Stage 3 votes during proceedings on two different Bills. There were no votes in the third week.

The voting web app has been designed to be as flexible as possible so that it can be used on any phone, tablet, laptop or PC, on WiFi, ethernet or 3G / 4G, and for this reason the authentication is rigorous and the design of the application has been through comprehensive security controls including ratification of the high-level design by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).

Issues with the application appeared to be more prevalent during the Stage 3 votes conducted recently, and analysis is ongoing to establish the root cause and the issue is being managed using major incident procedures.

Areas of investigation include:

· Detailed application analysis looking at server load, number of connections, backlog of queued calls to the application, and load testing.

· Infrastructure review including investigation chamber Wi-Fi coverage, performance and loading of access points, as well as testing of WiFi in the extended area of the chamber to establish if devices are maintaining connections to access points out with the chamber, which would impact performance.

The results of the investigations have already prompted some performance tuning in the voting app, specifically how it handles a large volume of connections and multiple votes in quick succession. These changes have been deployed and successfully tested in a simulated stage 3 vote with SPS staff.

Other issues are being addressed as they are identified and once we are confident that all issues are resolved, the major incident will be closed. As part of the major incident management processes a full technical report will be produced and considered by the SPCB. This report will be made available to members.

Question reference: S5W-31101

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 August 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 7 September 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the timeline for opening the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People and Department of Clinical Neuroscience to patients.