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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 984 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S5W-22676

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Ash Denham on 3 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what work is being done to ensure that the remaining sections of the Prescriptions (Scotland) Act 2018 come into force, and by what date these provisions will commence.

Commencement provisions for the Prescription (Scotland) Act 2018 raise a number of important and complex issues, including, but not limited to, the appropriate duration for any transitional period given the range of statutory obligations that would be subject to a shortened period of prescription. The Scottish Government are currently in discussions with stakeholders about these issues. The intention is to lay the Commencement Order as soon as practicable.

Question reference: S5W-22560

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 3 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions or correspondence it has had with Police Scotland regarding the operational impact of the £5.4 million shortfall in the budget allocation for digital evidence platform in 2019-20 as identified in the Scottish Police Authority Board Papers of 28 March 2019.

Question reference: S5W-22550

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 3 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions or correspondence it has had with Police Scotland regarding the operational impact of the £5.3 million shortfall in the budget allocation for custody and productions remodelling in 2019-20 as identified in the Scottish Police Authority Board Papers of 28 March 2019.

The Scottish Police Authority (SPA) is responsible for allocating the budget for the policing of Scotland, which includes allocations to the Chief Constable and also to the Director of the Forensics Service. The Scottish Government had a number of discussions with the SPA and Police Scotland finance leads during the course of the 2019-20 spending review. The SPA considered and approved its budget for 2019-20 at its meeting on 28 March 2019.

We are committed to protecting the police resource budget in real terms in every year of this Parliament – a boost of £100 million by 2021. The value of the real terms protection in 2019-20 is £19.1m.

Total Scottish Government funding for the Scottish Police Authority in 2019-20 is increasing by £42.3 million, meaning the annual policing budget is now over £1.2 billion. 87% of the policing budget pays for the salaries of police staff and officers and we have invested an additional £11.2 million in the workforce, including a 6.5% pay increase for police officers. This year’s budget also includes a 52% (£12 million) increase to the capital budget and £30.2 million of reform and change funding.

Question reference: S5W-22552

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 3 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions or correspondence it has had with Police Scotland regarding the operational impact of the £8.3 million shortfall in the budget allocation for fleet in 2019-20 as identified in the Scottish Police Authority Board Papers of 28 March 2019.

Question reference: S5W-22553

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 3 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions or correspondence it has had with Police Scotland regarding the operational impact of the £4.3 million shortfall in the budget allocation for ICT in 2019-20 as identified in the Scottish Police Authority Board Papers of 28 March 2019.

Question reference: S5W-22556

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 3 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions or correspondence it has had with Police Scotland regarding the operational impact of the £300,000 shortfall in the budget allocation for mobility in 2019-20 as identified in the Scottish Police Authority Board Papers of 28 March 2019.

Question reference: S5W-22555

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 3 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions or correspondence it has had with Police Scotland regarding the operational impact of the £5.7 million shortfall in the budget allocation for national cybercrime infrastructure/cyber security in 2019-20 as identified in the Scottish Police Authority Board Papers of 28 March 2019.

Question reference: S5W-22559

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 3 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions or correspondence it has had with Police Scotland regarding the operational impact of the £4.2 million shortfall in the budget allocation for business change and management programme in 2019-20 as identified in the Scottish Police Authority Board Papers of 28 March 2019.

Question reference: S5W-22551

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 3 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions or correspondence it has had with Police Scotland regarding the operational impact of the £4.2 million shortfall in the budget allocation for estates in 2019-20 as identified in the Scottish Police Authority Board Papers of 28 March 2019.

Question reference: S5W-22839

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 26 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 2 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how its work with the National Scottish Steering Group for Educational Psychologists has progressed, and whether it is able to provide any information on higher education institutions that are willing to provide trainee placements in 2019.

The Scottish Government continues to work with the National Scottish Steering Group for Educational Psychologists to deliver a sustainable and regular supply of educational psychologists to meet future need. The NSSGEP last met on 29 April 2019.

The current priority for the group is the implementation of the Scottish Government/ COSLA partnership funding training arrangements which they helped develop and which were agreed in 2018. The University of Dundee started 29 trainees under these new arrangements in September 2018, and are currently recruiting trainees to take up the next round of 30 training places this autumn.