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 257 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-18553

Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Emma Roddick on 14 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the commissioning of research into the so-called Tinker Experiment.

The Scottish Government has committed to undertaking independent research to understand the impact of 20 th century policies on the Gypsy/Traveller community in Scotland. We developed specifications for two research projects to gather further information, with one focussing on archival analysis and the other on community engagement and lived experience. We successfully appointed an appropriate contractor to take forward the archival project, and are working to re-tender the community engagement and lived experience project as no compliant bids were received for this. We expect to receive initial findings from the research next year, at which point we will consider next steps and respond.

Question reference: S6W-18555

Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 13 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many women in prison were registered as having a disability in each of the last five years, and, of those, how many had a (a) physical and (b) learning disability.

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

The information is not held in the format requested.

The following table provides information on the number of women who have disclosed on admission into custody that they consider themselves as disabled.

Year	Number of Women who disclosed a disability
2018	130
2019	129
2020	102
2021	100
2022	121
2023	71

SPS do not hold medical information about individuals in its care. This information is held by NHS Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-18556

Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 13 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many women currently in prison have mental health issues.

This is a matter for individual health boards who are responsible for providing prisoner healthcare. The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

To ensure that changes to prison mental health services are evidence-based and person-centred, the Scottish Government commissioned a Mental Health Needs Assessment of Scotland’s prison population which was published in September 2022. It includes estimates of the likely prevalence of several mental health problems in Scotland’s prison population using academic research and modelling from the non-prison population. It estimated that the prevalence of these problems is generally higher for women relative to men, except for alcohol use disorder and depression.

Question reference: S6W-18554

Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 13 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many women in prison have been sectioned under the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 in each of the last five years.

Section 136 of the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 (the 2003 Act) provides for the transfer of prisoners to hospital for treatment for mental disorder by way of a transfer for treatment direction (TTD). A TTD cannot be applied to prisoners on remand (those who have not been convicted and/or sentenced yet).

Where a remand prisoner requires mental health assessment or treatment in hospital this would likely be done by way of an assessment order, treatment order, interim compulsion order or temporary compulsion order which are provided for under the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 (the 1995 Act). Data has been provided for females who have transferred to hospital under the 2003 Act or the 1995 Act.

Female MH Transfers
Year	Total No. of Transfers
2019	8
2020	8
2021	12
2022	8
2023	X

Data for 2023 not able to be disclosed as this is part year data and the number is less than 5.

Please note that these figures are the number of transfers and not the number of people as someone may have been transferred to a Mental Health hospital more than once during the reporting period.

Question reference: S6O-02234

Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 May 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to review its prospectus for an independent Scotland, in light of reported divisions within the independence movement.

Question reference: S6W-17248

Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don on 27 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how the £50 million investment in play parks and facilities will be distributed across all 32 local authorities.

The following table shows the remaining £50 million play park allocation for each local authority. This information can also be found on the Scottish Government website Renewing Scotland’s play parks - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Local Authority	2023-24	2024-25	2025-26
Aberdeen City Council	£373,000	£559,000	£932,000
Aberdeenshire Council	£616,000	£924,000	£1,539,000
Angus Council	£220,000	£330,000	£550,000
Argyll and Bute	£157,000	£235,000	£391,000
City of Edinburgh Council	£811,000	£1,216,000	£2,027,000
Clackmannanshire Council	£93,000	£139,000	£231,000
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar Council	£62,000	£93,000	£156,000
Dumfries and Galloway Council	£291,000	£437,000	£728,000
Dundee City Council	£243,000	£365,000	£609,000
East Ayrshire Council	£224,000	£336,000	£561,000
East Dunbartonshire Council	£202,000	£303,000	£505,000
East Lothian Council	£218,000	£327,000	£545,000
East Renfrewshire Council	£204,000	£306,000	£509,000
Falkirk Council	£289,000	£434,000	£723,000
Fife Council	£681,000	£1,022,000	£1,703,000
Glasgow City Council	£1,028,000	£1,542,000	£2,570,000
Highland Council	£488,000	£732,000	£1,219,000
Inverclyde Council	£126,000	£189,000	£314,000
Midlothian Council	£197,000	£295,000	£492,000
Moray Council	£188,000	£282,000	£469,000
North Ayrshire Council	£231,000	£347,000	£578,000
North Lanarkshire Council	£635,000	£952,000	£1,586,000
Orkney Islands Council	£51,000	£77,000	£128,000
Perth and Kinross Council	£291,000	£437,000	£728,000
Renfrewshire Council	£307,000	£461,000	£768,000
Scottish Borders Council	£234,000	£352,000	£586,000
Shetland Islands Council	£61,000	£91,000	£151,000
South Ayrshire Council	£189,000	£283,000	£472,000
South Lanarkshire Council	£597,000	£896,000	£1,493,000
Stirling Council	£168,000	£253,000	£421,000
West Dunbartonshire Council	£157,000	£235,000	£392,000
West Lothian Council	£369,000	£553,000	£922,000
Total	£10,000,000	£15,000,000	£25,000,000

Question reference: S6O-02100

Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 April 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to its cross-government co-ordination on islands policies, what discussions the rural affairs secretary has had with ministerial colleagues regarding regulating second home ownership in rural and island communities.

Question reference: S6O-02081

Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 March 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider procuring a lower specification of standardised ferries.

Question reference: S5W-17246

Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 June 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 26 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a list of all NHS PFI/PPP facilities, broken down by the (a) total (i) unitary charge costs for each (A) in 2018-19 and (B) over their lifetime, (ii) capital value of each and (b) ratio of the overall unitary charges relative to the capital value.

Question reference: S5O-02182

Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 May 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its negotiations with the EU, following the First Minister’s recent meeting with Michel Barnier.