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-32859

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 4 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what equivalent scheme exists in Scotland to the Right to Build register in England, and what support is available to help people purchase a plot of land for a self-build home.

The Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 introduced a new requirement for planning authorities to prepare and maintain a list of people interested in self-build.

The Scottish Government does not currently provide support to help people purchase a plot of land for a self-build home. The Scottish Government's national self build loan fund offers loans of up to £175,000 to eligible applicants for development costs to support build completion. The scheme requires applicants to have full land ownership or a contract to buy land.

Question reference: S5F-04516

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 November 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 November 2020

To ask the First Minister what guidance the Scottish Government has issued for marking Remembrance Sunday.

Question reference: S5W-32282

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 30 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether social care workers who are unable to work due to experiencing long-term effects of COVID-19 are able to access the social care staff support fund.

The Social Care Staff Support Fund has been put in place to ensure that eligible social care workers receive their expected income and do not suffer financial hardship during the coronavirus pandemic. Full details of the eligibility criteria, categories of eligible workers, circumstances in which the Fund can be accessed, and how to apply can be found in the Fund guidance published on the Scottish Government’s website.

Question reference: S5W-32558

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 October 2020
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 30 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many hospitality businesses have provided Test and Protect information as part of COVID-19 contact tracing; how many contacts have been made as a result, and how many positive tests have been recorded through this contact tracing, broken down by (a) hospitality business type and (b) local authority area.

The decision to follow up with customers of any individual pub, restaurant or other business is for the local Incident Management Team dealing with a cluster or outbreak, on the basis of their professional risk assessment. Contacts are traced from information collected and made available to NHS Test and Protect by Incident Management Teams. This allows NHS Test and Protect to contact those who may have been exposed to the virus in a particular setting, and request them to take appropriate steps to prevent potential onward spread.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the individual decisions made by Incident Management Teams undertaking a risk assessment during the handling of each cluster or outbreak.

Question reference: S5W-32333

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 20 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-31373 by Jamie Hepburn on 7 September 2020, how many of the people helped into employment by Fair Start Scotland sustained employment for at least (a) three months, (b) six months and (c) a year, broken down by how many were disabled people.

Official Statistics on Fair Start Scotland are published quarterly as part of the Scotland's Devolved Employment Services Statistical Summary Release. These include numbers of people starting work and sustaining employment for three months, six months and one year; and is broken down by how many were disabled people. The most recent statistics, covering up to the end of June 2020, was published on 26 August 2020, and can be found here: www.gov.scot/publications/scotlands-devolved-employment-services-statistical-summary-7/

Question reference: S5W-32654

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S5W-32653

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S5W-32652

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S5W-31377

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 24 August 2020
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 8 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to tackle the reported mass redundancies in Aberdeen City and Shire as a result of the oil industry downturn, and whether it plans to offer social security packages to mitigate against any economic impact on families.

The Scottish Government recognises that COVID-19 and the decrease in oil and gas prices has had a significant impact on both the oil and gas sector and the North East of Scotland, and this has unfortunately led to a number of redundancies across the sector and more may yet follow as the UK Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme comes to an end. We are providing support to any individuals affected by redundancy through our Partnership Action for Continuing Employment, PACE initiative.

The Scottish Government has committed £100 million in 2020-21 to support those looking for work or at risk of redundancy to retrain and get back into work. This package of support will include a job guarantee for young people, a new national retraining scheme and more funding to provide immediate assistance and advice if people are made redundant. I shall seek to ensure that the sector is aware of all opportunities for support for individuals arising from this funding, for example in supporting transition to alternative employment, through a £25 million economy-wide National Transition Training Fund, having learned from the previous oil and gas specific £12 million Transition Training Fund, now closed, which operated successfully to support oil and gas sector workers during the last downturn in oil and gas prices.

Fair Start Scotland, our employment support service for Scotland, is a vital element of our approach to helping people back into work as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Fair Start Scotland aims to support a minimum of 38,000 individuals, including those who face the greatest challenges accessing the labour market. The service provides flexible support, taking into account personal circumstances and removing barriers to accessing work.

The Scottish Government is already providing support to those who are facing financial hardship, through Crisis Grants from the Scottish Welfare Fund. Crisis Grants can be used to support people and families on low income who find themselves in an emergency (such as losing their job) or disaster (e.g. a fire or flood). The budget was more than doubled in response to the pandemic and over £6.9 million has already been awarded in Crisis Grants between March and June 2020

The Scottish Government will continue to work closely with the UK Government which retains many of the key levers required to support the sector, including delivery of a North Sea Transition Deal. This will add support to our own £62 million Energy Transition Fund, launched in July, and developed with input from the Oil and Gas and Energy Transition Strategic Leadership Group that I Chair. We recognise it is critical that both Governments are doing all that we can to protect jobs and minimise any negative impact of COVID-19 on groups particularly affected by the pandemic and I want, for our part, to reassure those working in the sector that is exactly what the Scottish Government intends to do.

Question reference: S5W-32044

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 6 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of disabled people have completed secondary education in each of the last five years, broken down by qualifications achieved.

The following table shows the number of declared-assessed disabled school leavers and the proportion that have achieved passes at SCQF Levels 3-7, by stage of leaving for 2014-15 to 2018-19.

			Proportion of declared-assessed disabled school leavers achieving passes at SCQF levels 3-7 2,3
Year	Stage of leaving	Number of leavers declared-assessed disabled	No passes at SCQF 3 or better	1 or more at SCQF Level 3 or better	1 or more at SCQF Level 4 or better	1 or more at SCQF Level 5 or better	1 or more at SCQF Level 6 or better	1 or more at SCQF Level 7
2018-19	S4	234	15.0	85.0	74.4	29.5	0.0	0.0
	S5	418	5.3	94.7	87.3	55.0	15.8	0.0
	S6	735	6.3	93.7	88.6	79.9	56.1	15.1
	Special school	418	*	*	*	*	*	0.0
	Other 1	7	*	*	*	*	*	0.0
	All stages	1,812	18.5	81.5	70.8	50.1	26.5	6.1
2017-18	S4	220	14.1	85.9	72.7	25.9	*	0.0
	S5	407	6.9	93.1	88.2	59.0	17.2	0.0
	S6	697	6.6	93.4	89.4	81.2	57.4	16.8
	Special school	406	*	*	*	*	*	*
	Other 1	10	*	*	*	*	*	*
	All stages	1,740	20.2	79.8	70.2	50.5	27.2	6.8
2016-17	S4	*	*	*	*	*	*	*
	S5	390	4.1	95.9	88.7	56.7	*	0.0
	S6	701	7.6	92.4	88.2	77.6	54.5	*
	Special school	474	62.4	37.6	18.1	5.3	*	*
	Other 1	*	*	*	*	*	*	*
	All stages	1,775	22.3	77.7	67.4	47.7	24.5	6.9
2015-16	S4	*	*	*	*	*	*	*
	S5	360	3.6	96.4	87.8	55.8	*	0.0
	S6	629	8.7	91.3	86.5	79.2	56.1	20.0
	Special school	460	65.7	34.3	*	*	*	0.0
	Other 1	*	*	*	*	*	*	*
	All stages	1,684	24.2	75.8	65.6	46.0	23.8	7.5
2014-15	S4	201	*	*	75.1	23.9	0.0	0.0
	S5	335	7.2	92.8	86.6	49.6	12.2	0.0
	S6	526	8.7	91.3	86.9	79.5	52.9	13.3
	Special school	398	61.3	38.7	*	*	*	0.0
	Other 1	7	*	*	*	*	*	0.0
	All stages	1,467	23.7	76.3	66.7	44.1	22.2	4.8

* = value suppressed to protect against the risk of disclosure of personal information

Notes:

1. ‘Other’ includes S3 and Adult Learners.

2. Pupils based in publicly funded schools.

3. Qualifications are National Qualification (e.g. National 5, Highers etc.) as well as Skills for Work and are based on Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) Level: https:--www.gov.scot-collections-school-education-statistics-#schoolleaverinitialdestinationsandattainment .

Source: Scottish Government School Leaver Destinations and Attainment dataset, latest publication can be found here: https:--www.gov.scot-collections-school-education-statistics-#schoolleaverinitialdestinationsandattainment .