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: S5O-05054

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 February 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 February 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its plans to help pupils catch up on lost teaching time.

Question reference: S5W-34642

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 January 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 29 January 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what financial support is available to self-employed business owners, affected by COVID-19 restrictions, who operate within their domestic residence and do not pay non-domestic rates.

The Scottish Government has listened to business is providing support on a sector-by-sector basis so that it is appropriately targeted. This includes up to £15m for mobile close contact services as well as £30 million to local authorities to provide additional support for businesses where they consider that necessary or justified. In addition we have has set aside up to £15 million for a second iteration of the Newly Self-Employed Hardship Fund that we introduced in April 2020 in order to mitigate the financial challenges for those who are unable to access the UK Government’s Self Employed Income Support Scheme.

Question reference: S5W-34532

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 January 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 25 January 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what financial support and advice is available to businesses in Glasgow that do not meet the eligibility criteria for the Strategic Framework Business Fund but have been adversely affected by COVID-19 restrictions.

We continue to do all we can to support business. The £30 million discretionary fund has been provided to enable local authorities to provide additional support for businesses where they consider that necessary or justified. We have also created a new package of business support worth over £185 million to provide much needed support to several sectors. This includes, but is not limited to, support for licensed taxi and private hire drivers, mobile close contact services, tour operators and breweries, all of which are not covered by the Strategic Framework Business Fund.

Question reference: S5W-34045

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 14 December 2020
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 7 January 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what additional sources of funding are available to charities that are working to provide support to the hospitality sector and those who work within it during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In March, in response to coronavirus, the Scottish Government announced a £350 million emergency package for communities. Before opening the current £40 million Community and Third Sector Recovery Programme (CTSRP), the Scottish Government had already awarded over £22 million in grants to 1,349 organisations through the Third Sector Resilience Fund (TSRF).

More information on current support is available at Community & Third Sector Recovery Programme – SCVO

We have provided significant support to the hospitality sector since the start of the pandemic, including 100% rates relief and grants for both closed and impacted businesses at various intervals across the different periods of disruption. Our overall business support package exceeds £2.3 billion.

We are doing all we can with the powers at our disposal and continue to look at ways to further help the sector within available resources. We have announced a further £185 million to help impacted businesses through the winter and are developing details of this with industry, including the hospitality sector.

Question reference: S5W-33950

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 December 2020
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 23 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the legislation guaranteeing an extra year of funded childcare for parents who defer their child’s entry to P1 will reportedly not come into effect until 2023.

Question reference: S5W-33917

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 December 2020
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 21 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government when the legislation that guarantees an extra year’s childcare funding for all parents who defer their child’s school start will be implemented across all of Scotland.

On the 2 October 2019, I confirmed that the Scottish Government would introduce legislation in this parliamentary session to entitle all children whose school start is deferred to access funded early learning and childcare in their deferred year.

The legislation required, an affirmative Scottish Statutory Instrument (SSI) under the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014, was laid on 7 December 2020. The SSI is called The Provision of Early Learning and Childcare (Specified Children) (Scotland) Amendment Order 2020, and will come into force on 1 August 2023.

Our overriding objective is to ensure that we roll out 1140 hours of funded early learning and childcare to all eligible children as soon as possible, and therefore we have set a realistic timetable for full implementation of extended eligibility for children who defer.

To progress the implementation of this policy ahead of August 2023, the Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) have agreed a Joint Implementation Plan under which five local authorities will pilot early implementation of this obligation in 2021-22. The Scottish Government has committed £3 million to support this early implementation.

The Joint Implementation Plan has been published at https://www.gov.scot/publications/funded-early-learning-and-childcare-places-joint-implementation-plan/ .I informed Parliament of this approach in the answer to question S5W-34053 on 16 December 2020. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

Question reference: S5W-33751

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 December 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 10 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide the scientific evidence regarding the transmission of COVID-19 on which it based its decision to require casinos in areas subject to Level 2 restrictions to close, while other hospitality venues are permitted to stay open.

Question reference: S5W-33656

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 December 2020
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 9 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many applications have been made to the Private Rent Sector Landlord (non-business) COVID-19 Loan Scheme, also broken down by how many have (a) been approved, (b) been rejected and (c) yet to be processed; how much has been paid to date in total, and what the average award has been.

As of w/e 2 October 2020 there have been 91 applications to the Private Rent Sector Landlord (non-business) COVID-19 Loan Scheme, please note of these applications 5 were later withdrawn by the applicants and 15 did not respond to requests for further information.

1. 39 applications have been approved, of these one loan offer is awaiting acceptance by the applicant

2. 26 have been rejected

3. 6 applications were awaiting further information / processing at that date

1. The total amount awarded (paid) was £145404.64, the award awaiting acceptance was £3900, thus total award was £149,304.64

2. The average award was £3828.32 *

* Average calculated as total amount awarded divided by number of successful applications .

Question reference: S5W-33657

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 December 2020
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 9 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many applications have been made to the Tenant Hardship Loan Fund, also broken down by how many have (a) been approved, (b) been rejected and (c) yet to be processed; how much has been paid to date in total, and what the average award has been.

This information is not yet available as the Tenant Hardship Loan Fund, as announced in August’s Programme for Government, opened for applications on Monday 7 December 2020.

The Scottish Government have worked at pace with our loan administrators to develop the application and decision processes, along with the online application portal. We expect statistics on a monthly basis, allowing for the holiday break we would expect the first full statistics to be available from mid-January.

Question reference: S5W-33493

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 8 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-32926 by Fiona Hyslop on 13 November 2020, whether taxi drivers will be eligible for financial support through the new discretionary fund announced by the First Minister on 18 November 2020.

Unlike previous funds which have been targeted towards specific groups or sectors impacted by COVID-19, the £30 million discretionary fund seeks to empower local authorities to direct additional financial support to specific groups or sectors within the business community where they consider this to be necessary or justified based on the distinct characteristics of their local economies. This recognises the insight that councils have on the business community in their area and where funding would be most effectively deployed in supporting local economies.

As such, it is for individual local authorities to determine eligibility for their respective schemes. We have, however, worked closely with local authorities in developing the fund to ensure that it targets businesses and self-employed people, such as taxi drivers, who may have been eligible for UK Government schemes but haven't been reached by Scottish Government financial support packages.