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: S6F-03176

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 May 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 May 2024

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government’s position is on whether teacher numbers should be maintained, in light of the reported concerns of many parents, pupils and school staff in Glasgow.

Question reference: S6F-03174

Asked by: Clare Haughey, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 May 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 May 2024

To ask the First Minister what assessment the Scottish Government has made of the potential impact on the health service in Scotland of Home Office data showing that health and care worker visa applications are 76% lower in January to April this year, compared with last year.

Question reference: S6F-03185

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 May 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 May 2024

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to reports of a National Crime Agency warning about synthetic opioids being linked to rising numbers of deaths.

Question reference: S6F-03168

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 May 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 May 2024

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6F-03170

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 May 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 May 2024

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6F-03169

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 May 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 May 2024

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6W-27897

Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Withdrawn

Question reference: S6W-27585

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 28 May 2024

The amount spent through the Bus Partnership Fund was £2.54 million in 2021-22, £9.93 million in 2022-23 and £8.03 million is expected to be spent in 2023-24 following the processing of final grant claims from Partnerships (consisting of local authorities, bus operators and other key stakeholders) in the coming months. This has delivered bus gates, enforcement cameras and traffic light equipment to help buses get through them more quickly in Aberdeen, North Ayrshire, Glasgow, Inverness, and Edinburgh. It has also made a number of temporary measures, such as bus lanes, permanent in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Question reference: S6W-27524

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 28 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has plans to increase funding for the provision of palliative care of children, including to (a) ensure that (i) children’s community nursing teams are fully staffed and (ii) children’s hospices are sustainably funded and (b) create the post of specialist practitioner.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring the provision of high quality child palliative care, regardless of location, supported by sustainable funding of at least £7m per year through CHAS (Children’s Hospices Across Scotland).

We are working with NHS National Services Scotland (NSS), Health Boards and CHAS to improve the sustainability and oversight of funding for CHAS and to develop a long term sustainable funding model.

The Palliative Care Strategy Steering Group’s Children and Young People’s Working Group is developing new actions to address equity and continuity of access to paediatric palliative care, including the staffing models required to deliver this.

Question reference: S6W-27605

Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Alba Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 28 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the reported withdrawal of members of the Law Society of Scotland from the Legal Aid Remuneration Project and Research Analysis Group, and whether it has recently met with the Law Society of Scotland to discuss such concerns.

To give effect to the principal recommendation of the Legal Aid Payment Advisory Panel, that independent research be commissioned to consider the financial landscape for legal aid providers, a working group was established in 2022.

Membership of the group included representatives of the Law Society of Scotland, the Scottish Solicitors Bar Association and the Scottish Legal Aid Board. The group met regularly and agreed a specification to tender for the required research.

Following two unsuccessful tendering processes, the Law Society of Scotland and the Scottish Solicitors Bar Association indicated their withdrawal from the working group. The Scottish Government share these frustrations, but an offer to re-tender remains.

The Scottish Government has held productive discussions with both the Law Society of Scotland and the Scottish Solicitors Bar Association on the purpose of the research and will continue to make the case for re-tendering. We do believe that there is much to gain by carrying out the research.