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: S6O-03900

Asked by: James Dornan, MSP for Glasgow Cathcart, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 October 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the national roll-out of the Carer Support Payment.

Question reference: S6O-03878

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 October 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the potential impact of the UK Government’s decision to reform agricultural property relief on the future of family farms in Scotland.

Question reference: S6O-03899

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 October 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to end homelessness.

Question reference: S6O-03881

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6O-03889

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 October 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the reported decision by members of the Integration Joint Board of Dumfries and Galloway Health and Social Care Partnership to reject the recommendations of an independent review to re-open the Clenoch Birthing Centre at the Galloway Community Hospital in Stranraer for in-hospital births.

Question reference: S6W-30177

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 30 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many people who died (a) by suicide, (b) prematurely from non-natural causes and (c) from alcohol-related causes in each year since 2016 were care-experienced.

Regulation 6 of The Looked After Children (Scotland) Regulations 2009 states that Scottish Ministers should be informed of the death of a child who is looked after. In addition, the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 inserted a statutory duty in the Children (Scotland) 1995 Act requiring local authorities to notify Scottish Ministers and the Care Inspectorate of the death of a care leaver in receipt of a Continuing Care or Aftercare service.

Data from the Care Inspectorate states the confirmed causes of death from 2016 to 15 October 2024 of any young person who was looked after or a care leaver receiving an Aftercare or Continuing Care service.

Year	Cause of death -Suicide	Cause of death – non natural causes	Cause of death - Alcohol related
2016	3	3	0
2017	3	1	0
2018	4	3	0
2019	5	10	0
2020	7	10	0
2021	3	10	0
2022	6	4	0
2023	5	7	0
2024 (up to 15 October 24)	6	1	0

There were no deaths that were solely reported as alcohol related. While some records indicated alcohol as a contributing factor, it was associated with a range of complex issues faced by the individual rather than being identified as the direct cause of death.

Question reference: S6W-30755

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 30 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-28801 by Jenni Minto on 26 August 2024, whether it considered including the (a) University of West of Scotland and (b) Royal Environmental Health Institute for Scotland as members of the Environmental Health Policy Co-ordination Group,

The Environmental Health Policy Co-ordination Group consists of representatives from across Scottish Government, Food Standards Scotland, COSLA, the Society of Chief Officers of Environmental Health in Scotland and SOLACE.

Should matters arise concerning educational and wider regulatory interests, then members representing these organisations are advised and invited to attend the group for awareness or to provide relevant updates.

Therefore, the University of West of Scotland and the Royal Environmental Health Institute for Scotland are invited to attend meetings, when there is an update which is of interest to group members.

Question reference: S6W-30615

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 30 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many landholdings in public ownership are (a) 3,000 hectares or more, (b) 1,000 to 2,999 hectares and (c) 500 to 999 hectares.

Within the scope of the size thresholds stated in the question there are a total of 355 land parcels in public ownership in Scotland. The following table breaks this down by the size thresholds requested.

Land parcel size threshold (ha)	Number of land parcels in size threshold
500-999	112
1,000-2,999	165
3,000+	78

These land ownership data relate to land owned or managed by Crown Estate Scotland (CES) and the following five public bodies:

1.Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS);

2.NatureScot;

3.Ministry of Defence (MoD);

4.Scottish Ministers Crofting and Farming Estate; and

5.Scottish Water.

The data analysed in providing the response to this question have been provided by the respective public bodies themselves, who collate and update their own data independently, so the data used here may be slightly out of date.

Question reference: S6W-30863

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 30 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what funding it has provided in each of the last five years for research projects aimed at developing a more reliable prostate cancer screening test.

The Scottish Government’s Chief Scientist Office supports open competitive grant and fellowship schemes for applied health research in Scotland across a wide remit that is inclusive of consideration of applications for research relating to prostate cancer. Applications submitted to these schemes are assessed through independent expert peer-review with funding recommendations made by independent expert committees. While projects on prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment have been awarded funding in the course of these schemes, in the period from 2019 to date, no funding awards have been made for research specifically relating to prostate cancer screening test development.

Question reference: S6W-30592

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 30 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to ensure that the data provided in its annual and bi-annual homelessness statistics is accurate, in light of reported concerns regarding any undercounting of breaches of legal duties on the unsuitable accommodation order and duty to provide temporary accommodation.

Information presented in the annual and bi-annual Homelessness in Scotland publications is based on quarterly homelessness applications and temporary accommodation data provided to the Scottish Government by local authorities.

There are rigorous quality assurance processes in place for the data provided by local authorities. Validation checks are in place with summary reports prepared for checking by local authorities. Scottish Government statisticians undertake further in-depth quality assurance on the data and follows up with local authorities to confirm or correct data as necessary prior to publication. This has included enhanced quality assurance on the reporting of breaches of the Unsuitable Accommodation Order (UAO), following on from reporting inconsistencies and inaccuracies that were uncovered due to COVID-19 exceptions that were put in place, and the extension of the UAO (to all households) over the same period.

Where specific data issues are brought to the attention of Scottish Government, these are investigated and followed up on with local authorities as necessary. Scottish Government will continue to work with local authorities to ensure the data provided is as accurate as possible for future publications.

Further information on the quality assurance of homelessness data collections is available on the homelessness statistics webpages.