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: S6W-06650

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 8 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-30445 by Michael Matheson on 5 August 2020, whether it will provide an update on its position regarding whether the number of short-haul flights across the UK should be increased.

Our geography means that air travel plays an important role in providing connectivity within Scotland and to other parts of the UK. It is particularly important to our island communities, enabling access to services and helping deliver our National Islands Plan. In addition, on some domestic routes, flying is a lower emission option than the quickest alternative.

Hydrogen/electric aircraft have the potential to significantly reduce the environmental impact of domestic aviation and as part of our work to develop an Aviation Strategy we asked for views on how we can best work in partnership with industry to have low/zero-emission domestic air services which meet the needs of communities and help deliver sustainable economic growth. We are now in the process of analysing responses.

Question reference: S6W-06702

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 8 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) Community Needs and (b) Market Assessments have been carried out to date on Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Service routes.

Question reference: S6W-06654

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 8 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government on what dates ministers have met Heathrow Airport since 8 October 2020, which cabinet secretary is currently attending the meetings at six-monthly intervals, and whether it will publish copies of the minutes of these meetings and correspondence since 8 October 2020.

Mr Dey met with Heathrow Airport on the 23 September 2021 and the note of this meeting has been published in response to the freedom of information request FOI/202100255769, which can be found at https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202100255769/

This response included a list of all the meetings, calls and correspondence between Scottish Ministers and representatives of Heathrow Airport which have taken place in 2021 until 16 November 2021.

As the Minister for Transport, I will be attending the future meetings with Heathrow Airport on the memorandum of understanding.

Question reference: S6W-06343

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 8 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the letter from the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills to the Education, Children and Young People Committee on 28 January 2022, whether it will publish the informal local authority feedback it referred to as being used to calculate the £5 million schools/ELC ventilation fund; what data this contained; on what dates meetings about this took place, and whether it will publish any minutes.

The informal feedback referenced in the letter related specifically to the percentage of learning, teaching and play spaces local authorities had identified as problematic at the point in time when the fund was being developed. Problematic spaces are defined as those having consistently high CO2 readings (above 1500ppm) despite basic mitigation measures being implemented.

During meetings of the local authority-chaired Scottish Heads of Property Services network, which are attended regularly by Scottish Government officials and Scottish Futures Trust, local authorities indicated that around 2-4% of spaces they were monitoring had proved problematic to date. The upper limit of this band was used to calculate the potential number of spaces requiring further remedial action, to ensure sufficient funding was made available to local authorities.

It is important to note that the precise number of problematic spaces will be dependent on a range of factors over time, such as weather and occupancy levels, and many of the problematic spaces will already have been addressed. The Scottish Government has agreed formal reporting requirements regarding the number of remaining problematic spaces with local authorities.

Question reference: S6W-06348

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 8 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has assessed the need for the undercutting of doors in the estimated 48,000 learning, teaching and play spaces not covered by the £5 million schools/ELC ventilation fund, and what its position is on recommending this solution for those spaces.

As was made clear in the letter to the Committee, an undercut of a door was only one element of an example set of remedial measures used to calculate the up-to-£5m fund.

The Scottish Government has not issued any guidance to local authorities recommending the use of door undercuts in specific spaces. Expert local authority teams fully understand that all remedial work undertaken should be in line with guidance on ventilation and based on expert assessment of the ventilation issues in a specific space.

The precise number of problematic spaces will be dependent on a range of factors over time, and many of the problematic spaces will already have been addressed. The Scottish Government has agreed formal reporting requirements regarding the number of remaining problematic spaces with local authorities.

Question reference: S6W-06316

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 8 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government by what month in 2022 the licence applications to the Home Office for drug checking facilities in Glasgow and Aberdeen will be submitted.

The Scottish Drug Deaths Taskforce funded a project through Stirling University to research and develop the key components required to implement Drug Checking facilities. Research began in January 2021 and will conclude with an evaluation report in January 2023.

Home office licenses must be granted before project teams can implement Drug Checking facilities.

The project team from Glasgow plan to submit their license to the Home Office by the end of April 2022.

The project team from NHS Grampian plan to submit their license for a drug checking facility in Aberdeen to the Home Office by the end of June 2022.

Question reference: S6W-06318

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 8 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the ministerial statement by the Minister for Drugs Policy on 30 November 2021, how many of the additional 225 residential rehabilitation beds that were announced it plans to allocate to 15- to 24-year-olds experiencing drug harms.

Over the course of this parliament the Scottish Government has committed £100 million to support further investment in residential rehabilitation and associated aftercare. We aim to increase the number of publicly funded placements by more than 300 per cent over the five years of the programme so that, by 2026, at least 1,000 people every year are publicly funded for their rehab placement.

In order to facilitate this increase we are working to increase capacity by 50% which is an increase from 425 beds to 650 beds. As well as increasing funding to Alcohol and Drug Partnerships allocated for residential rehab and developing more standardised commissioning processes we have made national investment in expanding capacity through the Recovery Fund.

The Scottish Government has provided the funding needed to increase capacity for residential rehab, however we cannot allocate beds to any specific individual or age group. This is the responsibility of Alcohol and Drug Partnerships and residential rehabilitation providers, who have the necessary expertise for deciding referrals, assessments of suitability and admissions to their facilities on a case by case basis.

We have set up a multi-agency working group focused specifically on improving services for young people. This group will engage with a range of young people to better understand their alcohol/drug use and their preferences for support, and their work will shape how we improve the provision and access to age appropriate treatment and support services in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-06273

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 8 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government which organisations it (a) has met and (b) plans to meet, to discuss the draft Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill.

The list of organisations that were met with ahead of the consultation on the draft Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill are included in the published consultation document .

Since the consultation on the draft Bill was published in December 2019 meetings have been held with the following organisations:

Bayswater Support Group

Office of the Children and Young People’s Commissioner

Engender

Equality and Human Rights Commission

Equality Network and Scottish Trans

Fair Play for Women

Faith and Belief Representatives Group

For Women Scotland

Frontline Feminists Scotland

LGB Alliance

LGBT Health and Wellbeing

LGBT Youth Scotland

Murray Blackburn Mackenzie

National Records of Scotland

Scottish Civil Justice Council

Scottish Human Rights Commission

Scottish Women’s Aid

Stonewall Scotland

Transgender Trend

Woman’s Place UK

Women and Girls in Scotland

Women’s Declaration International, Scotland

Women Speak Scotland

Women Voting With Our Feet

Currently, meetings have been scheduled but are yet to take place with the following organisations:

Free Church of Scotland

Scottish Feminist Network

Question reference: S6W-06313

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 8 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-03246 by Tom Arthur on 1 October 2021, whether its estimate of the cost to local government of the increase in employers' national insurance contributions has changed, and, if so, what its current estimate is.

Question reference: S6T-00567

Asked by: Gillian Martin, MSP for Aberdeenshire East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 07 March 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is giving to women and children who are caught up in the war in Ukraine.