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-04625

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 3 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many schools in (a) South Lanarkshire, (b) North Lanarkshire and (c) Falkirk have charging points for electric vehicles.

Over the past decade the Scottish Government has invested over £50 million in ChargePlace Scotland, investing ahead of need to create a publicly available network of EV charging infrastructure, which now consists of over 2000 charge points across Scotland.

It is for Local Authorities to determine local priorities and demand for charging infrastructure. Encompassing decisions such as required locations of electric vehicle charging infrastructure, and the most appropriate charger type, when requesting funding support.

Through Transport Scotland funding initiatives, we have supported the following list of EV chargers for Falkirk Council.

Bo’ness Academy (x1, commissioned)
Denny High School (x1, commissioned)
Falkirk High School (x1, commissioned)
Grangemouth High School (x1, commissioned)
Braes High School (x1, commissioned)
Carron Grange High School (x2, commissioned)
St Mungo’s High School (x1, commissioned)

Whilst Local Authorities have access to request funding from the Scottish Government to support the development of charging infrastructure; this is not a sole source of charge point provision, therefore other charge point installations could exist, which would be outside of our records.

To date North and South Lanarkshire have not requested funding from Transport Scotland for charging infrastructure to be installed at schools in their respective areas’.

Question reference: S6W-04572

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 3 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-03499 by Kate Forbes on 27 October 2021, whether the Short Life Working Group on Ventilation has since determined that community halls are also eligible for financial support, in light of the recent announcement of a £25 million funding package.

Question reference: S6W-04563

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 22 November 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 3 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (CMAL) regarding the procurement of hydrogen-powered ferries and infrastructure on publicly subsidised contracts for lifeline ferry services.

Question reference: S6W-04513

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 19 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 3 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what research it has carried out regarding developing a method by environmental health officers for assessing low-frequency noise.

Question reference: S6W-04515

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 19 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 3 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it collates the complaints about low-frequency noise that are made to local authorities.

Question reference: S6W-04481

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 3 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what role it will have in deciding how the £2 million of funding that it has committed to addressing climate-related loss and damage will be allocated.

The £2 million committed to Loss and Damage will be financed through Scottish Government’s Climate Justice Fund. £1 million has been allocated to a grant partnership with the Climate Justice Resilience Fund to help some of the world’s most vulnerable communities adapt to climate change, tackle structural inequalities and recover from climate-induced loss and damage. In this and in programming the remaining £1 million, the Scottish Government will work collaboratively with partners to identify and address the needs of communities suffering the acutest impacts, to establish learning and best practice on Loss and Damage programming and finance, and to create further momentum on loss and damage.

Question reference: S6W-04308

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 3 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that local authorities adhere to the Funding Follows the Child guidance, which states that local authorities should give appropriate consideration to the potential impact of their recruitment activity on the sustainability of funded providers.

Local authorities have worked with local partners to undertake a significant workforce expansion to support delivery of the 1140 commitment and we have seen an increase in the availability of funded early learning and childcare (ELC) places across the local authority, private, third and childminding sectors.

The underpinning policy framework for the ELC expansion, Funding Follows the Child, was developed jointly between the Scottish Government and COSLA. Local authorities are responsible for adhering to the guidance and ensuring they undertake appropriate impact assessments to support their policy and investment decisions, as they do routinely.

Implementation of Funding Follows the Child is overseen by the ELC Joint Delivery Board which is chaired by the Minister for Children and Young People and the COSLA Spokesperson for Children and Young People. The Joint Delivery Board regularly reviews the risks and impacts of the ELC expansion programme, including any issues with adherence to the Funding Follows the Child and National Standard guidance.

Question reference: S6W-04311

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 3 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has awarded to Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland in each year since 2019 in connection with (a) chronic pain groups, (b) meetings of the National Advisory Committee for Chronic Pain and (c) the involvement of contractors to arrange capacity-building meetings and the production of terms of reference.

The Scottish Government has awarded the following funding to the Health and Social Care Alliance for work related to the Chronic Pain Patient Reference Group since 2019 to cover all activities including support for representatives attending meetings of the National Advisory Committee for Chronic Pain and capacity building activities. Funding has been provided since 2019 as follows:

2019-2020	£6000
2020-2021	£10,077
2021-2022	£10,076

Question reference: S6W-04384

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 November 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 3 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how the resource planning assumptions for the Affordable Housing Supply Programme compare to the financial outturn in each financial year from 2016 to 2021, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-04314

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 3 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish data on waiting times for return appointments for chronic pain patients on a similar basis to data published for new treatment referrals; whether the 18-week Referral to Treatment Standard applies to (a) new treatment referrals for chronic patients and (b) return appointments for chronic pain patients, and what consideration it has given to ending the practice of no maximum time limit on waits for return appointments for chronic pain patients.

Chronic Pain services in Scotland are currently unable to gather electronic data on return appointments in a consistent manner and one that could support routine national data collection by Public Health Scotland (PHS).

The 18 Weeks Referral To Treatment (RTT) standard applies to the entire patient journey from the initial referral to the start of treatment and so repeat appointments after the start of treatment would not be included in this metric. Achieving the target depends on waiting times for diagnostic tests, new outpatient appointments, inpatient and day case treatment.