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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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S6W-21457

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 3 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on implementing a local inheritance tax.

Question reference: S6W-21642

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 22 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 3 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on the proportion of undisputed invoices to each (a) of its directorates, (b) of its agencies and (c) non-departmental public body that was paid within five days, in each year since 2011.

The Scottish Government is committed to paying its contractors promptly, and has a commitment to pay all valid invoices within 10 days of receipt, going beyond the contractual responsibility to pay within 30 days. Systems and processes are in place to monitor and maintain performance data against this 10 day prompt payment target for each Director General area within the core Scottish Government and where payment services are provided centrally for relevant agencies.

Since 2014, the Scottish Government has also maintained a top level figure for the percentage of valid invoices paid within 5 days across the whole of the Scottish Government and its agencies, as shown in the table below. However, as systems are calibrated to report on the 10 prompt payment commitment, it is not possible to break this down further into directorate or agency reports.

Financial Year	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022
% paid in 5 days (inc EPC)*	Not reported	Not reported	Not reported	77.8	79.6	79.7	79.7	84.6	83.8	78.4	75.2	80.3
% paid in 10 days (inc EPC)*	96.8	97.6	98.5	98.5	98.4	98.6	98.2	99.0	98.7	97.6	97.1	97.3

*The figure shows the percentage of payments made within 5 and 10 days, inclusive of payments made via the government electronic procurement card

Question reference: S6W-21707

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 22 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 3 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether school catering workers have a role in monitoring or pursuing school meal debt.

Question reference: S6W-21697

Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Friday, 22 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 3 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government on which date it plans to publish a draft of the proposed Gaelic and Scots and Scottish Languages Bill.

Question reference: S6W-21706

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 22 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 3 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance is available for schools and local authorities on accepting cash or other donations from individuals and organisations towards helping families experiencing financial hardship, who are ineligible for free school meals, or those with school meal debt.

Question reference: S6W-21621

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 3 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many of its international offices held (a) Burns Night and (b) St Andrew’s Day celebrations, as a means to promote Scotland abroad, in each of the last five years.

Both Burns Night and St Andrew’s Day are important opportunities in the calendar to promote Scotland’s interests internationally: highlighting Scottish culture and food and drink, presenting opportunities to engage a global audience and opening doors for future trade, investment and collaboration.

The figures requested are presented in the following tables. In the past twelve months, when the majority of covid restrictions were no longer in force, eight offices undertook public activity linked to Burns Night in 2023, and all nine did so at events linked to St Andrew’s Day 2022. The planned Burns programme in Paris this year was not able to proceed due to safety concerns in the city at that time.

All our international offices are preparing St Andrew’s Day events for 2023, as part of a programme promoting Scotland internationally throughout the Winter Festivals season leading up to Burns Night in 2024. Diplomatic, trade and investment and cultural engagement delivered by offices in the international network around both Burns Night and St Andrews Day includes joint working with SDI, the FCDO, and other government and external partners both at home in Scotland and in-country, hosting events or representing Scotland at established events.

Covid restrictions from the spring of 2020 through to early 2022 meant that much in-person activity was suspended, and offices collaborated within the network and with other partners to host or promote virtual and online celebrations instead. Some St Andrew’s Day activity for 2022 in Beijing was postponed due to ongoing restrictions, and took place in March 2023.

(a) Burns Night

Year	Number of participating offices
2023	8
2022	5
2021	6
2020	7
2019	5

(b) St Andrews Day

Year	Number of participating offices
2022	9
2021	3
2020	4
2019	5
2018	5

Question reference: S6W-21485

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 3 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government which partners in the college sector’s collective bargaining process have yet to provide a formal response to the report, Lessons Learned – resetting national collective bargaining in the colleges sector.

Question reference: S6W-21524

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 3 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what (a) it and (b) its agencies are doing to support Doors Open Days in the Highlands and Islands region.

The Scottish Government values the impressive work that the Scottish Civic Trust does to coordinate the national Doors Open Days festival each year, which is the largest free heritage festival in Scotland and delivers many benefits by connecting people with their local historic environment. This is why the Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development was pleased to provide an opening address for the festival and met with the Scottish Civic Trust recently in-person to discuss the opportunities and challenges the festival offers.

Financial support for the Scottish Civic Trust’s Doors Open Days and My Place Photography Competition has been secured through our lead public body for heritage, Historic Environment Scotland, which has committed over £100,000 each for this and the next two years from its Partnership Fund.

Question reference: S6W-21526

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 3 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many communities currently have access to 5G services, broken down by local authority area.

Telecommunications policy is Reserved to the UK Government. The Scottish Government does not collect or hold data on access to 5G services across Scotland.

However Ofcom’s mobile coverage checker ( https://checker.ofcom.org.uk/en-gb/mobile-coverage ) provides a spatial view of this data. Raw coverage data, at local authority and various Parliamentary constituency levels, is available at https://www.ofcom.org.uk/research-and-data/multi-sector-research/infrastructure-research/spring-202

Question reference: S6W-21462

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 3 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government which health facilities have been confirmed to have reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete, following physical inspections of the estate.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-19366 on 21 July 2023 in relation to the desktop review and a full list of the 254 properties identified as having two or more characteristics consistent with the presence of RAAC was placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. Number 64387). NHS Scotland Assure also published the information on their website on 15 September. An update on progress with the national survey programme, including the list of NHS buildings where RAAC is identified, will also be published by NHS Scotland Assure and each local NHS Board.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers