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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: S6T-01060

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 19 December 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reported comments by the General Secretary of School Leaders Scotland, that a reduction in budget will lead to class sizes increasing, subjects being removed from the curriculum and a reduction in the number of teachers.

Question reference: S6T-01061

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 19 December 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the statement by COSLA expressing Council Leaders' extreme disappointment with the proposed budget settlement for local government and its presentation lacking consistency with a partnership approach, and their invitation to the Deputy First Minister to attend a special meeting.

Question reference: S6W-12879

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 19 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many people in Scotland have claimed unemployment-related benefits in each of the last five years, broken down by (a) age group and (b) local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-12752

Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 05 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 19 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of whether an independent specialist body is needed to receive sexual harassment complaints, offer advice, investigate patterns of concern and make structural recommendations for specific employers in Scotland.

Equality Law and Employment Law, are reserved to the UK Parliament.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission is the independent specialist body tasked to promoting and upholding equality and human rights ideals and laws across Scotland, England and Wales.

The EHRC publish guidance for employers, review the effectiveness of the law and take legal enforcement action to clarify the law and address significant breaches of rights.

In the absence of powers over employment law, the Scottish Government will do all it can within devolved powers to promote and embed fair and inclusive working practices and prevent issues such as workplace bullying or harassment. Please refer also to response to S6W-12749 on 19 December 2022.

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
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Question reference: S6W-12800

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 05 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 19 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S5W-16968 by Humza Yousaf on 12 June 2018 and S6W-11891 by Jenny Gilruth on 22 November 2022, for what reason it is no longer able to provide a breakdown of operating subsidies on an airport-by-airport basis.

Question reference: S6W-12815

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 05 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 19 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what (a) guidance it offers and (b) regulations are in place for local authorities, in relation to the siting of 5G mobile telecoms masts.

The Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 is the principal piece of legislation governing the use and development of land. The act is supported by various pieces of subordinate legislation, such as the Town and Country Planning General Permitted Development (Scotland) Order, which provides permitted development rights for certain categories of digital communications infrastructure. Guidance on these permitted development rights is set out in Scottish Government Circular 2-2015

Specific guidance in relation to the siting of telecommunications equipment is contained in Planning Advice Note 62: Radio telecommunications This document is currently in the process of being updated and will include guidance on the siting of 5G mobile telecom masts. The intention is to publish this in the early part of 2023.

Through our revised draft National Planning framework 4 , we have proposed policies which support the delivery of such infrastructure which is carefully balanced amongst other factors such as visual and amenity impacts.

Question reference: S6W-12850

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 19 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking in response to reports that Eden Court in Inverness is to reduce its workforce by 10%.

The Scottish Government is monitoring with Creative Scotland the position of cultural organisations in the current crisis. The Creative Scotland board meets on 19 December to consider the option of using its UK National Lottery reserves to help maintain standstill funding for Regularly Funded Organisations through 2023-24.

This would include support for Eden Court which receives £500,000 per year. Creative Scotland will also offer ongoing flexibility in the use of existing Regular Funding, whilst also exploring support for organisations and the sector to innovate and explore new ways of working.

The Scottish Government recognises that this is an incredibly worrying time for the culture sector as a whole and is in regular dialogue with the sector. We are holding a series of roundtables including one planned for Inverness in January 2023.

Question reference: S6W-12904

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 19 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how often the stonemasonry training working group has met and when its last meeting was.

The Stonemasonry Short Life Working Group held its initial meeting in May 2022 and has since met three further times, with the most recent meeting held on 4 November 2022. After the next scheduled meeting in January 2023, the Stonemasonry Short Life Working Group intends to report to the Our Place in Time Skills and Expertise Group by the end of January 2023 with an outline of what actions are required to put stonemasonry training in Scotland in a sustainable position. Additionally, in order to provide an independent review of 2022-23 Scottish Stonemasonry Skills & Training needs, four stakeholder stonemasonry training workshops have taken place across November and December 2022.

Question reference: S6W-12854

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 05 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 19 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that (a) housing associations and (b) private landlords properly address any concerns and complaints from residents regarding mould outbreaks.

We are committed to tackling disrepair in housing and driving a culture in which good maintenance is given a high priority.

Social landlords are required to have a clear complaints process and where a tenant is dissatisfied with the response of their housing provider, they are able to escalate their complaint to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman. The Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) is responsible for monitoring social landlords’ progress towards the Scottish Housing Quality Standard (SHQS), which they are required to meet, as part of the SHR’s role to monitor and report on social landlords’ achievement of the Scottish Social Housing Charter. SHR wrote to all Social Landlords on 1 December 2022 on the importance of having appropriate, proactive systems to identify and deal with any reported cases of mould and damp timeously and effectively.

For private landlords, they are obliged to meet the Repairing Standard and Tolerable Standard. If, after a landlord has been notified of a problem, it is not attended to satisfactorily, then tenants have the right to refer the matter to the Housing and Property Chamber First Tier Tribunal for Scotland, who can require landlords to take remedial action. Local authorities also have powers to inspect properties in relation to the repairing standard and rights to make an application to the Tribunal in respect of this were introduced through the Housing (Scotland) Act 2014.

In the New Deal for Tenants consultation, published in December 2021, we asked for opinions on how best to ensure that landlords undertake repairs in a timely fashion. We are carefully considering what measures are necessary to ensure that private rented homes are in good condition and that tenants’ concerns are quickly resolved.

We have also committed to developing a new cross tenure Housing Standard for Scotland during this Parliamentary term.

Question reference: S6W-13353

Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 December 2022
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Kevin Stewart on 19 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when it will provide an update on the commitments that it made jointly with COSLA in its Statement of Intent, published in March 2021, and when it will set out further joint commitments with COSLA to continue to bring about improvements to the social care sector.

The Scottish Government and COSLA have today jointly published a new Statement of Intent. It is available on the Scottish Government website here: https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781805253778 .

This new Statement of Intent will report on the progress of the commitments made in our joint Statement of Intent published in March 2021, and sets out additional actions we will take across the next 12 – 18 months to bring about improvements to the delivery of social care support.