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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.

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Question reference: S6O-01969

Asked by: Jenni Minto, MSP for Argyll and Bute, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 March 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how its Covid Recovery Strategy is supporting third sector organisations in rural and island communities, such as Argyll and Bute, to improve health support, including for people with long COVID.

Question reference: S6O-01976

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 March 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what financial support, in addition to the local government settlement, will be allocated to Inverclyde Council in 2023-24, and how this compares to 2022-23.

Question reference: S6O-01974

Asked by: Kaukab Stewart, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 March 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the implementation of the fourth National Planning Framework since its adoption on 13 February 2023.

Question reference: S6O-01981

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 March 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it engages with local communities to ensure that their transport needs are met.

Question reference: S6O-01973

Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Linlithgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 March 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its initial assessment is of any potential impacts that the Windsor Framework may have on Scotland’s economy.

Question reference: S6W-15372

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 1 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its progress towards implementing the recommendations of the June 2021 report to the Scottish Government, Bringing Home the Bacon: Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from the Scottish Pig Sector.

The 'Bringing Home the Bacon: Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from the Scottish Pig Sector' report was part of the Farmer-Led Group initiative to develop advice and proposals for the Scottish Government on how to cut emissions from agriculture. The Scottish Government is grateful to the Pig Industry Leadership Group and the other Farmer Led Groups (FLGs) for the work they undertook in short order to provide recommendations to support our ambitious vision for Scottish agriculture.

The recommendations of the FLGs informed the 'Agricultural Transition in Scotland' consultation, which was carried out between August 2021 and November 2021. This consultation has informed policy development to support the progression of our forthcoming agriculture bill.

To continue our co-design process with industry as part of the Agriculture Reform Programme we established the Agriculture Reform Implementation Oversight Board (ARIOB) to advise on progressing the broad recommendations of the FLG's and support implementation of policy reform. The ARIOB is comprised of representatives from all key Scottish agricultural sectors including members of the Pig Industry Leadership Group.

In the Bringing Home the Bacon report there was a reference to the role of Carbon Audits in supporting businesses to reduce emissions. As part of the National Test Programme we are funding farmers to undertake carbon audits which establish a business’s carbon footprint, and identify areas where emissions can be reduced.

The report also refers to the need for investment in on-farm slurry storage and management. Through the Sustainable Agriculture Capital Grant Scheme (SACGS) the Scottish Government funded investment in slurry management equipment for farms in 2022 and in 2023 support for slurry storage is available through the Agri-Environment Climate scheme.

Question reference: S6W-15309

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 1 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether NHS boards moving from paper-based appointment and diagnostic evidence gathering systems to online systems is a helpful and deliverable step towards reducing backlogs in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), particularly in instances where backlogs predate the COVID-19 pandemic.

Question reference: S6W-15195

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 1 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what assessments it has conducted regarding the impact on people with learning disabilities of each action point contained in its publication, A Fairer Scotland for Disabled People: Employment Action Plan, which was published 2018.

The Scottish Government has considered the impact of the actions of the Employment Action Plan on all disabled people, including people with learning disabilities, and noted these in the 2020 and 2021 annual Progress Reports which are published on the Scottish Government website.

On 22 February 2023 the Scottish Government published a statistical summary of the devolved employment services, which includes employability figures for learning disabilities within Fair Start Scotland. There is currently no data published for employment for learning disabilities within No One Left Behind.

We have undertaken a review of Individual Placement and Support (IPS) and of Supported Employment to identify areas of improvement and make recommendations on future delivery of these two forms of specialist employability support in Scotland. Findings of the Supported Employment review and Scottish Government’s response were published in September 2022. The Individual Placement and Support review report was published January 2023, alongside the Scottish Government’s response statement.

Recognising that there is still work to do to improve outcomes for disabled people, in December 2022 the Scottish Government published the refreshed Fair Work Action Plan: becoming a leading Fair Work nation by 2025 , setting out actions to promote fair and inclusive workplaces across Scotland. The plan takes forward the current work on the disability employment gap, to support more disabled people, including those with Learning Disabilities, into employment and to sustain fair work.

The Action Plan will be supported by an evidence plan to be published late 2023, along with an accompanying measurement framework. It will monitor the fair work context and progress we are making over time to ensure our actions respond to change and measure the impact of our current actions, including drawing lessons from actions we will deliver as part of this plan.

Question reference: S6W-15041

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 1 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has allocated to the promotion of (a) Scotch Beef, (b) Scotch Lamb, (c) Specially Selected Pork and (d) game and venison, in each year since 2016.

The Scottish government has provided grant funding for marketing campaigns to Quality Meat Scotland and we have also supplied funding to the Scottish Venison association for the marketing of venison.

The funding to QMS was over two years and is as follows:

July 2018: £200,000 To support a range of key activities behind the Scotch Lamb promotional campaign in 2018.

November 2018: £125,000 To support key activities behind the Specially Selected Pork promotional campaign in 2019.

October 2019: £200,000 To support a targeted initiative in the Meat with Integrity Campaign and a fuller range of key activities behind the Scotch Lamb promotional campaign in 2019.

The funding to the Scottish Venison Association was as follows:

March-May 2021: £60,000 To support an online campaign as part of the Scotland Food & Drink Partnership Covid recovery programme to support Scottish Venison producers and processors.

Question reference: S6W-15259

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 1 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the current status is of the (a) Principles Agreement between Scottish Government and Business and (b) Joint Taskforce on Business Regulation, and what (i) actions, (ii) outcomes and (iii) regulatory changes have been agreed by each initiative.

The Business Principles Agreement, jointly developed with business, was published in December 2021 to cover the current five year Parliamentary term. The Agreement applies across all Scottish Government policy areas and provides a framework to enable more effective joint working between the Scottish Government and business though greater co-development, collaborative delivery and collective assessment of policies impacting business.

During 2022 Ministers had almost 1,250 engagements with business, an average monthly increase of 5% on the COP26 boosted average from May to December 2021. In addition business experience informed development of our National Strategy for Economic Transformation Delivery Plans, while a number of Industry Leadership Groups (ILGs) were set-up or refreshed during 2022 to deepen our sectoral connections, and I established an ILG Chairs group to foster cross-sectoral collaboration and sharing of experience.

The establishment of the Joint Taskforce on Business Regulation provides a further best practice application of the Principles approach with the majority of Agreement signatories being Taskforce members. The Joint Taskforce is co-chaired by myself and CoSLA Spokesperson for Environment and Economy Cllr Gail Macgregor and has so far met in December 2022 and February 2023.

Business organisations and regulatory stakeholders have set out what they would like the group to look at and this will be reflected in the Terms of Reference, with members acknowledging that there is ongoing work in many areas to address the concerns they have raised around specific regulations. The Joint Taskforce will look to identify the existing mechanisms for discussing these regulations before considering and suggesting what interventions might be most appropriate. We will publish minutes and papers on the Scottish Government Website.

The Taskforce has also agreed to look at ways of identifying and demonstrating the cumulative burden of regulation on businesses and members have been asked to consider and provide feedback on the Business Regulatory Impact Assessment approach to help improve the process for developing new regulations in future.