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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: S6W-02886

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 23 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what plans are in place for the rail network to ensure that additional measures will be taken to tackle women's reported concerns about safety in stations and on trains.

Safety of passengers on our railway is paramount and the British Transport Police (BTP) is accountable to the Scottish Government through the Scottish Railway Policing Committee.

I recently met with Chief Constable Lucy D’Orsi of the BTP and the topic of women’s safety on the rail network was discussed. The Chief Constable highlighted to me the campaigns currently running across the rail network to promote the reporting of unwanted sexual behaviour and a campaign against sexual harassment on the network.

More information on the campaigns can be accessed via:-

Campaigns | British Transport Police (btp.police.uk)

Question reference: S6W-02850

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 23 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken to advise drivers of the roll-out of lower-emissions E10 petrol.

Policy on transport fuels is reserved to the UK Government and the roll-out of the E10 petrol grade is an initiative led on by the UK Department for Transport (DfT).

DfT's "Know Your Fuel" campaign has run across Scotland to inform motorists of the change and also offers an online vehicle compatibility checking tool. The Scottish Government's Traffic Scotland information service recently released tweets alerting motorists to the E10 introduction and provided links to DfT's online information resources."

Question reference: S6W-02882

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 23 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what the potential impact of ScotRail's proposed service reductions will be on (a) rural areas and (b) other areas that already have relatively poor public transport links.

Question reference: S6W-02861

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 23 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the most common reasons that are given by each NHS board for referrals to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) to be declined.

There are a number of reasons why a referral may not be accepted which include: insufficient information, does not meet the health board provider referral criteria, service unavailable, consent issues, patient refused service. This data is not consistently collected by all Health Boards. A new core dataset, the CAMHS and Psychological Therapies National Dataset (CAPTND) is currently being developed by Public Health Scotland. Public Health Scotland are working with all Health Boards to ensure this data collection is of sufficient quality to report on in full.

Children and young people whose referral is not accepted by CAMHS are sensitively and appropriately signposted to a more suitable service within their community. The Scottish Government accepted all of the recommendations in the 2018 Audit of Rejected Referrals Report 2018.

In addition, we have implemented a National CAMHS Service Specification, which sets out the standards of service that children, young people and families can expect from CAMHS across Scotland and have provided funding to support Boards to implement the specification. The specification includes a clear expectation that services should have appropriate re-engagement policies in place.

Question reference: S6W-02815

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 23 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-00480 by Jamie Hepburn on 14 June 2021, whether it will contact universities that have not yet adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's (IHRA) working definition to ask for an update on their consultations with stakeholders and communities.

Question reference: S6W-02814

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 23 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-02202 by Graeme Dey on 7 September 2021, whether it will provide the information requested regarding whether the adoption of the sustainable investment hierarchy will have an impact on decisions to proceed with any of the road-building projects that it has previously committed to, and for what reason it did not provide this information in its response.

Further to the answer to S6W-02202, all of the trunk road projects currently progressing through the design or statutory processes and which were recommendations from first Strategic Transport Projects Review published in 2008, have been subject of consideration against the sustainable investment hierarchy as part of the appraisal process undertaken at that time.

As work on the trunk roads projects and programmes continues, they are subject to the statutory authorisation and business case processes, this includes revisiting the strategic case for investment at key decision points, which would encompass consideration of the sustainable investment hierarchy amongst other policies.

Question reference: S6W-02865

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 23 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to involve the third sector in the Whole Family Wellbeing Fund.

Question reference: S6W-02508

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 23 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the effectiveness of the so-called 20-metre rule that is used as part of the eligibility criteria for being awarded adult disability payment; whether it plans to remove the rule, and, if so, by what date, and what discussions it has had with the Department for Work and Pensions regarding this.

Our overriding commitment is to the safe and secure transfer of disability assistance from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to Social Security Scotland, and this has been our priority throughout the development of our new social security system. It is essential that clients continue to receive the payments they rely on both in terms of disability benefit and the passported access this provides. To this end, the Adult Disability Payment criteria will remain largely the same as the existing Personal Independence Payment Framework during the case transfer process, but will be reviewed in due course. We also need to continue to safeguard against creating a system in which individuals paid by Social Security Scotland are subject to significantly different eligibility requirements from clients whose cases have not yet transferred to the Scottish system.

Changes we are making to the delivery of Adult Disability Payment, such as replacing assessments with person centred consultations, will improve the delivery and process of Adult Disability Payment and address many of the concerns raised by stakeholders, including on the 20 metre rule. In particular, the reliability criteria, which is applied to determine eligibility, will be enshrined more fully in legislation for Adult Disability Payment than it previously has been for Personal Independence Payment. This criteria requires a client to be able to carry out activities safely, repeatedly, in an acceptable manner and in a reasonable time, and these factors will be used to ensure that decisions will take full account of how the client experiences each activity – including moving around.

We have also committed to undertaking an independent review of Adult Disability Payment in 2023, one year after delivery has begun. The review will enable all of the eligibility criteria to be considered and will ensure that people in receipt of Adult Disability Payment will be able to provide their valuable feedback and experiences of the process so far. The DWP are aware of our commitment to review Adult Disability Payment.

Question reference: S6W-02405

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 23 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 23 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much it will spend on the media campaign to raise awareness of the new fire safety laws; how long it will run for, and what the estimated (a) total potential target audience and (b) reach of the campaign will be.

Question reference: S6O-00216

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 September 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what measures it has taken to address the consequences of the reduction of universal credit and any potential impact on child poverty.