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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-10966

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 22 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it is developing to address child-on-child abuse.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all children who grow up in Scotland feel safe and protected. We recognise that where children and young people demonstrate harmful behaviour, the victims of their actions are often children themselves.

In June 2021 we published our Vision for youth justice in Scotland. The Vision sets out our priorities for young people who come into conflict with the law, including continuing to ensure that children, young people and their families are supported at an early stage through early intervention and preventative approaches in order to address the child’s needs and the circumstances which have led to their harmful conduct. This also includes priorities around how best to support child victims, such as improving support and information for child victims and their families, whilst respecting data protection and confidentiality, and ensuring support is trauma-informed and meets the needs of victims. We continue to work with partners to deliver the priorities within the Vision and to deliver a preventative approach which improves life chances for young people and which has seen dramatic changes in the youth justice sector.

We are also committed to preventing all types of harmful sexual behaviour and sexual offending involving children and young people. Collaborative work with statutory and third sector organisations across Scotland is underway to drive forward action in this area including initiatives to prevent children from becoming involved in harmful sexual behaviour through the publication of resources along with continued funding of services offering support.

We continue to implement the proposals from the Expert Group on Preventing Sexual Offending Involving Children and Young People and develop harmful sexual behaviour policy.

Question reference: S6W-10552

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what it will do to help the hospitality sector with recruitment.

We recognise that hospitality, alongside other sectors within the economy including construction and food and drink are hampered by difficulties in attracting, recruiting and retaining workers. This has been exacerbated by Brexit and the loss of people from the EU leaving Scotland, as well as the problems caused by the pandemic.

We funded the ‘do what you love’ advertising campaign last year, to encourage people to consider a career in our valued tourism and hospitality sector, which was developed in partnership with industry. We are looking at how we build on this, as well as continuing our work to improve conditions and promote fair work in the sector, to make it more attractive to potential employees. We continue to work closely with the sector, to address the challenges it faces.

However, the Scottish Government does not have all of the levers it requires to address these challenges, and we continue to call on the UK Government to commit to establishing a Joint Task Force on Labour Market Shortages with the Devolved Governments.

Question reference: S6W-10551

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to endorse the Hospitality Rising recruitment campaign, and, if so, what specific help it will give to the campaign.

We welcome the industry-led, UK-wide Hospitality Rising recruitment campaign as an important initiative to help attract more people into the sector.

The Scottish Government recognises the acute challenges for the sector posed by the current labour shortages which have been exacerbated by a combination of Brexit and the pandemic.

Hospitality is vital to Scotland's economy and people are key to its success. While there is no action planned to support this specific campaign, we are committed to working with the sector to find solutions.

To date this has included funding for a campaign to encourage more people to consider a career in tourism and hospitality branded ‘do what you love’, in partnership with industry in 2021. We are considering how to build on this initiative, alongside the continuation of longer-term work to improve conditions and promote fair work to make it more attractive to potential employees. We continue to work with the sector cooperatively, to address these challenges.

Question reference: S6O-01356

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 September 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact of energy price and inflation increases on businesses and jobs.

Question reference: S6F-01325

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 05 September 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 September 2022

To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government plans to take in light of reported figures showing that sexual and violent crime in Scotland has risen significantly over the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-10359

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 22 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 5 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many (a) Ukrainians who came to Scotland through (i) its Super Sponsor Scheme, (ii) the Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme and (c) seasonal worker visas and (b) Afghans who came to Scotland through the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP) and Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) have since become homeless, also broken down by local authority area.

Under the current constitutional arrangements in the United Kingdom immigration, including data related to arrivals, is fully reserved to the UK Government and is dealt with by the Home Office.

The UK Government published quarterly immigration statistics here: Immigration statistics, year ending June 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The Scottish Government do not currently correlate the visa routes and homelessness status regarding displaced individuals from Ukraine or Afghanistan.

Question reference: S6W-10175

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 31 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the reasons are for its decision to end child fares on trains at 16 rather than 18 years old.

The Scottish Government does not set the age ranges for child fares on the railway, and has not made any decision to end child fares for any group. These fares are defined in the GB-wide Ticketing and Settlement Agreement – over which the Scottish Government does not have control.

In Scotland, young people aged 16-18 (and full time volunteers up to the age of 25) can obtain discounted rail travel using their Young Scot National Entitlement Card, offering one third discount on most rail fares and a 50% discount on weekly and monthly season tickets.

Question reference: S6W-10116

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 19 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what meetings (a) it has had recently (b) are planned with COSLA to explore all options available regarding the funding by local authorities of any pay increases.

A series of meetings to explore the issues and options available were held between officials on 30 June, 13 July and 1 August.

Following these meetings, the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government and myself met with a delegation of COSLA’s political leadership on 3 August and held a further meeting with their Resources Spokesperson on 8 August.

Those discussions resulted in the Scottish Government committing an extra £140m on a recurring basis to support councils and COSLA with the local government pay negotiations.

We again met with representatives of COSLA’s political leadership on 17 August.

Question reference: S6W-10117

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 17 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether a summit between unions and COSLA could be held to facilitate further discussions on potential pay increases for public sector workers

Pay for council workers, excluding teachers, is determined through negotiations at the Scottish Joint Committee (SJC). These negotiations take place between the trade unions (UNISON, Unite and GMB) and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA), who act on behalf of Scotland’s 32 councils.

The Scottish Government continues to urge both parties to continue negotiations via the SJC in order to achieve a negotiated settlement which avoids industrial action.

Question reference: S6W-09584

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 18 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 15 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether a system could be introduced to monitor the impact on people's welfare of the operation of the asylum and detention system in Scotland.

Asylum and immigration are matters reserved to the UK Parliament. This includes the operation of the UK asylum system and immigration detention.

An effective system to monitor the impact of the asylum system or immigration detention on people’s wellbeing would require access to personal data and information about people seeking asylum or in immigration detention. This data is held by the Home Office, and the Scottish Government does not have access to it.

Many third sector organisations have direct knowledge of the negative impact the asylum system can have on people’s welfare, through their work supporting people within communities. The complexity of the asylum system, the low level of support provided by the Home Office and the continuing uncertainty of waiting for a decision are often combined with previous trauma and vulnerabilities. Evidence from the third sector, and people with lived experience, indicates that the asylum process itself can be re-traumatising.