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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: S5W-22982

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 14 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the use of Applied Behavioural Analysis in schools for young people with autism.

The approaches used by schools in the provision of support for pupils with autism is a matter for local authorities and schools. They are empowered to decide how to best meet the needs of individual pupils.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland’s SIGN Clinical Guideline 145 Assessment, diagnosis and interventions for autism spectrum disorders indicates that “Access to support from staff trained in applied behaviour analysis-based technologies (eg Picture Exchange Communication System, discrete trial training, task analysis, prompting, fading or shaping) to build independence in adaptive, communication and social skills should be considered for children with ASD”.

Furthermore, we have taken action to establish a short-life working group drawing together key stakeholders in order to look into areas affecting pupils with autism in schools.

Question reference: S5W-22963

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 14 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-19849 by John Swinney on 20 November 2018, whether it plans to carry out an evaluation of the money given to local authorities to provide mental health first aid training to school staff.

Delivery of the Mental Health First Aid Training programme is administered by NHS Health Scotland and Education Scotland and is a valuable and important element of the provision of mental health support for everyone who works with children and young people.

Scotland’s Mental Health First Aid Training is delivered by a qualified Scottish Mental Health First Aid instructor and is continuously monitored by NHS Health Scotland.

Local authorities whose staff have undertaken the training, provide a summary and a brief evaluation of the impact of the training within their authority area, to Education Scotland on an annual basis. Education Scotland is currently undertaking an audit of the number of teachers and school staff in all local authorities that have undergone the training in order to identify future Career-Long Professional Learning requirements.

Question reference: S5W-22965

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 14 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the commitments made in the Programme for Government 2018-19, what progress has been made in relation to the rollout of school-based counselling; how many counsellors have been assessed as having the relevant counselling qualifications and experience to work with children and young people in schools; how many counsellors have been recruited to deliver counselling in schools to date; whether it still expects the 350 counsellors to be operational in schools by September 2020, and how much money was provided to each local authority as part of the General Revenue Grant to provide for counselling in schools in the financial year 2019-20.

The investment in school counsellors is part of a package of measures to ensure that children and young people get the support that they require.

As well as local authority partners, we are working with the professional registration bodies, training and qualification providers and other key third sector organisations to assist in the delivery of this key Programme for Government commitment.

We will provide £12m in 2019-20 rising to £16m per annum thereafter to develop access to counselling services in schools. The Scottish Government is in the process of agreeing the distribution of this additional funding with COSLA.

Local authorities will be responsible for the recruitment of counsellors and on how best to deliver the service in their local area; as such we cannot provide any figures on how many counsellors will be in schools in 2019-20. We are continuing discussions with local authority partners on an agreed approach to report progress in delivering the commitment.

It is intended that the Programme for Government commitment will be delivered in full by September 2020.

Question reference: S5O-03227

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 May 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met representatives from the fishing industry and what was discussed.

Question reference: S5W-22574

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 2 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many human rights checks have been carried out on companies involved in the arms trade that receive funding and/or account management support from its enterprise agencies.

Question reference: S5W-21962

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Ash Denham on 22 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise or any other Scottish public bodies were present at the Home Office Security and Policing Event, which ran from 5 to 7 March 2019.

Question reference: S5O-03077

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 March 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of further delays in reopening Hunterston nuclear power station, what discussions it has had with the Office for Nuclear Regulation to ensure that it will not be allowed to reopen unless safety standards are met.

Question reference: S5W-22108

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 20 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-13573 by John Swinney on 9 January 2018 and to question S5W-15654 by John Swinney on 15 April 2018, whether it will provide the information for 2018 regarding the number of additional support for learning (a) teachers and (b) classroom assistants there were in each local authority.

(a) Additional Support Needs (ASN) Teachers - Full Time Equivalents

The following table sets out the full time equivalent of additional support for learning teachers in each authority in 2018.

This includes teachers with their main subject recorded as: Learning Support Secondary; Learning Support, Primary; Special Educational Needs (SEN) (primary) non-recorded pupils; SEN (recorded pupils); SEN (Secondary) non-recorded pupils; SEN Behavioural Support; SEN Learning Difficulties; SEN Physical Disabilities; Hearing Impairment; Visual Impairment; or English as an Additional Language (EAL). Teachers from all sectors, primary, secondary, special schools and centrally employed, are included. Teachers in grant-aided schools are not included.

FTE	2018
Aberdeen City	131
Aberdeenshire	247
Angus	78
Argyll & Bute	49
Clackmannanshire	29
Dumfries & Galloway	96
Dundee City	106
East Ayrshire	117
East Dunbartonshire	104
East Lothian	38
East Renfrewshire	36
Edinburgh City	133
Falkirk	96
Fife	175
Glasgow City	171
Highland	175
Inverclyde	35
Midlothian	53
Moray	91
Na h-Eileanan Siar	24
North Ayrshire	108
North Lanarkshire	160
Orkney Islands	31
Perth & Kinross	88
Renfrewshire	51
Scottish Borders	69
Shetland Islands	37
South Ayrshire	90
South Lanarkshire	111
Stirling	37
West Dunbartonshire	44
West Lothian	55

All local authorities	2,862

Statistics reported in S5W-13573 and S5W-15654 also include special schools with their main subject recorded as primary teaching. In 2018 there were 575 FTE teachers in special schools with their main subject recorded as primary teaching (these teachers are not included in the above table).

(b) Classroom Assistants, Additional Support Needs Auxiliaries and Care Assistants - Full Time Equivalents

The following table sets out the full time equivalent of Classroom Assistants, Additional Support Needs Auxiliaries and Care Assistants support staff in each authority in 2018. Staff in grant-aided schools are not included.

FTE	2018
Aberdeen City	508
Aberdeenshire	736
Angus	266
Argyll & Bute	393
Clackmannanshire	149
Dumfries & Galloway	285
Dundee City	290
East Ayrshire	322
East Dunbartonshire	304
East Lothian	219
East Renfrewshire	204
Edinburgh City	864
Na h-Eileanan Siar	84
Falkirk	402
Fife	848
Glasgow City	1,584
Highland	966
Inverclyde	322
Midlothian	249
Moray	268
North Ayrshire	345
North Lanarkshire	893
Orkney Islands	46
Perth & Kinross	324
Renfrewshire	318
Scottish Borders	272
Shetland Islands	112
South Ayrshire	276
South Lanarkshire	701
Stirling	189
West Dunbartonshire	273
West Lothian	609

All local authorities	13,620

Question reference: S5O-03031

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 March 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken to address patient access issues at GP practices.

Question reference: S5W-21516

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 5 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government which businesses and industry bodies met or were hosted by the (a) Scottish Affairs Office in Washington DC and (b) Scottish Development International office in (i) Boston, (ii) Chicago, (iii) Houston and (iv) San Jose in 2018, broken down by the number of times each business or body was met or hosted.

The Scottish Affairs Office routinely hosts and co-hosts events showcasing Scotland as the best place to live, work, study, invest and visit. Invites to these receptions run into the hundreds and include some business and industry body representatives with an affiliation to Scotland as well as members of the GlobalScot network. The scale of the events is such that invites are recorded but actual attendance by organisations is not.

A core part of SDI’s operations and engagement is to meet and host business and industry bodies across a range of sectors including financial services, technology, life sciences, energy, food & drink and tourism. This equates to thousands of records of meetings and interactions, which is recorded and stored on our in-house customer relationship management system and subject to the normal rules governing privacy and customer/prospect confidentiality.

Examples of industry bodies that the organisations have met with include:

Scottish Affairs Office

Business Network for Offshore Wind
American Wind Energy Association
Distilled Spirits Council (DISCUS)

Scottish Development International

Department for International Trade
Science and Innovation Network
Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Prosperity officers
British American Business Council
Silicon Valley Leadership Group
The Chicago Council on Global Affairs