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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-14043

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by George Adam on 26 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its plans to bring forward pilot schemes regarding accessibility in Scottish elections, and whether any such pilot schemes have taken place to date.

Improving the accessibility of elections is a key element of the Scottish Government’s electoral reform agenda. It is our ambition to remove or reduce barriers that some voters face and to improve the accessibility of elections.

We have been working with RNIB Scotland and the Forth Valley Sensory Centre over several months to consider potential solutions and technology to assist people with sight loss to cast their votes, including testing audio devices. RNIB Scotland will also shortly undertake testing of a tactile ballot paper solution at the Centre. We will then consider feedback from these initial trials of the tactile ballots papers and, working in collaboration with our partners in Local Government, electoral administrators and the Electoral Commission, produce proposals for next steps. I anticipate we should be in a position to report progress and set out future proposals and plans to Parliament in the summer.

In addition, as part of the Government’s current consultation on electoral reform we are asking for views on how the accessibility of elections could be improved and what changes might be made in law. The consultation closes on 15 March - available at https://consult.gov.scot/constitution-and-cabinet/electoral-reform/ . I look forward to reading the responses which will help inform our work going forward.

Question reference: S6W-13977

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 26 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when it will re-open its national frameworks for the Supply of Electricity and Supply of Natural Gas to new customers, including eligible third sector organisations.

Question reference: S6W-13976

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 25 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when the Risk Management Committee, which oversees its national frameworks for the Supply of Electricity and Supply of Natural Gas, will next meet to review its decision to temporarily suspend the on-boarding of all new customers.

Question reference: S6W-13975

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 25 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when the Risk Management Committee, which oversees its national frameworks for the Supply of Electricity and Supply of Natural Gas, last met to review its decision to temporarily suspend the on-boarding of all new customers, and what it concluded.

Question reference: S6W-13309

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 16 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what progress is being made with implementing split payments for Universal Credit.

Scottish Government officials continue to work with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to ensure that policy proposals for Split Payments are deliverable within the technical constraints of the DWP’s Universal Credit system. We have also carried out work with other external organisations and people with lived experience of Universal Credit to ensure the policy proposal is robust and meets the policy intent, which is to provide everyone in Scotland with access to an independent income and create barriers to potential domestic abuse or financial coercion.

Question reference: S6W-13090

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 11 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much it initially allocated to the Tenant Grant Fund; what percentage of this fund was distributed to each local authority, and whether it will provide an update on how much each local authority has spent of its allocated funds to date.

The Tenant Grant Fund was a £10 million fund with each local authority receiving a share, based on a distribution agreement between CoSLA and Scottish Government.

The allocations were as follows:

Local Authority	Allocation
Aberdeen City	4.1%
Aberdeenshire	2.9%
Angus	1.6%
Argyll & Bute	1.0%
City of Edinburgh	15.8%
Clackmannanshire	1.5%
Dumfries & Galloway	2.2%
Dundee City	3.8%
East Ayrshire	2.0%
East Dunbartonshire	1.1%
East Lothian	1.8%
East Renfrewshire	0.9%
Falkirk	2.3%
Fife	6.5%
Glasgow City	16.2%
Highland	3.1%
Inverclyde	1.0%
Midlothian	1.7%
Moray	0.9%
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	0.2%
North Ayrshire	3.1%
North Lanarkshire	5.9%
Orkney Islands	0.2%
Perth & Kinross	1.9%
Renfrewshire	2.3%
Scottish Borders	1.8%
Shetland Islands	0.3%
South Ayrshire	2.0%
South Lanarkshire	4.6%
Stirling	1.1%
West Dunbartonshire	2.7%
West Lothian	3.4%

We published updated spend data on 10 January 2023 and it is available at Tenant Grant Fund monitoring report: September 2022 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). This shows all local authority expenditure and the number of grants paid by local authorities, up until 30 September 2022.

Question reference: S6W-13088

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 10 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the new housing bill that it proposed to deliver the actions of the New Deal for Tenants, the proposed Homelessness Prevention Duties and other aspects of the Housing to 2040 vision, and whether there is an expected date for when the bill will be introduced.

Question reference: S6O-01710

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6F-01589

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 November 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 December 2022

To ask the First Minister how the Scottish Government will mark the United Nations International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

Question reference: S6W-12171

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 24 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the role of Confucius Institutes in Scottish higher education.