Seòmar agus comataidhean

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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Criathragan Hide all filters

Displaying 41367 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-11825

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 28 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 9 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-11322 by Michael Matheson on 26 October 2022, whether it will provide a breakdown of the £336 million allocated in 2022-23 by (a) local authority area and (b) type of measure.

The Scottish Government has allocated £64 million by council area as part of our Area Based Schemes for 2022-23. Details of the grant allocations and outturns for each council as part of our Area Based Schemes programme since 2013 are published on the Scottish Government website.

Area Based Schemes: allocation per local authority - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The majority of local schemes aim to deliver external wall insulation but numbers of measures delivered reflects individual retrofit assessments of properties. These are reported by councils and published on the Scottish Government website.

Area Based Schemes: annual final measures reports - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Funding for national schemes, such as the Warmer Homes Scotland service, is not allocated by council area but reflects numbers of successful applications by householders or organisations. The Scottish Government will publish further details about the number of measures delivered by each scheme as part of wider annual reporting at national level.

Question reference: S6W-11824

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 28 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 9 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-11322 by Michael Matheson on 26 October 2022, how much of the £119 million targeted at fuel poor households in 2022-23 has been allocated to (a) Orkney and (b) Shetland.

Question reference: S6W-11777

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 9 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-10334 by Mairi Gougeon on 13 September 2022, what proportion of the £564 million Common Agriculture Policy payments in 2021 was specifically allocated to support wool farmers.

Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) payments are not specifically allocated to wool farmers. Sheep producers in Scotland are however eligible for a number of CAP support schemes including the Basic Payment Scheme (payments total circa. £418 million), Less Favoured Area Support Scheme (payments total circa. £62 million) and the Scottish Upland Sheep Support Scheme (payments total circa £7 million).

Question reference: S6W-11664

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 21 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 9 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to increase the accessibility of the Partnership Action for Continuing Employment webinars, in light of reports from the client experience survey that just one fifth of clients accessed the webinars.

PACE support is usually delivered face to face, often in an employer’s premises, in addition to support which is available through the PACE Helpline and through online resources. PACE webinars and pre-recorded content were a newly introduced service in 2021 to enhance online resources in response to restrictions on face to face support due to the pandemic and to enable PACE support to continue to be provided to individuals affected by redundancy. Clients who had engaged with these new services reported very high levels of satisfaction. However as reported in the PACE Client Experience Survey 2022, https://www.gov.scot/collections/partnership-action-for-continuing-employment-pace/ , approximately half of clients surveyed would prefer face-to-face service delivery (45% to 64% for each service).

Webinars are promoted in PACE materials and are available to book through My World of Work at https://careers.myworldofwork.co.uk/career-advice/facing-redundancy/pace-webinars#/ . PACE Advisers promote the webinars and a promotional toolkit has also been produced and issued to key partners including DWP to enable information to be provided to relevant customers. Details of webinars are regularly promoted through SDS social media channels and feature as events during specific weeks, for example during Challenge Poverty Week (3-9 October) and during Scottish Careers Week (7-11 November). We will continue to promote the webinar programme widely as an additional PACE service for those clients who prefer to access support digitally.

Question reference: S6W-11655

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 21 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 9 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that all secondary school pupils are taught about the Holocaust.

Question reference: S6W-11561

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 9 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the implementation of the British Sign Language (Scotland) Act 2015 in deaf children’s education.

Under the British Sign Language (Scotland) Act 2015, the Scottish Government has a British Sign Language (BSL) National Plan in place for 2017 to 2023 with 70 actions across ten long-term ambitions. The Scottish Government published the BSL Progress Report on 27 October 2021, which provided an update on the implementation of the National Plan. It shows progress on a range of fronts, including education, BSL/English interpreting, and public life. The report outlines how Scottish Government has funded BSL Partnership organisations to engage with and support public bodies in developing their BSL plans and notes important developments such as the decision that Scotland’s 2022 census would ask 'can you use BSL?' for the first time.

We will develop a new BSL National Plan for 2023 to 2029, which is due for publication in October 2023, and will undertake engagement and consultation to inform priorities.

Question reference: S6W-11985

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6W-11986

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6W-11836

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 8 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has considered the finding of the National Dental Inspection Programme statistics, published by Public Health Scotland on 25 October 2022, that the proportion of children estimated to have severe decay or abscess increased from 6.6% in 2020 to 9.7% in 2022.

Question reference: S6W-11710

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 8 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will ask ScotRail to re-evaluate its current accessible travel arrangements, following reports that a disabled passenger from Lanarkshire had to be carried off a train by friends.