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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-17500

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 12 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs and Culture's recent attendance at New York City Tartan Week, who attended in an official capacity with the Cabinet Secretary; what the full itemised cost was of the Cabinet Secretary's attendance, along with the cost of any officials and members of the Cabinet Secretary's party; what the pre-determined aims, objectives and anticipated deliverables of the attendance were; what meetings and events the Cabinet Secretary attended whilst in New York City; what the (i) minutes and (ii) speaking notes were of any events at which the Cabinet Secretary spoke or had discussions in an official capacity; what specific and identifiable outcomes were achieved from the Cabinet Secretary's attendance, and what official debrief has taken, or will take, place, to ensure that the outcomes achieved represent good value to the public purse for the spending that was incurred.

My visit aimed to cover a number of areas in the Scotland/US relationship. It had a particular focus on trade and investment, culture, higher education and – linking all of these things – Scotland’s network in the US. This visit offered an opportunity to build upon my visit to the US in April 2022, as well as other Ministerial visits over the past 12 months. It also presented an opportunity to launch our Scottish Connections Framework, Scotland’s new diaspora strategy, in perhaps the most populous (alongside Canada) diaspora location. (Link Scottish Connections Framework - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) )

I attended Tartan Week, supported by my Private Secretary, the Scottish Government Deputy Director for International, and two supporting officials. Five members of staff based in the US also supported my visit and attended events. The full costs of my visit, and those of all Ministerial travel costs, are routinely published on the Scottish Government website. I would encourage you to look there for more details (Link: Ministerial engagements, travel and gifts - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

You also requested the costs for travelling officials who accompanied me from Scotland. Please find these in the following table.

Official	Flights (£)	Hotel (£)	Nights	T&S (£)
Private Secretary	922.21	1169.26	5	161.51
Deputy Director	1,476	846.99	3	320.31
Comms Official	921.41	935.40	4	190.10
Policy Official	586.21	1169.26	5	578.27

I can confirm I met with several businesses with operations in the US and Scotland to support their continued engagement and investment in Scotland. These companies include XPO Logistics, Mirador, Catalent, Rockstar Games, AMP Energy and Aiim Partners. Details of the meetings, including summaries of each, will be published next week under Freedom of Information.

In terms of follow up, I meet senior officials regularly to discuss international engagement. There are a range of actions including follow up with specific companies, ongoing diaspora engagements and discussion with the Tartan Week Committee to ensure future viability and value for money, which will continue to be monitored in the coming year. Furthermore, there were over 50 commitments made in Scottish Connections report, which officials are now actively working on.

Question reference: S6W-17454

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 12 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the work it commissioned with the agency, The Lines Between, which resulted in the report, Scottish Government Pain Management Panel, published in November 2022, what the total costs and expenses were for setting up the panel and holding the panel's meetings; how much was paid to the (a) firm, Taylor McKenzie, to recruit people for the panel and (b) 16 panel members, and what the cost (i) was of producing the report and (ii) has been of any continuing related work since November 2022.

In summer 2022, Scottish Government commissioned a social research company, The Lines Between, to recruit and engage a diverse cross-section of people with chronic pain across Scotland. The Lines Between were selected by means of a competitive Invitation to Tender (ITT) process, which is a formal, open and recognised SG process, for which their submission was the highest scoring entry. Recruitment of the panel was undertaken by The Lines Between and their recruitment partner Taylor McKenzie.

The total cost of the contract was £40,000 exclusive of VAT. The Scottish Government made no direct payments to Taylor McKenzie or the members of the Panel for this work.

The cost of formatting the report for publication on the Scottish Government website was £516.58.

The Pain Panel has carried out a second exercise on the chronic pain information held on the NHS Inform website. This report will be published shortly on the Scottish Government webpage

Question reference: S6W-17527

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 12 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how (a) many mobile phones it has purchased and (b) much it has spent on mobile phone contracts in each of the past five years.

The Scottish Government does not hold centralised records for the number of mobile phones purchased in the last 5 years as they are purchased by individual business areas and agencies to meet their requirements. In terms of mobile spend, the spend via the Scottish Government’s mobile voice and data contract is as follows:

January 2022 to December 2022 - £717,288.05

January 2021 to December 2021 - £903,220.11

January 2020 to December 2020 - £1,538,112.41

January 2019 to December 2019 - £1,163,311.25

January 2018 to December 2018 - £1,218,978.37

All costs are ex VAT.

Please note:

1. The above figures include all mobile contract spend; it is not possible to separate this out into just mobile phones.

2. The above figures include other Scottish central government bodies to whom Scottish Government provides IT shared services. These costs will have been recharged to that organisation at the time.

Question reference: S6W-17543

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 12 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what additional financial support it plans to provide to (a) local authorities, (b) housing co-operatives and (c) housing associations to buy existing housing stock, in light of reports that private landlords are exiting the market.

Funding is already available through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme to support local authorities, housing co-operatives and housing associations to buy existing housing stock where this meets a clear strategic purpose and can be clearly seen to support the achievement of the priorities and objectives set out in the relevant local authority’s Local Housing Strategy. This can include the purchase of housing stock that was previously owned by private landlords.

Question reference: S6W-17551

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 12 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the recruitment of any additional clinical advisory capacity to enable the creation of a short-life working group on domiciliary care.

Question reference: S6W-16568

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 12 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the announcement that the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has agreed to extend its guidance to valuers in Wales as well as England, what information it has on what the reasons are for RICS not agreeing to extend its guidance to valuers in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-17482

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 12 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has undertaken any research in relation to government departments potentially utilising generative artificial intelligence to (a) assist in improving the delivery of public services and governance and (b) offer improved value for money in the use of public funds.

Currently generative AI is not being used by The Scottish Government in a policy environment. However, through our CivTech challenge process we are engaging with technology providers around how we might in future make use of AI to solve particular public issues. Current examples include helping disabled citizens better access online services and in identifying children at risk. You can see details of this work on the recently launched Scottish AI Register .

We are continuing to work within the recently issued UK Government guidance on the use of AI. This guidance encourages civil servants to stay curious and connected with all that data technologies can offer, but at the same time to do this in a way which prevents the risk of harm to our communities, government or economy.

This is a rapidly developing area and the Scottish Government has a responsibility to use AI in a way which will make the most of any opportunities and limit any potential harms to our people. We are very fortunate to have the Scottish AI Alliance behind our efforts, with their strong academic, business and technology experience they offer the correct level of support and challenge to ensure we continue to work in the trustworthy, ethical and inclusive manner set out by our AI Strategy.

Question reference: S6W-17542

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 12 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met South Lanarkshire Council to discuss rural housing issues.

Question reference: S6W-16517

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 12 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its response to Freedom of Information request FOI/ 202200321870 and the recommendations of the attached Gateway Review documents, whether the Cladding Remediation Programme Board has (a) received and (b) considered a “brief delivery options paper” created from the MACE Consulting report, and, if so, on what date any such paper was submitted to the Board.

Question reference: S6W-17552

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 12 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it has taken to ensure that community eyecare services are being accessed fairly by those who rely on domiciliary visits and those who live in remote and rural locations.

As set out in the answer to S6W-17550 on 12 May 2023, officials are in the process of providing advice to Scottish Ministers on community eyecare services work, including the unique challenges of providing these services in remote and rural areas and domiciliary settings.

In addition, as part of the continuous review of service provision, the Scottish Government recently worked with stakeholders to undertake a separate report into supporting the sustainability of community eyecare services in remote and rural areas.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers