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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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S6O-01779

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what government business it plans to bring forward for the current parliamentary year.

Question reference: S6O-01772

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it is measuring progress on its Covid Recovery Strategy commitment to improve financial security for low-income households.

Question reference: S6O-01792

Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how the Strategic Transport Projects Review 2 will improve rail infrastructure, journey times and rail connectivity across the South Scotland region.

Question reference: S6O-01775

Asked by: Natalie Don-Innes, MSP for Renfrewshire North and West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact that rising inflation could have on its ability to deliver on the priority outcomes set out in the Covid Recovery Strategy.

Question reference: S6O-01774

Asked by: Marie McNair, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of a new report by the Resolution Foundation stating that the average household will be £2,100 worse off by the end of next financial year, how ministers across government are working to prioritise support for low-income households, as set out in its Covid Recovery Strategy.

Question reference: S6O-01783

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee City West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on any investment arising from the Tay Cities Deal.

Question reference: S6O-01786

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the comments by the Scottish Chambers of Commerce regarding the Budget 2023-24 that it represents “a clear disadvantage for Scotland’s businesses and workers”.

Question reference: S6W-13574

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 11 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what support its agencies are providing to businesses to improve resilience and implement systems to prevent cyber attacks.

Under The Strategic Framework for a Cyber Resilient Scotland , the Scottish Government works closely with our delivery partners to improve the cyber resilience of Scottish businesses.

Between January 2021 and July 2022, 3,410 businesses that received the Scottish Government Business Gateway Digital Boost Programme funding undertook a Cyber Health Check, where qualified assessors performed a pre-assessment of their critical technical controls, in line with Cyber Essentials (considered a national standard by the National Cyber Security Centre).

Before the end of this financial year, businesses can access a cyber security professional upskilling fund - managed by ScotlandIS - where up to 100 cyber security professionals employed by at least 25 employers will be able to train to improve their cyber security skills.

We are funding ScotlandIS to work with Scottish Managed IT Service Providers to improve the cyber security advice and support services they provide to Scottish SMEs.

The CyberScotland Partnership, a partnership of key delivery organisations, such as the Scottish Business Resilience Centre, Skills Development Scotland and Police Scotland, holds an annual awareness raising week, CyberScotland Week (27 February to 5 March 2023). Businesses are among the target audience for this Week.

Monthly technical and non-technical Bulletins are disseminated across all sectors to amplify cyber messaging and advice on cyber resilience protection. Both Bulletins are available on the CyberScotland.com portal.

The Scottish Government funds the Scottish Business Resilience Centre to deliver awareness training to business executives and provide businesses with a cyber incident response support helpline when they experience cyber incidents. This helpline can be accessed by calling 0800 1670 623.

Question reference: S6W-13573

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 11 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many cyber incidents were reported to it by public bodies, under the Scottish public sector notifiable cyber incident procedure and policy, in each month in 2022.

In 2022, the Scottish Government was notified of 12 cyber incidents under our Notifiable Scottish Public Sector Cyber Incidents Policy and Procedure.

The Scottish Government will not provide further details as this would likely cause substantial harm to the effective conduct of public affairs and the secure delivery of our public services.

This, combined with other publicly available information, would likely allow identification of the organisations that reported cyber incidents under the procedure. It would therefore undermine the confidentiality of the policy procedure and adversely affect the trust and openness with which organisations currently report incidents and participate in the reporting process.Making further information on the timing of past cyber incidents publicly available would have a negative impact on the cyber security and resilience of the public sector.

Question reference: S6W-13476

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 11 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on its Enhanced Psychological Practice (EPP) programme.

The majority of spend relating to the Enhanced Psychological Practice programme relates to salaried posts in NHS Health Boards, creating additional capacity within the workforce and enabling delivery of evidence based psychological interventions at enhanced level. The allocated spend to date is as follows (please note numbers of learners/practitioners are cumulative and there are ongoing discussions with partners about the programme for future years):

2021-22 - £377,446

£224,538 funding towards salaries/backfill for 18 months for 20 practitioners – learner phase followed by post qualification consolidation phase
£152,908 towards development and delivery of education and training, and programme infrastructure – NES staffing, eLearning development, teaching support and consultancy, learning resources

2022-23 - £2,193,767*

£1,925,908 funding towards salaries/backfill for 18 months for up to 81 practitioners – learner phase followed by post qualification consolidation phase
£267,859 towards development and delivery of education and training, and programme infrastructure – NES staffing, teaching support and consultancy, eLearning development, SQA fees and learning resources

*salary costs included in this figure are based on 2021-22 Agenda for Change rates and will need to be amended on confirmation of the Pay Award for 2022-23.