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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: S6W-11705

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 3 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what urgent action it is taking to reduce the reported backlog in Scotland’s Redress Scheme.

Scotland’s Redress Scheme is committed to providing a swifter and less adversarial option than court action for survivors of abuse in care. We are aware that, for some applicants, the process is taking longer than they have expected, and officials are working to ensure opportunities for improving the service are identified and acted upon.

Recent improvements include the recruitment of additional case workers. There are currently 17 case workers in post, and by the middle of November 2022 this will rise to 23.

It is not possible to give an average or target time from receipt of an application through to issuing of a redress payment and apology. Applications progress at differing rates depending on how complete they are when submitted, the availability of information, evidence and records, and the extent of verification checks required. Priority is given to applicants with a terminal illness and those over 68 years of age.

Question reference: S6W-11732

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 3 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the current waiting times for care home places, in light of reports of long waiting lists and delayed hospital discharges.

Question reference: S6W-11727

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 3 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is the case that it will establish a professional indemnity scheme for single building assessments surveyors and professionals, and, if it is the case, when work to establish such an indemnity scheme began, or will begin, and when it will be launched.

Question reference: S6W-11413

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 3 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish the minutes from the quarterly meetings of the New Scots Core Group.

The New Scots refugee integration strategy is built on partnership and collaboration, led by the Scottish Government, COSLA and the Scottish Refugee Council, and involves a wide range of partners across different sectors.

The New Scots Core Group brings together key stakeholders and is responsible for monitoring and reviewing progress against the overarching outcomes of the strategy. The Core Group is chaired by Professor Alison Phipps, UNESCO Chair in Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts at the University of Glasgow.

The Core Group usually meets four times per year. This year, the group undertook a two-part workshop in January and February, as part of the New Scots Refugee Integration Delivery Project. The Core Group then met in June and in October, with the final meeting of the year set to take place in December.

We will publish the minutes from the October meeting in December, once cleared by Core Group at the next meeting. We will also publish minutes of the Group’s other meetings from 2022.

Question reference: S6W-11386

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 3 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of its Budget has been allocated to local government spending in each year since 1999.

The Scottish Government provides funding to Local Government annually through the Local Government settlement. This is made up of a combination of the general revenue grant, general capital grant, income from non-domestic rates as well as specific revenue and capital grants.

Included in the table (BIB 63725) is the Local Government budget following the annual Spring Budget Revision ('SBR') as a proportion of both the Scottish Governments total fiscal budget excluding FTs (i.e. its discretionary spending limit) as well as its Total Managed expenditure. Note that the SBR budget figure does not include amounts provided by other portfolios via grant funding to local government.

Given the changes in the Scottish Governments devolved powers since devolution it is not possible to draw a direct comparison between the funding levels since 1999. To illustrate this point we would note that in 2013-14 funding of over £1bn in respect of Police and Fire was removed from Local Government.

Question reference: S6W-11704

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 3 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-10649 by John Swinney on 2 September 2022, how much of the money that has been distributed in payments by Scotland's Redress Scheme to date has come from (a) taxpayer funds, (b) organisations on the official list of contributors and (c) NHS boards.

Applicants have six months from receipt of offer of payment to accept or decline the offer. As of 31 October 2022 payments totalling £8,570,168 have been made to survivors or their next of kin.

The most recently available data for payment breakdown, as of 30 September 2022, shows that redress payments of £3,464,900 have been attributed to organisations contributing to the scheme. The NHS boards contribution is included in this figure, however, for survivor data privacy reasons further breakdown of the data to the level of individual organisations would not be appropriate at this time.

There are 16 contributors, with potential contributions agreed reaching £122m. The live list has been published online since 8 December 2021.

Question reference: S6W-11543

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 October 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 3 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-10188 by Shona Robison on 6 September 2022, whether those seven assessments have been finalised, and what the start dates are for the remediation of each of those buildings.

Question reference: S6O-01533

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 November 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the reported reduction in the number of childminders working in Scotland.

Question reference: S6O-01534

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 November 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of whether inflation and any possible reductions to public sector spending by the UK Government will impact on prospective capital projects in Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale.

Question reference: S6O-01536

Asked by: Bill Kidd, MSP for Glasgow Anniesland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 November 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on progress with its commitment to challenge men's demand for prostitution, as part of the Equally Safe strategy.