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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-14811

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee City West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 8 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many baby boxes have been distributed in (a) Dundee and (b) the NHS Tayside area, in each year since the initiative was launched.

Registration opened on 15 June 2017, and delivery of Baby Boxes nationwide began on 15 August 2017 for all babies born and resident in Scotland.

We are unable to give the number of Baby Boxes delivered in the Dundee local authority area as we only record numbers of Baby Boxes distributed by Health Board area. We can provide the number of boxes delivered in Tayside Health Board.

The total number issued in NHS Tayside up to 3 February 2023 is 17,735 Baby Boxes.

The total breakdown is provided below:

2017(15 August – 31 December)	1,587 Baby Boxes
2018	3,448 Baby Boxes
2019	3,461 Baby Boxes
2020	2,998 Baby Boxes
2021	2,941 Baby Boxes
2022	2,927 Baby Boxes
2023 (up to Friday 3 rd February)	373 Baby Boxes

Question reference: S6W-14850

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 8 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the Children, Young People, Families and Adult Learning Third Sector Fund has delayed awarding funds to applicants.

The Children, Young People, Families and Adult Learners (CYPFAL) third sector fund received a significant number of applications from a wide range of organisations totalling £121.8 million of requested funding over the two years, far exceeding the amount of funding available. While we had planned to inform applicants of funding decisions by 31 December 2022, unfortunately this was not possible as more time was required to fully consider all information related to the CYPFAL assessment process.

Question reference: S6W-14853

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 8 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what financial support is available for any organisations that are struggling as a result of the delay in awarding grants from the Children, Young People, Families and Adult Learning Third Sector Fund.

To support organisations currently funded through the Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention & Adult Learning & Empowering Communities (CYPFEI & ALEC) third sector fund, the Scottish Government is maintaining funding to the total value of £3.6m, bridging the period of the three month extension and consideration of CYPFAL applications.

Additionally, the CYPFEI & ALEC fund administrator, The Corra Foundation, are available to organisations who applied to the Children, Young People, Families and Adult Learning third sector fund to offer non-financial support by providing links to third sector interfaces to help identify any alternative funding streams.

Question reference: S6W-14791

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 8 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has directed towards research into postural tachycardia syndrome in each year since 2007.

The Scottish Government’s Chief Scientist Office has not funded any research that is directly related to postural tachycardia from the years 2007 to today.

The Scottish Government’s Chief Scientist Office operates open competitive funding schemes for applied health research projects and fellowships across the wide range of NHS and health challenges in Scotland. These schemes are open to consideration of applications addressing research directed into postural tachycardia syndrome. Applications to these schemes are assessed through independent expert peer-review with funding recommendations made by independent expert committees.

Question reference: S6W-14774

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 8 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it remains committed to restoring 20,000 hectares of Scottish peatland annually, as set out in its Programme for Government 2020-21, and for what reason it reportedly fell 14,630 hectares short of this target in 2021-22.

We remain committed to significantly increasing the rate of restoration as one of the transformative changes needed to meet the targets set out in the Climate Change Plan. In 2020 we set out ambitious plans to invest more than £250 million over ten years to restore at least 250,000 hectares of degraded peatlands by 2030.

Against this target, we have delivered around 64,000 hectares to date at an annual rate of around 6,000 hectares in recent years. This falls short of our annual target of 20,000 hectares. There are a number of reasons for this, including the fact that peatland restoration is a sector in its infancy and has not yet developed significant supply capacity. Contractor capacity is limited, as is the field of technical advisers and agents to support land owners and managers through restoration projects.

Our Peatland Programme is working to address the many barriers to transforming restoration rates in order to meet both current and future targets. We are taking actions to boost supply and demand, to create new levers and incentives through agriculture and land reform, and to increase private investment.

Question reference: S6W-14935

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 8 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the announcement by the UK Government on 20 January 2023 that its Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) will not include glass, whether it will reappraise the financial assumptions for its DRS regarding any additional costs relating to compliance with two different regimes operating in the UK for (a) producers, including (i) labelling, (ii) production and (iii) distribution costs and (b) wholesalers, including the storage of goods in different stock keeping units, and, following of any such reappraisal, whether it will publish a supplementary Financial Memorandum setting out its analysis of any additional costs.

The financial assumptions contained with the Final Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) published in December 2021 show the projected cost to businesses in terms of compliance with the Scottish Deposit Return Scheme (DRS). The UK Government is responsible for providing details to industry regarding the potential financial impact of its DRS. We will continue to work closely with the UK and devolved governments to maximise interoperability of the schemes when they go live.

Question reference: S6W-14851

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 8 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when the Children, Young People, Families and Adult Learning Third Sector Fund will allocate funds.

Question reference: S6W-14934

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 8 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-08012 by Lorna Slater on 12 May 2022, and in light of the announcement by the UK Government on 20 January 2023 that its Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) will not include glass, whether it will provide an answer to the question that was asked.

The UK government announcement related to the proposed scheme in England. Wales has also confirmed their scheme will include glass.

The Scottish Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) business case suggests that including glass will save over 1.2 megatonnes CO2 equivalent over 25 years, and will significantly increase the quantity and quality of glass recyclate. We will continue to work closely with the UK and devolved governments to maximise interoperability of the schemes when they go live, and hope that the UK government will, over time, follow the other UK nations and reconsider its decision to exclude glass.

Question reference: S6W-15604

Asked by: Paul O'Kane, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 03 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 8 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on when it will fulfil its commitment to abolish non-residential social care charges.

Question reference: S6W-15301

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 7 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many recipients of a STEM teacher education bursary in each academic year since 2018-19 were still employed as a teacher in a local authority school in February 2023.