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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-08638

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 20 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 7 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the current policy is for women over 70 to be able to access breast screening appointments; what the justification is for any decision to stop regular access to breast screening for this age group, and what consideration it will give to improving access to breast screening for this age group as part of the NHS Recovery Plan.

We have followed the recommendation of the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC), an independent scientific body that advises all four UK nations on screening, that women between the ages of 50 and 70 should be invited for three yearly routine breast screening. That is because there is clear evidence of benefit from screening women of that age group. The UK NSC does not recommend that women over 71 are invited for breast screening because the same evidence of benefit does not yet exist.

Prior to COVID-19, women aged 71 and over had the option to self-refer because there was enough capacity to allow them to do so. While programme capacity remains challenging due to the impacts of COVID-19, there remains a pause on self-referrals for those over the age of 71 to allow appointments to be prioritised for the recommended screening population.

However, in recognition of the anxiety that the pause on self-referrals is causing, work is underway with the National Screening Oversight and the Scottish Breast Screening Programme Board to explore ways to restart the self-referral route by Autumn 2022, in a way that does not unduly impact screening of the eligible cohort.

We continue to emphasise that, regardless of their age, women should remain symptom aware and report any concerns to their GP immediately for these to be investigated and followed up as appropriate.

Question reference: S6W-08662

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 20 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 7 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many National Lottery tickets have been sold in Scotland in each year since 2015.

Question reference: S6W-08661

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 20 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 7 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the potential impact on the economy in Scotland of any decline in National Lottery ticket sales.

Ministers were alerted to a decline in National Lottery ticket sales and to a consequent reduction in National Lottery good cause income in December 2016.

A mitigation strategy has been in place since October 2016 for a collaborative approach bringing together DCMS, the Gambling Commission, distributors and Camelot to address falling sales.

This includes Camelot undertaking a strategic review to return the lottery to growth; distributors promoting the link between National Lottery and Good cause projects; DCMS and the Gambling Commission are working with lottery distributors on potential levels of income if current trends continue.

Good cause returns for 2019-20 and for 2020-21 were better than expected and a total of £1,887 million was raised in 2020-21.

Question reference: S6W-08310

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 20 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 7 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it can request the consent of Crown Estate Scotland (CES) to disclose the two reports commissioned by and received from CES that discuss the net present value analysis and/or any other value for money analysis of the ScotWind auction, as referred to in the response to freedom of information request FOI/202200277291 of 14 April 2022.

As per the FOI (FOI/202200277291) referred to in the question, CES have already been asked about disclosure of the document and at that time did not consent to it due to the ScotWind clearing process still being underway. Publications of those documents at this time may, unduly, influence the application process. Once the process of granting option agreements is over, CES’s assessment of what can and cannot be released may change .

Question reference: S6W-08655

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 20 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 7 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with National Lottery (a) distributors and (b) funding recipients in Scotland regarding the possibility of Good Causes funding being raised from sales of lottery tickets by a company with reported links to Russia.

Question reference: S6W-08368

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 7 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the average reading age of a young person leaving school in Scotland has been in each of the last five years.

The Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Levels publication provides information on the number of publicly funded school children in Primary 1, Primary 4, Primary 7 and Secondary 3 who have achieved the expected Curriculum for Excellence level in the literacy organisers (reading, writing and listening and talking) and numeracy.

Schools were closed in Scotland between March 2020 and the end of the academic year as a result of the pandemic meaning that they were closed on the date of 8 June 2020. It was concluded that it would not be possible to collect consistent data that was fit for purpose and that any attempt to do so would add considerably to other pressures on school and education authority staff. The decision was therefore taken to suspend the data collection in 2019-20.

The latest publication collected data for 2020-21 for Primary school (P1, P4 and P7) pupils only. Secondary school and special school data was not collected due to other pressures on these schools including implementation of the SQA National Qualifications Alternative Certification Model which was used to award National 5s, Highers and Advanced Highers in 2021.

The current intention is to collect all data– for Primary, Secondary and Special school pupils – in 2021-22, although this will be kept under review.

The latest information on Reading can be found at the following table and the link provided:

Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) Levels 2020-21 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Table 1: Percentage of pupils achieving expected CfE Levels, 2016-17 to 2020-21
Year	Stage-Level	Reading	Writing	Listening & Talking	Literacy	Numeracy
2020-21	P1 - Early Level	77	74	84	71	81
	P4 - First Level	73	67	82	64	72
	P7 - Second Level	76	69	82	66	72
	P1, P4 and P7 combined	75	70	83	67	75
	S3 - Third Level or better	[no data]	[no data]	[no data]	[no data]	[no data]
	S3 - Fourth Level	[no data]	[no data]	[no data]	[no data]	[no data]
2019-20	P1 - Early Level	[no data]	[no data]	[no data]	[no data]	[no data]
	P4 - First Level	[no data]	[no data]	[no data]	[no data]	[no data]
	P7 - Second Level	[no data]	[no data]	[no data]	[no data]	[no data]
	P1, P4 and P7 combined	[no data]	[no data]	[no data]	[no data]	[no data]
	S3 - Third Level or better	[no data]	[no data]	[no data]	[no data]	[no data]
	S3 - Fourth Level	[no data]	[no data]	[no data]	[no data]	[no data]
2018-19	P1 - Early Level	82	79	87	76	85
	P4 - First Level	78	73	85	70	77
	P7 - Second Level	80	74	86	71	76
	P1, P4 and P7 combined	80	75	86	72	79
	S3 - Third Level or better	91	90	91	88	90
	S3 - Fourth Level	55	52	57	48	59
2017-18	P1 - Early Level	81	78	87	75	85
	P4 - First Level	77	72	85	69	76
	P7 - Second Level	79	73	84	70	75
	P1, P4 and P7 combined	79	74	85	71	78
	S3 - Third Level or better	90	89	91	87	89
	S3 - Fourth Level	53	51	55	46	56
2016-17	P1 - Early Level	80	77	85	74	83
	P4 - First Level	77	71	83	68	75
	P7 - Second Level	76	69	81	66	70
	P1, P4 and P7 combined	78	72	83	69	76
	S3 - Third Level or better	90	89	91	87	88
	S3 - Fourth Level	51	48	51	44	56

In addition, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 results show that Scotland's score for reading had increased between 2015 and 2018, with a statistically significant improvement. This demonstrates that we are on the right track, making progress where it counts - in the classroom.

Question reference: S6W-08586

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 7 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what work it has done with (a) industry and (b) local authorities to develop a strategic approach to planning and developing waste collection, reprocessing and management facilities.

The recently published report on the Review of the Role of Incineration in the Waste Hierarchy recommends that Scottish Government and local authorities should work with industry to develop a strategic approach to planning and deploying waste collection, reprocessing and management facilities. We are carefully considering all recommendations made in the report and will set out our initial response in June.

In the meantime, we have launched our consultation on Delivering Scotland's circular economy– a Route Map to 2025 and beyond. The Route Map takes a whole systems approach to set out interventions to reduce waste and meet our recycling and waste targets in a way that maximises carbon saving potential. The consultation paper is available here: Delivering Scotland’s circular economy: A Route Map to 2025 and beyond - Scottish Government - Citizen Space (consult.gov.scot)

Question reference: S6F-01208

Asked by: Stephanie Callaghan, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 June 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 June 2022

To ask the First Minister, in light of reported findings from the children’s charity, Aberlour, that over £1 million is owed in school meal debt, whether it will provide an update on its plans to expand universal free school meal provision in order to support families struggling with the cost of living crisis.

Question reference: S6F-01203

Asked by: Kaukab Stewart, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 June 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 June 2022

To ask the First Minister whether she will provide an update on the Scottish Government's Super Sponsor scheme for displaced Ukrainians.

Question reference: S6F-01196

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 June 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 June 2022

To ask the First Minister what steps the Scottish Government will take to ensure that victims of rape and domestic abuse are not retraumatised as a result of plans to allow them to formally meet those who harmed them.