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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-03080

Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 22 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government on the potential impact of the Nationality and Borders Bill on refugees who enter the UK by irregular means, and any implications this may have for Scotland and for refugees that settle in Scotland.

The Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution and External Affairs and I met with the then Minister for Immigration Compliance and the Courts on 16 June 2021 to discuss the New Plan for Immigration. This was prior to the introduction of the Nationality and Borders Bill at Westminster on 6 July. Scottish Government Ministers have had no subsequent discussions with UK Government Ministers on the Nationality and Borders Bill.

The First Minister wrote to the Home Secretary on 26 July, setting out significant concerns about the implications of the Nationality and Borders Bill, including measures which propose to differentiate between refugees and treat them differently based on their journey to the UK and not their protection need.

I wrote to the Home Secretary in further detail on 1 September. That letter is available on the Scottish Government website: Nationality and Borders Bill: letter from the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government to Secretary of State for the Home Department - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Question reference: S6W-03869

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6W-03542

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 21 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many confirmed cases of children having COVID-19 there have been in each primary and secondary school in each month since August 2021.

The COVID-19 Education Surveillance dashboard is updated and published every week by Public Health Scotland and includes weekly data on the rate of COVID-19 PCR testing among children and young people of educational age (2-19 years), the number and rate of positive cases and the percentage of tests taken that are positive.

These figures are not broken down to the level of individual school, and there is an overlap between the age groups and the type of school where nearly all 5-11 and 12-15 are primary and secondary school pupils respectively, and 16-17 year olds a more mixed group.

However, the number of individuals who tested positive for COVID-19 by PCR test at the end of August, compared to w/e 10 October were as follows:

Age range (yrs) W/E 30 August W/E 10 October

5-11 12 3151

12-15 20 1905

16-17 12 382

Question reference: S6W-03530

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 21 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to address any broadband coverage reliability issues in rural communities in North Ayrshire.

Through the £463 million Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) programme we delivered fibre broadband to over 951,500 premises across Scotland with over 841,600 of those now capable of accessing superfast speeds of 30 Megabits per second (Mbps). Of these, over 27,000 fibre connections have been delivered in North Ayrshire.

Through the Reaching 100% (R100) programme we will build upon this by delivering universal access to superfast broadband, regardless of remoteness or rurality – including rural communities in North Ayrshire.

Through a combination of the £600 million R100 contracts, the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (R100 SBVS) and continued commercial coverage we will ensure that anyone who wants a superfast connection of 30Mbps and above by the end of 2021 can have one.

Question reference: S6W-03529

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 21 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what data it holds on the average speed of broadband in homes in rural North Ayrshire.

Question reference: S6W-03419

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 21 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many websites it operates.

Question reference: S6W-03644

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 21 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many holiday vouchers have been given to carers through the ScotSpirit Holiday Voucher Scheme since its launch, and what steps it has taken to promote uptake.

Since this Scheme to help low income families and unpaid carers take a break in Scotland, opened for sign-ups in mid-August we have already seen 35 families (including 73 children) on a break for the current October school holidays.

VisitScotland, working with charity partners (Family Holiday Association, Shared Care Scotland and Carer Centre Network), is managing the promotion and distribution of the scheme to families and carers through their existing channels, including social media.

The scheme has only recent launched to families and carers and recipients will have until December 2022 to redeem the vouchers.

Question reference: S6W-03637

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 21 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many cyberattacks have taken place on public bodies in each year since 1999.

In December 2017, the Scottish Government introduced a cyber incident reporting procedure to notify the Scottish Government, Police Scotland and the National Cyber Security Centre of cyber incidents with the purpose of providing support to affected Scottish public sector bodies.

The Scottish Government cannot confirm the number of incidents prior to 2018 as there was no equivalent process in place encouraging Scottish public sector organisations to report cyber incidents to the Scottish Government.

Table 1. Number of incidents reported to the Scottish Government by the Scottish public sector bodies under the Notifiable Scottish Public Sector Cyber Incidents procedure since 2018

Year

2018

2019

2020

2021

up to 13 October

Number of incidents reported

Question reference: S6W-03554

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 21 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many separate visits its ministers have made to nightclub venues in an official capacity to discuss the implementation of the COVID-19 vaccine certification scheme with the owners and staff of such premises.

Question reference: S6W-03523

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 21 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide (a) an update on how much of the funding allocated to the improvement of ventilation in school buildings has been spent, (b) a breakdown of how this funding was allocated by local authority, including a summary of how each local authority spent its allocation and (c) an update on how the effectiveness of the funded ventilation upgrades will be measured.

I intend to write to the Education, Children and Young People’s Committee later in October with a fuller update on local authority progress with regard to CO2 monitoring and ventilation in school buildings. At this point in time, I can confirm the following:

A) The Scottish Government confirmed a total of £10m funding allocations to local authorities in its grant letter on 14 October 2021. The funding allocations for all local authorities have been agreed and grant payments will be made in line with standard processes and timelines. Local authorities have confirmed that they have been progressing purchases of CO2 monitors on the basis of confirmed funding allocations. We plan to request formal confirmation that all funding provided has been, or will be, used for the specified purposes at a later date.

B) The following table shows the breakdown of how the £10m funding was allocated to each local authority. We do not hold a detailed breakdown of how each local authority will spend their allocation. However the grant letter to local authorities states that the funding should only be used for specified purposes, including the purchase of CO2 monitors, associated additional staffing costs, and to contribute to any remedial action identified as being necessary following CO2 monitoring.

Local Authority	Total
Aberdeen City	£343,000
Aberdeenshire	£525,000
Angus	£217,000
Argyll & Bute	£164,000
Clackmannanshire	£92,000
Dumfries & Galloway	£276,000
Dundee City	£271,000
East Ayrshire	£225,000
East Dunbartonshire	£233,000
East Lothian	£205,000
East Renfrewshire	£230,000
Edinburgh, City of	£755,000
Eilean Siar	£58,000
Falkirk	£297,000
Fife	£688,000
Glasgow City	£1,077,000
Highland	£464,000
Inverclyde	£141,000
Midlothian	£188,000
Moray	£174,000
North Ayrshire	£253,000
North Lanarkshire	£668,000
Orkney	£48,000
Perth & Kinross	£263,000
Renfrewshire	£332,000
Scottish Borders	£212,000
Shetland	£56,000
South Ayrshire	£198,000
South Lanarkshire	£620,000
Stirling	£179,000
West Dunbartonshire	£175,000
West Lothian	£373,000
TOTAL	£10,000,000

C) Feedback from local authorities to date indicates that most of the remedial work identified as necessary following initial CO2 monitoring of the school estate has been of a relatively minor nature. We are continuing to work closely with local authorities to ensure they have in place appropriate strategies for ongoing monitoring, to provide confidence that good ventilation is continuing to be achieved. It is permissible for the funding provided to be used by local authorities to contribute to the costs of any remedial action that their monitoring activity has identified as necessary, after the purchasing of CO2 monitors has been prioritised.