- Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 14 March 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to end the early medical abortion at home arrangements that were put in place because of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, and if so, by when.
Answer
The Scottish Government has commissioned an independent evaluation to assess the effectiveness of the current approach to early medical abortion at home. The evaluation is being led by NHS Lothian, along with a number of academic experts. The Scottish Government will make a decision on the long-term future of early medical abortion at home once this evaluation has been completed. The Ministerial approval for early medical abortion at home in Scotland is currently being reviewed, with a view to enabling the current arrangements to be extended temporarily in order to allow them to continue until the evaluation has been completed and its findings have been considered.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 14 March 2022
To ask the Scottish Government when the provisions in the Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019, to guarantee safe staffing levels in health and care services, will be implemented.
Answer
The Scottish Government is resolute in its continuing commitment to the Act and its principles. A successful Implementation will only be achieved through the co-production of the relevant stakeholders. Their focus has naturally been on responding to the challenges presented by the pandemic.
As services remobilise we are re-engaging with stakeholders to ensure implementation takes account of the learning developed during the pandemic and recognises the new environment within which services will now operate.
- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 March 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Clare Haughey on 14 March 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what funding opportunities exist for people applying for Masters level courses in social work at Scottish universities to ensure that all fees can be met without placing financial burden on them.
Answer
I refer the Member to the answer to question S6W-06940 on 14 March 2022
The post graduate social work bursary scheme provides a contribution to the fees level set by the individual universities. This is to ensure that the funding available is able to support up to 300 students
There are other sources of funding that can be applied for. Full details of these can be found at www.saas.gov.uk and www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Education/Funding-Support-Grants
All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers
- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 March 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 14 March 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many older people it estimates are currently living in (a) relative and (b) absolute poverty.
Answer
The information requested can be found in the publication Poverty and Income Inequality in Scotland 2017-20 . This is available online at Poverty and Income Inequality in Scotland 2017-20 (data.gov.scot).
- Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 14 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 14 March 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on when the Project Neptune review of ferry governance will be published.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-06031 on 28 February 2022 which provides an update on publication of the Project Neptune report.
All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 14 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 14 March 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has any plans to (a) review and (b) increase the penalties for wildlife crime.
Answer
The Scottish Government introduced the Animals and Wildlife, Penalties, Powers and Protections (Scotland) Act 2020 in November 2020. We made a number of important changes to legislation on wildlife crime including;
? Increasing the penalty for a range of wildlife offences to a maximum of 5 years imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine.
? Extending the time allowed to investigate wildlife crimes.
? Extending the offence of vicarious liability to apply to offences relating to the illegal use of traps and snares.
? Bringing forward a power to introduce fixed penalty notices for less serious wildlife crimes.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 14 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 14 March 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it monitors any variance in the level of electric vehicle charging point tariffs between areas and, if so, whether it will share the data that it collects, and, if it does not carry out such monitoring, whether it will consider doing so.
Answer
Scottish Ministers do not currently monitor any variance in the level of electric vehicle charge point tariffs. The charge point owner is responsible for the setting of any tariffs on their electric vehicle charge points. The Scottish Government do not have a position on the levels of tariffs that the hosts can set, however, we expect these to be in line with the recovery of costs.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 14 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 14 March 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how much of the additional £0.5 million funding to help with the installation of the new interlinked fire alarms has been allocated to Care and Repair Lanarkshire.
Answer
A further £40,000 of the additional £0.5 million Care and Repair funding has been transferred to Care and Repair Lanarkshire.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 14 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 14 March 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider extending the powers of the Scottish SPCA to enable the investigation of a wider range of wildlife crime.
Answer
We set out our commitment to establish an independent taskforce to consider whether the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Scottish SPCA) should be given extra powers to investigate wildlife crime in both the 2021-22 Programme for Government and in our Scottish Government and Scottish Green Party Shared Policy Programme.
The taskforce’s role will include due consideration of the potential implications of any proposed changes to the powers of the Scottish SPCA. The taskforce will report back by the end of 2022.
We will set out the remit of the taskforce in more detail in due course.
- Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 14 March 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many undergraduate and postgraduate students have presented as homeless since May 2016, broken down by higher education institution.
Answer
Statistics on homelessness, based on administrative data, are collected by local authorities in the course of processing homelessness applications and for households in temporary accommodation. A limitation of this approach is that data is not collected for any households, including students, that are homeless but do not engage with their local authority. Data is available for a number of characteristics including age, gender and ethnicity but not in relation to those in full or part time in further and higher education. The Scottish government does not collect economic activity in the collection, some LAs may however collect the information for their own purposes but the extent of this is unknown. The latest statistics publication is available here: Homelessness in Scotland: 2020 to 2021 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
The Scottish Government has already started work on a Review of Purpose Built Student Accommodation which is running in parallel with the development of a Rented Sector Strategy both of which will inform a comprehensive Student Accommodation Strategy.