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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-05423

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 13 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the role that the Scottish National Resilience Centre in Dumfries will play in the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The National Centre for Resilience (NCR) whilst an independent body is fully funded by the Scottish Government, and works closely with it. In the past its remit had focused on natural hazards, but early in the pandemic it adapted its efforts into health resilience - bringing to bear its existing work on recovery to the particulars of the emerging threat.

The NCR was already working with the Scottish Government’s Resilience Development Service (ScoRDS) on recovery as the pandemic began. In collaboration with ScoRDS it had held a series of national workshops where policymakers, practitioners, and academics shared their experiences and the challenges faced when supporting communities through recovery from significant disruptive events. An initial findings paper was published. That laid very firm groundworks for recovery across sectors, and has also placed the NCR in an excellent position to continue to support those sectors.

Building immediately on this work, and following participation in the Scotland responders’ Covid lessons group in the summer of 2020, the NCR identified a need to help responders understand an evidence-based approach in order to not only recover, but to build back better. It used its networks to connect with the third sector responders and SG policy teams, to gain a clear understanding of new issues arising, and also how existing challenges were being amplified by the pandemic.

As a result, a series of symposiums were hosted - bringing together senior leaders in response organisations, academia, and policy teams in order to engage and identify cross sector ways to help find and deliver practical solutions, to improve and mitigate reported issues. Full reports on these symposiums were shared with all participants and have been published on the NCR website.

The NCR has also conducted literature reviews, looking at areas such as mutual aid and the role of the third sector through the lens of the pandemic, as well as mapping changes in policy in Scotland over the last ten years. Reports on these reviews will be published on the NCR website. Its staff and researchers continue to engage in a spectrum of activity across Scotland and the UK in support of the recovery from the pandemic, but also to understand how the pandemic has affected other aspects of resilience.

The Chair of the NCR Steering Group has also been invited to attend the Royal Society of Edinburgh's Post Covid Future Commission's Resilience Roundtable event on 19 January.

In summary, the NCR has been building its understanding and knowledge of the effect of the pandemic on its relevant audiences, as part of its ongoing strategic objectives. It has been seeking ways to collaborate and work together across sectors in order to provide robust evidence to inform policy. It has fostered ways to provide a gateway to networks of academics for government and responders, and it has identified the challenges and barriers that need to be addressed to promote and adopt the concept of evidence-based transformational change, in order to build back better across the wider resilience sector.

Question reference: S6W-05424

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 13 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what role the Scottish National Resilience Centre in Dumfries will have in addressing climate change adaption and mitigation plans for communities.

The NCR is continuously learning across its network, and compiling a portfolio of evidence that can support climate change adaption work and mitigation plans for communities. It does this through the commissioning of research, delivery of practical projects, and knowledge exchange. The centre facilitates collaborative projects that contribute key evidence for policy decision making and consideration for national strategy. It commissions research and projects through grant awards, and works closely with its grant awardees. The centre also positions itself to be able to respond to demand-led research, and provides access to a network of academics and appropriate academic consideration that can support a range of activities such as the Scottish Risk Assessment, and the Scottish Government’s annual planning cycle. The NCR provides key support to academics, effectively helping to translate and disseminate project outputs, and maximise the impact of scientific research.

Its recent work on climate change and adaptation includes:

Research into building resilience, to interacting extreme weather driven hazards and cascading impacts.
Research into tools that assess the impact of rainfall on urban resilience and iconic cultural heritage.
A variety of published papers including work on community resilience in response to extreme events, a digital flood evacuation modelling the role of local business in community resilience to natural hazards, and the transition from response to recovery.

A full portfolio of published material is on the NCR website.

It has also worked with key partners to deliver best practice, and has funded training modules for professionals and communities in areas such as:

Flooding good practice guidance

Flooding Resilience training in collaboration with the Conservation Volunteers for schools and the voluntary sector.
A property flood resilience action plan for communities and householders

Typical of its extensive work in the field of climate change, the NCR was heavily involved in the COP 26 Climate Action in South Scotland Conference, where it brought together senior leaders to explore a diverse range of issues.

In short, the NCR is ideally situated, with a growing portfolio of knowledge to inform policy and practice of evidence-based knowledge and solutions that can help address climate change adaption and mitigation plans for communities, through the ongoing delivery of its strategic objectives, building on its extensive networks and the body of work that it has already carried out, published and enabled.

Question reference: S6W-05739

Asked by: Gordon MacDonald, MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2022
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by John Swinney on 13 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the coronavirus legislation in place.

Regulations amending the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Requirements) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 were made today.

The Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Requirements) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2022 amend the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Requirements) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 (“the principal regulations”) and will take effect on17 January 2022.

The Amendment Regulations remove the physical distancing requirements in the Principal Regulations at outdoor event venues, outdoor exhibitions and outdoor spaces in sports stadia.

The Regulations also amend definitions in the Principal Regulations in relation to the certification requirements, in particular to the definition of ‘fully vaccinated’. To be considered fully vaccinated for domestic certification purposes, a person must have had a booster, if 120 days have passed since their primary course of a MHRA vaccine. If not boosted within 120 days, the person would be treated as if they had not been vaccinated and would require to show evidence of a negative test result within the previous 24 hours as an alternative to requiring full vaccination.”

The Regulations also remove the requirement in the Principal Regulations that a person must not organise an outdoor event of more than 500 people.

The Regulations have been published at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/id/ssi/2022/6

Question reference: S6O-00646

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 January 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the culture minister has had with ministerial colleagues regarding culture-led regeneration of town centres.

Question reference: S6O-00643

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 January 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what staffing resources it has allocated to the preparation work for a new independence referendum.

Question reference: S6O-00648

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 January 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how it is supporting people working in the cultural and arts sectors.

Question reference: S6O-00629

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 January 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how it is supporting the care inspectorate in its role of inspecting and assessing care homes.

Question reference: S6O-00640

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 January 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on whether all homes are on track to comply with the new fire safety regulations by February.

Question reference: S6O-00649

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 January 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met representatives of the live music and night time industries sectors and what was discussed.

Question reference: S6O-00631

Asked by: Annabelle Ewing, MSP for Cowdenbeath, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 January 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its discussions on social care provision in Fife.