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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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S6W-04558

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Monday, 22 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 2 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what action Revenue Scotland is taking to reclaim fraudulent or incorrect furlough payments, in light of reports that HM Revenue and Customs has been asked to recover £1 billion from such payments.

Question reference: S6W-04330

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 2 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the reported comments by the Chair of the Scottish Police Federation that there is concern about the impact of large caseloads on the ability of police officers to monitor registered sex offenders.

It is the responsibility of the Scottish Police Authority and the Chief Constable to allocate resources across policing priorities, and to allocate officers to cases.

Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) provide a strong statutory framework to manage the risks posed by registered sex offenders with the greatest resources put towards those who present the highest risk to the public. Under MAPPA, Police, local authorities and other agencies work together to assess and monitor these individuals to reduce the risk they pose to the public. This includes proactive policing and zero tolerance of non-compliance which involves reporting cases to the Procurator Fiscal.

In 2021-22 the Scottish Government invested an additional £75.5 million in policing bringing the total policing budget to more than £1.3 billion, including £15 million one-off funding specifically to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the police budget. Police officer numbers in Scotland have been maintained and are favourable relative to elsewhere in the UK with around 32 officers per 10,000 population in Scotland compared to around 23 in England and Wales.

Question reference: S6W-04590

Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 2 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to promote the use of the Scots language and to further Scots language education.

The Scottish Government has made clear its support for our indigenous languages, including Scots. It is essential that those that wish to use the Scots language are given every opportunity to use the language of their choice. For many, Scots is the language of home and community and its use in other areas of Scottish life should be encouraged.

The Scottish Government provides around £460,000 of funding to various Scots organisations and Scots projects such as the Scots Language Centre, Dictionaries of the Scots Language, Association of Scottish Literary Studies, Scots Radio and Scots Hoose to develop and promote Scots and deliver high quality Scots language learning and resources to open up the educational access to Scots for young people. In addition, the Scottish Government works alongside Education Scotland and the SQA and they have worked to standardise, promote and make the Scots language more readily available in schools.

The Scottish Government is committed to taking the forward the manifesto commitments for a new Scottish Languages Bill which takes further steps to support Gaelic, acts on the Scots language and recognises that Scotland is a multilingual society. This work is at an early stage and we intend to consult in 2022.

Question reference: S6O-00519

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to improve the support that is available for people who are affected by strokes.

Question reference: S6O-00517

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what progress is being made on the roll-out of superfast broadband in Orkney.

Question reference: S6O-00514

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its NHS Recovery Plan.

Question reference: S6O-00516

Asked by: Jenni Minto, MSP for Argyll and Bute, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how it is ensuring that the views of Argyll and Bute’s diverse communities are taken into account in the development of its policies.

Question reference: S6O-00520

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when the self-referral breast screening programme will resume for non-symptomatic women over 70 who have had breast cancer.

Question reference: S6O-00518

Asked by: Maggie Chapman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the actions underway to tackle the reported inequalities experienced by ethnic minority communities in the north east.

Question reference: S6O-00515

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the resolution at the recent SNP conference reportedly calling on the Scottish Government and COSLA to work together “to ensure that the pay and conditions for councillors will significantly improve”.