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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: S6T-00075

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 14 June 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to a recent survey, which records that more than 2,000 incidents of racism have been reported in schools over the last three years.

Question reference: S6T-00069

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Monday, 14 June 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the allegation made by Jim McColl in The Herald on Sunday that £25 million of public money was wasted on the "forced" nationalisation of Ferguson Marine Engineering Ltd.

Question reference: S6W-00449

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 14 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many apprenticeships schemes have (a) been started and (b) completed in the Central Scotland parliamentary region in each year since 2019.

Skills Development Scotland does not report apprenticeship starts by parliamentary constituency or region, but by Local Authority. Published apprenticeship starts from 2019 in the local authorities within the Central Scotland Parliamentary Region are:

Local Authority	2019-20 Q4 (year end) Modern Apprenticeships	2020-21 Q4 (year end) Modern Apprenticeships
Falkirk	1,068	613
North Lanarkshire	2,402	1,484
South Lanarkshire	1,926	1,250

Local Authority	Foundation Apprenticeships Cohort 4 (2019-2021)
Falkirk	199
North Lanarkshire	457
South Lanarkshire	256

Figures for Foundation Apprenticeship Cohort 5 (2020-22) are due to be published by Skills Development Scotland in June 2021.

Local Authority	2019-20 Graduate Apprenticeships
Falkirk	37
North Lanarkshire	83
South Lanarkshire	63

Published apprenticeship achievers from 2019 in the local authorities within the Central Scotland Parliamentary Region are:

Local Authority	2019-20 Q4 (year end) Modern Apprenticeships	2020-21 Q4 (year end) Modern Apprenticeships
Falkirk	823	542
North Lanarkshire	1,850	1,329
South Lanarkshire	1,517	1,074

Skills Development Scotland does not publish Foundation or Graduate Apprenticeship achievers by local authority. The total achievers for Foundation Apprenticeships can be found here and for Graduate Apprenticeship achievers here .

*It should be noted that starts and achievers are based on the apprentice’s home address.

Question reference: S6W-00480

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 14 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government which universities have adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism

The Scottish Government, Universities Scotland, College Development Network and Colleges Scotland are clear that there is no place for any form of hatred or prejudice, including antisemitism, in further and higher education.

Universities, as autonomous institutions, are aware of the IHRA definition of antisemitism. Many are actively and presently consulting within their diverse communities and stakeholder interests on the definition, with three (University of Glasgow, University of Edinburgh and Abertay University) having adopted it to date. Universities UK is working with the Union of Jewish Students to raise awareness and understanding of antisemitism and to share best practice in tackling and eliminating it.

Universities and colleges are also addressing antisemitism through their ongoing engagement with the Scottish Funding Council to address discrimination and harassment on the grounds of race.

The SFC, in response to the recommendations of the EHRC report, Universities Challenged, published in October 2019, has developed resources to support challenging conversations on all aspects of racial discrimination, including antisemitism. These were developed with input of staff and students and were launched on 16 March 2021.

Question reference: S6W-00457

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 14 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to improve work-related outcomes for referrals to the Fair Start Scotland service, and what its response is to reports that 89.8% of people referred to the service in South Ayrshire did not achieve a 26-week job outcome after their time in the programme.

The percentages quoted have been calculated using statistics published on the number of job outcomes, broken down by local authority area. These do not provide an accurate reflection of performance as they include participants who have not had time to reach outcomes.

Pre-employment support on Fair Start Scotland ordinarily lasts 12 months (it can last up to 18 months), and job outcomes will increase as more participants move through the service into, and sustain work over time. Job outcome rates can only be reported for those cohorts where enough time has passed in pre-employment support (12 months) and also for job outcomes to be achieved (6 months for the figures quoted).

The figures have also been calculated based on the number of referrals to the service. It is worth noting that Fair Start Scotland is completely voluntary, and not everyone who is referred will choose to participate.

As part of our continuous improvement activities and in line with our “test and learn” approach to employability support in Scotland, we continue to work with Providers to improve all aspects of the service.

Our key priority remains ensuring participants receive a quality service in their journey to finding and sustaining fair work, and we continue to work closely with local government, the third sector and other partners to ensure the right employment opportunities are sourced for participants.

Question reference: S6W-00417

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 14 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many police officers in the Forth Valley area have been subject to COVID-19-related assaults.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. On 30 May 2021, Police Scotland published an article on 'assaults on police linked to coronavirus', which may provide the information requested. A link to this article is as follows: https://www.scotland.police.uk/what-s-happening/news/2021/may/over-1-000-assaults-on-police-linked-to-coronavirus-1/

It is unacceptable that Scotland’s police officers and staff should be attacked or abused while going about their daily duty and we fully support the actions that Police Scotland and the Chief Constable are taking to protect police officers and staff from assaults and their impact.

Scotland’s justice system has extensive powers to deal with perpetrators, through statutes such as the Emergency Services (Scotland) Act 2005 and section 90 of the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012. For more serious attacks, the Crown may prosecute cases under common law offences such as assault, with potential penalties of up to life imprisonment.

Question reference: S6W-00421

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 14 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the tagging of offenders in (a) stalking cases and (b) cases connected with persistent harassment.

Sentencing decisions are for the independent courts in each case based on the circumstances before them. Courts can already impose electronic monitoring for a range of offences where they deem it appropriate. Sentences such as a Restriction of Liberty Order include an electronically monitored curfew and can include exclusion zones around an address which can also be monitored electronically.

Electronic monitoring can also be a feature of post-release sentence management as a condition of licence. The Parole Board have the ability to recommend licence conditions which can include being electronically monitored at or away from a particular location.

Question reference: S6W-00394

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 14 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what additional funding has been provided to the Ayrshire Police Division to help fight drug-related crime, given that the number of drug-related crimes recorded by police in South Ayrshire has increased year on year since 2016/17.

The Scottish Government provides grant in aid funding to the Scottish Police Authority (SPA), which along with the Chief Constable has responsibility for allocating these resources across policing priorities. Despite constraints on Scotland’s public services through a decade of UK austerity, the Scottish Government investment in policing this year has increased by £60.5 million to more than £1.3 billion. An additional £15 million has been made available to the SPA in 2021-22 to specifically to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the policing budget.

As of 31 March 2021, there were 17,283 officers, which is significantly above the level inherited in 2007, with a higher number of officers than at any time during the previous administration.

Police Scotland will continue to prioritise reducing the harms to communities by tackling alcohol and drug misuse as outlined in their South Ayrshire Local Police Plan. The Scottish Government believes that the best way to reduce drug-related crime and drug-related death is to get people into appropriate treatment and support services at every point of the criminal justice system. However we must not be complacent, we will continue to bear down on crime in Scotland, through protecting police budgets and substantial investment in preventative programs.

Question reference: S6W-00262

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 May 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 14 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care will meet with student paramedics from the Pay Student Paramedics campaign in order to discuss the implementation of the student paramedic bursary.

Question reference: S6W-00259

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 May 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 14 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether NHS Scotland plans to introduce a less invasive endoscopic procedure and post-operative helmet to treat craniosynostosis, and whether a more time-sensitive referral process to Great Ormond Street Hospital will be implemented if the procedure is not available through the NHS in Scotland.

Paediatric craniofacial surgery in Scotland is delivered by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde as a national specialist service commissioned by the National Services Division. Within the Board there is an ambition to develop endoscope assisted surgery as part of a wider practice to correct children with skull deformity due to a craniosynostosis. Physicians from the Board had intended to visit a centre in North America to share best practice but the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in this being postponed.

At present the only nationally designated craniofacial service in the UK that is known to offer endoscope assisted surgery is Great Ormond Street Hospital. Whether a patient should be referred to Great Ormond Street Hospital is dependent on individual clinical circumstances. The perioperative follow-up for patients after this procedure is more complicated as reassessment and repeat helmet fittings are required.