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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-18437

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 14 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the licensing news on the NatureScot website, whether NatureScot is accepting posted mail, as opposed to only email correspondence; what advice it provided to people who were unable to email or did not have access to the internet, and, if posted mail is being accepted again, when this policy was reinstated.

Question reference: S6W-18435

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 14 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports that it has spent nearly £220,000 setting up the Deposit Return Scheme to date, how much it budgeted for setting up the scheme.

The Scottish Government has spent £218,565.83 in setting up the Deposit Return Scheme since 2018. This includes the costs associated with consultation, publication of regulations and associated documents, evaluations, independent reviews and assurance.

The costs associated with the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) are met from the wider Zero Waste budget. For that whole Zero Waste budget the Scottish Government budgeted £40.2m in 2021-22, £42.9m in 2022-23 and £46.9m in 2023-24. DRS is a very small part of those budgets which, as a whole, support major circular economy delivery programmes including implementation of Circular Economy Bill and Waste Route Map, Extended Producer Responsibility, incineration research, landfill remediation, recycling, single-use plastics, litter and flytipping and funding for Zero Waste Scotland to support delivery of SG objectives.

Question reference: S6W-18429

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 14 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when the Cabinet last discussed the Deposit Return Scheme.

The Cabinet has received regular updates on the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) and last discussed it on 6 June 2023. Cabinet was briefed on the latest position regarding letters exchanged with the UK Government on the Internal Market Act, in particular the UK Government’s refusal to provide a full exclusion despite detailed engagement over almost two years and the evidence that says the biggest benefits, economically, financially and environmentally, are from including glass.

Question reference: S6W-18837

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 13 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what investigations the Scottish Library and Information Council has undertaken to determine whether any of the buildings that it manages were fitted with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete, and what the cost was of conducting any necessary repairs, broken down by building.

Question reference: S6W-18645

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 13 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has allocated to the maintenance of Scotland's UNESCO World Heritage Sites in each year since 2007, broken down by site.

Scotland’s six UNESCO World Heritage Sites are highly varied in their composition and management. As Historic Environment Scotland is a partner for all six sites, I have asked it to write to the member with the information on Historic Scotland funding from 2007-15, and Historic Environment Scotland funding since 2015 when it was formed.

Exceptionally, there has been some direct funding from the Scottish Government, for example in the light of lost income during the COVID-19 pandemic. The amounts provided from 2015 onwards can be found in the following table.

World Heritage Site	Year	Maintenance Funding
New Lanark	2020-21	£2,439,000
2021-22	£327,000
2022-23	£435,000

Question reference: S6W-18655

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 05 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 13 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to tackle the issue of council tax debt in its proposed new deal for local government.

The New Deal for Local Government reflects a desire of both partners to re-set the relationship between local and national government. The New Deal will provide greater flexibility over local funding, with clear accountability for delivery on shared priorities and outcomes. This will include considering further reforms for council tax in partnership with local government through the Joint Working Group on sources of local government funding.

Question reference: S6W-18660

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 13 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on how much has been received in planning gain contributions by each local authority, in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S6W-18581

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 02 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 13 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the implementation timetable for its four small-scale school swimming pilot projects.

Question reference: S6W-18467

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 13 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding any health and housing multi-agency meetings to manage support for trafficking survivors under sections 9 and 10 of the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015, what assessment template or guidance document is used in such meetings; which organisations are members of the group holding these meetings, and, for the period 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023, how many (a) cases were assessed, (b) cases involved the transfer of accommodation support from Scottish Government-funded trafficking accommodation to Home Office asylum accommodation and (c) such transfers were to asylum accommodation in Scotland.

Since 1 April 2018, support for victims of offences under the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015 has been placed on a statutory footing.

Statutory support is delivered through grant awards from the Victim Centred Approach Fund to the Trafficking Awareness Raising Alliance (TARA) and Migrant Help. Support may be provided for up to 90 days, or longer in some circumstances, and can include accommodation, assistance with day to day living, medical advice and treatment including psychological help, language translation and interpretation, counselling, legal advice, help accessing other services and, if the victim wishes, repatriation.

Case assessment is part of the ongoing support function carried out by TARA and Migrant Help and as such the Scottish Government does not hold this information.

In the period 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023, 221 individuals moved from Scottish Government-funded accommodation to Home Office asylum accommodation.

The Scottish Government does not hold sufficient data to provide the remaining information requested. This information may be held by operational partners.

Question reference: S6W-18508

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 13 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-26043 by Jeane Freeman on 11 November 2019, how many children and young people have completed suicide in each year since 2018.

The following table sets out the number of children and young people who have died by suicide annually, since 2018. The suicide statistics for 2022 are due to be released by National Records of Scotland in August 2023.

Year	Under 18	18-24 years
2018	26	75
2019	18	97
2020	14	79
2021	17	59

Source: National Records of Scotland

The Scottish Government is taking forward a significant programme of work to support the mental health of children and young people, including enhanced clinical and community-based support. Our targeted suicide prevention work is set out in the joint Scottish Government and COSLA suicide prevention strategy Creating hope Together , and its initial 3 year action plan . Together these programmes set a clear course of action to support new approaches and prevent suicidal behaviour in children and young people. These efforts will continue to benefit from the engagement of children and young people, including the work of the Suicide Prevention Youth Advisory Group.