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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: S6F-03402

Asked by: Emma Roddick, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 September 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 September 2024

To ask the First Minister what discussions the Scottish Government is having with energy companies regarding a possible "social tariff" to reduce bills for low-income households.

Question reference: S6F-03394

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 23 September 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 September 2024

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to reports regarding the number of young people aged 11 to 14 who are involved in violent crime.

Question reference: S6F-03379

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 September 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 September 2024

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6F-03381

Asked by: Lorna Slater, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 September 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 September 2024

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6F-03380

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 23 September 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 September 2024

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6W-29653

Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow Southside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 06 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 23 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding how such a policy could apply in Scotland, what assessment it has made of the Welsh Government’s legislative proposal to remove profit from the care of looked after children.

The Promise is clear that there is no place for profiting in how Scotland cares for its children and the Scottish Government supports this principle.

The Scottish Government meets with the UK Government, the Welsh Government and the Northern Ireland Executive on a regular basis to discuss children’s residential care policy, including profit from care.

Although we have not undertaken a formal assessment of the Welsh Government’s legislative proposals, we continue to engage with the Welsh Government as these develop.

The Scottish Government, working alongside COSLA and local government, will consider what further steps could be taken in Scotland, including through legislation.

Question reference: S6W-29672

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 06 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 23 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the conclusions in the Economist Impact report, The value of action: mitigating the impact of neurological disorders in the United Kingdom.

The Scottish Government recognises how debilitating and distressing neurological conditions can be and the significant human and economic costs associated. However, we note that this report contains no Scotland-specific analyses of health policy or delivery of care for neurological conditions.

Through the Neurological Care & Support Framework 2020-25, we have awarded £2.6 million supporting innovative projects to achieve better outcomes for people living with neurological conditions. We are working to deliver the aims of improving the provision of co-ordinated health and social care and support, developing sustainable workforce models and ensuring high standards of person-centred care.

We are also working to support people with health conditions, such as neurological conditions, to play an active role within the economy. In 2023-24 we invested £108 million in employability services, providing intensive and personalised pre-employment and in-work support for unemployed disabled people and those with health conditions or other barriers to progressing within work.

Some people with neurological conditions may also be disabled. Our ambition is to at least halve the disability employment gap – the difference between the employment rates for non-disabled people and disabled people aged 16-64 years – by 2038 from 37.4 percentage points in 2016, our baseline year.

Question reference: S6W-29651

Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow Southside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 06 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 23 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many foster agencies are operational in Scotland, and, of these, how many are owned by (a) local authorities, (b) voluntary organisations and (c) private entities.

Fostering services in Scotland can be owned and operated by local authorities, or third sector not-for-profit organisations. The Care Inspectorate publish quarterly statistics, which includes the number of registered fostering agencies in Scotland. The most recent data was published on 15 August 2024, there are 57 fostering services in Scotland registered with the Care Inspectorate, made up of 32 local authority services and 25 voluntary/not-for-profit organisations.

The link to the most recent statistics is here:

Quarterly Statistical Summary Report - Qtr 1 (2024/25) (careinspectorate.com)

Question reference: S6W-29641

Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow Southside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 06 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 23 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether all local authorities record instances of looked after children being separated from siblings, and, if not, which local authorities do not yet do so, and by when it anticipates that all local authorities will routinely record this data.

The Scottish Government’s National Practice Guidance on siblings and the Looked after Children (Scotland) Regulations 2009 highlights the importance of recording information about a child’s brothers and sisters.

From 2023-2024, data reported by all local authorities to Scottish Government as part of their annual Looked after Children Statistics (CLAS) return will include data on the number of siblings living apart from each other.

Question reference: S6W-29643

Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow Southside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 06 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 23 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government which local authorities have ended the practice of excluding looked after or care experienced children from school, and by what date it anticipates that all local authorities will have done so.

The latest statistics on exclusions of looked after or care-experienced children show that there were no exclusions of children looked after in the last year in 2022-23 in Orkney Islands. Exclusions rates per 1,000 pupils who were looked after ranged from 7.4 per 1,000 to 291.2 per 1,000 in other local authority areas.

The legal power to exclude children or young people from school rests with the relevant local authority and therefore it is the responsibility of the local authority to have regard to the particular facts and circumstances of each case when deciding if exclusion is necessary. Our national guidance, Included, Engaged and Involved Part 2, is already clear that exclusion should be used as a measure of last resort and that there are particular considerations before the exclusion of care experienced young people.

The Promise Implementation Plan sets out the commitment to support attendance and reduce exclusion of care experienced children from education. To support local authorities to meet the commitment in the implementation plan, we have developed a Framework which aims to focus on improving the educational outcomes of care experienced children and young people which include increased attendance and reduced exclusion. This Framework has recently been tested in nine local authorities and the outcomes are being considered and will be discussed with COSLA and the Association of Directors of Education in due course to inform any future roll out. In addition, in August 2024, the Scottish Government published a new three-year action plan on relationships and behaviour in schools, setting out 20 actions to support efforts to improve relationships and behaviour, which will contribute to efforts to reduce exclusions by maintaining and further embedding our approach to relational approaches and promoting positive relationships and behaviour.