Questions and answers

Chamber and committees

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 ��˿�� 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: S6O-01164

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 May 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment the finance secretary has made of any impact on Scotland’s financial outlook as a result of the reduction to ScotRail services.

Question reference: S6W-08460

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 24 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether any adjustment has been made to the future budget for the Scottish Milk and Healthy Snack Scheme for the 2022-23 academic year, in light of the recent increase in the retail price of milk.

The Scottish Milk and Healthy Snack Scheme expands and improves on the UK Nursery Milk Scheme, which it replaced in August 2021, promoting better health outcomes for children through a nutritious and varied diet. All pre-school child care settings who are registered with the Care Inspectorate are eligible to apply to the Scheme if a child in that setting attends for 2 hours or more each day. When a settings registers to the scheme each child will be provided with a serving of milk or non-dairy alternative and a portion of fruit or vegetable every day they attend the pre-school setting.

The budget for the Scottish Milk and Healthy Snack Scheme in 2022-23 is £12.5 million compared to £9.5 million in 2021-22.

Question reference: S6W-08218

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 April 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 10 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish its Rare Disease Action Plan.

As part of our recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, we are reassessing all our priorities to take a systematic, person-centred approach to planning and delivering health and social care services for the people of Scotland.

As we go through a process of realignment, we are taking time to ensure all our strategies are designed around the people using and delivering health and social care services and working together to improve health outcomes. This is even more pertinent for those living with a rare disease.While we expected to publish our Action Plan in the spring, the Rare Disease Action Plan will now be published once this work is complete to ensure maximum impact for the people who need it. This will result in a stronger, interlinked action plan that has a real impact for people with a rare disease.

We will continue to work with Scotland’s Rare Disease Implementation Board and other key partners to progress work that will improve the lives of people in Scotland living with rare diseases.

Question reference: S6W-08219

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 April 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 10 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has made available for the creation and implementation of its Rare Disease Action Plan in (a) the current financial year and (b) each of the last five years.

The Scottish Government has made £100,000 available for 2022-23 for tests-of-change to improve care co-ordination for people living with rare diseases.

Our Bridge to a Scottish Genomics Strategy project focused on expanding our genomics capabilities to support the diagnosis and treatment of rare and inherited disease. This was a key programme for government commitment for 2017-18, and £4.2 million was made available to NHS National Services Division over 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21. A further extension of the Bridge was agreed in 202-/22 with a further £2.3 million made available.While the work of the Bridge has concluded, we have announced a significant increase in the genomics budget for 2022-23, rising to £6.2 million. This funding will support the sustainability of the successes from the Bridge as well as expanding our genomics capabilities further into cancer.

Furthermore, the Scottish Government has made available over £600,000 since 2019-20 to Public Health Scotland for the development of the Congenital Anomalies and Rare Diseases Registration and Information Service for Scotland (CARDRISS). A further £169,000 will be provided for 2022-23. The registry will become operational in this financial year. Discussions are ongoing with Public Health Scotland in expanding the registry’s functionality to support our wider endeavours for rare disease.

While the above sets out discreet funding to support those with a rare disease, many of our wider health priorities will equally contribute and deliver improved care for those living with a rare disease.

Question reference: S6W-07777

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 04 April 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 4 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of paragraph 28 of the Audit Scotland report, New vessels for the Clyde and Hebrides, stating that “it is not clear what discussions took place between Scottish ministers and Transport Scotland about the contract award...there is no documented evidence to confirm why Scottish ministers were willing to accept the risks of awarding the contract to FMEL, despite CMAL’s concerns...we consider that there should have been a proper record of this important decision”, whether there was ministerial direction in relation to a decision that was not supported by the evidence.

The audit trail here is a matter of public record. Advice was put to the then Cabinet Secretary Keith Brown on 20 August 2015, setting out CMAL’s identification of FMEL as the preferred bidder. Advice was also put to the then Minister for Transport and Islands on 7 October 2015, setting out risk associated with contract award in the absence of a guarantee, and mitigation that would be put in place.

The memos to Ministers mentioned have been in the public domain since 2019 and can be found at the following link:

There was no Ministerial direction in relation to the contract award and Ministers did not direct CMAL to enter into the contract. The contract was awarded by CMAL in its capacity as procuring authority following a robust procurement process.

While CMAL did express concerns about the absence of a refund guarantee, mitigations were agreed that were sufficient to assuage those concerns.

Question reference: S6O-01050

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 April 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met representatives from the hospitality sector.

Question reference: S6O-01012

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 April 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that the agriculture sector plays a leading role in delivering a net zero Scotland.

Question reference: S6O-00963

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 April 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what measures it is taking in response to the reported growing threat of cyber crime.

Question reference: S6O-00955

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 March 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 31 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the SNP manifesto commitment for every child to leave school being able to cycle safely.

Question reference: S6W-06598

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 14 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many undergraduate and postgraduate students have presented as homeless since May 2016, broken down by higher education institution.

Statistics on homelessness, based on administrative data, are collected by local authorities in the course of processing homelessness applications and for households in temporary accommodation. A limitation of this approach is that data is not collected for any households, including students, that are homeless but do not engage with their local authority. Data is available for a number of characteristics including age, gender and ethnicity but not in relation to those in full or part time in further and higher education. The Scottish government does not collect economic activity in the collection, some LAs may however collect the information for their own purposes but the extent of this is unknown. The latest statistics publication is available here:

The Scottish Government has already started work on a Review of Purpose Built Student Accommodation which is running in parallel with the development of a Rented Sector Strategy both of which will inform a comprehensive Student Accommodation Strategy.