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-00683

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 January 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions education ministers have had with ministerial colleagues regarding the development of a student housing strategy that includes rent controls and student tenancy rights for every student in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-05198

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 17 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many vacancies, as a proportion of the required staff complement within each Health Protection Team in each local authority, are currently waiting to be filled.

Question reference: S6W-05219

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 17 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will allow e-scooter trials, similar to those currently being piloted in England.

Whilst the use of powered transporters and decisions around their introduction and associated legislative changes are primarily a matter for the UK Government, additional legislation and associated guidance would be required in Scotland to allow trials to take place.

This was not factored in to the timescale for the trials programme originally set by the Department for Transport (DfT), and as a result the trials currently taking place in England could not be hosted by Scottish local authorities.

The UK Government has signalled its intention to publish proposals in 2022 for potential further legalisation of e-scooters beyond the current trials. The Scottish Government is engaged with the DfT policy team responsible for the e-scooter trial and once more is known, we will consider any such proposals and continue to monitor trends as a matter of course in order to inform future policy on e-scooters.

Question reference: S6W-05222

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 17 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many injuries have been reported as a result of the use of e-scooters on roads and pavements.

Police Scotland collect data on road traffic accidents that were a) reported to the police and b) involved someone being injured or killed. The latest statistics available are up to 2020.

The following table shows the number and severity of casualties who were injured in road accidents that involved an electric scooter. No such casualties were recorded prior to 2019.

	Serious	Slight	Total
2019	1	0	1
2020	2	1	3

Question reference: S6W-05221

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 17 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to keep pavements free from e-scooters.

Electric scooters (e-scooters) are illegal to ride on streets and in other public places across Scotland due to a number of pieces of UK-wide and Scottish legislation. E-scooters can only be ridden legally on private land with the owner’s permission.

The UK Government has signalled its intention to publish proposals in 2022 for potential further legalisation of e-scooters beyond the current trials in England. The Scottish Government is engaged with the UK Government in this regard and once more is known, we will consider any such proposals in order to inform future policy on e-scooters.

Enforcement of the law is a matter for Police Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-05220

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 17 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance is in place to ensure that the use of e-scooters on roads does not place drivers and pedestrians at risk.

Question reference: S6W-05475

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 17 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of children who left primary school in June (a) 2019 and (b) 2020 were able to swim, broken down by (i) sex and (ii) race.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

However, in 2021-22, sport scotland invested approximately £1,315,600 into Scottish Swimming. Over the past five years, sport scotland has invested £6,836,282 into Scottish Swimming. Scottish Swimming developed and introduced a National Learn to Swim Framework in 2014 to support aquatic providers to enhance their community learn to swim programmes.

The Framework, which is supported by Scottish Water and delivered by aquatic partners every week already helps children to become safe, competent, and confident swimmers and these water safety themed lessons are an essential part of the Framework to help educate on water safety.

Question reference: S6W-05267

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 14 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what equalities monitoring is in place in relation to delayed discharge figures; whether it will report on any differential impacts that have been identified, and what steps it is taking to address any inequalities identified in relation to (a) BAME, (b) female and (c) disabled patients.

Question reference: S6W-05435

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 24 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 13 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how the recommendations made in the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee's pre-budget scrutiny report on funding for culture are addressed in its draft Budget 2022-23.

Question reference: S6W-05196

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 11 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many fixed penalty notices have been issued to hospitality businesses under the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Restrictions) (Scotland) Regulations 2020 in each quarter since they came into force, broken down by local authority area.

Local authorities and Police have a range of powers under the current Coronavirus regulations, including the power to issue notices and directions on businesses to take specific actions. Similar powers have been in place under previous regulations. Enforcement action is the last step of the 4 Es approach (Engage, Explain, Encourage and Enforce).

No Fixed Penalty Notices have been issued to hospitality businesses by local authority officers under these regulations. Local authorities have sought to resolve any issues with businesses without resorting to formal enforcement, and where this has been necessary direction powers and improvement notices are the tools that have been used. Engagement and enforcement of the regulations on business premises has been led by the local authorities, rather than Police Scotland. Police Scotland do not publish data on FPNs issued.