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: S5W-03670

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 27 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to increase the funding it provides for scientific research.

The Scottish Government, through the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), has invested in excess of £4 billion in the higher education sector in the last four years. A further £1 billion is being invested in 2016-17, with core research funding maintained at a level of £232 million in 2016-17, representing a continued key investment in Scotland’s future.

We have also established a Strategic Funding Group, consisting of Principals nominated by Universities Scotland, the SFC and Scottish Government officials to consider how increased excellence and equity can be achieved by the higher education sector in future.

Question reference: S5W-02988

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 03 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 27 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to mitigate the impact of the increase in part-time employment and the use of fractional contracts.

Question reference: S5W-03918

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 27 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what support it provides for 16 to 19-year-olds who are not in education, employment or training.

The Scottish Government is ambitious about its plans to increase youth employment and in our youth employment strategy we have set a target to reduce youth unemployment by 40% by 2021. Supporting 16 to 19 year olds who are not in education, employment or training to develop the skills needed to get a job is key to achieving that target and remains a priority.

In delivering the Opportunities for All commitment the Scottish Government supports 16 to 19-year-olds who are not in education, employment or training through a range of provision and funding support including:

Activity Agreements;

Education Maintenance Allowance;

College and university courses;

Employability Fund training programmes;

Community Jobs Scotland;

Modern Apprenticeships; and

Scottish Employer Recruitment Incentive (SERI).

Since 2012 we have delivered a reduction of 12,000 in the number of young people not in education, employment or training but we are more ambitious than settling for a return to pre-recession rates. The development of the Participation Measure enables national and local partners to identify young people who are not participating and to support them to take up an Opportunities for All offer of an appropriate place in education or training. The latest Participation Measure Report published in August 2016 shows that, nationally, 90.4% of 16-19 year olds were participating in learning, training or work.

Question reference: S5W-03330

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 27 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to improve the capacity of the NHS to deal with the psychological aspects of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

The Scottish Government expects NHS boards to respond to the clinical and mental health needs of their population. To assist in providing effective, evidence-based treatments, the Scottish Government provides funding to NHS Education for Scotland (NES) to host the ‘The Matrix: A Guide to Delivering Evidence-based Psychological Therapies in Scotland’, an evidence-based guide for NHS boards on effective psychological treatments for a range of mental health issues, including depression and anxiety, which people with effects from inflammatory bowel disease may experience.

If there is an absence of strong evidence for the treatment of a particular condition, the Matrix advises that clinical judgment should be used if considering interventions which have been shown to be effective for similar problems in other adult populations.

Crohn’s and Colitis UK’s report ‘Scotland Leading The Way: a National Blueprint for Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Scotland’, launched with the support of the Scottish Government in June 2016, also contains best practice recommendations related to improving psychological support for IBD patients.

Question reference: S5W-03329

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 27 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will conduct a large-scale study on the effectiveness of mindfulness cognitive behavioural therapy in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

The Scottish Government does not itself conduct scientific research. However, the Chief Scientist Office (CSO) of the Scottish Government funds health research projects directly through a competitive process to assess applications generated by the research community in Scotland. Applications are accepted for research across any health-related discipline or area, including mindfulness cognitive behavioural therapy and inflammatory bowel disease.

CSO also contributes about £10million annually to the Department of Health National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) that allows researchers based in Scotland to apply through a competitive process for funding via the majority of the large NIHR research programmes that together cover a similar wide spectrum of health-related research.

Question reference: S5W-03374

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 30 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 27 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to increase the number of funded university places.

The Scottish Government, through the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), has invested in excess of £4 billion in the higher education sector in the last four years, and will invest over £1 billion in 2016-17. This sustained investment since 2012-13 also means that the SFC is now supporting more funded places (full-time equivalents) than it did in that year.

Academic Year	FTE Funded Places
2012-13	125,736
2016-17	126,537

Source: SFC

We have established a Strategic Funding Group, consisting of Principals nominated by Universities Scotland, the SFC and Scottish Government officials to consider how increased excellence and equity can be achieved by the higher education sector in future.

Question reference: S5O-00282

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 October 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has for local authorities to be given greater fiscal autonomy to raise their own money and manage their local economies.

Question reference: S5W-03665

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 26 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Scottish Centre for Population Health recently suggesting that payday lending as a public health concern, what measures it can take to provide alternatives to the practice.

Question reference: S5W-03663

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 26 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how it encourages local authorities to end the use of zero-hour contracts.

The Scottish Government promotes the benefits of Fair Work. While employment law remains reserved to the UK Government, the Scottish Government is doing everything it can to promote good working practices with the powers available to us. This includes publishing Statutory Guidance Addressing Fair Work Practices. This guidance makes it clear that a positive approach to fair work practices can have an impact on the quality of services, goods and works.

Public bodies must now consider, before undertaking a procurement exercise, whether it can include a question on fair work practices, including the inappropriate use of zero hours contracts as part of the competition. Local authorities are independent corporate bodies whose powers are set out in statute. As long as they act lawfully, it is up to each local authority how it manages its day to day business and decision making processes.

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Question reference: S5W-02987

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 03 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 26 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to improve conditions for people in poverty who are in paid employment.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-01646 on 23 August 2016. Since then the Fairer Scotland Action Plan was published on 5 October 2016, with 50 government actions for this parliamentary term and a call for everyone to get involved in delivering a fairer and more prosperous country. As well as responding to the Fairer Scotland discussions, the Plan sets out progress to date on meeting the recommendations of the report of Naomi Eisenstadt the Independent Adviser on Poverty and Inequality.��

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at