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: S6W-00457

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 14 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to improve work-related outcomes for referrals to the Fair Start Scotland service, and what its response is to reports that 89.8% of people referred to the service in South Ayrshire did not achieve a 26-week job outcome after their time in the programme.

The percentages quoted have been calculated using statistics published on the number of job outcomes, broken down by local authority area. These do not provide an accurate reflection of performance as they include participants who have not had time to reach outcomes.

Pre-employment support on Fair Start Scotland ordinarily lasts 12 months (it can last up to 18 months), and job outcomes will increase as more participants move through the service into, and sustain work over time. Job outcome rates can only be reported for those cohorts where enough time has passed in pre-employment support (12 months) and also for job outcomes to be achieved (6 months for the figures quoted).

The figures have also been calculated based on the number of referrals to the service. It is worth noting that Fair Start Scotland is completely voluntary, and not everyone who is referred will choose to participate.

As part of our continuous improvement activities and in line with our “test and learn” approach to employability support in Scotland, we continue to work with Providers to improve all aspects of the service.

Our key priority remains ensuring participants receive a quality service in their journey to finding and sustaining fair work, and we continue to work closely with local government, the third sector and other partners to ensure the right employment opportunities are sourced for participants.

Question reference: S6W-00449

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 14 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many apprenticeships schemes have (a) been started and (b) completed in the Central Scotland parliamentary region in each year since 2019.

Skills Development Scotland does not report apprenticeship starts by parliamentary constituency or region, but by Local Authority. Published apprenticeship starts from 2019 in the local authorities within the Central Scotland Parliamentary Region are:

Local Authority	2019-20 Q4 (year end) Modern Apprenticeships	2020-21 Q4 (year end) Modern Apprenticeships
Falkirk	1,068	613
North Lanarkshire	2,402	1,484
South Lanarkshire	1,926	1,250

Local Authority	Foundation Apprenticeships Cohort 4 (2019-2021)
Falkirk	199
North Lanarkshire	457
South Lanarkshire	256

Figures for Foundation Apprenticeship Cohort 5 (2020-22) are due to be published by Skills Development Scotland in June 2021.

Local Authority	2019-20 Graduate Apprenticeships
Falkirk	37
North Lanarkshire	83
South Lanarkshire	63

Published apprenticeship achievers from 2019 in the local authorities within the Central Scotland Parliamentary Region are:

Local Authority	2019-20 Q4 (year end) Modern Apprenticeships	2020-21 Q4 (year end) Modern Apprenticeships
Falkirk	823	542
North Lanarkshire	1,850	1,329
South Lanarkshire	1,517	1,074

Skills Development Scotland does not publish Foundation or Graduate Apprenticeship achievers by local authority. The total achievers for Foundation Apprenticeships can be found and for Graduate Apprenticeship achievers .

*It should be noted that starts and achievers are based on the apprentice’s home address.

Question reference: S6W-00421

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 14 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the tagging of offenders in (a) stalking cases and (b) cases connected with persistent harassment.

Sentencing decisions are for the independent courts in each case based on the circumstances before them. Courts can already impose electronic monitoring for a range of offences where they deem it appropriate. Sentences such as a Restriction of Liberty Order include an electronically monitored curfew and can include exclusion zones around an address which can also be monitored electronically.

Electronic monitoring can also be a feature of post-release sentence management as a condition of licence. The Parole Board have the ability to recommend licence conditions which can include being electronically monitored at or away from a particular location.

Question reference: S6W-00417

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 14 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many police officers in the Forth Valley area have been subject to COVID-19-related assaults.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. On 30 May 2021, Police Scotland published an article on 'assaults on police linked to coronavirus', which may provide the information requested. A link to this article is as follows:

It is unacceptable that Scotland’s police officers and staff should be attacked or abused while going about their daily duty and we fully support the actions that Police Scotland and the Chief Constable are taking to protect police officers and staff from assaults and their impact.

Scotland’s justice system has extensive powers to deal with perpetrators, through statutes such as the Emergency Services (Scotland) Act 2005 and section 90 of the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012. For more serious attacks, the Crown may prosecute cases under common law offences such as assault, with potential penalties of up to life imprisonment.

Question reference: S6W-00262

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 May 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 14 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care will meet with student paramedics from the Pay Student Paramedics campaign in order to discuss the implementation of the student paramedic bursary.

Question reference: S6W-00627

Asked by: Neil Gray, MSP for Airdrie and Shotts, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 June 2021
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Awaiting answer

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has made any progress on consulting retail employees and businesses regarding large retail stores trading on New Year’s Day.

Question reference: S6W-00252

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 May 2021
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 11 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to developing countries to help them tackle COVID-19.

The aim of the Scottish Government’s annual £10 million International Development Fund (IDF) is to support and empower our partner countries: Malawi, Rwanda, Zambia, and Pakistan. The COVID-19 Pandemic has greatly impacted our programme over the past year. On 01 September 2020, the Programme for Government set out our intention to review our approach to International Development to ensure that we were focusing our work on areas where we could make the biggest contribution and difference in our partner countries against the backdrop of the Pandemic, further information on the Review can be found here ( ). In December 2020 the Scottish Government provided £2 million of funding to UNICEF for their response to the Pandemic in Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia ( ).

We have also tried to mitigate the effects of the Covid Pandemic on our project partners by making available total funding of £991,594 from the IDF and Humanitarian Emergency Fund where we were able to do so. In terms of other support, Scotland is sending life-saving oxygen and ventilation equipment to India ( 100 oxygen concentrators and 40 continuous positive airway pressure ((CPAP) ventilators ) as part of a UK-wide effort to support them in the fight against COVID-19.

We have also committed to not only maintain, but in fact increasing our International Development budget by 50%, to £15 million, which is intended to assist with Covid preparedness in our partner countries. This is in contrast to the UK Government's ODA funding being cut from 0.7% of GNI to 0.5% of GNI which will have such disastrous effects on the world's most marginalised and vulnerable communities at a time of great need.

Question reference: S6W-00229

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 May 2021
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 11 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of evidence from the Events Research Programme, which suggests that there is a relatively low risk of COVID-19 infection from outdoor events, including live music events, what plans it has to bring to an end physical distancing in live music settings, creating parity with England.

The Scottish Government has engaged with the UK Government throughout the Events Research Programme. We await the final report of Phase 1 of the Programme and will consider the evidence contained in it to help inform our route ahead, including for live music settings.

Meantime, the Scottish Government is reviewing physical distancing and an announcement of the outcome of this review is due shortly.

Question reference: S6W-00595

Asked by: Gordon MacDonald, MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 June 2021
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Michael Matheson on 11 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the COVID-19 legislation in place.

Amending Regulations were made to the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Restrictions and Requirements) (Local Levels) (Scotland) Regulations 2020 today.

These Regulations amend the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Restrictions and Requirements) (Local Levels) (Scotland) Regulations 2020 to provide a person designated by a Local Authority with a power of entry to enforce restrictions relating to stadia and events. .

The Regulations also reduce the required distances to be maintained between persons in Hampden Park, Glasgow and the Glasgow Green Event Zone during the UEFA EURO 2020 Championship period.

The Regulations have been published at

Question reference: S6W-00426

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 11 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met representatives of the (a) Institute for Aquaculture and (b) Scottish Aquaculture Innovation Centre and what was discussed.

A Scottish Government official last met with the Institute of Aquaculture on 2 February 2021 when they attended a meeting of the Aquaculture Research Collaborative Hub (ARCH-UK) at which institute representatives are co-leaders. Discussion related to research which had been undertaken and proposed continuation of the ARCH-UK initiative. An official last met with the Scottish Aquaculture Innovation Centre on 9 June 2021 at a Women in Scottish Aquaculture (WISA) meeting where a digital platform to promote women in aquaculture was presented.