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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.

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Question reference: S6F-01208

Asked by: Stephanie Callaghan, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 June 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 June 2022

To ask the First Minister, in light of reported findings from the children’s charity, Aberlour, that over £1 million is owed in school meal debt, whether it will provide an update on its plans to expand universal free school meal provision in order to support families struggling with the cost of living crisis.

Question reference: S6W-08435

Asked by: Stephanie Callaghan, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 24 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to increase the number of Living Wage employers.

Through the Scottish Government-funded Living Wage Employer Accreditation scheme over 85 percent of workers receive at least the real Living Wage in Scotland. We are taking a range of action to further increase this number, including:

Funding for Poverty Alliance to deliver Living Wage and Living Hours Accreditation and Making Living Wage Place recognition.
?Building on over £2.4bn worth of public sector funding between April 2019 and March 2021, including £619.8 million worth of contracts, through Fair Work First we are applying real Living Wage criteria to encourage employers to pay workers fairly.
From October 2021, we are mandating payment of the real Living Wage in Scottish Government contracts wherever relevant and proportionate.
Through the Bute House Agreement, by summer 2022, we will make it a requirement for public sector grant recipients to pay at least the real Living Wage to all employees, within the limits on devolved competence.
Our funding agreement with COSLA to deliver Early Learning and Childcare expansion allows local authorities to pay sustainable rates that enables private and third sector services to pay at least the real Living Wage to staff delivering funded provision.
We have led the way in increasing the minimum hourly rates of pay for the adult social care workforce among the four UK nations. In April 2022, the minimum hourly rate for those providing direct adult social care increased to £10.50 per hour - up from £10.02 which was introduced in December.
Our Retail Strategy commits to delivering a Fair Work Agreement that retailers can sign up to and demonstrate their commitment to improve fair work, helping to reduce in-work poverty.

Question reference: S6O-01122

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6W-08475

Asked by: Stephanie Callaghan, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 May 2022
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 10 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how it is committed to supporting adult learners.

I am pleased to announce that Scotland’s first Adult Learning Strategy has been published today, and can be found online here: www.gov.scot/isbn/9781802018301

The strategy has bold and ambitious actions to remove barriers to learning, enabling more adults across Scotland to begin and continue their learning journeys. It outlines important steps required to create more accessible learning opportunities for our adult learners, particularly those experiencing disadvantage and furthest from learning.

The publication of the strategy deepens collaboration with adult learners to address and tackle the inequalities that many face. Our aim is to ensure that learners are at the centre of the strategy’s delivery as we work with them to realise their ambitions and aspirations.

Question reference: S6O-01023

Asked by: Stephanie Callaghan, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 April 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much it will spend per head of the population on health in the current financial year.

Question reference: S6F-01042

Asked by: Stephanie Callaghan, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 25 April 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 April 2022

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to the Climate Changemakers impact report from the Scottish Children’s Parliament.

Question reference: S6W-07860

Asked by: Stephanie Callaghan, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 April 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 25 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the development and wellbeing assessment tool currently being piloted by South Lanarkshire Health and Social Care Partnership could be a viable and cost-effective option to reduce screening waiting times for young people with suspected neurodevelopmental conditions.

The Scottish Government’s understanding is that the wellbeing assessment tool being piloted by South Lanarkshire Health and Social Care Partnership called the Autism Resource Co-ordination Hub (ARCH), is a support service for children, young people, adults and their families. It is not intended to replace services already provided by health, education or social work with regard to assessment, diagnosis or treatment of neurodevelopmental conditions.

The Scottish Government is committed to implementing the National Neurodevelopmental Specification: Principles and Standards of Care for Children and Young People, published in September 2021, which specifies service standards that all children’s services should follow, to ensure access to support is effective and consistent across Scotland. The ARCH service complements existing services and the Principles and Standards set out in the Neurodevelopmental Specification by providing the support provided by universal services, and the neurodevelopmental assessment pathway provided by NHS Lanarkshire community paediatrics and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).

To support improvements across Scotland, £3.06 million was allocated to NHS Boards in 2021-22 to build professional capacity within Boards to support children and young people with neurodevelopmental support needs.

In March 2022, Scottish Government also provided over £750,000 to five local authority areas to run tests of change on the implementation of the Neurodevelopmental Specification. These tests will run over the next six months and will provide learning and evaluation to be shared across other local authorities and health board areas to inform and assist national implementation of the Specification.

Question reference: S6O-01019

Asked by: Stephanie Callaghan, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 April 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to extend the NHS Scotland COVID Status app to 12- to 15-year-olds in order to support the increasing number of families that are returning to international travel.

Question reference: S6W-07607

Asked by: Stephanie Callaghan, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 25 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 20 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what biodiversity goals it is considering in advance of the UN Biodiversity Conference in April 2022.

Our new biodiversity strategy will be published in October 2022. This will set out how we will achieve our goal of preventing further extinctions of wildlife and halting declines by 2030, and making significant progress in restoring Scotland's natural environment by 2045. We will publish a consultation on the strategy in May 2022.

COP 15 in Kunming provides a major opportunity for the world to commit to bold action to restore our natural environment, and, through the Edinburgh Process and Edinburgh Declaration, which is now supported by 235 administrations around the world, we are doing what we can to secure a strong outcome.

Question reference: S6W-07220

Asked by: Stephanie Callaghan, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that all autistic people are made fully aware of any adjustments or adaptations that are available to them in COVID-19 vaccination centres.

I refer the member to the answer to earlier questions: S6W-06594, S6W-06595 on 1 March 2022.

Guidance will be included on vaccination appointment letters, signposting people to additional support should it be required. Additionally, if people need any additional support at their vaccine appointment, they can call the National Vaccination Helpline on 0800 030 8013 to discuss. Information on the COVID-19 vaccine is available in a range of different formats on NHS Inform , including in audio, easy read and large print. Scottish Government continues to engage regularly with key autism stakeholders including the National Autistic Society and Scottish Autism around our approach to managing COVID-19 and its associated harms .

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers