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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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S6O-01266

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 June 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the report published by Reform Scotland describing the Scottish National Investment Bank as “unfocused and ill-conceived”, having a “strategic deficiency” and recommending that the Bank be “reset”.

Question reference: S6O-01250

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 June 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether it has explored the possibility of creating apps for parliamentary functions.

Question reference: S6W-08736

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 9 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what funding is being provided for mental health support in colleges through the Scottish Funding Council.

In this Academic Year (21-22) the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) has provided £2.423 million to the college sector to provide additional counsellors in colleges in support of our Programme for Government commitment to provide more than 80 additional counsellors in Further and Higher Education and £4.4 million for the college sector to help colleges to further support student and staff mental health and wellbeing. These funds were allocated to the SFC by the Scottish Government.

Question reference: S6O-01187

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 June 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Information Commissioner’s progress report on its handling of Freedom of Information requests.

Question reference: S6W-07301

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 31 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-06487 by Kevin Stewart on 28 February 2022, which seven NHS boards are receiving enhanced support, and which NHS boards it anticipates will receive enhanced support over the next 6 to 12 months.

NHS Borders, Fife, Forth Valley, Highland, Lanarkshire, Lothian and Tayside have all been receiving enhanced support to meet the waiting times standard and eliminate long waits by end March 2023.

We will shortly be writing out to all Boards to inform them about our programme of support for the next 6-12 months, including those which will be offered additional support.

From our £120 million Mental Health Recovery and Renewal fund, we have allocated around £40 million to NHS Boards to improve CAMHS. £4.25m of that allocation is directly focussed on offering treatment to those already on their CAMHS waiting lists.

We have also provided an additional £9m to NHS Boards in 2021/22 to address waiting lists for Psychological Therapies with further investment being planned for 2022-23.

Question reference: S6O-01151

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 May 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to involve victims more in the justice system.

Question reference: S6O-01101

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 May 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is giving to local authorities to enable them to reduce Scope 3 emissions.

Question reference: S6W-07725

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 April 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 9 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what assessment has been made of SEPA’s ability to enforce the law and protect the environment following the data breach in December 2020.

The Scottish Government continue to actively monitor SEPA via agreed milestones within its Annual Operating Plan. This will be key to ensuring SEPA continue to maintain a high degree of environmental protection as referred to in S6W-07720 on 9 May 2022 .

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

Question reference: S6W-07720

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 April 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 9 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what the ramifications are of the data breach at SEPA in December 2020 for Scotland’s environment.

SEPA’s most critical services, including flood forecasting and warning service and its 24-hour pollution hotline, were restored on the day of the attack. SEPA maintained its ability to receive reports of and to attend environmental incidents, prioritising those with highest potential impacts on the environment and/or communities. SEPA continues to monitor compliance with environmental laws and continues to take enforcement action where necessary.

In the 15 months since the attack, SEPA has issued 317 flood warnings, provided information on bathing water quality throughout the 2021 season and has issued fixed monetary penalties, required enforcement undertakings and has successfully prosecuted those that break environmental laws.

SEPA remains impacted by the attack and significant work is ongoing to build back. Latest information on current service status and recovery of SEPA, is available to all stakeholders and updated weekly, which outlines progress and level of service to expect: https://regulatoryapproach.sepa.org.uk/cyber-attack-service-status

SEPA will shortly publish a Regulatory Report outlining its regulatory work in 2020 and 2021 and which will provide information about compliance during the period covered by both the pandemic and the cyber-attack.

SEPA continue to play a vital role in Scotland’s response to the challenges faced from Climate Emergency and Biodiversity loss.

Question reference: S6W-07724

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 April 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 9 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what support it is giving to help return SEPA to normal operations following the data breach in December 2020.

The Scottish Government responded quickly to provide support to enable SEPA to meet its highest priority and immediate requirements. This included provision of 120 laptops to enable staff delivering the most critical services to communicate easily and securely to maintain those services. The Scottish Government also authorised additional funding amounting to £2.5m to assist SEPA’s recovery efforts in the immediate aftermath of the attack, although this facility was not required and SEPA operated within its budget allocation.