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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: S6W-35629

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 27 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to support disabled people's access to digital connectivity, including in rural areas.

The Scottish Government recognises that both rurality and disability can create additional barriers to accessing the internet and is, across a number of programmes, addressing these barriers.

The Scottish Government’s Connecting Scotland programme, delivered in partnership with the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO), supports people in Scotland who are at risk of digital exclusion.

To date, over £389,000 in grant funding has been provided to support digital inclusion projects in Scotland. While being funded by the Scottish Government and supported by SCVO, these initiatives are delivered by local organisations - ensuring they are tailored to the needs of the communities being served.

The most recent data indicate that the majority of funded projects are providing support to disabled people and people affected by ill health.

The Scottish Government’s £600+ million Reaching 100% (R100) programme is providing resilient digital connectivity infrastructure across Scotland, which is required for digital inclusion projects to serve these communities.

To date, over 75,500 faster broadband connections have been delivered by the R100 programme. Over 70% of R100 contractual build is in rural parts of Scotland.

Taking into account the legacy Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) programme, over one million faster broadband connections have been delivered in Scotland in the last ten years, deploying over £1 billion of publicly driven investment.

Question reference: S6W-35630

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 27 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to provide advocacy for disabled (a) children and young people and (b) adults in education.

The Scottish Government continues to fund Partners in Advocacy with £295,00 per year to deliver the My Rights, My Say, Children’s Service. This service supports children aged 12-15 to access advocacy and legal representation to enable them to be fully involved in decisions about their education and to exercise their rights under the Additional Support for Learning legislation.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all students with a disability, long term medical condition, or additional support need, can access further and higher education and are fully supported throughout their studies. It is for institutions to make decisions on their intake, but they are required under the Equality Act (Scotland) 2010 to provide equal opportunities and prevent discrimination.

Question reference: S6W-35631

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 25 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing through its No One Left Behind programme to help disabled people access employment.

No One Left Behind, has a key role to play in meeting our commitment to halving the Disability Employment Gap by 2038. Through a concerted focus on delivering person centred, place-based employability support, there has been significant progress in reaching and supporting disabled people towards and into work since the local delivery model was implemented in 2022. In the most recent quarter July to September 2024 32% of participants accessing the service reported a disability, which is the largest proportion in a single quarter to date, this is an increase of 6 percentage points from April to June 2024. We know there is more to be done to ensure our support remains accessible and meets the needs of disabled people who experience structural barriers to entering and sustaining employment. As set out in the Programme for Government 2024-25, we are introducing Specialist Employability Support for disabled people across Scotland by Summer 2025 underpinned by an uplift in funding of £5 million to Local Employability Partnerships to support delivery. We are building on past investment and engagement with employers across Scotland through an Apt Public Social Partnership to share learning and tools developed to support recruitment and retention of disabled people in employment.

We remain committed to continuously improving our services to ensure disabled people are effectively supported towards and into work, which includes working closely with disabled people and representative organisations to ensure that their voices and experiences help shape and guide policy.

Question reference: S6W-35628

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kaukab Stewart on 20 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to support peer support networks for disabled people (a) in Glasgow and (b) nationally, and what its position is on the importance of such networks with regard to their human rights.

The Scottish Government greatly values Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs) across Scotland. We know that many disabled people currently face significant barriers. DPOs support thousands of disabled people across Scotland through programmes which build the confidence, connections and capacity of disabled people.

£5 million of our Equality and Human Rights fund supports Disabled People’s Organisations to tackle inequality and discrimination, furthering equality, and advancing the realisation of human rights in Scotland.

We are also investing an additional £2 million for the Disability Equality Plan and are working closely with DPOs on delivering essential support to Scotland’s disabled people.

Question reference: S6O-04480

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the economy secretary has had with ministerial colleagues regarding the contribution that the cultural sector makes to Glasgow and the west of Scotland’s economy.

Question reference: S6W-35447

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 19 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to creating a unique learner number system; whether legislation would be required to implement such a system, and, if so, whether it plans to bring forward such legislation.

Question reference: S6O-04444

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to support cultural activities for children and young people in Glasgow.

Question reference: S6W-35365

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 11 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Educational Institute of Scotland's MSP Briefing on Instrumental Music Provision, which was published in February 2025.

The most recent Instrumental Music Survey published in January 2025 shows the number of pupils accessing free instrumental music tuition was the highest on record since the survey began in 2012.

Since 2021-22 we have provided dedicated funding to local authorities to support the removal of fees for instrumental music and in 2025-26 we will provide £12m to support this policy.

Local authorities are responsible for delivering education and so it is for individual councils to make choices about levels and means of provision that meet their local circumstances and the needs of pupils. No Council has charged for IMT since 2020-21.

The Scottish Government has been engaging closely with EIS and a range of partners to implement our commitments on instrumental music tuition and will continue to do so.

Question reference: S6W-35300

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 11 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to change initial teacher education places for primary school teachers, and, if so, what changes it is considering.

Following our annual teacher workforce planning process, which included detailed statistical modelling, and advice from the Teacher Workforce Planning Advisory Group, we wrote to the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) in February 2025, with recommendations for Initial Teacher Education (ITE) intakes for the 2025-26 academic year.

Recommendations included a reduction in intakes to primary programmes, with further consideration to be given to the level of any further reductions for the 2026-27 academic year.

This advice to the SFC will assist in the setting of intakes to ITE programmes for individual higher education institutions. These will be shown in SFC’s final funding allocations for 2025-26, due to be published at the end of May 2025.

Question reference: S6W-35265

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 11 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to support data-sharing arrangements as part of the pilot of the wider basket of measures on widening access to higher education.

The Scottish Government is committed to breaking down the barriers to higher education. To help towards achieving the widening access targets we are working with partners in the North-East of Scotland on a pilot to evaluate the impact of Free School Meal data sharing on university admissions. Partner organisations leading on the work are Aberdeen City Council, Aberdeenshire Council, Robert Gordon University and the University of Aberdeen.

Partners are responsible for their own data sharing arrangements, drawing on existing data sharing protocols they have in place. The Scottish Government continues to provide support where necessary in liaison with partner organisations.

We will provide evaluation of the pilot, due to take place later this year.