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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: S6W-01116

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 21 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many cases of sexual harassment against residents staying in quarantine hotels have taken place since March 2020.

The contracts for the hotels, security and Corporate Travel Management are owned and managed by the UK Government. Scottish Government officials acts as officiate of these contracts with the service providers, but do not have any contractual powers.

Officials foster extremely good relationships with and maintain regular contact with the network of managed isolation facilities in Scotland, including the hotel and security teams and the service provider Corporate Travel Management (CTM). This enables issues flagged by users of these services to be resolved quickly. Issues which cannot be dealt with by Scottish Government and the network of facilities locally are escalated to the UKG.

The International Passenger Coordination Team have agreed a protocol with Police Scotland to enable the facility team to contact them, when appropriate to do so. We have not had any reports of crimes being committed against guests.

Question reference: S6W-00503

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 17 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many children are currently recorded as living in temporary accommodation in the South Scotland region, broken down by local authority area.

Data relating to homelessness and the use of temporary accommodation is collected on a local authority basis. Since the South Scotland region does not align with local authority boundaries it is not possible to provide the number of children in temporary accommodation for this region.

The Scottish Government does however routinely publish the number of children in temporary accommodation by local authority. The most recent figures for children in temporary accommodation as at 30 th September were published in the ‘Homelessness In Scotland: update to 30 th September 2020’ publication on 23 rd March 2021. The publication is available here:

Homelessness in Scotland: update to 30 September 2020 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Question reference: S6W-00502

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 15 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to support local authorities that receive a large number of visitors to help them deal with problems related to litter, vandalism and antisocial behaviour that may increase during the summer months.

While it is for the local authority or national park authority to ensure it has sufficient services in place, the Scottish Government has in recent years supported authorities through its Rural Tourism Infrastructure Fund which has helped create new toilets, car parks and waste disposal facilities. To support critical tourism projects in our more remote areas we are more than doubling this Fund to £6.2 million in 2021-22, bringing our total investment to over £15 million.

The Visitor Management Group, consisting of public bodies, National Parks and local authorities, was also established last September and has now developed an interim strategy and a list of associated actions for this year.

A number of actions are already underway including the establishment of the new Better Places Green Recovery Fund by NatureScot. This Fund has provided over £400,000 to 35 community and third sector projects so far, with a new round of £2.75m allocated to deliver additional short-term action for the 2021 season. This includes support for temporary toilets and ranger posts. We are also providing our National parks with an extra £3.6m in 2021 which will support, among other things, seasonal rangers and improved infrastructure to better manage visitors this summer.

Question reference: S6F-00111

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 14 June 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 June 2021

To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government is taking in response to reports that some patients are having to wait over three years to be discharged from psychiatric hospitals.