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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-01050

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 April 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met representatives from the hospitality sector.

Question reference: S6O-01012

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 April 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that the agriculture sector plays a leading role in delivering a net zero Scotland.

Question reference: S6O-00963

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 April 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what measures it is taking in response to the reported growing threat of cyber crime.

Question reference: S6O-00955

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 March 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 31 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the SNP manifesto commitment for every child to leave school being able to cycle safely.

Question reference: S6W-06598

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 14 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many undergraduate and postgraduate students have presented as homeless since May 2016, broken down by higher education institution.

Statistics on homelessness, based on administrative data, are collected by local authorities in the course of processing homelessness applications and for households in temporary accommodation. A limitation of this approach is that data is not collected for any households, including students, that are homeless but do not engage with their local authority. Data is available for a number of characteristics including age, gender and ethnicity but not in relation to those in full or part time in further and higher education. The Scottish government does not collect economic activity in the collection, some LAs may however collect the information for their own purposes but the extent of this is unknown. The latest statistics publication is available here: Homelessness in Scotland: 2020 to 2021 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The Scottish Government has already started work on a Review of Purpose Built Student Accommodation which is running in parallel with the development of a Rented Sector Strategy both of which will inform a comprehensive Student Accommodation Strategy.

Question reference: S6W-06268

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 3 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether young people who have received an email confirmation that they will receive a travel card for free bus travel, but have not received it, are able to claim back their bus travel costs between 1 February 2022 and the date on which they received their card, and if this is the case, what the process is for them to do so.

Question reference: S6F-00792

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 07 February 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 February 2022

To ask the First Minister whether she will provide an update on what steps the Scottish Government is taking to improve CAMHS waiting times.

Question reference: S6W-06054

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6O-00704

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 January 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met representatives from the nuclear energy sector, and what was discussed.

Question reference: S6W-05217

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 17 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the timeline for plans to pilot free school breakfast provision in primary and special schools.

The 2021-22 Programme for Government committed to developing plans to deliver free breakfasts to all primary and special school children, and start to pilot this provision. In order to effectively deliver this universal breakfast offer we need to better understand the extent of current breakfast provision across local authorities, including a mixed model of in-school, private and voluntary provision of breakfast, often delivered alongside early morning childcare. The priority this year will be to map existing breakfast provision and plan what delivery of a future breakfast offer should look like to best meet the needs of children and families in Scotland. It will be important to combine the provision of breakfast with the provision of childcare – where it is appropriate to do so – recognising the importance of accessible childcare at the beginning of the day to enable parents and carers to enter and sustain employment. To understand this need, we will ask our People Panel for school age childcare what children and families want and need from a breakfast offer combined with childcare and consider how this can best be delivered.