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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: S5W-34910

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 February 2021
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 12 February 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to promote the use of reusable face coverings and reduce the percentage of people in Scotland using single-use face coverings.

As part of the wider Managing Our Waste national campaign, we partnered with Zero Waste Scotland to create communication material encouraging the use of reusable face coverings and appropriate disposal of disposable face coverings and gloves. This includes information on how to make reusable face coverings and how to clean them.

As part of its wider COVID-19 related communication strategy, Scottish Government has created tools, including a video , on how to make your own face covering. Our Coronavirus (COVID-19): public use of face coverings guidance includes information on how to care for reusable face coverings.

Question reference: S5W-35000

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 February 2021
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 11 February 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what mental health advice and support is being offered to children and young people, and their families and carers, as part of the remote learning provision.

Throughout this crisis, the impact on children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing has been at the forefront of our minds.

We have worked closely with Education Scotland to ensure that advice and guidance including sources of quality support from external organisations is available. This has been delivered through the Mental Health and Wellbeing Wakelet which includes support and resources for parents and carers as well as children and young people. It also includes the Mind yer time and Aye Feel resources for children and young people and the Clear your head resource for both adults and young people which provide sources of support and information.

Education authorities and schools are providing support to children and young people and their families. These include a wide range of approaches such as telephone helplines, education psychology support, bespoke support packages and resources and virtual and telephone counselling, as well as whole-school approaches such as trauma informed and nurture. Our local authority partners have made excellent progress during the school closures and have confirmed that access to counselling support services are also in place across Scotland.

More than £15 million is being distributed to local authorities to support the mental wellbeing 5-24 year olds. Of this, £11.25 million is for services in response to the pandemic and the remaining £3.75 million will fund new and enhanced community mental health and wellbeing services. We expect all new supports to be in place by the end of March. We will be providing a further £15 million in April, assuming services are fully in place.

Question reference: S5O-05025

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 February 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 February 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made in resuming jury trials in Mid Scotland and Fife.

Question reference: S5O-05007

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 February 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 February 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to improve flooding resilience in Mid Scotland and Fife.

Question reference: S5W-34592

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 January 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 28 January 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to introduce support bubbles for families with new babies and children under the age of one.

We recognise that this remains an exceptionally challenging time for many families, including those with young children, and we are working across the public and third sector to ensure that support is there for anyone who needs it. For households with caring responsibilities (for a person of any age) there are exemptions to restrictions on household visiting and travel to provide care or support to a vulnerable person. Informal childcare rules also apply, where there is an essential childcare need. Further guidance on this is on the ParentClub website.

In terms of support bubbles, currently two households can form an extended household if one of the adults lives alone, or lives alone with children under 18 years old; or if two adults are in a relationship and they do not live together. For social support up to two people from two separate households can meet outdoors for social interaction. Children under the age of twelve from these households do not count towards the total number of people permitted to gather outdoors, so a parent can still meet another parent with their babies and any other children under 12. The Scottish Government does not intend to revise the extended household rules to include all parents with a child under the age of 1 at this time, due to the ongoing prevalence of the COVID-19 virus.

There are, however, measures in place to ensure that families, particularly new parents, continue to get access to the support that they need. This includes access to universal services, such as maternity services and health visiting, to further aid access to any local community supports. The new national Family Support Directory , available on ParentClub, also provides access to further sources of information for parents and direct support on a broad range of issues, such as support on childcare, mental health and wellbeing and family relationships.

In recognising the particular needs of babies and young children, the Coronavirus (COVID-19): organised activities for children supplementary guidance was updated on 5 January 2021 for the safe running of organised activities for children and young people during lockdown. The guidance sets out the maximum number of adults who can attend parent/baby or toddler groups (under 5s) and associated organised activities at any one time, to provide more flexibility in this age group.

Question reference: S5O-04931

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 January 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 January 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what action is being taken to reduce the impact of any closures of the Queensferry Crossing.

Question reference: S5O-04918

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 January 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 January 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to reduce levels of littering and fly-tipping.

Question reference: S5W-32966

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 02 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 16 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what further consideration it has given to making routine COVID-19 testing available for care home visitors.

As outlined to Parliament on 25 November, lateral flow devices will be used to offer testing to designated care home visitors on the day of their visit. This will be rolled out to 14 early adopter care homes across five Local Authorities by 7 th of December, learning from this will be used to inform wider rollout. Testing kits will start to be delivered to care homes across Scotland from 14 December. It is possible that not all homes will be able to start lateral flow testing before Christmas, therefore PCR testing will also be available over the festive period.

Twice weekly testing using lateral flow devices will be rolled out to healthcare professionals who visit care homes from the beginning of December, as part of a wider extension of routine testing including all patient-facing NHS Staff in hospitals, in the Scottish Ambulance Service and in COVID assessment centres. From 11 January this will be extended to non-NHS staff including independent contractors or statutory body staff who attend care homes or provide care at home at least twice per week and have to be within 1 metre of residents, clients or patients.

Testing is only one measure of protection against COVID-19, alongside a strong emphasis on robust infection prevention and control measures, including the use of PPE, the extended use of face masks, physical distancing and good hygiene.

Question reference: S5O-04851

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 December 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the report, The Picture of Anti-Social Behaviour in Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-33355

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how it is responding to the findings of the Independent Review of Complaints Handling, Investigations and Misconduct Issues in Relation to Policing.

Dame Elish’s very significant and substantial report contains a wealth of evidence and recommendations, covering many aspects of complaints, investigations and misconduct issues. It is right that we now take time to digest this carefully and engage with the partner organisations involved. A Scottish Government response to Dame Elish’s report will be published in the new year and will indicate the way forward in terms of implementing recommendations.