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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: S5W-24941

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 26 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 12 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Broad General Education (BGE) benchmarking tool, including the school level information dashboard, is (a) fully operational and (b) available to all local authorities and schools.

The Broad General Education (BGE) benchmarking tool is fully operational and available to all teachers who have a registered account on Glow: https://glowconnect.org.uk/ . It is also available to other staff on request. The School Information Dashboards are also fully operational, and publicly available to anyone via the Scottish Government Education Analytical Services tableau website:https://public.tableau.com/profile/sg.eas.learninganalysis#!/ .

Question reference: S5W-24887

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 12 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government when the new careers strategy will be published.

The new careers strategy is being developed collaboratively by the Scottish Government and representation from across the careers sector. A steering group was established consisting of representation from Skills Development Scotland, Universities Scotland, Colleges Scotland, DWP, Education Scotland, AGCAS, the Scottish Funding Council and the SCQFP. The development process is being overseen by two expert independent advisors.

The strategy will be published in due course.

Question reference: S5O-03509

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 September 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what measures it is taking to ensure the impartiality of its planned citizens’ assembly.

Question reference: S5W-24833

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 4 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many Attainment Advisors have been deployed in each local authority in each of the last three years.

All 32 Local Authorities have had an Attainment Advisor working either full-time or part-time with their designated local authority.

For the three year period 2016-17, 2017-18 & 2018-19 13 Local Authorities had access to a full-time Attainment Advisor and the remaining 19 had access to a part-time Attainment Advisor.

Over the course of 2019 Education Scotland has been recruiting to ensure all 32 Local Authorities have access to a dedicated Attainment Advisor. At the start of session 2019-20 19 local authorities had access to a dedicated Attainment Advisor and by October 2019 this will be the case in all 32 local authorities.

Question reference: S5W-24690

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 29 August 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many examination markers who were appointed for the 2019 diet of SQA qualifications left their posts before the end of the marking period.

Question reference: S5O-03195

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 May 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what the impact will be on benefit recipients of the expansion to 1,140 hours of funded childcare.

Question reference: S5O-03151

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 25 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with sportscotland with regard to the development of women’s football.

Question reference: S5O-03163

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 April 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government which NHS boards offer robotic assisted prostatectomy as a method of surgery for prostate cancer.

Question reference: S5F-03268

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 April 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 April 2019

To ask the First Minister what measures the Scottish Government will put in place to reverse the reported decline in subject choice in secondary schools.

Question reference: S5W-22327

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 2 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been paid to NHS consultants for Waiting List Initiative work in each of the last five years, also broken down by NHS board.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government, as expenditure reported by Health Boards to the Scottish Government is not provided at this level of detail. The member may wish to consider contacting individual Health Boards to obtain this information.

Waiting List Initiatives have been put in place to reduce the number of patients waiting for procedures, however through the Waiting Times Improvement Plan, we aim to put in place sustainable solutions to ensure the requirement for Waiting List Initiatives are reduced.

The Waiting Times Improvement Plan published on 23 October last year directs more than £850 million of investment to substantially and sustainably improve waiting times in the face of rising demand for services. This investment will see phased and sustained improvement over the next period to spring 2021 with the aim that no patient will wait more than the waiting standards and guarantee.