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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: S6O-02822

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 November 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its policy is in relation to employment-based routes to teacher training.

Question reference: S6W-22296

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 15 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what employment-based routes are available to students who wish to enter the teaching profession.

The Scottish Government supports the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) to offer a part-time PGDE Primary programme. UHI plan to extend this to their PGDE Secondary programmes. The Scottish Government has had discussions with universities about the need for flexibility in delivery of ITE programmes and will continue to engage with them on this issue.

The Scottish Government’s Teaching bursary scheme provides bursaries of £20,000 for career changers wishing to undertake a one year PGDE in hard to fill STEM subjects. These are Physics, Maths, Technical Education, Computing Science, Chemistry and Home Economics. The scheme has recently been extended to include Gaelic as a secondary subject, and Gaelic medium across all secondary subjects and in primary.

Additionally, the Strategic Board for Teacher Education, which is made up of a range of key education stakeholders, is considering issues around the recruitment and retention of teachers in Scotland in detail.

Question reference: S6O-02739

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 November 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with Transport Scotland about motorway gantry signage ahead of winter.

Question reference: S6O-02692

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 November 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the winter COVID-19 vaccination programme.

Question reference: S6T-01598

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 October 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the statement issued by COSLA that the handling of the recent announcement about the council tax freeze undermined the spirit and the letter of the Verity House Agreement.

Question reference: S6O-02611

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 September 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports that the V&A Dundee has generated £304 million for the Scottish economy over the last five years, whether it will be pursuing any further joint projects with UK institutions.

Question reference: S6F-02404

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 25 September 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 September 2023

To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government is taking in response to reports of widespread contamination at many of Scotland’s outdoor swimming sites.

Question reference: S6W-21198

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 25 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether its Tax Advisory Group is tasked with considering whether new taxes on households or businesses should be introduced.

The Tax Advisory Group has been set up to look across a broad spectrum of views to ensure we continue to offer a fair and progressive but sustainable system. Tax policy for 2024-25 will be set out at the Budget later this year.

The group will be a long-term feature of how we engage on tax, and I will chair a quarterly meeting of the group. The minutes of their meetings will be posted on the Scottish Government website.

Question reference: S6W-21202

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 22 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much revenue raised by the business rates incentivisation scheme was retained by each local authority, in each year since its inception.

Table 1 presents the amounts retained through the Business Rates Incentivisation Scheme (BRIS) by each council in each financial year since 2015-2016. The years relate to years in which amounts were actually retained by the councils and include ongoing retentions (as a result of continued growth within the cycle) as well as new retention amounts awarded.

BRIS was suspended from 2020-2021 due to the pandemic. Due to the exceptional value of non-domestic rates reliefs introduced in 2020-2021, no council increased their non-domestic rates income in that year. Amounts retained in 2020-2021 and later relate to additional income generated, but not retained, before 2020-2021.

Figures are rounded to the nearest £1,000, and may not sum due to rounding.

Table 1: Amounts retained through the Business Rates Incentivisation Scheme, by council and year of retention

Local Authority	2015-2016	2016-2017	2017-2018	2018-2019	2019-2020	2020-2021	2021-2022	2022-2023
Aberdeen City	533,000	3,904,000	0	3,904,000	0	0	0	0
Aberdeenshire	471,000	1,403,000	79,000	1,403,000	483,000	0	0	0
Angus	0	71,000	0	0	0	0	14,000	0
Argyll & Bute	0	0	39,000	0	102,000	102,000	0	0
City of Edinburgh	0	0	0	0	775,000	0	0	0
Clackmannanshire	0	0	0	0	0	0	66,000	0
Dumfries & Galloway	0	0	0	0	4,556,000	3,074,000	0	0
Dundee City	0	0	0	0	518,000	0	85,000	0
East Ayrshire	0	0	0	0	308,000	0	0	0
East Dunbartonshire	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
East Lothian	0	0	0	0	724,000	0	268,000	0
East Renfrewshire	188,000	188,000	0	-63,000	0	0	0	0
Falkirk	0	0	272,000	0	0	0	78,000	0
Fife	892,000	892,000	0	892,000	0	0	0	0
Glasgow City	0	1,514,000	0	1,514,000	0	0	0	0
Highland	214,000	585,000	585,000	0	2,418,000	0	0	0
Inverclyde	0	0	59,000	0	0	0	0	0
Midlothian	0	0	0	111,000	176,000	0	104,000	0
Moray	137,000	153,000	0	452,000	1,859,000	1,859,000	23,000	0
Na h-Eileanan Siar	57,000	72,000	0	72,000	18,000	0	0	0
North Ayrshire	0	0	0	240,000	0	0	0	0
North Lanarkshire	0	0	0	0	0	0	563,000	0
Orkney Islands	0	0	0	0	0	0	197,000	0
Perth & Kinross	0	0	0	42,000	0	0	0	0
Renfrewshire	68,000	68,000	0	68,000	0	0	0	0
Scottish Borders	0	0	0	0	0	0	16,000	0
Shetland Islands	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
South Ayrshire	0	30,000	0	30,000	326,000	0	0	0
South Lanarkshire	0	0	0	0	17,000	0	225,000	0
Stirling	0	0	0	119,000	292,000	0	0	0
West Dunbartonshire	0	0	0	0	111,000	55,000	0	0
West Lothian	0	0	0	0	289,000	0	0	0
Scotland	2,560,000	8,879,000	1,034,000	8,784,000	12,971,000	5,090,000	1,640,000	0

Question reference: S6W-21219

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 22 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many awards for non-domestic rates relief have been granted under the Hardship Relief programme since its introduction; what the total value has been of any such awards, and what the eligibility criteria are.

Since 2000-2001, the Scottish Government has funded a total of £4,785,000 of hardship rates relief. The Scottish Government funds 75% of the value of hardship relief, with the remaining 25% funded by councils. For properties affected by the Glasgow School of Art fire, the Scottish Government’s contribution was increased to 95% to reflect the exceptional circumstances.

We are unable to reliably estimate the number of awards granted; numbers of properties receiving any relief are derived from the annual Billing System Snapshot, and due to the nature of hardship relief, the final number awarded per year is not well reflected in snapshot data. The latest non-domestic rates relief statistics, derived from snapshot data, can be found at https://www.gov.scot/publications/non-domestic-rates-relief-statistics-2022/ .

Hardship relief is a discretionary relief provided for in section 25A of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1966 which specifies that a council can award Hardship relief if it is satisfied that the relief applicant would sustain hardship if the council did not award the relief, and if it is reasonable for the council to do so, having regard to the interests of persons liable to pay council tax set by them. It is for councils to determine the criteria to ensure these requirements are met when awarding Hardship relief.