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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: S6W-02937

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ash Denham on 28 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact in Scotland of the Guardianship (Missing Persons) Act 2017 (Claudia’s Law).

The Scottish Government has consulted on the Scottish Law Commission (SLC) report recommendations and draft Bill on Judicial factors. The provisions of the Guardianship (Missing Persons) Act 2017 (“2017 Act”) was raised in the consultation along with a question asking consultees whether any provisions of the 2017 Act could be usefully replicated in any Scottish Legislation.

The consultation responses suggest that some aspects of the 2017 Act could be considered: Judicial factors: consultation analysis - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . The issues brought to light in the consultation responses will be explored further when work to consider a programme of the implementation of SLC Reports during this Parliament - which includes Judicial Factors - is commenced.

Question reference: S6W-02964

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 28 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what mechanisms will be put in place in community settings as part of its commitment to increase support services for children and young people.

The commitment to investing at least £500m over the life of this Parliament to create a Whole Family Wellbeing Fund is significant. This will enable transformational change through the building of universal, holistic support services available in communities across Scotland giving families access to help when and where they need it, and help Scotland keep the Promise.

We will work closely with The Promise Scotland and partners across local government, social justice, health, the third sector, and with children and families to design and deliver the Fund. Further details will be provided in due course.

Question reference: S6W-02949

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 28 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been spent on the Edinburgh tram inquiry.

Question reference: S6W-02944

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 28 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what support it offers to help protect consumers from online scams.

The Scottish Government works closely with CyberScotland Partners including Police Scotland and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) to help protect the public from cyber threats and supports the publishing of a regular CyberScotland Bulletin which references content from Police Scotland, NCSC, SCVO, Scottish Business Resilience Centre, GetSafeOnline, Take5, Trading Standards Scam Share and Neighbourhood Watch Scotland.

On 19 March 2021, we published Scotland’s Scams Prevention, Awareness & Enforcement Strategy, which will facilitate a more coordinated approach to tackling scams in Scotland. The strategy introduces a new framework for tackling scams, with an emphasis on: disrupting scams at source; building capacity, skills and resilience amongst individuals to avoid the risk that scams pose; streamlining the reporting and advice landscape so that people can access the right support at the right time to meet their needs; and improving coordination and intelligence sharing between frontline advice providers, enforcement bodies and wider advocacy organisations.

We encourage anyone who identifies a suspicious email to forward it to report@phishing.gov.uk and to report any suspicious scam websites using the NCSC Scam Website Reporting Service ( https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/section/about-this-website/report-scam-website ). Any victims of online scams or fraud should report to Police Scotland by calling 101

Question reference: S6W-02931

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 28 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been spent buy it on procurement from small businesses in each year since 2007, broken down by local authority.

We recognise the massive role that SMEs and micro businesses play across public procurement in Scotland and regard their success as key to unlocking opportunities for all, through fostering apprenticeships, jobs and economic growth.

£13.3 billion worth of public procurement spend in 2019-20 has been analysed. We know the size of the supplier for £11.7 billion of spend and £5.4 billion (46.2%) of this went to SMEs.

The Small Business Survey Scotland 2019 Small Business Survey Scotland 2019 found that 24 per cent of SME employers in Scotland had actually done business for the public sector in the past 12 months compared to 22 per cent for the UK as a whole Small Business Survey UK 2019 . This survey found that, of those SME employers in Scotland that have worked for the public sector in the past 12 months, the greatest share (55 per cent) reported that local authorities were their main customer. This is higher than the UK as a whole at 44 per cent.

A copy of the table detailing the value of core Scottish Government procurement spend with small to medium sized enterprises for the period 2007-2008 to 2020-2021 within UK local authority areas, based on data contained in the Scottish Procurement Information Hub, has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 62701).

Question reference: S6W-02936

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ash Denham on 28 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to address the issue of young people running away from home.

The Scottish Government continues to work with partners to safeguard vulnerable people through the implementation of the National Missing Persons Framework for Scotland. Over the past three years we have developed return discussion training for professionals across Scotland to build understanding about the reasons a person went missing and reduce the risk of future missing episodes.

We have worked with young people who have experience of being missing and invested £40,000 to develop an education resource for young people, hosted on the Runaway Scotland website, to build understanding of risks and where support can be accessed. We have also provided £242,000 of funding since 2016 to Missing People charity to raise awareness of their Runaway helpline service (call 116 000 or visit www.runawayhelpline.org.uk ) for people who are thinking about running away, have already run away or have been away and want to come back. Ninety-nine percent of people who go missing in Scotland are returned safely.

Question reference: S6W-02965

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 28 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what role it will assign to the third sector to support its plans to increase the level of support services available to children and young people in community settings.

Question reference: S6W-02938

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 28 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government which local authorities have indicated that they plan to introduce the workplace parking levy.

The discretionary power to set up workplace parking licensing (WPL) schemes is intended as a tool for local authorities to use among a suite of measures when developing their local transport strategies. Depending on local circumstances, WPL schemes have the potential to encourage the use of more sustainable travel modes, reducing congestion, improving air quality and reducing emissions. The Scottish Government has recently concluded a consultation on the regulatory framework and supporting guidance which will underpin local authorities’ WPL schemes, with a view to this being in force in 2022. Once these are in place, it will be for local authorities to decide whether they wish to implement WPL locally and to shape proposals to suit local circumstances.

City of Edinburgh Council has included plans to take forward a WPL scheme as part of its published City Mobility Plan 2021-2030.

Local authorities will be required to undertake a public consultation and impact assessments before implementing a WPL scheme.

Question reference: S6F-00319

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 September 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 September 2021

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to reports that, in the last year, ministers overturned almost 50% of planning applications.

Question reference: S6W-02934

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 27 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many planning decisions have been called in by ministers in each year since 1999.

Year 1999-2021	99	00	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21
Total called in cases	29	31	22	14	19	38	18	18	19	14	8	9	5	3	5	10	8	6	6	6	9	9	5