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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-32589

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 5 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what planning is in place for a potential return to blended learning in schools, and what barriers it has identified that might have to be dealt with to ensure that this is successful.

Responsibility for making the appropriate arrangements for remote learning rests with individual schools and local authorities. This is set out in the Scottish Government's Coronavirus recovery guidance for schools.

To improve the availability of e-learning options, Education Scotland is leading the national e-learning partnership, working with the Association of Directors of Education (ADES) to expand the national offer of e-learning available to support contingency plans developed by local authorities and schools. Further information is available at:

https://education.gov.scot/education-scotland/news-and-events/
new-partnership-offer-to-improve-availability-of-online-learning-across-scotland/

To improve access to digital devices the Scottish Government is investing £25m to provide around 70,000 devices and 18,000 connectivity solutions for disadvantaged children and young people.

To ensure there is sufficient teaching staff within schools the Scottish Government is investing £75m to councils to recruit additional teachers, as well as £5m to recruit teaching assistants or other education support staff.

To improve professional development to teachers, Education Scotland has expanded its professional development support, delivering 45 webinars to around 5,000 practitioners since March 2020.

To ensure that parents are provided with advice and support, the Scottish Government commissioned the National Parent Forum of Scotland to develop a Nutshell guide on blended learning.

Question reference: S5W-32601

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 5 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many schools have experienced a COVID-19 outbreak, also broken down by how many (a) have had to temporarily close and (b) school weeks have been lost.

Public Heath Scotland has been engaging in a preliminary review of a sample of COVID-19 incidents in schools. The work is in its early stages and much more work needs to be done to build on the preliminary analysis and confirm the findings. However, the Scottish Government is committed to working with partners to keep schools safe, open and welcoming. In the event of any localised closures due to COVID-19, school reopening guidance makes clear that local authorities and schools should have robust contingency plans in place to support remote learning.

Question reference: S5W-32588

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 5 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what plans are in place for extra support for pupils to respond to any new school closures because of COVID-19 and catch up on lost class time.

Responsibility for arranging remote learning in the event of school closures, instances where pupils need to self-isolate or where pupils need further support to catch up on learning, rests with individual schools and local authorities. This is set out in the Scottish Government's Coronavirus recovery guidance for schools.

In order to broaden the options available to schools, Education Scotland is working with local government via the national e-learning partnership to extend the provision of e-learning options across the Broad General Education and Senior Phase. Further information about the national e-learning partnership is available at:

https://education.gov.scot/education-scotland/news-and-events/
new-partnership-offer-to-improve-availability-of-online-learning-across-scotland/

To improve access to digital devices, the Scottish Government is investing £25m to provide around 70,000 devices and 18,000 connectivity solutions for disadvantaged children and young people.

To expand the options available to schools - including non digital options - Education Scotland launched its "Scotland Learns" initiative. This provides resources to schools, newsletters to teachers and parents and learning activities covering the key themes of literacy & English, numeracy & mathematics and health & wellbeing.

Question reference: S5W-32608

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 26 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government which species of wild birds are covered under the provisions of the Animals and Wildlife (Penalties, Protections and Powers) (Scotland) Act 2020 regulating wildlife offences that involve the killing and injuring of wild birds.

Question reference: S5W-32587

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 23 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many school pupils (a) have tested positive for and (b) are self-isolating from COVID-19 following an outbreak at their school.

The latest information on the number of school pupils who are not in school due to a Covid-19 related sickness (this is pupils who have either been displaying symptoms of Covid-19 or have tested positive for Covid-19) can be found here:

https://public.tableau.com/profile/sg.eas.learninganalysis#!/vizhome/COVID19-SchoolsandChildcareInformation/Introduction

This link also contains information on the number of school pupils not in school because they are self isolating due to Covid-19 related reasons. It is not possible to determine whether these are as a result of an outbreak at their school or due to other contact with people who have tested positive for Covid-19.

Useful information from Public Health Scotland can also be found on the weekly Infographic, published here. This includes information on positive tests by age group.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/covid-19-education-recovery-group-children-and-young-people-infographic/

Question reference: S5W-31704

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 18 September 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the reported financial problems facing the sector, whether it will provide details of what support it is offering to the coach industry.

Question reference: S5W-31409

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 August 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 3 September 2020

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish its response to the Werritty Review, which examined the effects of grouse moor management on wildlife and the countryside.

Question reference: S5O-04515

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 August 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 August 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how it is working with SMEs to pursue sustainable and ethical economic growth.

Question reference: S5O-04483

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 August 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 August 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what the impact of COVID-19 has been on the availability of workers in the rural economy and tourism sectors.

Question reference: S5W-29667

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 June 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 10 July 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what provision there is for (a) symptomatic and (b) asymptomatic (i) staff and (ii) patients in COVID-19-free sites where cancer diagnostic tests and treatments take place to be tested for the virus.

Our testing strategy is firmly based on the advice from senior clinicians and public health experts. The testing of healthcare workers continues to be our priority, and all symptomatic NHS workers or symptomatic household members are eligible for testing.

In addition, on 23 June I announced that we are now routinely testing health care workers where the evidence tells us that it is appropriate to do so, while all health care workers connected to a nosocomial outbreak will be tested regardless of whether or not they have symptoms.

We will also test, on a weekly basis, staff working in specialist cancer units, in long-term care of the elderly, and in long-stay mental health wards. Boards are being asked to start this additional testing by 8 July.

The nosocomial expert group did not consider wholesale routine testing of asymptomatic health care workers to be an effective and proportionate method of tackling nosocomial risk.