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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: S6O-02030

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 March 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much financial support it will provide to the third sector across Edinburgh and the Lothians to support refugees from Ukraine in the financial year 2023-24.

Question reference: S6O-01907

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 February 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to support local, independent food and drink businesses in rural areas.

Question reference: S6W-14328

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 2 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what steps the Scottish Prison Service is taking to (a) identify and (b) provide treatment for prisoners with neurodevelopmental disorders.

I have asked Jim Kerr, Interim Deputy Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. His response is as follows:

From a learning and education perspective, all individuals admitted to custody are invited to participate in a screening process conducted by SPS education provider (Fife College), who deliver contracted learning services across all SPS sites. If during this process the assessor identifies any behaviours, presentation or capacities that are indicative of a neurodivergent condition, a further referral can be made to utilise a profiling tool called Do-IT with the consent of the individual concerned. In these circumstances specifically trained Fife colleagues apply the profiling tool. The referral process is open to all staff, not just SPS uniformed staff, if they believe an offender in SPS care needs additional support.

In addition SPS may also fulfil its role in the identification and treatment of offenders in its care by referral of individuals who present with potential learning difficulties to the NHS. NHS are then responsible for assessment, diagnosis and the development, in partnership (with SPS), of a support plan. Formal clinical assessment and diagnosis falls within the remit of NHS colleagues who would refer to specialist services where indicated. A shared support plan would be developed and implemented as required. Where an offender is admitted into custody with an existing diagnosis, NHS colleagues would support transition from those community services with which individuals have been engaged.

Question reference: S6W-13765

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 24 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment of the economic impact of the reforms to the Small Business Bonus Scheme relief thresholds was carried out in advance of the publication of the draft Scottish Budget 2023-24.

The reforms of the Small Business Bonus Scheme (SBBS) relief announced in the Scottish Budget ensure that it remains the most generous in the UK, and will continue to take 100,000 properties out of rates altogether.

We are expanding the upper eligibility threshold for the Small Business Bonus Scheme to £20,000 and making the relief more progressive by introducing a taper. To ensure that properties that lose some or all of their eligibility for SBBS or Rural rates relief do so in a phased manner we are also offering a Small Business Transitional Relief which will protect an estimated 19,000 properties in 2023-24.

Forecasted costs of SBBS over the next five years, including changes to SBBS thresholds and rates, can be found in the Scottish Fiscal Commission Scotland’s Economic and Fiscal Forecasts – December 2022 .

Question reference: S6W-13762

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide details of the full cost of its advertisement, Winter Pressures Advert.

Question reference: S6W-13763

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 24 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration was given to reintroducing temporary non-domestic rates relief for the retail, hospitality, and leisure sectors ahead of the draft Scottish Budget 2023-24.

The Scottish Government has backed Scotland’s economic recovery with more than £4.7 billion in direct business support since March 2020. The Scottish Government considered a range of options in advance of the Scottish Budget
‎ 2023-24, including options for sectoral reliefs such as for the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors.

Recognising the difficult economic climate, we announced a strong non-domestic rates package in the Scottish Budget 2023-24, including a freeze in the poundage – the number one ask of business organisations - delivering the lowest poundage in the UK for the fifth year in a row and a package of reliefs worth £744m. This includes the UK's most generous small business rates relief and also Rural Rates Relief which provides up to 100% relief for properties in rural areas.

We expect around half the properties in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors to be eligible for 100% Small Business Bonus Scheme relief next year. Properties in these sectors may also be eligible for the transitional relief schemes set out in the Budget.

Question reference: S6W-13764

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 20 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it had with business organisations ahead of the announcement, contained in the draft Scottish Budget 2023-24, that the Small Business Bonus Scheme relief thresholds would be reformed.

The Scottish Government accepted the independent Barclay Review’s recommendation that the Small Business Bonus Scheme (SBBS) be evaluated and commissioned the Fraser of Allander Institute to do so. After the publication of the evaluation on 8 March 2022, the Scottish Government set up a short-term working group, which included business organisations, to consider in particular the recommendation “that the Scottish Government begins to collect new information that will make a more robust assessment of the SBBS (and potentially other reliefs) possible in the future”. The group concluded that the financial support which SBBS relief offers benefits many small businesses, but concerns were raised that collecting more information would place an additional burden on business which would not be welcomed at this time.

The Scottish Government also engages regularly with business and sectoral organisations including in a number of stakeholder roundtables ahead of the budget to help understand tax priorities for all the taxes that the Scottish Government has control over, including non-domestic rates.

Responding to the main ask from 19 business organisations, the Budget announced a freeze to the poundage, delivering the lowest poundage in the UK for the fifth year in a row, and continues to support our businesses and communities with a generous non-domestic rates relief package. The Small Business Bonus Scheme remains the most generous scheme of its kind in the UK, and will continue to take 100,000 properties out of rates altogether.

Question reference: S6O-01809

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what it will be doing in the coming year to help farmers mitigate any impacts of rising costs in the sector.

Question reference: S6W-13049

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 09 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by George Adam on 5 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of responses to written correspondence from MSPs to the Scottish Government were issued within the stated timeframe of 20 working days.

The Scottish Government aims to answer all ministerial correspondence within 20 working days and regularly reviews and monitors its performance against this target.

Correspondence from MSPs; councillors; third sector organisations and other key stakeholders; or the wider public is not categorised separately, therefore, calculating the percentage of responses sent within 20 working days to MSPs specifically could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost. Between December 2021 and December 2022, the response rate for all ministerial correspondence was approximately 77% (of 43,091 items of ministerial correspondence, 33,173 were responded to within 20 working days).

Question reference: S6W-13048

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 09 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by George Adam on 5 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the longest wait for a reply to written correspondence to the Scottish Government by an MSP has been in the last year, and whether it will provide details of the correspondence and reasons for the length of wait.

The Scottish Government aims to answer all ministerial correspondence within 20 working days and regularly reviews and monitors its performance against this target.

Within the last year (December 2021 to December 2022), the longest response time was 272 days. This correspondence related to the donation of baby boxes to refugees from Ukraine and the delay was due to a processing error caused by a high volume of correspondence on refugees from Ukraine.