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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

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Question reference: S6W-30832

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 20 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much each local authority has received from the Attainment Scotland Fund in each year since 2016.

The Attainment Scotland Fund has been providing funding to local authorities and schools since 2015 with the aim of using education to improve outcomes for children and young people impacted by poverty, with a focus on tackling the poverty-related attainment gap.

The Scottish Attainment Challenge began in 2015, when funding was distributed to targeted local authorities through the Schools Programme and Challenge Authorities. In 2017, the Pupil Equity Fund (PEF) was introduced, providing funding direct to schools. In 2018, the Care Experienced Children and Young People fund (CECYP) began, providing funding to local authorities to enable them to target initiatives, activities, and resources that will improve the educational outcomes of this group of young people.

In 2022, the Scottish Attainment Challenge was refreshed, and the ‘Schools Programme and ‘Challenge Authorities’ funds were replaced by Strategic Equity Funding (SEF) which provided grants to all 32 local authorities.

The total amount provided to each local authority within these funding programmes in each financial year* since 2015-16 are as follows:

	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24
Aberdeen City	£115,254	£328,243	£3,264,876	£3,409,052	£4,021,781	£4,113,976	£4,777,267	£4,163,137	£4,302,373
Aberdeenshire	£0	£0	£2,569,200	£2,906,520	£3,430,600	£3,233,185	£3,823,272	£3,909,227	£4,226,527
Angus	£0	£0	£2,113,200	£2,118,240	£2,394,880	£2,382,431	£2,815,731	£2,718,079	£2,919,059
Argyll & Bute	£16,665	£19,879	£1,340,202	£1,425,495	£1,563,762	£1,473,413	£1,746,517	£1,637,110	£1,776,791
Clackmannanshire	£482,208	£1,242,458	£3,108,000	£3,151,211	£3,427,165	£3,264,342	£3,570,907	£3,186,389	£2,924,359
Dumfries & Galloway	£43,936	£60,481	£2,998,509	£3,109,671	£3,435,706	£3,316,675	£3,883,445	£3,879,174	£4,175,854
Dundee City	£701,329	£3,135,370	£10,045,244	£10,568,958	£11,150,976	£11,181,281	£12,442,488	£10,325,609	£9,181,564
East Ayrshire	£291,470	£814,836	£5,897,260	£7,090,299	£7,621,819	£7,565,208	£8,250,453	£7,224,930	£6,594,511
East Dunbartonshire	£0	£0	£1,564,800	£1,588,440	£1,782,434	£1,788,723	£2,120,338	£1,986,260	£2,119,730
East Lothian	£0	£0	£1,569,600	£1,565,160	£1,823,557	£1,814,715	£2,134,716	£2,175,877	£2,384,767
East Renfrewshire	£0	£0	£1,370,400	£1,412,040	£1,556,240	£1,442,825	£1,721,026	£1,719,495	£1,842,830
Edinburgh City	£304,535	£742,935	£8,257,293	£8,276,495	£9,547,788	£9,164,717	£10,540,094	£9,377,776	£9,976,813
Eilean Siar	£0	£0	£274,800	£290,880	£338,391	£327,413	£388,016	£476,241	£477,189
Falkirk	£73,000	£169,463	£3,797,974	£3,835,057	£4,263,853	£4,177,157	£4,935,327	£4,602,820	£4,948,309
Fife	£416,112	£666,213	£10,750,302	£11,151,018	£12,023,174	£11,660,123	£13,609,549	£12,045,243	£12,846,433
Glasgow City	£1,389,969	£7,537,018	£29,022,634	£30,200,152	£33,197,000	£32,416,002	£36,713,592	£32,941,570	£32,577,601
Highland	£91,269	£385,146	£4,695,262	£5,269,590	£5,699,886	£5,509,668	£6,346,310	£5,545,507	£5,536,773
Inverclyde	£580,092	£1,512,219	£5,154,900	£5,399,265	£6,013,910	£6,028,744	£6,517,856	£5,503,244	£4,767,926
Midlothian	£0	£0	£2,272,800	£2,315,195	£2,513,155	£2,415,784	£2,837,045	£2,766,037	£2,924,641
Moray	£0	£0	£1,270,800	£1,341,960	£1,575,607	£1,564,920	£1,833,754	£1,812,530	£1,970,831
North Ayrshire	£635,530	£2,670,922	£8,513,518	£9,906,960	£10,841,444	£10,523,195	£11,382,620	£9,284,763	£8,153,571
North Lanarkshire	£1,340,200	£5,539,184	£15,052,052	£15,519,383	£16,411,949	£17,266,164	£19,078,558	£16,749,486	£15,683,771
Orkney Islands	£0	£0	£206,400	£232,200	£252,280	£270,404	£310,786	£379,394	£380,038
Perth & Kinross	£0	£0	£1,608,000	£1,661,520	£1,983,400	£1,930,393	£2,268,976	£2,359,726	£2,611,357
Renfrewshire	£177,272	£850,670	£7,611,801	£8,796,635	£9,753,471	£9,439,188	£10,321,570	£8,902,256	£8,099,877
Scottish Borders	£36,500	£24,462	£1,986,781	£2,075,633	£2,146,802	£2,130,518	£2,486,595	£2,299,996	£2,552,944
Shetland Islands	£0	£0	£188,400	£233,880	£264,800	£256,116	£295,476	£374,749	£372,732
South Ayrshire	£150,400	£296,668	£2,822,323	£2,812,723	£3,152,671	£3,075,598	£3,531,679	£3,146,264	£3,258,733
South Lanarkshire	£548,690	£1,008,444	£9,595,144	£9,901,641	£10,354,517	£10,802,098	£12,479,203	£11,052,369	£11,076,881
Stirling	£39,261	£118,916	£1,598,425	£1,660,079	£1,906,328	£1,809,478	£2,095,137	£1,808,754	£1,938,886
West Dunbartonshire	£778,595	£1,674,611	£5,393,508	£5,469,695	£5,883,735	£5,593,331	£6,248,668	£5,518,428	£5,207,971
West Lothian	£24,750	£172,829	£5,304,893	£5,538,606	£5,836,535	£5,619,145	£6,611,595	£6,172,245	£6,551,661

*CECYP funding is distributed across the academic year rather than financial year.

Question reference: S6W-30858

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 25 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 20 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much basic payment scheme funding has been awarded to crofters in each year since 2016, also broken down by what proportion of the scheme's budget this represented.

Details are as follows:

Scheme Year	Basic Payment Scheme	Greening	Young Farmer Payment	Total Payments	Percentage of Budget
2016	£13,159,516.98	£8,034,413.77	£82,710.65	£21,276,641.40	5.3%
2017	£14,717,656.80	£8,346,051.08	£100,820.05	£23,164,527.93	5.4%
2018	£15,897,839.65	£8,341,637.76	£104,294.50	£24,343,771.91	5.7%
2019	£16,706,540.21	£8,297,249.49	£104,464.03	£25,108,253.73	5.9%
2020	£17,464,866.57	£8,473,816.01	£96,699.60	£26,035,382.18	6.1%
2021	£17,419,003.61	£8,418,431.75	£87,894.17	£25,925,329.53	6.1%
2022	£17,303,035.99	£8,356,501.06	£82,654.19	£25,742,191.24	6.0%
2023	£16,190,430.99	£7,790,318.31	£68,886.59	£24,049,635.89	5.6%
2024*	£14,867,321.75	£7,165,412.11	£386.82	£22,033,120.68	5.2%

*Note: 2024 payment processing is ongoing.

Question reference: S6W-30831

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 20 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what the pupil-teacher ratio has been in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in each year since 2019.

Question reference: S6W-30834

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 20 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many children have been educated in category (a) C and (b) D school buildings in each of the last eight years.

Question reference: S6W-30833

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 20 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what the average class size has been for each primary school year group in each year since 2016.

Question reference: S6W-31069

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 19 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to a recent report from Public Health Scotland, which shows that there are currently more than 5,000 people in Scotland waiting for a social care assessment.

The Scottish Government recognises the value of social care support to all who require additional support in living independently at home or in the community.

Under the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 local authorities and Health and Social Care Partnerships have a duty to assess the social care support needs of people and decide, in light of that assessment, whether to arrange any services, and if so, which services.

We know that the system needs to work better for everyone in Scotland and we are continuing to work with partners and people with lived experience on ongoing improvement and reform.

These statistics show the fewest amount of people waiting for a social care support assessment this year – a reduction of 12% since January.

Question reference: S6F-03550

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 November 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 November 2024

To ask the First Minister, in light of reported figures that over 2,000 people were killed or seriously injured on Scotland's roads last year, what the Scottish Government’s position is on whether 2024 could see the highest number of road accidents and fatalities on record.

Question reference: S6W-31070

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 18 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to introducing tougher sentences against those who attack emergency workers.

There are a range of criminal laws available to deal with individuals who attack emergency workers.

Anyone who is guilty of assaulting an emergency worker can receive up to life imprisonment under the common law of assault. Anyone who is guilty of threatening or abusive behaviour towards emergency workers can receive up to five years imprisonment under the general offence of threatening or abusive behaviour. In addition, there is specific legal protection for emergency workers contained in the Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005 which can be used to prosecute cases.

Following a conviction, decisions on the sentence in any given case is a matter for the independent courts within the overall legal framework.

The Scottish Government supports the independent courts having these powers available to use in relevant cases.

Question reference: S6W-31068

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 15 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the planned construction of National Treatment Centres (NTC), in light of the Barnett consequential funding arising from the UK Budget.

The capital funding position remains challenging and infrastructure projects remain under review. The Scottish Government is assessing the full implications of the UK Autumn Budget and also await the outcome of the UK Government’s Spending Review in 2025. Full consideration will be given as to which projects are affordable and deliverable and can be included within our revised infrastructure investment plan pipeline.

We are working with all health boards to develop a whole-system NHS infrastructure plan which will reflect needs across Scotland and support continued safe operation of existing facilities, as well as determination of longer term investment priorities.

Question reference: S6W-30859

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 25 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 15 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to removing the so-called cliff edge earnings limit for recipients of the Carer Support Payment.

Carer Support Payment is replacing Carer’s Allowance in Scotland. Ahead of delivering the benefit we engaged extensively with carers and support organisations to consider how our benefit could work better, and we know the earnings limit is an area where people would like to see change.

Carer Support Payment largely mirrors Carer’s Allowance rules on earnings to protect a safe and secure transfer for people in Scotland already getting Carer’s Allowance. We have already improved how these rules are applied, for example with better ways of averaging earnings, reducing the impact of the ‘cliff edge’ for many carers.

We have also considered further changes which could be made once the transfer of benefits from Carer’s Allowance is complete. Our analysis found that an earnings taper to address the cliff edge earnings limit would add significant complexity for carers, operationally, and in terms of interactions with wider support. However we took feedback in our 2022 public consultation on two proposals which would help address this issue – an increase to the earnings threshold, with a link to 16 hours at a specific rate, such as Real Living Wage, and a proposal for a run on of support where carers earn over the limit so that they don’t lose all support immediately.