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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: S6W-10523

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what action is being taken to ensure that bus services are accessible to disabled people.

The legislation governing disabled access and vehicle construction is reserved to the UK Government. Since 1 January 2020 all coaches, single and double decker buses have had to be fully accessible.

However, the Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that transport is accessible for all. Scottish Ministers' have made clear their expectations that Scotland's transport providers and public services will continually improve their performance to help disabled people make better journeys. That is why the Scottish Government launched in 2016 Scotland's Accessible Travel Framework, which is shaped by disabled people to improve the overall journey experience and remove the barriers which prevent them travelling. The Framework sets out a 10 year plan in which 48 actions are to be delivered over the 10 year period. These include:

Scottish Government provided £35,000 to Neatebox who have developed and trialled an app focusing on bus travel for disabled users with the primary focus on wheelchair users who require use of particular designated space when using the bus, and
In March 2021, the Scottish Parliament passed legislation that extends the National Concessionary Travel Card to eligible disabled children under the age of five, allowing free bus travel to accompanying companion using the National Entitlement Card. This will give around 4,000 eligible disabled children across Scotland access to the same benefits as those aged five and over, helping to reduce household costs for their families.

Question reference: S6O-01346

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 August 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it supports property purchases, direct payments to property owners and the use of non-disclosure agreements as a means of removing objections to large-scale windfarm applications.

Question reference: S6W-10166

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 30 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to expanding free nursery provision at the age of two to children in receipt of Disability Living Allowance.

1140 hours of high quality funded Early Learning and Childcare is available to all three and four year olds in Scotland, and two year olds who will benefit most. National eligibility criteria for access to funded early learning and childcare at age two is largely aligned to free school meals criteria, as well as care experienced families. Local authorities also have powers to provide discretionary access to a funded ELC place for any child they see fit.

As set out in Best Start, Bright Futures: Tacking Child Poverty Delivery Plan 2022-26 , we will review eligibility to inform the future development of childcare policy in Scotland. This work will ensure a coherent joined up system for families with children of different ages and identify the best approach to expanding access to funded childcare for more of the identified priority family groups, including families with a disabled adult or child.

Question reference: S6W-10133

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 22 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what steps are taken to ensure that standards are applied fairly across higher education when determining grades at undergraduate level.

Question reference: S6W-10134

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 19 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what role it plays in monitoring whether best practice is followed by Scottish universities, regarding the moderation and cross-marking of student assessments.

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) has a statutory obligation under section 13 of the Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Act 2005 to secure that provision is made for assessing and enhancing the quality of higher education provided by fundable bodies in Scotland.

On our behalf, to meet this obligation the SFC, supported by the Quality Assurance Agency, works with institutions so that they meet an agreed set of expectations for academic standards and quality, as measured against agreed sector reference points such as the UK Quality Code, to ensure that best practice is followed regarding moderation and marking of assessments, including the use of external expertise and examiners.

Question reference: S6W-09816

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 16 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government who has responsibility for (a) deciding on and (b) commissioning (i) new medical research and (ii) small scale patient studies.

Scottish Government's Chief Scientist Office (CSO), through NHS Research Scotland, supports clinical research infrastructure that allows Health Boards, researchers, clinicians and industry to improve the quality, efficiency, coordination and impact of clinical research, supporting a broad range of clinical research studies. CSO's approach to funding does not focus on directly commissioning or funding specific research areas, instead providing broad-based support through investments in key infrastructure and wide-remit research grant and fellowship schemes.

Question reference: S6W-09814

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 16 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to address any loss of staff in the private, voluntary and independent (PVI) nursery sector to local authority nurseries and what reasons have been identified for any such trend.

The childcare workforce has grown overall as a result of the ELC expansion, with the latest data showing an increase of 26% between 2016 and 2020. The Scottish Social Services Council’s Stability Index (i.e. the proportion of staff who have been retained from the previous year) shows a Stability Index of 78.9% for the day care of children workforce, broadly similar to the overall Index of 80.8% for social services.

Throughout the ELC expansion the Scottish Government has taken a range of actions with partners to support recruitment and retention across all parts of the childcare sector. Those include: working with skills bodies and training providers to increase enrolments on training courses by 25.6% between 2017 and 2020; delivery of a national recruitment campaign, attracting high quality individuals to all parts of the sector; and enabling payment of the Real Living Wage to staff delivering funded hours.

Question reference: S6W-09838

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 16 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many pre-clearing funded undergraduate university places were offered to applicants living in Dumfries and Galloway in 2022, broken down by institution.

Question reference: S6W-09811

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 16 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its policy on the future use of Asulox.

The Scottish Government position is that pesticides should be authorised on a case by case basis where the available scientific evidence shows they do not pose unacceptable risks to human health, animals and the environment. An emergency authorisation for the use of the herbicide product Asulox has been approved for bracken control in 2022 in limited and controlled circumstances.

There is a need to move away from the use of emergency authorisations as the solution and look into more sustainable, long-term alternatives to Asulox. Officials have been instructed to begin talks with the other UK administrations and the Health and Safety Executive, to further engage stakeholders and those working on alternative solutions, to ensure we have more sustainable forms of bracken control going forward.

Question reference: S6W-09818

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 16 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to address the reported delays on the NHS 24 111 calls service.

In the face of the substantial increase in demand placed on the service by the COVID-19 pandemic, NHS 24 continues to provide a highly effective, safe triage system to the people of Scotland.

As a result of this increased demand, and changes to service delivery, the Scottish Government increased funding to NHS 24 by over £20m last year for additional recruitment.

This additional funding has supported the additional recruitment of 575 full time equivalent call handlers and 140 full time equivalent clinicians to date, including through the recently established 24/7 mental health hub.

It has also supported the opening of two new NHS 24 call centres in Dundee and Glasgow, which opened in December 2021 and May 2022 respectively.

We continue to work with NHS 24 to support improvement in the performance of the 111 service, including engaging with partners and stakeholders through the national Redesign of Urgent Care programme.