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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: S5W-29176

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 May 2020
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 2 June 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the disparity of access to education resources such as IT equipment between households due to socioeconomic factors, what steps it is taking to ensure that the attainment gap is not exacerbated during the period of school closures.

Closing the poverty related attainment gap is the defining mission of this government, with equity remaining a key principle of the strategic framework on re-opening of schools and early learning and childcare centres which was published on 21 May.

That is why we are continuing with our commitment to invest £182 million from the Attainment Scotland Fund in 2020/21, including Pupil Equity Funding. For the first time, Pupil Equity Fund allocations have been confirmed for two years, with over £250 million committed to schools across 2020/21 and 2021/22. This will help to provide more certainty for head teachers and aid learning during the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond. This Pupil Equity Funding will benefit 97% of schools across every local authority in Scotland.

Due to the ongoing challenges currently facing schools and local authorities I have relaxed the guidance on Attainment Scotland Funding streams to support Local Authorities in deploying this funding flexibly to best support vulnerable children from the most deprived backgrounds. There are already a number of such examples, including the provision of laptops and/tablets to support digital learning at home, purchase and delivery of books and other learning material to children at home, providing transport to enable some learners to attend LA Hubs, and supporting home-school link workers to maintain regular contact with children.

We recognise that digital exclusion is a particular issue for some of our most disadvantaged learners. To help ensure as many children and young people as possible are able to connect with their schools, continue their learning, access support and engage with their peers, we are investing an initial £9 million which will provide devices and connectivity for 25,000 learners across Scotland. This is the first phase of our £30 million commitment to support digital inclusion for children and young people, which we are working closely with local authority partners to deliver.

Question reference: S5O-04365

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 May 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 June 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is giving to older people who are facing increased fuel bills during the COVID-19 lockdown period.

Question reference: S5O-04309

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 March 2020
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 25 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to support remote learning.

The national online learning environment, Glow, is freely available to all learners and teachers from any internet connected device. Officials are working hard to make sure the platform is able to cope with increased demand and have provided a range of advice, guidance and support to local authorities on how best to make use of the Glow services.

Over and above the technical platform, Education Scotland are currently working on collation of a wide range of curricular resources which will be located in a single online source, to help teachers find the resources they need to deliver continuity of education.

Question reference: S5W-27285

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2020
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 9 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with stakeholders in relation to the creation of a new abattoir in Orkney.

In the run up to and following the formal closure of the Orkney Abattoir myself and my officials met and discussed the future options available for slaughter on Orkney with many local stakeholders. This included meeting with the Council leader, council officials, local MSP’s, butchers, NFUS, livestock market and farming representatives. At these meetings it was stated that the Scottish Government stood ready to work with any party who came forward with a viable and sustainable plan for the future.

Unfortunately, and following the Orkney Island Council launch of an ‘abattoir challenge fund’, no interested party came forward to reinstate slaughter provisions in Orkney. The Scottish Government remains open to discuss options with any potential provider.

Question reference: S5O-04253

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 March 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to improve travel connectivity to and within the Highlands and Islands.

Question reference: S5W-27271

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 3 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many European nationals domiciled outside of the UK received funded places at a university in Scotland in the last year.

Question reference: S5W-27273

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 3 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has sought updated legal advice since September 2014 on the position of an independent Scotland in relation to (a) membership or accession to the EU, (b) currency, (c) involvement in the Schengen Agreement, (d) border controls or cross-border trade and (e) involvement in international defence co-operation.

Question reference: S5W-27268

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 3 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what support for travel costs is available to apprentices, and how much it has spent on this in each year since 2007-08.

Travel support is based on an individual’s circumstances. This support includes rural delivery models’ eligibility for a rural uplift, and assistance with travel and/or overnight accommodation.

Skills Development Scotland have advised that their annual spend on travel and subsistence for Modern Apprentices in both of the last two full financial years is as follows:

2017-18: £1,091,538

2018-19: £1,055,840

Expenditure for the current year will be reported in due course.

Skills Development Scotland are able to provide the precise figures for travel and subsistence spend in 2017-18 and 2018-19 as the introduction of the Funding Information and Processing System in 2017-18 has given the functionality to extract this cost in isolation.

Due to a system change Skills Development Scotland are unable to provide the annual spend on travel and subsistence for Modern Apprentices in the years preceding 2017-18.

Details of what was budgeted for in the years preceding 2017/18 are available, but this does not reflect expenditure so cannot be directly compared to years after. The contract value for travel and subsistence for years 2009/10 (the first year that SDS put into place contracts for the delivery of Modern Apprenticeships) to 2016/17 is laid out below:

2009-10: £1.1m

2010-11: £940k

2011-12: £940k

2012-13: £960k

2013-14: £940k

2014-15: £950k

2015-16: £1.3m

2016-17: £1.3m

Throughout the Foundation Apprenticeship programme support has been available to fund participant travel. For the 2016-18, 2017-19 and 2019-21 cohorts, travel costs were included within the total funding awards. It is therefore not possible to provide travel costs for these cohorts. Travel costs are separate for the 2018-20 cohort. As delivery of this cohort is still ongoing and the total amount of expenditure is not yet available.

Question reference: S5W-27270

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 3 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many university applicants domiciled in Scotland did not receive an offer from any institution in Scotland but were accepted by an institution in the rest of the UK in the last year.

Question reference: S5W-27278

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 2 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what income Transport Scotland has derived from the installation of brown tourist information signs in each year since 2007-08, also broken down by local authority area.

Under the Transport Scotland “Trunk Road and Motorway Tourist Signing Guidance (2016)”, applicants are expected to meet the costs associated with the provision (design and installation) and replacement of tourist signs. General maintenance of erected signs is managed by Transport Scotland at no cost to the applicant. As such, there is no income derived by Transport Scotland or its maintenance agents from the installation of brown tourist signs.