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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: S6O-00578

Asked by: Jim Fairlie, MSP for Perthshire South and Kinross-shire, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what progress is being made in recruiting STEM teachers, especially in rural areas.

Question reference: S6O-00572

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made on its commitment to increase the number of employee-owned businesses in Scotland to 500 by 2030.

Question reference: S6O-00569

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Scottish Fiscal Commission report, which anticipates a funding shortfall of £190 million in 2022-23 driven by slower growth in employment in Scotland compared to the UK.

Question reference: S6W-04801

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 15 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when the Parole Board for Scotland will publish its annual report and accounts for 2020-21.

Question reference: S6W-04797

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 03 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 15 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that children and young people are not without warm and weatherproof clothing this winter due to poverty.

Tackling child poverty is a national mission for this government and we are delivering a range of direct support to families.

The Scottish Child Payment is currently supporting around 106,000 children under 6 with £10 a week payments. Together with Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods this provides families with £5,300 of financial support by the time their first child turns 6.

For children of school age, we are paying £520 this year through Bridging Payments, supporting around 150,000 children and young people from low income families ahead of the roll out of the Scottish Child Payment to under-16s by the end of 2022 – with £160 to be paid this month. We have also increased the School Clothing Grant to a new national minimum of £120 for primary school and £150 for secondary school children – helping to meet the cost of the school day for families.

Additionally we delivered a £130 Low Income Pandemic Payment for around 500,000 low income households by the end of October, helping to meet increased costs of living for families.

We have also announced plans to invest a further £41 million in a Winter Support Fund for low income households to help people struggling financially during the winter. This includes £10 million to help people who are struggling to pay fuel bills, £25 million of flexible funding for local authorities to help support wellbeing and respond to financial insecurity based on local needs, and £6 million for third sector partners to support low income families.

Question reference: S6W-04811

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 03 December 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 15 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) FTE staff and (b) staffing hours have been assigned to assessing applications for grant assistance to deliver affordable housing above Affordable Housing Investment Benchmark level, in each quarter since Q1 2016.

Question reference: S6W-04899

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 15 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many inspections of care homes for adults have been carried out by the Care Inspectorate in each year since 2017, and how many of these were return inspections.

The relevant data is provided in the following table.

Summary of inspections completed in Care Homes for Adults since 2014-15 up to Q2 2021-22 (April 21- Sep21)

	Inspection year
	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22 (Apr 21 - Sep21)
Total number of inspections completed in Care Homes for Adults	1372	1286	1250	1129	812	419
'Return inspections' in care homes for adults (i.e. number of second and subsequent inspections carried out)	242	186	166	84	268	147

Source data: end of year inspection data files 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17. 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21 and 30 September 2021 inspections completed files

Note: the return inspections are a subset of the total number of inspections completed, not in addition to the total number.

Question reference: S6W-04808

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 03 December 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 15 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) project and (b) housing unit applications have been (i) received and (ii) approved for grant assistance to deliver affordable housing above Affordable Housing Investment Benchmark level in each quarter since Q1 2016.

The following table shows the total number of homes and projects received and approved where investment benchmarks were applicable, as well as separating out those homes and projects approved above benchmark.

The benchmark system is a flexible, administrative tool which is used for grant assessment purposes only – rather than being a grant rate or grant ceiling. Projects that can be delivered with grant funding at or below the relevant benchmark follow a streamlined application and approval process. Projects which are seeking grant funding in excess of the relevant benchmark follow a more detailed value for money assessment before any funding decision is made.

To note that these figures relate to financial years 2016-17 to 2020-21, and quarter one and two for 2021-22. The Affordable Housing Supply Programme quarterly statistics to end September 2021 were published on 7 December 2021:

Financial Year by Quarter	Total No. of Homes Approved Using AHSP Benchmarks	Total No. of Homes Approved Above AHSP Benchmarks	Total No. of Projects Approved Using AHSP Benchmarks	Total No. of Projects Approved Above AHSP Benchmarks
2016-17 Q1	478	74	27	5
2016-17 Q2	1,398	246	57	7
2016-17 Q3	1,530	327	73	20
2016-17 Q4	3,999	1,203	160	45
2016-17 Sub-Total	7,405	1,850	317	77
2017-18 Q1	911	471	34	16
2017-18 Q2	1,411	307	45	14
2017-18 Q3	869	214	41	14
2017-18 Q4	4,376	1,435	165	41
2017-18 Sub-Total	7,567	2,427	285	85
2018-19 Q1	771	299	29	10
2018-19 Q2	996	342	39	13
2018-19 Q3	2,094	711	76	22
2018-19 Q4	4,175	1,365	142	47
2018-19 Sub-Total	8,036	2,717	286	92
2019-20 Q1	978	482	43	19
2019-20 Q2	1,598	431	48	14
2019-20 Q3	2,552	1,130	95	35
2019-20 Q4	4,717	2,747	152	82
2019-20 Sub-Total	9,845	4,790	338	150
2020-21 Q1	443	118	22	9
2020-21 Q2	746	225	41	16
2020-21 Q3	1,577	755	54	17
2020-21 Q4	2,720	861	105	30
2020-21 Sub-Total	5,486	1,959	222	72
2021-22 Q1	558	153	24	12
2021-22 Q2	1,247	763	38	21
2021-22 Sub-Total	1,805	916	62	33
Total	40,144	14,659	1,510	509

Question reference: S6W-04815

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 15 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding Creative Scotland has allocated to projects in each year since 2007, also broken down by local authority area.

The information requested relates to the funding decisions taken by the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen which existed from 2007 to 30 June 2010 and Creative Scotland which was established from 1 July 2010 and brought together the two predecessor organisations.

These national arts and screen development organisations disbursed Scottish Government and National Lottery funds and operated at arm’s length from Scottish Ministers in the disbursement of those funds.

For the period predating the establishment of Creative Scotland, 2007 to 30 June 2010, the published National Lottery Distribution Fund Annual Reports and Accounts of the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen provide the information that the member is seeking.

The Scottish Arts Council’s National Lottery Distribution Fund Annual Reports and Accounts for the years ending 31 March 2007 to 2010 are available at the following link:

Transparency and freedom of information releases - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Scottish Screen’s National Lottery Distribution Fund Annual Reports and Accounts for the years ending 31 March 2007 to 2010 are available at the following link:

Transparency and freedom of information releases - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

I have also asked the Chief Executive of Creative Scotland to write to the member with the information they hold on this subject since 1 July 2010.

Question reference: S6W-04805

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 03 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 15 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when it plans to publish data on the number of applications that were submitted to the Winter Support Fund, the success rate and other monitoring data, broken down by local authority.