Chamber and committees

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: S6W-27346

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 May 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 21 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service provides clear guidance to staff on when a domestic abuse victim should be informed of a decision to discontinue a case, and of their right to request a review of that decision.

Question reference: S6W-27344

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 May 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 21 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service is reviewing and streamlining the content of its domestic abuse training for its staff.

Question reference: S6W-27345

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 May 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 21 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service will be mandating domestic abuse training for its staff.

Question reference: S6W-26732

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 2 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what immediate action it is taking to improve certainty for investors in the build-to-rent sector.

The Scottish Government has ongoing engagement with the Build to Rent sector including through recent Ministerial meetings and the Housing Investment Taskforce. We also continue to work with stakeholders across landlords, tenants and investors as we develop a rent control system that works for Scotland. To support this, we have also established a Private Rented Sector Stakeholder Group which includes representatives from across landlords, tenants, campaign groups and investors.

Question reference: S6W-26733

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 29 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how it is supporting planning authorities to streamline their planning processes.

We have already implemented significant reforms to the planning system to reduce pressures by streamlining processes and providing a robust and up to date policy framework. We have significantly extended permitted development rights, to remove certain applications from the planning system, providing certainty and reducing processing for authorities and agencies.

Our current consultation Investing in Planning aims to support improvement in the delivery of planning services, including streamlining the assessments required to support applications, project managing applications, improving engagement and taking a proactive approach.

In addition to system changes, we fund Scotland’s National Planning Improvement Champion who is working with individual planning authorities to pilot a new National Planning Improvement Framework (NPIF) to identify areas of improvement and support authorities to take actions forward.

Question reference: S6W-26734

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 29 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to revising planning policies and/or regulations to facilitate faster decision making on certain types of applications, such as the delivery of affordable homes.

Recent reforms to Scotland’s planning system are focused on facilitating delivery of high quality development, where and when it is needed. New legislation being implemented through the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 and National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) is ensuring decisions can be taken about future developments with greater certainty and efficiency. Policy 16 in NPF4 is a distinct, new approach to planning for homes that emphasises delivery and the plan-led approach. We are now taking forward a range of further measures to continue to progress this programme of planning reform.

Our current consultation on ‘Investing in Planning’ includes a range of proposals to support improvement and capacity in planning services, particularly in planning authorities. Our proposals aim to benefit users of the planning system by improving capacity to help reduce decision timescales and improve service quality.

We are also currently consulting on draft regulations relating to the designation of Masterplan Consent Areas, which will be a new upfront consenting mechanism for development proposals, and can include housing, removing the need for planning and other consent applications once a scheme for the area as a whole has been agreed. Once in place, Masterplan Consent Areas have significant potential to give much earlier, and greater, certainty to prospective developers.

Question reference: S6O-03383

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 April 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to help local authorities tackle damp and mould in social housing.

Question reference: S6W-26735

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 22 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how it is supporting local authorities to ensure that there is sufficient staff to invest in a significant scaling up of the prevention of homelessness activity.

The Scottish Government wants to see a renewed focus on the prevention of homelessness and this is underlined by the inclusion of the homelessness prevention provisions in the Housing (Scotland) Bill, introduced to the Scottish Parliament on 26 March 2024.

Alongside this, we published a Financial Memorandum which set out estimated costs for the provisions included within the Bill. This was informed by a survey of local authorities on the potential resource implications of the changes.

We will work with local authorities to develop the supporting guidance and training necessary to make the duties successful and to discuss the most appropriate timing of implementation against the background of a challenging environment.

Question reference: S6W-26278

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 17 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on staff employed by (a) MSPs and (b) political parties being part of its expert advisory groups.

Question reference: S6W-26367

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 16 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on whether it plans to introduce a new reporting system to record incidents of physical and verbal abuse in schools.

Our national guidance on recording and monitoring incidents of bullying in schools makes clear that all schools and local authorities are expected to record all incidents of abusive or violent behaviour.

In 2019, we introduced a consistent approach to recording and monitoring incidents in schools. The SEEMiS system was identified as the most appropriate tool for schools and local authorities to record incidents. The Scottish Government does not have any plans to introduce a new system.

We are currently considering the guidance as part of the review into the national anti-bullying guidance, ‘Respect for All’. The updated guidance will be published in late 2024.

In the meantime, I made clear in my statement to Parliament on 29 November and also reiterated in the strongest possible terms in the opposition debate on 6 March, my position on the need for more accurate recording of all incidents of inappropriate, abusive or violent behaviour in our schools. I continue to encourage all schools to do that, recognising that recording of physical or verbal incidents is a matter for individual local authorities.