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: S6F-00250

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 September 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 September 2021

To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government is taking to prevent cyber-attacks on public bodies.

Question reference: S6O-00156

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 September 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the work of the Mental Health in Schools Working Group.

Question reference: S6O-00127

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 September 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its position on new oil and gas licences in the North Sea.

Question reference: S6W-02263

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 31 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the cyber-attack on SEPA in December 2020, whether it is aware of any other cyber-attacks on public bodies in the last three years.

The Scottish Government works closely with Scottish public sector bodies in improving their cyber resilience capabilities. As a consequence of this work, in December 2017, we introduced a reporting system for public sector bodies to notify the Scottish Government, Police Scotland and the National Cyber Security Centre of serious cyber incidents with the purpose of providing as much support to those affected as quickly as possible. During the last 3 years we have been notified of 27 separate attacks, some of which have been in the public sector or educational institutions.

Question reference: S6F-00195

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 August 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 September 2021

To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government is taking in response to the increase in ambulance waiting times in parts of Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-02107

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 06 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 25 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government (a) whether any meetings of the Oil and Gas and Energy Transition Strategic Leadership Group have taken place since October 2020, and, if so, (b) whether it plans to make the minutes of any such meetings available to access online.

Question reference: S6W-02108

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 06 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 25 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government by what date the next meeting of the Oil and Gas and Energy Transition Strategic Leadership Group is due to take place.

Question reference: S6W-01035

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 20 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the statement made by the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy on 23 June 2021 that "Since the pandemic first hit last March, the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport has regularly met the airport sector and the wider aviation sector, and we remain in close contact with them" (Official Report, col. 6), which airport leadership teams it (a) has met with in the last six months, and on what dates, and (b) plans to meet.

Dates the Scottish Government has met with and currently plans to meet with airports are included in the following table.

Date	Airport
13-Jan-21	Highlands and Islands Airports Limited (HIAL)
13-Jan-21	Edinburgh & AGS
15-Jan-21	HIAL
27-Jan-21	Edinburgh & AGS
02-Feb-21	HIAL
03-Feb-21	Edinburgh
03-Feb-21	Edinburgh
04-Feb-21	Edinburgh
05-Feb-21	Edinburgh, AGS, HIAL, Prestwick
07-Feb-21	Edinburgh & AGS
09-Feb-21	Edinburgh & AGS
11-Feb-21	Edinburgh & AGS
11-Feb-21	Edinburgh
12-Feb-21	HIAL
15-Feb-21	Edinburgh
16-Feb-21	HIAL
16-Feb-21	HIAL
16-Feb-21	AGS
16-Feb-21	Prestwick
16-Feb-21	Edinburgh
16-Feb-21	HIAL
16-Feb-21	Prestwick
17-Feb-21	Prestwick
18-Feb-21	HIAL
18-Feb-21	HIAL
22-Feb-21	HIAL
24-Feb-21	Edinburgh
24-Feb-21	HIAL
25-Feb-21	HIAL
25-Feb-21	Edinburgh
02-Mar-21	HIAL
03-Mar-21	Edinburgh
03-Mar-21	Edinburgh, AGS, HIAL, Prestwick
04-Mar-21	HIAL
12-Mar-21	HIAL
15-Mar-21	HIAL
16-Mar-21	Edinburgh, AGS, HIAL, Prestwick
17-Mar-21	Edinburgh
17-Mar-21	Edinburgh, AGS, Prestwick
18-Mar-21	Edinburgh
18-Mar-21	Edinburgh
18-Mar-21	HIAL
23-Mar-21	HIAL
25-Mar-21	HIAL
25-Mar-21	Edinburgh
29-Mar-21	Edinburgh, AGS, HIAL, Prestwick
29-Mar-21	Prestwick
30-Mar-21	AGS
30-Mar-21	HIAL
30-Mar-21	Prestwick
31-Mar-21	Edinburgh
01-Apr-21	AGS
08-Apr-21	Edinburgh
08-Apr-21	Prestwick
09-Apr-21	HIAL
09-Apr-21	Prestwick
12-Apr-21	Edinburgh, AGS, HIAL, Prestwick
12-Apr-21	Prestwick
13-Apr-21	HIAL
16-Apr-21	Edinburgh
21-Apr-21	HIAL
22-Apr-21	HIAL
22-Apr-21	HIAL
23-Apr-21	AGS
27-Apr-21	Prestwick
28-Apr-21	HIAL
30-Apr-21	HIAL
04-May-21	Edinburgh, AGS, HIAL, Prestwick
06-May-21	HIAL
07-May-21	HIAL
07-May-21	HIAL
11-May-21	Edinburgh, AGS, HIAL, Prestwick
11-May-21	HIAL
12-May-21	HIAL
13-May-21	Edinburgh
13-May-21	HIAL
13-May-21	HIAL
13-May-21	Prestwick
17-May-21	HIAL
18-May-21	Edinburgh
19-May-21	HIAL
20-May-21	HIAL
20-May-21	AGS
25-May-21	Edinburgh, AGS
26-May-21	Prestwick
01-Jun-21	HIAL
03-Jun-21	HIAL
03-Jun-21	Edinburgh
04-Jun-21	HIAL
09-Jun-21	HIAL
09-Jun-21	HIAL
09-Jun-21	HIAL
09-Jun-21	HIAL
09-Jun-21	Edinburgh
10-Jun-21	HIAL
14-Jun-21	Edinburgh
15-Jun-21	HIAL
15-Jun-21	Edinburgh
16-Jun-21	AGS
16-Jun-21	HIAL
17-Jun-21	HIAL
23-Jun-21	Edinburgh
24-Jun-21	HIAL
25-Jun-21	HIAL
29-Jun-21	AGS
30-Jun-21	Edinburgh, AGS
01-Jul-21	HIAL
02-Jul-21	HIAL
05-Jul-21	Prestwick
08-Jul-21	HIAL
08-Jul-21	Edinburgh, AGS
12-Jul-21	HIAL
12-Jul-21	HIAL
15-Jul-21	HIAL
15-Jul-21	Edinburgh, AGS
24-Aug-21	HIAL
25-Aug-21	HIAL
26-Aug-21	HIAL
06-Oct-21	HIAL
07-Oct-21	HIAL
08-Dec-21	HIAL
09-Dec-21	HIAL

Question reference: S6W-00817

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 9 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent each year on the Fair Start Scotland (FSS) programme in (a) Angus and (b) the rest of the country, and whether it will carry out an impact assessment of FSS to determine (i) its effectiveness and (ii) whether it is offering value for money.

Financial expenditure data relating to Fair Start Scotland is broken down by contract area, rather than by Local Authority area. For a breakdown of these contract areas, please refer to Annex A of the Fair Start Scotland Annual Report .

The anticipated spend on Fair Start Scotland is regularly published by the Scottish Fiscal Commission and is based on performance levels set within provider contracts. As this is dependent on provider performance in supporting people into sustainable employment this figure is subject to some variation.

The Scottish Government proactively publishes information relating to the annual spending on Fair Start Scotland. Annex B of the Fair Start Scotland Annual Report published on 9 th November 2020 outlines the total expenditure in its first two years of delivery. Further information on annual spend will be published in future publications.

The Scottish Government also publishes annual Evaluation reports that fully assess the effectiveness of the service. These reports include commissioned research with service users, delivery partners and providers, as well as ongoing analysis of performance. Links to the first two Evaluation reports can be found below. The next Evaluation report is due to be published in September 2021.

Fair Start Scotland evaluation report 2: overview of year one - November 2019 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Fair Start Scotland - evaluation report 3: year two - overview - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Question reference: S6W-00816

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 28 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to figures recording that 85.19% of people from Angus who were referred to the Fair Start Scotland (FSS) programme did not remain in work for more than six months and, in light of this, what action it is taking to address reported concerns that the FSS scheme in the county is not adequately resourced.