Willie Rennie

30 Nov 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government when it expects to publish its national action plan to tackle violence in schools.

Answer · Jenny Gilruth: The national action plan will be developed in collaboration with the Scottish Advisory Group on Relationships and Behaviour in Schools. This is next scheduled to meet on 12 December. We will publish the plan as soon as possible in the new year.  

20 Nov 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made on developing and delivering the Student Mental Health Action Plan.

Answer · Graeme Dey: Following the publication of the Scottish Government’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy in summer and Mental Health and Wellbeing Delivery Plan and Mental Health Workforce Plan in autumn we will shortly consult on a draft Student Mental Health Action Plan…

20 Nov 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the commitment to publish the Student Mental Health Action Plan, which was included in its Programme for Government for previous years, was not included in its Programme for Government for 2023-24.

Answer · Graeme Dey: The Programme for Government 2021-22 and 2022-23 committed to a Student Mental Health Action Plan and Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy respectively. The Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy was published in Summer 2023 and is supported by a Mental Health…

20 Nov 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Student Mental Health and Wellbeing Working Group not having met since January 2023, when it will next meet.

Answer · Graeme Dey: The Student Mental Health and Wellbeing Working Group was established to advise on the implementation of Programme for Government commitments related to student mental health, which have now been met in full. In addition, the Group was remitted to assist in t…

2 Nov 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the residency eligibility criteria in the UK Government's Funding guidance for young people 2022 to 2023 including holders of Hong Kong British National (Overseas) visas, whether people from Hong Kong with a British National (Overseas) visa will be eligible for “rest of UK” …

Answer · Graeme Dey: From Academic Year 2023-24 all students who meet the following criteria will be eligible for home fees status and student financial support in Further Education and Higher Education: Ordinarily resident in the UK for three years prior to the relevant date; …

31 Oct 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many households (a)(i) were eligible for and (ii) received support in each year of phase one and (b)(1) are eligible for and (2) will receive support in each year of phase two, of the Warmer Homes Scotland scheme.

Answer · Patrick Harvie: Due to the nature of the eligibility criteria, the number of households eligible to apply for the scheme varies according to the number of households in receipt of the relevant social security benefits at any given time. However analysis of the eligibility cr…

31 Oct 2023 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Government what the current average processing time is for Adult Disability Payment applications.

27 Oct 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many applicants in total there have been for Adult Disability Payment since it was launched; of those, how many in total have waited more than (a) eight, (b) nine and (c) 10 weeks for a decision; what the median waiting time has been for all applications, and what the longest time is…

Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: Statistics relating to Adult Disability Payment are published quarterly – the latest releases covers the period to 31 st July 2023 and is available on the Social Security Scotland website: Social Security Scotland - Adult Disability Payment: high level stati…

26 Oct 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-12674 by Mairi McAllan on 14 December 2022, whether it will provide an update on which of the 42 formal flood protection schemes or engineering works are (a) under construction and (b) at the planning or other stage of development, broken down by (i…

Answer · Mairi McAllan: Local authorities are responsible for the development and delivery of flood protection schemes. The 2015-2021 Flood Risk Management Strategies included 42 formal flood protection schemes. Local authorities were expected to start work on development of these s…

24 Oct 2023 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its consideration of the proposal for a railway station in Newburgh, Fife.

17 Oct 2023 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it consulted Elon Musk as part of its R100 programme.

25 Sep 2023 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will make a public apology, in light of reports that it did not deliver its policy of 100% coverage of superfast broadband by December 2021.

Answer · Richard Lochhead: As outlined earlier this year in response to a similar question from Mr Rennie, our over £600 million investment in the R100 contracts, our R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme and continued commercial coverage – including the emergence of newer technologie…

13 Sep 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to make changes to the General Revenue Grant if its proposals to change the council tax multipliers for properties in bands E to H are implemented, and, if so, what effect this would have on the distribution of funding among different local authorities.

Answer · Tom Arthur: The consultation has closed, the responses will be considered carefully along with the analysis and no decisions have been taken. The local government needs-based formula used to distribute the quantum of funding available for Local Government is kept under c…

13 Sep 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether local authorities would retain all of the additional council tax revenue raised from properties within their local area under its proposals to change the council tax multipliers for properties in bands E to H.

Answer · Tom Arthur: Revenue from Council Tax is retained in full by councils and is not part of the Scottish Government’s funding allocation to local government. Council Tax is expected to contribute around £2.9 billion towards the funding of local public services in 2023-24. Th…

12 Sep 2023 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Government what the increase in patient charges for NHS dental treatment will be.

1 Sep 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the report, Synthetic Opioids: A Whole System Response to a Public Health Emergency, by the charity, Cranstoun, and what action it plans to take in response to the reported emergence of synthetic opioids in the supply of drugs in the UK.

Answer · Elena Whitham: The appearance of synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl, in the Scottish drug supply has been a concern for some time. At the end of 2022 PHS flagged a small number of deaths related to nitazenes, a new synthetic opioid and issued a public health alert as a res…

28 Aug 2023 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that increasing numbers of dentists are leaving the NHS.

28 Aug 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made on rejoining international surveys on literacy and numeracy, and in what year it will be possible to make comparisons between Scotland and other European countries.

Answer · Jenny Gilruth: Officials have met with the International Association for the Evaluation of Education Achievement, who direct PIRLS and TIMSS, to begin the process of rejoining the studies. The next cycles of PIRLS and TIMSS will be in 2026 and 2027 respectively. Results fo…

28 Aug 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of pupils have had at least one week away at an outdoor centre in the last 12 months.

Answer · Natalie Don: Scottish Government does not collect the data requested. However the Scottish Advisory Panel for Outdoor Education (SAPOE), which is the forum for Local Authority representatives to consider and debate best practice in the development and safe delivery of Out…

28 Aug 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many pupils have had musical instrument lessons at school in each year since 2016.

Answer · Jenny Gilruth: The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. The Improvement Service’s annual Instrumental Music Survey of local authorities, does, however contain data on number of pupils that participated in instrumental music lessons from ac…

28 Aug 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to establishing a museum of slavery highlighting Scotland’s colonial history.

Answer · Christina McKelvie: Following the motion passed by the Scottish Parliament showing solidarity with anti-racism in June 2020, funding was provided to Museums Galleries Scotland for the Empire, Slavery and Scotland's Museums project, which was run by an independent steering group,…

28 Aug 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has fully implemented the recommendations of the LGBTI Inclusive Education Working Group, and what its latest statutory guidance is on the conduct of relationships, sexual health and parenthood education for schools.

Answer · Jenny Gilruth: 27 of the 33 recommendations of the LGBTI Inclusive Education Working Group have been delivered. The LGBT Inclusive Education Implementation Group is continuing to work on the outstanding recommendations, with further delivery expected by the end of the curre…

28 Aug 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many classrooms in Scotland are inaccessible to wheelchair users.

Answer · Jenny Gilruth: The Scottish Government do not hold this information. All local authorities in Scotland have a statutory responsibility to manage and maintain their school estate and the Scottish Government expect them to provide an accessible environment for all school use…

28 Aug 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many places on secondary school teacher training courses there were in 2022, and how many of these were filled, broken down by subject.

Answer · Jenny Gilruth: Tables published on the Scottish Government website https://www.gov.scot/publications/teacher-workforce-planning-advisory-group-initial-teacher-education-intake-figures-2022/ show provisional information received from universities on intakes to initial teac…

28 Aug 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many P1 children have taken (a) one part and (b) both parts of the National Standardised Assessments for Scotland since 20 September 2018, broken down by (i) school year and (ii) local authority area.

Answer · Jenny Gilruth: The following table provides an overview of P1 learners who have undertaken (a) one or (b) both parts of the Scottish National Standardised Assessments since 20 September 2018, broken down by (i) school year and (ii) local authority. The row "n/a" denotes pu…

28 Aug 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will make pupils who speak English as a second language eligible within the criteria for Pupil Equity Funding.

Answer · Jenny Gilruth: Although Pupil Equity Funding is allocated directly to schools on the basis of the estimated number of children and young people in P1-S3 registered for free school meals, headteachers can use their professional judgement to identify any children in their sch…

28 Aug 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many pupils at Scottish schools currently speak English as a second language.

Answer · Jenny Gilruth: There are 66,265 pupils in publicly funded schools in Scotland with English as an additional language, based on the 2022 pupil census. Statistics on pupils with English as an additional language are published annually in the Pupil Census Supplementary Stati…

28 Aug 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what it has done to support schools in teaching about the climate emergency.

Answer · Jenny Gilruth: In Scotland, the climate emergency is taught through the cross curricular entitlement of Learning for Sustainability (LfS). LfS has been a feature of Curriculum for Excellence since 2012 and has gained international interest and recognition, with other countr…

3 Aug 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-06946 by Maree Todd on 14 March 2022, what its response is to the reported comments of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde that the implementation of water fluoridation "would need to be considered on a Scotland-wide or regional basis"; what discussions i…

Answer · Jenni Minto: In Scotland, under current water quality legislation, the initiative for fluoridation of drinking water supplies rests with local NHS Boards. There are currently no plans to fluoridate the public water supply in Scotland, and any decision to do so would be th…

3 Aug 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown for each financial year that the Agri-Environment and Climate Scheme has been in operation of how many applications to the scheme have been (a) received and (b) rejected, and, in relation to any rejected applications, what the annual cost (i) to Nature…

Answer · Mairi Gougeon: Applications are categorised as ‘Rejected’, ‘Unsuccessful’ or ‘Successful’. ‘Rejected’ applications are those that were ineligible due to failing the initial eligibility checks. As such, these applications do not progress on to be fully assessed. ‘Unsuccessfu…