Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-32882

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 15 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reported figures stating that more than £4 million has been spent dealing with infestations of rats, mice, maggots and cockroaches in hospitals and medical facilities, including more than £2 million by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

Question reference: S6W-32880

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 15 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to tackle serious violent crime, in light of reported figures stating that serious violent crime has almost doubled in a decade to more than 1,000 incidents per month.

Any level of violence is a concern but it is not correct to say that serious violent crime has almost doubled in a decade. The number of serious assaults and attempted murders recorded by the police has increased by 9% since 2014-15. However, levels have fallen over the past six years, down 21% from 4,361 in 2018-19 to 3,457 by 2023-24. This is replicated in other sources, with the number of hospital admissions related to assault down by a third between 2014-15 and 2023/24. Despite this encouraging progress we are determined to do more.

That is why, through the Violence Prevention Framework; Supporting documents - Violence prevention framework - gov.scot we have provided over £4 million investment over the last two years, to fund a range of targeted prevention and intervention activity across communities. Key actions so far include:

Extending the support of the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit, to reach more individuals and communities across Scotland, including North and South Lanarkshire, Fife, Highlands, Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Extending the Medics Against Violence Hospital Navigator Programme in two Children’s Hospitals in Aberdeen and Glasgow.
Supporting Medics Against Violence engagement with young people to highlight the consequences of knife carrying and knife injuries in primary schools, youth clubs and secondary schools.
Supporting the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit to develop a community of practice for over 100 police School Liaison Officers across Scotland.
Trained over 800 teachers in schools to provide young people with key messages on violence, reaching 19 local authorities across Scotland.
Supporting YouthLink Scotland to deliver various online and face to face No Knives, Better Lives training sessions to hundreds of practitioners working with young people, in addition to working directly with young people across Scotland.
Supporting Education Scotland to deliver the Mentors in Violence Prevention programme, in schools across all 32 local authorities.

Question reference: S6O-04192

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 January 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to comments made by the Auditor General for Scotland that the “future of the Ferguson Marine Port Glasgow shipyard remains uncertain".

Question reference: S6W-32515

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 8 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to improve community flood defences, in light of reports that fewer than half of projects scheduled to be built by 2021 have been completed.

Local authorities are responsible for the developing and delivering flood protection schemes, supported by Scottish Government funding. The 2015-2021 Flood Risk Management Strategies published by SEPA prioritised 42 flood protection schemes. These schemes require complex planning and consultation and often take years to complete, so it has always been recognised that completion of construction work on all 42 schemes might not have taken place by 2021.

In addition to an annual £42 million provided to local authorities for flood resilience, Scottish Government has committed to an additional £150 million over the course of this Parliament.

Since 2015 this investment has led to the completion of 18 flood resilience projects, including Millport Coastal, one of three completed in 2024. An additional two projects are in an advanced stage and nearing completion.

The National Flood Resilience Strategy published in December underscores Scottish Government’s long term commitment to tackling climate-related challenges. An additional £15 million has been set aside in the draft 2025-2026 Scottish Budget to support the delivery of the Strategy, wider flooding resilience and coastal adaptation work.

Question reference: S6W-32514

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 8 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with ScotRail regarding improving the service's Sunday timetable, in light of reports of disruption during the festive period.

Question reference: S6W-32516

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 8 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what steps it is taking to encourage increased use of public transport, in light of recently reported disruption, delays and staff shortages on the ScotRail network.

Any cancellations, delays or disruptions are disappointing and we recognise the impact that this has on rail users. However cancellations represent a small percentage of the overall number of ScotRail services. ScotRail’s performance is consistently higher than the GB network average.

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-32514 on 8 January 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Question reference: S6W-32090

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 8 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when it expects the lifting of the two-child benefit cap to come into force.

The 2025-26 budget commits to spending £3 million to develop the systems needed to deliver mitigation of the two-child cap, which could lift an estimated 15,000 children out of poverty in Scotland.

The detailed work of building the system and developing legislation to do that has started, however implementation requires, not just the co-operation of the UK Government, but also legislation in the UK Parliament. Officials from both governments have already met to discuss this, and myself are seeking a Ministerial meeting so that this vital policy can be progressed as a priority.

We will start paying families as early as possible in 2026.

Question reference: S6W-32089

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 7 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on progress towards securing the redevelopment of Ardrossan Harbour.

Question reference: S6W-32283

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 13 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 6 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the remit is of the review of the penalties system that is being undertaken as part of the Future Fisheries Strategy body of work, as set out in its paper,The Allocation of Scottish Additional Quota from 2024 Outcome of Consultation Document; who is carrying out the review; which stakeholders will be consulted, and when it will (a) receive and (b) publish the results.

In our consultation document: Allocation of Scottish Additional Quota from 2024, the Scottish Government set out a wish to explore whether a vessel’s history of compliance with regulatory requirements relating to fishing could be utilised as a criterion for allocating Additional Quota.

As noted in our subsequent outcome of consultation document, there were split views on this proposal. The Scottish Government sees merit in exploring withholding Additional Quota on the basis of non-compliance with regulatory requirements. As we set out in the outcome report, this will be taken forward as part of a review of the penalties system. No date is set for when this work will commence, but it will be delivered in line with our Fisheries Management Strategy (2020-2030).

Question reference: S6W-32517

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 30 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what steps it is taking to increase school attendance, in light of its published figures that show a reduction in school attendance rates between 2020-21 and 2022-23.

The 2023-24 Official Statistics on attendance and absence show a slight increase in attendance and reduction in persistent absence. It is acknowledged that the rate of attendance has decreased prior to this as a result of the impact of Covid-19.

The overall attendance rate for 2023-24 was 90.3%, an increase of 0.1 percentage points on 2022-23. The rate of persistent absence for 2023-24 was 31.4%, a reduction of 1.1 percentage points on 2022-23.

The Scottish Government recognises these slight improvements in the most recent data and will continue to implement the national strategic approach to supporting education authorities and schools to improve attendance and reduce absence through engagement and support of children, young people and their families.

As part of this approach, which follows the deep dive on attendance and absence which I commissioned and which was published by Education Scotland in November 2023, there are a range of actions in place to support improved attendance.

Every Local Authority in Scotland has school attendance as a stretch aim, as part of their work on the Scottish Attainment Challenge, and every council in the country has identified action they are taking at school level. This work is being supported by the Pupil Equity Fund.

Education Scotland have developed and published a range of updated practice advice and guidance, established a professional network, and are providing bespoke support to authorities as part of a phased approach to improvement.

The Scottish Government has added additional analysis of data and is publishing data more frequently to support education authorities in understanding their local picture, as part of monitoring and review.

Finally, as I announced in December, there will be a national marketing campaign in the coming year to further enhance the support available.

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