Questions and answers

Question reference: S6O-00776

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 February 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the reasons are for its decision not to publish the draft of the OECD report, Curriculum For Excellence: Into The Future, that it received in January 2021.

Question reference: S6W-05971

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ash Regan on 9 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what protections are in place to prevent legal aid being used to bring forward spurious cases in (a) general and (b) relation to family law.

Legal aid applications are prepared by an applicant’s solicitor, who provides all the details of the case to the Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB). Solicitors have professional duties not only to their client, but to SLAB and to the court; therefore it would not be professionally appropriate for a solicitor to submit an application for legal aid if they were of the view that a client’s case was “spurious”.

Legal aid is granted only if the applicant meets the strict eligibility criteria set out in legislation, which apply to all civil cases, including family law matters. This includes the merits of a case. Applicants need to demonstrate that they have a sound legal basis for their case, and that it is reasonable for legal aid to be made available. When looking at the reasonableness test, The Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB) considers a range of factors including whether the application is premature and whether there are reasonable prospects of success. If the criteria are not met then legal aid will be refused.

Opponents will generally be notified when an application for legal aid is submitted and have the opportunity to make representations to SLAB prior to legal aid being granted. Opponents can also provide any additional information which may affect the merits of the case during its lifetime after legal aid has been granted and does not require legal representation.

Question reference: S6W-05972

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 9 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reported concerns regarding the recruitment of new volunteers at Children's Hearings Scotland and reported failures to update internal processes.

The recruitment and appointment of children’s panel members is the statutory responsibility of the National Convener of Children’s Hearings Scotland (CHS). A 2022 recruitment campaign is underway. The 2021 recruitment campaign for panel members won a Scottish Public Services Award for communications.

Scottish Government officials hold regular sponsorship and accountability meetings with CHS. Monitoring information on performance against agreed indicators and finance are routinely provided to the Scottish Government. The Scottish Government has received no information that would indicate that there are significant concerns regarding the recruitment of new volunteers, or regarding any CHS internal processes.

Although Scottish Ministers are not responsible for day to day operational matters of public bodies, and Ministers neither direct nor guide the National Convener in relation to specific statutory functions, I have asked officials to make enquiries with CHS for any further information.

CHS have advised that they are not aware of anyone raising concerns regarding this year’s recruitment process, or any failures of internal processes. CHS reported some minor revision activity on internal policies, which has either been completed or is on schedule.

Question reference: S6W-05973

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 9 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Minister for Children and Young People will meet with people who have raised concerns about human rights compliance in relation to the treatment of volunteers at Children's Hearings Scotland.

The Scottish Government is aware of a small number of people who have raised concerns based on how they see rights requirements pertaining to volunteer roles with Children’s Hearings Scotland.

Officials and Ministers have extensively engaged on this subject with individual correspondents and Members on multiple occasions over the course of the last Parliament. Detailed information and reassurance on the context of relevant legislation, the autonomy of statutory office holders like the National Convener and the appropriate demarcation of roles in relation to the sponsorship of Non Departmental Public Bodies have been covered extensively. Children’s Hearings Scotland have communicated their position. Ministers have no locus in these matters.

Question reference: S6W-05974

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 8 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many title holders are awaiting copies of their title deeds from Registers of Scotland.

This is a question for the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland (RoS). She advises me that, as of 02 February 2022, there are 79,831 dispositions undergoing registration. RoS receives and processes over 550,000 applications on average every year, of which 90% are completed in 20 days. In the Land Register the legal effect of registration backdates to the date on which the Keeper entered the application onto the application record (the date of receipt) and properties undergoing registration can still be transacted upon in the usual way.

Performance data is published regularly on ros.gov.uk.

Question reference: S6W-05445

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 31 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what recent estimate it has made of the cost of outstanding local authority road repairs bills, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-05208

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 31 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to COSLA leaders’ agreement, as notified in the elected members briefing of 6 July 2021, to pause Flood Risk Management schemes that were not legally committed by local authorities, what its position is on how the term “not legally committed” should be (a) interpreted and (b) applied by local authorities.

COSLA recommended that a “non-legally committed” scheme is defined, for this purpose, as a scheme that has not been notified under schedule 2 of the Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009. This did not mean that current contracts should be immediately stopped but they should be paused at an appropriate time, where practicable, for example when a key project milestone is reached. Local authorities should not begin the notification process for Cycle 1 schemes if they have not already done so.

Question reference: S6W-05661

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how Scottish-domiciled individuals who received a COVID-19 vaccine in the United States can prove their vaccination status.

Scottish residents who received a full course of their COVID-19 vaccination overseas are currently not able to have a Scottish record of vaccination, or to use the NHS Scotland Covid Status App. Instead, they should obtain proof of vaccination from the country where they received their vaccine.

For those who have received one dose in Scotland and one dose internationally, you can obtain your vaccination status showing the dose administered in Scotland following the normal process outlines on NHS Inform. For the dose administered internationally, this will need to be requested from the country you were vaccinated in.

We are currently working to expand our digital solution to record vaccines which have been administered in Europe and internationally.

For domestic certification purposes, we accept proof of vaccination from across the UK and Crown Dependencies, as well as the Digital Covid Certificate Scheme – which Scotland is part of. Visitors from other nations, such as the USA, will need to provide the same proof of vaccination status that is accepted for entry into the UK.

Question reference: S6W-05440

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 28 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether independent travel agents will be included in support schemes for those who have seen their businesses disrupted by COVID-19.

We know this is a difficult time for the independent travel agents and we have had to make tough decisions to target funding to sectors immediately impacted by the updated public health guidance.

Since the start of the pandemic, businesses have benefitted from more than £4.4bn in support from the Scottish Government. This includes support for travel agents who benefited from sectoral grants of up to £25,000 per premises this year in addition to other support including the Strategic Framework Business Fund grants, Restart Grants, Contingency Fund, Non-Domestic Rates relief and furlough payments for staff.

We recently announced £375m of support for businesses impacted by the necessary public health measures introduced to control the spread of Omicron and have provided details on how £266 million of this will be allocated. Decisions on the allocation of the remaining funds will be confirmed following further consultation with affected sectors on how it can best be targeted.

Question reference: S6W-05662

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 27 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many non-disclosure agreements SQA employees have been asked to sign in each of the last five years, and for what reasons.

I have asked SQA to respond:

SQA has not entered into any non-disclosure agreements in the past 5 years. In accordance with the Scottish Public Finance Manual, SQA has entered into settlement agreements and COT3 agreements both of which include a confidentiality clause. A COT3 is a form of settlement agreement which is reached with the assistance of ACAS, usually before a tribunal takes place. The agreements do not under any circumstances prevent an employee from making a protected disclosure under whistleblowing legislation.

Please find below the numbers of settlement agreements and COT3 agreements over the last 5 years.

2018

1 settlement agreement

2 COT3 agreements

2019

2 settlement agreement

2020

2 COT3 agreements

Due to the very small numbers involved, SQA cannot provide details of the reasons as this could lead to identification of individuals and would be in breach of data protection.

Tell us your views

Chamber and committees