- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 4 August 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what support is being provided to clinically vulnerable households for their ongoing PPE needs, including air filters, FFP3 masks, and hand sanitiser.
Answer
As a result of the pandemic, local PPE Hubs were set up all over Scotland to provide free PPE to people providing social care support including to people at highest risk, who need it. The Scottish Government continues to offer free PPE to unpaid carers and provision has been extended to September 2022. Unpaid or family carers who think they require PPE due to their caring role should contact their local carer’s centre and they will advise on how to access supplies locally. If their local carers’ centre is unavailable, they can call the Social Care PPE Support Centre on 0300 303 3020.
With regards to the point on air filters and ventilation I have attached a link to HSE guidance here Overview - Ventilation in the workplace (hse.gov.uk) . You can also find further guidance from Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) CIBSE - Emerging from Lockdown (CIBSE.org) .
Hand-washing and wearing face coverings in indoor public places and on public transport are two of the key things we’re still asking people to do as part of our Covid Sense (gov.scot) campaign.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 4 August 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what data is held on the number of people who died alone in hospital in each year since 1999.
Answer
This information is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 07 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 4 August 2022
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what work it is undertaking to improve access within the Scottish Parliament to reusable period products and encourage people to make the switch from single-use period products.
Answer
The SPCB first agreed
to the provision of free period products at the Holyrood building at their
meeting on 3 May 2018. The SPCB is committed to providing an inclusive working
environment for all staff throughout all stages of their working lives. This
includes creating a culture where staff experiencing problematic periods or
menopausal symptoms get the support they need to manage their symptoms at work.
For a variety of reasons, including the menopause, people may not always
be prepared or have products to hand. The SPCB agreed that this should
not be a barrier to participation in the workplace. The provision of free
products supports the Parliament’s aim to support the mental and physical
health care needs of staff. This is in line with our value of respect.
The restocking of
products is arranged by the cleaning team, who are provided under a contract
managed by the Facilities Management office. The Facilities Management
team are currently working with the cleaning contractor to source a suitable,
sustainable brand for the provision of period products. These should be
available in the near future. Reusable products will not form part of this
offering.
A review of the
provision of period products is planned for this year. The different types of
products available, including reusable, will be considered in that review.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 07 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 4 August 2022
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what consideration has been given to removing plastic bottles from sale in the Scottish Parliament canteen, and switching to more sustainable packaging choices for soft drinks.
Answer
Although single use plastic bottles are not part of the recent Single Use Plastics Ban in Scotland, we are actively exploring with our supplier (Sodexo) on how to remove or reduce plastic bottles from sale within the canteen and other catering outlets at Holyrood. We have asked for a full impact assessment of alternative products to establish if alternative products will deliver a reduced overall carbon footprint and hope to have received this by the end of September. We are also anticipating the launch of the Deposit Return Scheme in Scotland and provided we still use plastic bottles or cans by next summer, will seek to have a reverse vending machine at Holyrood.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 07 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 4 August 2022
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what work has been carried out to assess the use of single-use plastics within the Scottish Parliament.
Answer
In line with our sustainability strategy, we have been compliant with the requirements of the Scottish Single Use Plastics ban for a number of years already. All of our disposable cutlery, hot food and soup containers, salad boxes, coffee cups and lids are made from a compostable material. We have also removed single use cups at water coolers and plastic straws in our bars, as well as switching to jugs of water in the Chamber rather than bottles.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 4 August 2022
To ask the Scottish Government (a) how many times and (b) on what dates it has met with stakeholders that are concerned with cladding remediation, including (i) insurers, (ii) mortgage lenders, (iii) the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and (iv) homeowners, regarding the cladding remediation programme, since the Single Building Assessment pilot began.
Answer
Since the start of the pilot in June 2021 Scottish Government has met individually with:
Association of British Insurers 5 times
- on 13 August 2021, 19 August 2021, 6 October 2021, 11 November 2021,
3 March 2022,
UK Finance 6 times
- on 13 July 2021, 18 August 2021, 19 August 2021, 22 February 2022, 6 April 2022, 21 April 2022
SFRS 2 times
- on 9 July 2021, 15 September 2021
High Rise Scotland Action Group
- 15 times on 30 July 2021, 13 August 2021, 16 August 2021, 19 August 2021, 2 December 2021, 10 December 2021, 17 January 2022, 11 February 2022, 18 February 2022, 4 March 2022, 25 April 2022, 26 April 2022, 9 May 2022, 11 May 2022, 6 July 2022.
Pilot building homeowners association representatives
The Scottish Government has met with all stakeholders collectively at meetings of the Cladding Stakeholder Group. It has met on these dates:
2021
- 30 June, 19 August, 15 September, 20 October, 17 November, 15 December.
2022
19 January, 16 February, 16 March, 20 April, 18 May.
Officials have also met with the SFRS regularly, at times daily, and likewise for homeowners affected by the cladding crisis. It is impossible to attach a figure to these meetings.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 4 August 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many times it has met with Homes for Scotland regarding the development of the Scottish Safer Buildings Accord; what progress has been made with the Accord, and whether it will publish minutes and papers relating to the development of the Accord.
Answer
The Scottish Government has met 8 times with Homes for Scotland directly related to the development of the Scottish Safer Buildings Accord workshops.
We are making significant progress, to date focused around collaborative service design of the high level principles and scope. We are working at pace with our design cohort to refine specific technical criteria and build up granularity to the Accord.
Officials, in keeping with good collaborative working and Service Design, continue to meet regularly with Homes for Scotland out with design workshops and it is impracticable to attach a figure to these.
Discussions are sensitive and of a commercial, financial and legal nature. These will understandably not be published due to the confidential nature of discussions.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 3 August 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on publicity and marketing for Business Growth Accelerator relief on
non-domestic rates since it was introduced.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold a discrete budget line for raising awareness of Non-Domestic Rates reliefs. Information on all non-domestic rates reliefs, including the Business Growth Accelerator, is available on the mygov.scotwebsite , and other websites including those of individual local authorities who similarly promote information on reliefs and how to apply for them. Since 2020-21, following recommendation 14 of the Barclay Review of Non-Domestic rates, all councils have adopted a standardised bill template which includes, amongst other things, direction to ratepayers on how to find information on the range of reliefs available.
Officials also regularly share information, including on any new or expanded reliefs, with a range of stakeholders, including business representative groups at the Scottish Ratepayers Forum and with NDR practitioners at Institute of Revenues, Rating and Valuation forums.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 3 August 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-09163 by Keith Brown on 4 July 2022, whether it can outline in detail (a) when and (b) how the summary case reform pilot will be reported on, and where the reporting will be made publicly available.
Answer
The summary reform pilots are judicially-led and an operational matter for the independent Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS) in collaboration with other criminal justice partners. SCTS advises that while the pilots will be monitored and evaluated throughout, plans to report on their outcomes have yet to be fixed. However the Quarterly Criminal Court Statistics published by SCTS provides quarterly figures on criminal court activity in all High, Sheriff and Justice of the Peace courts, giving national trends as well as detailed figures for local courts in solemn and summary criminal business. The figures for the Pilot courts at Dundee, Hamilton and Paisley Sheriff Courts are and will continue to be, readily accessible via that publication .
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 July 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 3 August 2022
To ask the Scottish Government when it last met with officials from (a) Aberdeen City and (b) Aberdeenshire councils to discuss
the 2023 non-domestic rates revaluation and any potential impact upon business.
Answer
The Scottish Government engages with local authority non-domestic rates practitioners regularly including through monthly forums organised by the Institute for Revenues, Rating and Valuation.
Revaluation is a matter for Scottish assessors who are independent of central and local government.
