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: S6O-02008

Asked by: Colin Beattie, MSP for Midlothian North and Musselburgh, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 March 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what impact increases in prices and energy costs have had on the ability of NHS boards to deliver capital projects.

Question reference: S6O-02002

Asked by: Clare Adamson, MSP for Motherwell and Wishaw, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 March 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its initial assessment is of the potential impact of the Windsor Framework on the food and drink supply chain in Scotland.

Question reference: S6O-02005

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 March 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the recruitment of breast cancer oncologists in NHS Tayside.

Question reference: S6W-15039

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 8 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has assessed the potential impact that Forestry and Land Scotland’s contract with venison dealers in Scotland has had on the ability of land managers to sell venison on to wholesalers.

The Forestry and Land Scotland contract for the sale of venison from Scotland’s national forests and land was awarded by a competitive tender following substantial stakeholder engagement / market research.

The stakeholder engagement / market research considered all aspects of the venison market both in Scotland and the UK and involved the following (amongst others):

Association of Deer Management Groups (ADMG)
Lowland Deer Network
Scottish Quality Wild Venison
Scottish Venison Association
Approved Game Meat Handling Establishments (AGHE) processing venison
Ardgay Game
Highland Game
Simpson Game
Lincolnshire Game
Hubertus Game
Ben Rigby

Following the stakeholder engagement / market research a tender strategy was developed, which detailed how the contract would be structured to maximise the benefits in line with the Scottish Venison Strategy.

Question reference: S6W-14823

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 8 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made, since the Children (Scotland) Bill became an Act in October 2020, regarding its commitment to introduce guidance on children in care maintaining a connection with former foster carers, which was made during the amending stages of the Bill, and, if it is the case that the guidance has not progressed, what it is doing to fulfil its commitment to ensure that children in care do not face any detrimental impact due to such broken relationships.

The Scottish Government values the commitment that foster carers make to providing safe and loving homes for children and young people who are not able to stay with their own families. As part of Keeping The Promise, we are taking action to support children and young people to maintain the connections and friendships that are most important to them.

Whilst the Scottish Government has not published specific guidance on maintaining contact with former foster carers, the principle of helping children and young people maintain positive relationships is at the heart of the Staying Together and Connected guidance published in July 2021. This guidance has been supported by a National Implementation Group whose work is due to conclude in Spring. Part of the Group’s work has been to consider what more we can do to better understand, map and support the key relationships that are important to children and young people.

The Why Not? Trust has developed a Directory called Why Not? Reconnect which provides adults, who experienced foster care in their childhood, the opportunity to reconnect with those foster families who cared for them. The Directory is funded through the Promise Partnership Fund, a Scottish Government Fund aimed at delivering work to Keep The Promise.

Question reference: S6W-14791

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 8 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has directed towards research into postural tachycardia syndrome in each year since 2007.

The Scottish Government’s Chief Scientist Office has not funded any research that is directly related to postural tachycardia from the years 2007 to today.

The Scottish Government’s Chief Scientist Office operates open competitive funding schemes for applied health research projects and fellowships across the wide range of NHS and health challenges in Scotland. These schemes are open to consideration of applications addressing research directed into postural tachycardia syndrome. Applications to these schemes are assessed through independent expert peer-review with funding recommendations made by independent expert committees.

Question reference: S6W-14936

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 8 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the announcement by the UK Government on 20 January 2023 that its Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) will not include glass, and the reported concerns of SMEs regarding the inclusion of glass in Scotland’s DRS, whether it will review its plans to include glass as part of the DRS.

Question reference: S6W-14774

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 8 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it remains committed to restoring 20,000 hectares of Scottish peatland annually, as set out in its Programme for Government 2020-21, and for what reason it reportedly fell 14,630 hectares short of this target in 2021-22.

We remain committed to significantly increasing the rate of restoration as one of the transformative changes needed to meet the targets set out in the Climate Change Plan. In 2020 we set out ambitious plans to invest more than £250 million over ten years to restore at least 250,000 hectares of degraded peatlands by 2030.

Against this target, we have delivered around 64,000 hectares to date at an annual rate of around 6,000 hectares in recent years. This falls short of our annual target of 20,000 hectares. There are a number of reasons for this, including the fact that peatland restoration is a sector in its infancy and has not yet developed significant supply capacity. Contractor capacity is limited, as is the field of technical advisers and agents to support land owners and managers through restoration projects.

Our Peatland Programme is working to address the many barriers to transforming restoration rates in order to meet both current and future targets. We are taking actions to boost supply and demand, to create new levers and incentives through agriculture and land reform, and to increase private investment.

Question reference: S6W-14935

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 8 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the announcement by the UK Government on 20 January 2023 that its Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) will not include glass, whether it will reappraise the financial assumptions for its DRS regarding any additional costs relating to compliance with two different regimes operating in the UK for (a) producers, including (i) labelling, (ii) production and (iii) distribution costs and (b) wholesalers, including the storage of goods in different stock keeping units, and, following of any such reappraisal, whether it will publish a supplementary Financial Memorandum setting out its analysis of any additional costs.

The financial assumptions contained with the Final Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) published in December 2021 show the projected cost to businesses in terms of compliance with the Scottish Deposit Return Scheme (DRS). The UK Government is responsible for providing details to industry regarding the potential financial impact of its DRS. We will continue to work closely with the UK and devolved governments to maximise interoperability of the schemes when they go live.

Question reference: S6W-14853

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 8 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what financial support is available for any organisations that are struggling as a result of the delay in awarding grants from the Children, Young People, Families and Adult Learning Third Sector Fund.

To support organisations currently funded through the Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention & Adult Learning & Empowering Communities (CYPFEI & ALEC) third sector fund, the Scottish Government is maintaining funding to the total value of £3.6m, bridging the period of the three month extension and consideration of CYPFAL applications.

Additionally, the CYPFEI & ALEC fund administrator, The Corra Foundation, are available to organisations who applied to the Children, Young People, Families and Adult Learning third sector fund to offer non-financial support by providing links to third sector interfaces to help identify any alternative funding streams.