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: S6F-01214

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 June 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 June 2022

To ask the First Minister whether she will provide an update on the Scottish Government's policy regarding investment in nuclear fusion technology.

Question reference: S6F-01209

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 June 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 June 2022

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6W-09231

Asked by: Bill Kidd, MSP for Glasgow Anniesland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 June 2022
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Humza Yousaf on 13 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the escalation status of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

Firstly, I want to place on record my thanks to the staff of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde who have continued to support the escalation work whilst delivering patient care. I also want to acknowledge and thank the patients and families for their patience and understand during what I know has been a challenging time.

In response to concerns raised in relation to patient safety and healthcare associated infections at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) and Royal Hospital for Children (RHC), the previous Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport commissioned a number of investigations into the built environment at the hospitals and a review of clinical cases in relation to children who had been treated there. On 22 November 2019 the then Cabinet Secretary escalated NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHS GGC) to Stage 4 of the NHS Board Performance Escalation Framework.

The reports from the investigations that were commissioned between 2019 and 2020 include:

The Independent Review conducted by Dr Andrew Fraser and Dr Brian Montgomery (published June 2020);
The Oversight Board chaired by Professor Fiona McQueen Interim Report (published December 2020);
The Oversight Board Final Report (published March 2021);

The Overview Report of the Case Note Reviews led by Professor Mike Stephens (published March 2021).

There has been significant progress made by NHS GGC regarding the actions of these reviews.

NHS GGC has undertaken a detailed and highly complex programme to implement and evidence action against the 108 recommendations outlined in the Independent Review, Oversight Board and Case Note Review reports.

This represents a substantial NHS GGC wide programme of work, with clinical, managerial and support staff all contributing to the successful completion of the recommendations. An audit process has been established, with audit actions being monitored and tracked and a portfolio of evidence being maintained.

All recommendations have now been completed including both Wards 2A/B being successfully re-opened on 9 March 2022, which has allowed the patients and families to return to the wards and receive the quality care provided by the staff.

As NHS GGC have provided the relevant assurance and evidence to support the delivery of the 108 actions. The Scottish Government therefore accepted the closure of all 108 actions. It was on this basis and on this evidence and assurance that NHS GGC will be de-escalated to Level 2 of the NHS Board Performance Escalation Framework.

As part of this Level 2 escalation, measures will remain in place to ensure Scottish Government officials continue to provide support to NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde as they continue to deliver quality healthcare with the implemented actions and improvements.

Question reference: S6W-09003

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6W-08765

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 10 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether ATMs at retailers’ premises will be exempted from non-domestic rates; how many ATMs will be affected by their removal from the valuation roll, and whether it will consider backdating refunds, in a similar way to that in Wales and England when ATMs were removed from the valuation roll.

The valuation of all non-domestic property, including sites of ATMs, is a matter for the Scottish Assessors who are independent of local and Scottish Government.

We are aware that Assessors have been considering the valuation of ATM sites and recently concluded that in most retail premises it is likely that such sites will be deleted from the Valuation Roll. Assessors are now commencing the process of identifying the ATM sites this will apply to.

Where a property is removed from the Valuation Roll, the ratepayer will be entitled to a refund of any overpaid rates back to the effective date of deletion.

Question reference: S6W-08677

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many meetings of the Cladding Stakeholder Group a minister, other than the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government, has attended since the group was established.

Question reference: S6W-08647

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 10 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on travel expenses for ministers, civil servants or other staff to travel on Edinburgh’s trams network, in each year since 2014.

Edinburgh Tram tickets can be purchased in three ways: centrally via the Travel Management Team; via electronic procurement card (ePC); or the cost claimed back via a Travel and Subsistence (T&S) expenses claim. The total costs for Lothian Bus/Tram tickets are shown in the following table.

In all cases the tickets can be used on either Lothian Buses or Edinburgh Trams and it is not possible to disaggregate the cost for Trams only.

The cost of all tickets bought centrally in 2014 and 2015, and ePC transactions prior to 2019, are not held.

Calendar year	Lothian Bus/ Edinburgh Tram total spend
2014	n/a
2015	n/a
2016	£76,523
2017	£86,296
2018	£100,220
2019	£119,365
2020	£31,721
2021	£245
2022 to date	£153

The total spend includes all travel by Ministers and Civil Servants for travel to and from a range of government buildings, meetings and other government business in and around Edinburgh. Ministers and Civil Servants are encouraged to travel sustainably for work related travel and we are working to encourage more use of public transport by everyone in government in the future.

Question reference: S6W-08681

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made in connection with the recommendations of the Working Group on Mortgage Lending and Cladding, which reported in March 2021.

With the support of stakeholders across industry, the Single Building Assessment programme started in June 2021. All other recommendations are progressing and will further develop based on evidence from the Single Building Assessment pilot. The update to parliament on the 12 May 2022 provided more detail on progress: https://www.gov.scot/publications/update-cladding-remediation-programme-cabinet-secretarys-statement/ .

Question reference: S6W-08683

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many buildings in Scotland have had combustible cladding (a) removed and (b) remediated since the Grenfell Tower fire in June 2017.

Question reference: S6W-08670

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 May 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 10 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will guarantee that any application for Green Freeports in Scotland, which does not include an explicit commitment to supporting the implementation of Fair Work First, will not be successful.