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-01748

Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Linlithgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 December 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how its work on justice system reform will improve the situation for victims in criminal court cases who are simultaneously involved in civil proceedings, in particular in instances where victim support is required.

Question reference: S6O-01752

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 December 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the latest Recorded Crime in Scotland statistics.

Question reference: S6O-01749

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 December 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take to improve public safety in Glasgow.

Question reference: S6W-13141

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 21 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many households have been on pre-payment meters in each year since 1999.

The Scottish Government does not hold all of this information. However, a question added to the Scottish Housing Condition Survey in 2016 to allow for more accurate fuel bill estimation means that we are able to provide figures from 2016 in the following table.

Due to enforced changes in response to Covid-19 restrictions the 2020 SHCS was not completed and it was not possible to collect this data as part of the 2021 SHCS. This data is being collected as part of the 2022 SHCS which we expect to publish in late 2023 / early 2024.

Year	Number of households with PPM Meters	Percentage of households with PPM Meters
2016	565,000	23%
2017	529,000	21%
2018	467,000	19%
2019	421,000	17%

Question reference: S6W-13120

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 12 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 21 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to make use of carbon credits to meet its net zero targets, and, if so, what proportion of its targets it aims to achieve through the use of carbon credits.

Question reference: S6W-12985

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 21 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many bed days were lost due to delayed discharge for each hospital in the NHS Highland area, in each year since 2017-18.

The following table shows the number of bed days occupied by people delayed in their discharge in hospitals in NHS Highland for all delay reasons over the period April 2017 to March 2022 by financial year. The hospital of delay represents the location of delay as recorded at the monthly data submission date to which all bed days within the month are assigned. The figures for 2020-21 and
‎2021-22 will have been impacted by the measures put in place to respond to COVID-19.

Number of delayed bed days occupied in NHS Highland hospitals, 2017-18 to 2021-22

Hospital of delay	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22
Argyll and Bute Hospital	61	-	-	-	-
Badenoch and Strathspey Community Hospital	-	-	-	-	919
Cowal Community Hospital	834	345	722	621	860
Islay Hospital	22	387	309	139	170
Victoria Hospital	95	118	90	173	116
Lorn & Islands Hospital	3,744	3,708	2,446	1,258	1,567
Campbeltown Hospital	680	574	401	320	1,068
Dunbar Hospital	144	959	1,276	1,079	1,125
Caithness General Hospital	1,326	1,773	2,442	1,078	1,848
Wick Town and County Hospital	2,288	1,536	1,356	1,564	1,558
Lawson Memorial Hospital	1,253	1,072	1,431	1,242	2,210
RNI Community Hospital	5,050	5,639	4,919	415	1,125
Raigmore Hospital	8,823	8,337	10,925	6,867	8,713
Nairn Town and County Hospital	1,615	2,073	2,623	1,729	2,582
Ian Charles Community Hospital	992	1,066	798	657	84
St Vincent's Hospital	392	271	261	582	282
Belford Hospital	743	949	1,407	1,530	2,164
Mackinnon Memorial Hospital	604	348	41	216	266
Portree Hospital	829	807	217	544	329
Ross Memorial Hospital	2,217	1,793	1,668	1,671	1,207
County Community Hospital Invergordon	4,337	4,932	5,036	3,784	4,708
New Craigs Hospital	3,238	4,496	5,803	4,184	3,333
Mid-Argyll Community Hospital and Integrated Care Centre	1,529	2,077	2,252	1,259	503
Migdale Hospital	2,008	2,044	1,986	899	1,688
Mull and Iona Community Hospital	129	230	313	58	268
NHS Highland	42,953	45,534	48,722	31,869	38,693

1. “-“ in a cell indicates that no data is available as the hospital had either closed or was not yet opened in that year.

2. Delayed bed days occupied represent the number of days a person spends in hospital following their ready for discharge date.

3. Bed days occupied for the following delay reasons are included: health and social care; patient and family related; and code 9 (complex) delay.

4. If a patient’s delayed discharge involved delayed bed days in more than one hospital, all bed days within the month are assigned to the hospital where the patient was located at the monthly data submission date.

Question reference: S6W-12951

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 21 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what immediate action it is taking to reduce overcrowding in (a) University Hospital Monklands and (b) Forth Valley Royal Hospital.

Question reference: S6W-13067

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 09 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 21 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether there is a requirement on local authorities to provide a hot meal as part of school meals.

Local authorities and schools are required to ensure that all food and drink served in schools meets the nutritional standards set out in The Nutritional Requirements for Food and Drink in Schools (Scotland) Regulations 2020. Further information about nutritional standards is available in our Healthy Eating in Schools guidance which is available on the Scottish Government's website through the following web link: Healthy eating in schools: guidance 2020 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

There is no specific requirement for school meals to be hot although it would be difficult to meet the nutritional standards set out in the Regulations without providing hot options. The Regulations provide flexibility for local authority school caterers to design menus which meet local needs and circumstances. This would allow for example, more hot choices to be offered during the colder winter months and more cold options during warmer months.

Question reference: S6W-13068

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 09 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 21 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether there is a legal obligation for local authorities to provide school meals to both those who qualify for free school meals as well as other pupils.

Section 53 of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 provides that local authorities must provide, or secure the provision of, a school lunch free of charge to pupils who meet the eligibility criteria set out within that Act. The national eligibility criteria for free school meals is available through the following web link: School meals - mygov.scot.

In addition to this, free school lunches are available to all children in primaries 1 to 5 and in special schools. This applies to all schools either run by a local authority or which are directly funded through a Scottish Government grant. This policy is not set out in legislation and is delivered through a joint agreement between the Scottish Government and local authorities.

Local authorities also have the flexibility to make discretionary offers of free school meals to children and young people from families who do not meet the national eligibility criteria where they are experiencing financial hardship due to exceptional circumstances. There is nothing within legislation to say when such discretionary offers should be made, since we believe that local authorities should be given the maximum flexibility to consider each approach based upon its own individual circumstances.

Question reference: S6W-13388

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 December 2022
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Michael Matheson on 21 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the Onshore Wind Policy Statement, following the consultation into the draft statement between October 2021 and January 2022.

Today the Scottish Government has published the Onshore Wind Policy Statement, which can be accessed on the Scottish Government website ( https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781805253754 ). This is the result of careful consideration of the 162 responses received during the consultation period.

The Onshore Wind Policy Statement sets out our ambition for 20GW of onshore wind to be operational by 2030. This challenging ambition, which will see Scotland’s onshore wind capacity more than double, is needed now more than ever, to provide clean, affordable, renewable energy.

The Scottish Government will ensure Scotland’s people benefit from this potential, and to this end will form an Onshore Wind Strategic Leadership Group tasked with pushing forward progress against the issues set out in the Policy Statement and with the development of a Scottish Onshore Wind Sector Deal, to be developed over the first half of 2023.

In addition, we will follow the onshore wind policy statement with our draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan in early January which will set out our approach to the energy transition.

Parliament dissolved ahead of election

Chamber and committees

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