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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 41367 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-04870

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 14 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the Scottish Census is reportedly over budget by £21.6 million.

As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, Ministers agreed to move the date of Scotland’s Census from March 2021 to March 2022. This decision was taken to address significant pandemic risks to the successful completion of the census and to the delivery of the benefits required by the people of Scotland.

The impact of an extra year adds to the programme lifecycle cost, with the major financial implications of the move to 2022 being:

The cost of extending suppliers contracts; and
The programme’s headcount being maintained for an extra year.

National Records of Scotland (NRS) undertook significant engagement with the multiple census suppliers, with initial and final repricing exercises, interrogation of costs and an extensive resource planning exercise. This work assessed estimated additional costs of up to £21.6m for the delivery of Scotland’s Census in 2022 across the remaining lifecycle of the programme.

NRS continues to deliver against the revised plan with arrangements for Scotland’s Census 2022 well advanced.

Question reference: S6W-04697

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 14 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much additional funding it will allocate to NHS Ayrshire and Arran to manage drug-related hospital stays, in response to recent Public Health Scotland statistics, which state that the NHS board had the highest rate of drug-related hospital stays in 2020-21.

Integrated Joint Bodies are best placed to decide how funding can be used to best respond to local needs in their own communities. To allow them to do so, Scottish Government funding to support Alcohol and Drug Partnership projects is transferred to the NHS Boards via their baseline allocations for onward delegation to Integration Authorities. This year NHS Ayrshire and Arran received £6,779,624.

That funding has increased dramatically as part of the national mission to tackle the drug deaths emergency in Scotland: we are allocating an additional £250 million over the next five years to improve and increase access to services for people affected by drug addiction.

We are clear that any opportunities to engage with people in crisis, including those who have experienced near-fatal overdose, should be explored in order to encourage access to appropriate treatment. The implementation of the new Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) standards will ensure that anyone identified through hospital admission as being at risk of drug-related harms or near-fatal overdose will be identified, prioritised and supported into the treatment that is right for them.

Question reference: S6W-04649

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 14 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what steps are being taken to reduce the waiting times for orthopaedic surgery in NHS Dumfries and Galloway.

The Scottish Government is continuing to work with the operational and clinical teams in NHS Dumfries and Galloway to support the remobilisation of all services, including surgery for orthopaedic patients.

Whilst local capacity for surgery has been reduced, due to ongoing pressures, the Board have utilised orthopaedic capacity at Golden Jubilee National Hospital for a mix of routine long waiting patients and urgent patients.

To support the system as a whole we published our NHS Recovery Plan, which is backed by more than £1 billion of investment, sets out how we will take forward our aim of increasing NHS capacity by at least 10% in order to address the backlog of care and meet the ongoing healthcare needs of the country.

Question reference: S6T-00362

Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Linlithgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take in response to the British Academy of Audiology report on NHS Lothian's Paediatric Audiology Services, which was requested by NHS Lothian following a review by the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman.

Question reference: S6T-00356

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what flexibility will be afforded for the installation of interlinked fire alarms in light of recent reports about the available funding for low-income households.

Question reference: S6F-00604

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 13 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 December 2021

To ask the First Minister whether the Scottish Government will set up a commission on preventing violence against women and girls, in light of reports that one in five teenage girls have been sexually assaulted.

Question reference: S6F-00590

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 December 2021

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government’s response is to the latest household waste statistics from SEPA, which reportedly show a small reduction in household recycling in 2020 compared with 2019.

Question reference: S6F-00593

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 December 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 December 2021

To ask the First Minister what discussions she has had with COSLA regarding the local government funding settlement for 2022-23.

Question reference: S6F-00584

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 December 2021

To ask the First Minister how a Just Transition can be secured for the Highlands and Islands.

Question reference: S6F-00576

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 December 2021

Question to be taken in Chamber.