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-00364

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 25 October 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 October 2021

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6T-00222

Asked by: Evelyn Tweed, MSP for Stirling, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 25 October 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what work is being undertaken in response to reports of recent increases in drink spiking and spiking by injection in nightclubs and bars.

Question reference: S6T-00225

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 25 October 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports of NHS Lanarkshire moving to the highest risk level, black, and cancelling elective care, including some cancer procedures.

Question reference: S6W-03602

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 08 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 25 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what assurances it can provide that ordnance clearances taking place as part of the Seagreen Offshore Wind Farm project are not high order detonations.

The marine and European Protected Species licences issued to Seagreen Wind Energy Limited (SWEL) in respect of unexploded ordnance (UXO) clearance activities were conditioned such that high order detonation techniques for UXO clearance are used only when it is not possible to undertake UXO clearance using low yield or low order techniques. All possible opportunities to undertake clearance using low order and low yield techniques must have failed before use of high order detonation techniques. The marine licence also conditions that SWEL must, no later than 28 days following the completion of the licensed activity, submit a written report to the licensing authority which confirms the method used to remove each UXO, the considerations made and justification for selecting the method used to remove each UXO including, as appropriate, the failure of other methods.

Question reference: S6W-03551

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 25 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the reasons for the reported reduction in life expectancy for people in (a) North Ayrshire and (b) Inverclyde between 2016-18 and 2018-2020.

The majority of Scotland’s council areas have experienced a stall in life expectancy growth since 2012-2014. Life expectancy has unfortunately decreased across many areas in Scotland. This trend has also been experienced across the UK.

National Records of Scotland publish official annual statistics on life expectancy by council area. Their report for 2018-2020 can be found here: Life Expectancy in Scotland, 2018-2020 | National Records of Scotland (nrscotland.gov.uk) . Between 2016-2018 and 2018-2020, average life expectancy in Inverclyde reduced from 75.2 to 74.3 for males and 79.6 to 78.6 for females. Average life expectancy in North Ayrshire reduced from 76.3 to 75.3 for males, though female life expectancy increased from 79.9 to 80.1.

It is worth highlighting that deaths from COVID-19 have accounted for the vast majority of the fall in life expectancy across Scotland as a whole, reducing male life expectancy by 16.7 weeks and female life expectancy by 14.3 weeks. Inverclyde and North Ayrshire have sadly experienced some of the highest rates of deaths per local population from COVID-19, with 216.7 per 100,000 population in Inverclyde and 234.6 per 100,000 population in North Ayrshire.

We know that deprivation drives excess mortality, and that areas of high deprivation have increased rates of deaths from COVID-19. Inverclyde and North Ayrshire have a higher proportion of local zones of high deprivation than many other areas in Scotland. We are committed to ending poverty, increasing equitable access to fair employment, education and training, and improving our physical and social environments. We will do this by working more effectively in partnership across government and with our local partners across all sectors.

Our recently published COVID-19 Recovery Strategy sets out how we will tackle many of the deep-rooted inequalities that lead to unfair differences in health and life expectancy. Increasing life expectancy and improving the health for everyone in Scotland remains a clear priority for this Government.

Question reference: S6W-03555

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 25 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to introduce domestic targets for waste based on the carbon metric rather than weight-based targets, as set out in its Zero Waste Plan from 2011.

Question reference: S6W-03574

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 25 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has access to Scotland and sub-Scotland level data on current pension credit take-up.

Question reference: S6W-03558

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 25 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has carried out of the causes of varying recycling performance between local authorities, and when any such analysis will be published.

We are working with industry, local government and environmental groups to develop a route map to deliver our waste and recycling targets for 2025 and beyond. As part of this work, local variation in recycling performance and its causes are being carefully considered, building on the work to identify key challenges and lessons through Scotland’s 2019 Recycling Summit. There are numerous factors that impact on recycling rates, including housing stock, social demographics, rurality, service design & delivery and communication to residents.

Question reference: S6W-03564

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 25 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when it will revise the guidance on face coverings in places of worship.

The Scottish Government is required by law to regularly review all protective measures that are currently in place, such as the mandatory requirement for the wearing of face coverings in most indoor settings, including places of worship. This measure will continue to be monitored and reviewed in relation to evidence on the four harms : the direct impact of COVID-19, other health impacts, societal impacts, and economic impacts.

After a recent review, during which there was careful consideration of all of the current evidence as well as the options available, Ministers determined that the regulations on face coverings remain proportionate and should not change for the present.

At this stage of the pandemic many of the more intrusive restrictions have been lifted, but the virus and the harms that it causes have not gone away. We still continue to see hospital admissions and deaths as a result of COVID and the impacts of long COVID can be significant. That is why it remains important to maximise the use of the remaining measures such as face coverings.

While the vaccination has significantly weakened the link between new cases and serious health harms, it has not been completely broken. It is therefore important that places of worship, along with many other indoor settings, continue their good practice to reduce the spread of the virus.

We are grateful to faith and belief communities for their important role in protecting their congregations and enabling everyone, particularly those at higher risk, to access worship safely.

Question reference: S6W-03510

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 25 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the Flexible Workforce Development Fund has been accessed by private sector organisations contributing to the Apprenticeship Levy in each year since 2017-18.

The reported amount of spend by Levy Paying private sector organisations accessing the Flexible Workforce Development Fund (FWDF) since 2017, as provided by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) and Skills Development Scotland (SDS) who administer the Fund on behalf of the Scottish Government, is:

	Total used by Private sector Levy Payers
2017-2018	£1.68 million
2018-2019	£6.97 million
2019-2020	£6.47 million
2020-2021	£7.04 million

Total	£22.16 million

In 2017-18 c £3.75 million was unattributed in terms of sector.

Information on the type of employers is provided by employers themselves to colleges and SDS during the application process. Delivery of the SDS FWDF funding stream only commenced in 2020-21, when the scheme expanded to include non-levy paying employers and non-college provision.

Due to the significant delivery challenges last year as a result of Covid-19 restrictions, it has been agreed with SFC and SDS to extend the delivery for academic year 2019-20 to the end of December 2021 and for academic year 2020-21 to the end of March 2022. Therefore, the sums relating to 2019-20 and 2020-21 are currently provisional.