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: S6W-03157

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 4 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when it anticipates it will achieve its aim of spending 10% of the overall transport budget on active travel.

Question reference: S6W-03064

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Monday, 20 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 4 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether the further analysis to consider the distributional impacts of decarbonising homes and buildings, which was referred to in the Draft Heat in Buildings Strategy in February 2021, has been commissioned.

We are conducting analysis to consider the distributional impacts of decarbonising our homes and buildings in response to policy developments. We have commissioned analysis using the National Household Model and this has helped us consider the impact on fuel poor households. We will publish details of this modelling exercise by the end of the year.

We have also commissioned research to better understand the financial implications of adopting a range of zero emissions heating technologies across a number of common housing archetypes, and the extent to which fuel costs can be reduced by the installation of storage and microgeneration technologies. This work is expected to be published in early 2022. Further work will be commissioned as the policy and regulatory environment evolves.

Question reference: S6W-03165

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 4 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much sportscotland has invested in each local authority area (a) in each year since 2012-13 and (b) since April 2021.

As the national agency for sport, sport scotland invests Scottish Government and National Lottery resources to help the people of Scotland get the most from the sporting system. sport scotland works in partnerships with Scottish Governing Bodies of sport (SGBs), local authorities, leisure trusts, sports clubs and community organisations, schools, colleges, and universities to provide greater opportunities for all to participate in sport.

sport scotland’s investment in each local authority area, in each year, since 2012-13 can be found from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 62729)

This data covers investment by sport scotland, in both the local authority and other organisations in the local authority area, including investment for Active Schools, Community Sport Hubs, Sport Facilities Fund, National and Regional Facilities, Transforming Scottish Indoor Tennis Fund, Cycling Facilities Fund, Cashback for Communities, Active Places Fund, National Lottery Awards for All, Direct Club Investment, COVID-19 Ice Rink Funding, COVID Loss of spectator funding, and Get Into Summer.

Question reference: S6W-03054

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 4 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether a review was carried out of post-diagnosis dementia services in the first four months of 2021, as mentioned in the Dementia and COVID-19 national action plan.

The Scottish Government has been working with partners including Integration Joint Boards, COSLA and Alzheimer Scotland through the first four months of 2021 and subsequently to review the provision of dementia post-diagnostic services.

This year’s Programme for Government confirmed that we would provide extra resources to help ensure that everyone who is entitled to the service has the option for referral. We will be allocating the annual equivalent of £3.5m for this purpose on a recurring basis.

Question reference: S6W-03192

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 4 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of what the impact would be of including a re-melt target for glass collected under the forthcoming deposit return scheme.

As per the answer to question S5W-33510 on 2 December 2020, the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) Full Business Case ( https://www.gov.scot/publications/deposit-return-scheme-scotland-full-business-case-stage-1/ ) was developed on the basis of glass being collected whole under Scotland’s DRS. Glass collected whole is suitable for re-melt, subject to minimal handling losses.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Question reference: S6W-03184

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 4 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the comment in the Programme for Government that “Current plans are to fully dual the A96 from Inverness to Aberdeen; however, we will undertake a transparent, evidence-based review of that, to include a climate compatibility assessment to assess direct and indirect impacts on the climate and the environment, reporting by the end of 2022”, whether the decision to hold a review arose as a consequence of the discussions that it held with the Scottish Green Party regarding reaching a cooperation agreement.

Question reference: S6W-03241

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 4 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of SEPA staff are actively involved in site inspection and compliance assessment, and whether this has changed since the cyber-attack on 24 December 2020.

Question reference: S6W-03180

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 4 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether an individual travelling to Scotland who has received two COVID-19 vaccinations, but has received a different vaccine for each dose, will still count as fully vaccinated with regards to travel and isolation guidance.

Inbound international travel restrictions were eased across the four nations on 4 October. These changes mean that people who have received two doses of different vaccines are regarded as having completed a full course of the vaccine and therefore are treated as ‘fully vaccinated’ for travel purposes. This applies to people who have been vaccinated by accepted vaccines in countries that are already eligible under the vaccinated traveller policy.

Travellers from non-red list countries who have been fully vaccinated in a country that meets recognised standards of certifications will no longer be required to provide evidence of a negative test result before they can travel to Scotland, and will not be required to self-isolate or take a day 8 test. They must still currently take a day 2 PCR test, though we have announced that we intend to align with the UK post-arrival testing regime later in October, with further details to be announced in due course.

Those who are not considered eligible fully vaccinated travellers must continue to take a pre-departure test, self-isolate for 10 days upon arrival and take day 2 and 8 tests. All arrivals from red list countries must continue to book and stay for 10 days in a managed isolation hotel.

Travel restrictions are in place to prevent cases of COVID-19 being imported to Scotland. Travel restrictions will be in place as long as they are required and Scottish Government will continue to liaise with affected groups and stakeholders over any restrictions and exemptions that may apply.

Further guidance for international arrivals can be read at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-international-travel-quarantine/pages/red-amber-and-green-list-countries/

Question reference: S6W-02293

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 16 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 4 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-00855 by Humza Yousaf on 19 July 2021, whether it will provide equivalent information on (a)(i) amber- and (ii) yellow-coded calls and (b) the total number of calls responded to over the same period.

Please find the requested information set out in the following table.

Purple/Red/Amber/Yellow Incidents Attended, 01-01-2017 - 31/05/2021

		2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Purple	Incidents Attended	8,677	9,591	13,547	15,091	6,987
	>8 Minutes	2,544	2,874	4,463	6,278	2,978
	>8 Minutes %	29.3%	30.0%	32.9%	41.6%	42.6%
	>10 Minutes	1,623	1,826	2,903	4,243	1,992
	>10 Minutes %	18.7%	19.0%	21.4%	28.1%	28.5%
	>15 Minutes	542	604	1,028	1,518	790
	>15 Minutes %	6.2%	6.3%	7.6%	10.1%	11.3%
	>20 Minutes	206	230	376	608	314
	>20 Minutes %	2.4%	2.4%	2.8%	4.0%	4.5%
Red	Incidents Attended	55,549	67,535	80,867	70,105	32,923
	>8 Minutes	21,214	28,568	37,101	36,495	17,529
	>8 Minutes %	38.2%	42.3%	45.9%	52.1%	53.2%
	>10 Minutes	13,933	19,238	25,877	26,043	13,042
	>10 Minutes %	25.1%	28.5%	32.0%	37.1%	39.6%
	>15 Minutes	5,293	7,632	10,610	10,989	6,006
	>15 Minutes %	9.5%	11.3%	13.1%	15.7%	18.2%
	>20 Minutes	2,339	3,381	4,783	4,931	2,804
	>20 Minutes %	4.2%	5.0%	5.9%	7.0%	8.5%
Amber	Incidents Attended	105,429	119,018	152,784	176,805	82,021
	>8 Minutes	70,466	87,016	118,086	145,243	69,955
	>8 Minutes %	66.8%	73.1%	77.3%	82.1%	85.3%
	>10 Minutes	57,333	72,152	101,481	128,125	63,024
	>10 Minutes %	54.4%	60.6%	66.4%	72.5%	76.8%
	>15 Minutes	30,226	41,185	64,791	87,859	46,120
	>15 Minutes %	28.7%	34.6%	42.4%	49.7%	56.2%
	>20 Minutes	14,096	21,252	38,611	57,032	31,801
	>20 Minutes %	13.4%	17.9%	25.3%	32.3%	38.8%
Yellow	Incidents Attended	326,824	318,361	295,428	238,862	87,232
	>8 Minutes	237,968	256,714	245,468	205,797	79,726
	>8 Minutes %	72.8%	80.6%	83.1%	86.2%	91.4%
	>10 Minutes	208,160	230,742	225,055	190,443	75,636
	>10 Minutes %	63.7%	72.5%	76.2%	79.7%	86.7%
	>15 Minutes	147,207	175,591	180,932	156,806	66,670
	>15 Minutes %	45.0%	55.2%	61.2%	65.6%	76.4%
	>20 Minutes	103,170	131,965	144,713	129,370	59,113
	>20 Minutes %	31.6%	41.5%	49.0%	54.2%	67.8%

SAS launched its New Clinical Response Model (NCRM) in November 2016, based on a detailed clinical analysis of around half a million 999 calls. Since then, following triage, 999 calls are coded to one of five categories based on the likelihood of serious outcomes or the requirement for specific interventions:

Purple: where a patient is identified as having a 10% or more chance of cardiac arrest.

Red: where a patient is identified as having a likelihood of cardiac arrest between 1% and 9.9%,or having a need for resuscitation interventions such as airway management above 2%.

Amber: where a patient is likely to need diagnosis and conveyance to definitive care.

Yellow: a patient who has a need for emergency care but has a very low likelihood of requiring life-saving interventions. For example, patients who have tripped or fallen but not sustained any serious injury.

Green: a patient does not fit the above categories and there is potential for an alternative care pathway.

Question reference: S6W-02561

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 4 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding whether digitised patient health records can be easily accessed by different bodies within the NHS, such as GP clinics, NHS boards and dentists.

We continue to work with key partners across Scotland to ensure that relevant information from patient health records is available to healthcare staff when and where they need it. Significant investment in national IT systems, such as those for GP practices and the TrakCare hospital patient management system in secondary care, has improved the flow of information across different healthcare settings and services. In addition, the availability of Regional Clinical Portals, the roll out of HEPMA ( Hospital Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration ) and availability of the patient Emergency Care Summary (ECS) to Community Pharmacists, Dentists and Optometrists have all improved the accessibility and quality of electronic patient information available to frontline staff.

Further improvements will be made including the implementation of Office365 across the entire NHS. This will include the rollout of single identities for NHS staff which will simplify secure access to relevant patient information. The refreshed Digital Health & Care Strategy, scheduled to be published in September 2021, will set out ambitions for greater access to medical information both for staff and the public.