- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 14 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether the revised railway decarbonisation plan includes specific targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
Answer
Details of decarbonisation of the Scottish rail network will be outlined in the refreshed Decarbonisation Action Plan.
- Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 14 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will review its policy and guidelines regarding people with alcohol use disorder in the justice system, with a view to addressing any gaps in implementation.
Answer
The Scottish Government is currently working on a National Treatment Specification for Alcohol and Drug Treatment in Scotland.
This document will be informed by numerous sources including the forthcoming UK Clinical Guidelines for Alcohol Treatment and the recently published Public Health Scotland review into Alcohol Brief Interventions as well as key independent reports such as Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problem’s (SHAAP) paper on alcohol use disorder in the justice system.
Officials will work closely with colleagues within the Scottish Prison Service to ensure that the National Treatment Specification fully reflects the importance of the justice system including those resident in the prison estate as an integral part of Scotland’s alcohol treatment provision.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 14 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-18745 by Jenni Minto on 21 June 2023, whether it can provide a full list of meetings of the Scottish Hospice Leadership Group in (a) 2023 and (b) 2024, whether officials attended those meetings, and, if so, whether it can provide a summary of what issues were raised by officials and discussed at each meeting.
Answer
As I set out in answer to question S6W-31933 on 16 December 2024, the Scottish Hospice Leadership Group is comprised of the Chief Executives of most of the independent Scottish hospices and their key partners and is not a Scottish Government group. As such, we do not hold minutes of the group or have summaries of the discussions held.
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
- Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 14 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what (a) CalMac and (b) CMAL are doing to honour the request of Selby Town Council for artefacts of the decommissioned ferry, MV Hebridean Isles, such as the ship's bell and builder's plate, to be salvaged and gifted to the town where the ship was originally built by Cochrane Shipbuilders in 1985 for public display.
Answer
CMAL, as vessel owner, have received a number of applications for items associated with the MV Hebridean Isles retiral from service. These are currently being reviewed by CMAL along with input from CalMac. This list of items for retrieval includes requests made by Selby Town Council. Direct discussions will commence at the start of 2025.
- Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 14 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to support and promote the use of alcohol brief interventions (ABIs) in justice settings.
Answer
The Scottish Government is currently working on a National Treatment Specification for Alcohol and Drug Treatment in Scotland.
This document will be informed by numerous sources including the forthcoming UK Clinical Guidelines for Alcohol Treatment and the recently published Public Health Scotland review into Alcohol Brief Interventions as well as key independent reports such as Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problem’s (SHAAP) paper on alcohol use disorder in the justice system.
Officials will work closely with colleagues within the Scottish Prison Service to ensure that the National Treatment Specification fully reflects the importance of the justice system including those resident in the prison estate as an integral part of Scotland’s alcohol treatment provision.
- Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 14 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the findings of Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems’ paper, Alcohol (In)justice: Position on people with an alcohol use disorder in the justice system.
Answer
The Scottish Government is currently working on a National Treatment Specification for Alcohol and Drug Treatment in Scotland.
This document will be informed by numerous sources including the forthcoming UK Clinical Guidelines for Alcohol Treatment and the recently published Public Health Scotland review into Alcohol Brief Interventions as well as key independent reports such as Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problem’s (SHAAP) paper on alcohol use disorder in the justice system.
Officials will work closely with colleagues within the Scottish Prison Service to ensure that the National Treatment Specification fully reflects the importance of the justice system including those resident in the prison estate as an integral part of Scotland’s alcohol treatment provision.
- Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Angus Robertson on 14 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what it can do to support the Norwegian-UK Strategic Partnership declared on 16 December 2024 as it relates to Scotland.
Answer
The Scottish Government has long recognised the importance of developing strong ties with Norway to fully realise our shared ambitions in devolved areas such as culture, education, energy and climate. The First Minister and the Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs, and Culture both met with the Norwegian Ambassador to the UK when he last visited Scotland for the Nordic Music Days festival. Additionally, the Minister for Climate Action recently visited Stavanger, where he led engagement with the Scottish and Norwegian port sectors. Scottish Government officials, both here in Scotland and overseas in our Nordic office, will continue to engage regularly with Norwegian partners.
While we are broadly supportive of the new Joint Declaration on the Norwegian-UK Strategic Partnership, it was disappointing that the Scottish Government was not given the opportunity to meaningfully contribute to the drafting of the declaration, nor have we been asked to help operationalise it despite the fact that many of the commitments pertain to devolved policy areas.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 14 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what the total repair and maintenance cost for the Parliament building was in (a) 2024 and (b) each of the last five years.
Answer
Building maintenance of the site is carried out through two separate contracts. Noted below is both the planned and reactive/repair maintenance costs for the last 5 years for each contract. Overall total for both contracts being £8,117,010.95 excluding VAT.
Building Maintenance
Planned Reactive/Repair
| 2019/20 | £654,720 | | | | 2019/20 | £117,319.60 |
| 2020/21 | £793,088 | | | | 2020/21 | £31,644.30 |
| 2021/22 | £803,292 | | | | 2021/22 | £39,611.92 |
| 2022/23 | £851,724 | | | | 2022/23 | £34,639.00 |
| 2023/24 | £948,231 | | | | 2023/24 | £56,423.41 |
High Level Maintenance
Planned Reactive/Repair
| 2019/20 | £692,913 | | | | 2019/20 | £20,906.15 |
| 2020/21 | £710,180 | | | | 2020/21 | £15,120.41 |
| 2021/22 | £720,441 | | | | 2021/22 | £17,300.00 |
| 2022/23 | £764,075 | | | | 2022/23 | £15,799.16 |
| 2023/24 | £829,583 | | | | 2023/24 | £17,254.74 |
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 14 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what the total cost was of the recent replacement of the heating and window control systems in MSP offices in the Parliament building.
Answer
The works referred to in your question is part of an existing project to upgrade the Parliament’s Building and Energy Management System (BEMS). The BEMS is a business-critical tool which provides visibility and control of building services, principally the heating, ventilation, air conditioning and domestic hot water systems in all areas of the Holyrood site. The new BEMS replaces an existing system which was installed 20 years ago and at end of life.
The estimated total value for the BEMS project is £3,900,000. This information is published on the Scottish Parliaments Contracts Register under the contract reference NIC-SER-486 at the following link - Contract register | Scottish Parliament Website.
- Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 14 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide support to the Scottish Prison Service in order to upscale the provision of alcohol treatment services to individuals resident in the prison estate.
Answer
The Scottish Government is currently working on a National Treatment Specification for Alcohol and Drug Treatment in Scotland.
This document will be informed by numerous sources including the forthcoming UK Clinical Guidelines for Alcohol Treatment and the recently published Public Health Scotland review into Alcohol Brief Interventions as well as key independent reports such as Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problem’s (SHAAP) paper on alcohol use disorder in the justice system.
Officials will work closely with colleagues within the Scottish Prison Service to ensure that the National Treatment Specification fully reflects the importance of the justice system including those resident in the prison estate as an integral part of Scotland’s alcohol treatment provision.
