- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Alasdair Allan on 17 April 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what criteria it considers appropriate for balancing the cost, visual impact, and safety when assessing major electricity infrastructure projects that run through prime agricultural land.
Answer
Potential impacts on communities, nature, and cultural heritage, including the cumulative effects of developments, are important considerations in the decision-making process.
The decision whether to grant consent for an application is taken only after careful consideration of environmental information, consultee responses and public representations.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Siobhian Brown on 17 April 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to the approach taken in Staffordshire regarding addressing antisocial behaviour on off-road bikes, and whether it will consider a similar approach being taken in Scotland, including in the Mid Scotland and Fife region.
Answer
The Scottish Government is aware of this approach.
Police Scotland have a range of existing powers under road safety and antisocial behaviour legislation and common law to take appropriate action such as seizure of vehicles and disposal where appropriate. They have also pursued awareness campaigns, such as in December 2024, that highlighted concerns around illegal e-bikes, clarified the legal position, and publicised the number of such vehicles that had been seized.
Police Scotland also pursue a range of initiatives based on identified local need such as increased and targeted patrols at hot-spot areas, use of off-road vehicles for pursuit where safe to do so, and potential measures such as use of drones. This flexible local needs approach is undertaken by policing divisions including Mid Scotland and Fife.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 17 April 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to improve the early detection and prevention of liver disease.
Answer
The Scottish Government is supporting the development of UK-wide clinical guidelines on alcohol treatment which will be published this year, and is also committed to publishing a service specification for alcohol treatment and recovery. The clinical guidelines and service specification will set out the need for early detection and prevention of alcohol-related liver disease. Implementation of early detection will build on existing pilot initiatives and services already commissioned in local areas.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 17 April 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many incidents involving (a) patient and (b) staff exposure to sewage leaks in NHS hospitals have been reported in each of the last three years.
Answer
Patient and staff exposure to sewage leaks within NHS Scotland is an issue that is managed locally by NHS Boards, and the Scottish Government does not collect centralised data on this.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Siobhian Brown on 17 April 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the plan by the UK Government, through its Crime and Policing Bill, to increase police powers related to antisocial behaviour on off-road bikes, what consideration it is giving to introducing similar legislation.
Answer
Police Scotland have a range of existing robust powers under road safety and antisocial behaviour legislation and common law to take appropriate action such as seizure of vehicles and disposal where appropriate. We continue to work and engage with Police Scotland to ensure they have the powers they need.
We also liaise with the UK Government where there are reserved matters relating to road safety, including vehicle licencing, off-road vehicles and legal use of both e-scooters and e-bikes. This ongoing collaboration ensures that Scottish interests are considered in any UK-wide decisions affecting road safety including the current legislative proposals. We plan to take this work forward through a cross-party approach.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 17 April 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it has had with legal experts regarding any (a) constitutional and (b) ethical implications of the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill.
Answer
Scottish Government decisions are informed by appropriate analysis of any legal considerations. All legal advice is confidential. It is a long-established convention that legal advice provided to the Scottish Government is not disclosed, and that the Scottish Government does not disclose the source of legal advice other than in the most exceptional circumstances.
The Scottish Government set out its position on the constitutional implications of the Bill, as well as that, given the strong feelings and deeply felt views on this matter, Scottish Ministers would be given a free vote at Stage 1, in a Memorandum to the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee on 30 September 2024. This can be accessed at: Assisted Dying Bill for Terminally Ill Adults SG Memorandum (parliament.scot)
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 17 April 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many international students have been treated at A&E in each NHS board area in each year since 1999.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold the information you have requested as international students cannot be identified from the A&E data collected by Public Health Scotland.
- Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 31 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Kaukab Stewart on 17 April 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to undertake quantitative research to assess what the general public considers to be the meaning of key words in relation to sex reassignment that may be used in data collection, including "transgender man", "trans man", "transgender", "trans", "transsexual" and "gender reassignment".
Answer
The Office of the Chief Statistician published guidance for public bodies in Scotland on the collection of data on sex and gender in 2021. This guidance recommends that statistics producers should collect data that best serves the needs of users in their specific context, an approach which aligns with the guidance published by the Office for Statistics Regulation in 2024.
The Sullivan Review specifically recommends that the Scottish Government reviews its guidance in light of its recommendations. The Scottish Government has previously committed to reviewing its guidance on collecting data on sex and gender by the end of 2026 as part of the Non-Binary Equality Action Plan.
Ahead of this review, the Office of the Chief Statistician is engaged with wider-UK work on this topic. The Government Statistical Service (GSS) Harmonisation Team is currently developing harmonised standards for collecting data on sex and gender identity. This work will include user engagement and question testing with stakeholders and the general public, which will help to determine how users would interpret different questions and phrases. The Office of the Chief Statistician is contributing to this work, and will consider its outputs as part of its review of the Chief Statistician’s guidance.
- Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 31 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Kaukab Stewart on 17 April 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will continue to ask questions that combine sex and gender identity in a single question, when collecting data.
Answer
The Office of the Chief Statistician published guidance for public bodies in Scotland on the collection of data on sex and gender in 2021. This guidance recommends that statistics producers should collect data that best serves the needs of users in their specific context, an approach with aligns with the guidance published by the Office for Statistics Regulation in 2024.
Within the guidance, there are two recommended questions. The first asks people about their sex, with respondents able to answer ‘Female’, ‘Male’ or ‘Prefer not to say’. The second question asks people whether they consider themselves to be trans or have a trans history.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 03 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Kaukab Stewart on 17 April 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the report in The Scotsman on 29 March 2025, SNP ministers examine measures to help Scots have more children amid "fertility gap", how much it would cost to implement Nordic-style family policies, and how these would be funded.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-36274 on 17 April 2025. 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.