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-08004

Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 April 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 10 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many people aged under 18 are recorded as having been supplied with vaping products in each of the last five years, broken down by local authority area.

Enforcement of legislation around the sale and purchase of NVP's is carried out by Local Authorities as part of the ETSEP (Enhanced Tobacco (and NVP) Sales Enforcement Programme) overseen by The Society of Chief Officers of Trading Standards in Scotland (SCOTSS), and funded by the Scottish Government. These activities in relation to this are reported annually to the Scottish Government with figures provided on a national basis.

The following table shows verified sales of NVPs to under 18s, following test purchase failures during trading standards activity over the past five financial years.

Financial Year	17-18	18-19	19-20	20-21	21-22
Aberdeen	1	5	7		1
Aberdeenshire		2
Angus	1	9	1
Argyll & Bute	1		1
City of Edinburgh		6	4
Clackmannanshire	0	0	0	0	0
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	0	0	0	0	0
Dumfries & Galloway	0	0	0	0	0
Dundee City		4	1
East Ayrshire		1
East Dumbarton			2
East Lothian	0	0	0	0	0
East Renfrewshire	0	0	0	0	0
Falkirk	0	0	0	0	0
Fife		5
Glasgow City	19	14	11
Highland			2
Inverclyde		2	2
Midlothian	0	0	0	0	0
Moray	2		1		2
North Ayrshire	9		7
North Lanarkshire	7	8	5		6
Orkney	0	0	0	0	0
Perth & Kinross	0	0	0	0	0
Renfrewshire	0	0	0	0	0
Scottish Borders					1
Shetland	0	0	0	0	0
South Ayrshire	1	0	0	0	0
South Lanarkshire	0	0	0	0	0
Stirling [and Clackmannan]	0	0	0	0	0
West Dunbartonshire	0	0	0	0	0
West Lothian	0	0	0	0	0

Question reference: S6W-08005

Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 April 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 10 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether research has been commissioned for the next Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Use Survey or equivalent, and, if so, when it anticipates that this data will be published.

There are currently no plans to recommission the Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Attitude Survey (SALSUS). Over the past 4 years, the Scottish Government has been working with local authorities in developing a Health and Wellbeing Census. This Census is currently underway in Scottish schools and contains some key, high-level data which were previously collected in SALSUS. Results from the 2021/22 HWC are expected to be published towards the end of 2022.

Question reference: S6F-01051

Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 29 April 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 May 2022

To ask the First Minister whether she will provide an update on what the Scottish Government is doing to support households through the cost of living crisis.

Question reference: S6W-07643

Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 25 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to motion S6M-00923 in the name of Jackie Baillie (Growing Need for Specialist Huntington’s Disease Services), which called for an expansion of specialist Huntington's disease services, in light of the motion being supported by 99 MSPs across all parties, whether it will consider the introduction of a peripatetic Huntington's disease specialist service to support families affected by the disease in areas with no service, limited services or gaps in service.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that everyone living in Scotland with Huntington’s Disease is able to access the best possible care and support, and benefit from healthcare services that are safe, effective and put people at the centre of their care.

The Scottish Huntington’s Association (SHA) submitted an application to the latest round of funding provided via the Neurological Care and Support – a National Framework for Action , to support the recruitment of a Peripatetic Huntington’s Disease Specialist.

Applications for funding were assessed and scored by a panel however, unfortunately, the SHA’s application was not successful.

Despite the application being unsuccessful, we want to better understand the need for further provisions and service development across neurological conditions, including Huntington’s Disease, and Scottish Government officials plan to meet with SHA to further explore the issue.

Question reference: S6O-00999

Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 April 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to make homes easier to keep warm, in light of the need to tackle the reported cost of living crisis.

Question reference: S6O-00967

Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 April 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to implement the Fair Work Convention's recommendations on building fair work into the construction industry.

Question reference: S6W-07579

Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 6 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the recommendations in the Inclusion Health Partnership report, Understanding the lived experience of COVID-19 for marginalised communities.

The Scottish Government welcomes the recently published Inclusion Health Partnership report ‘Understanding the lived experience of Covid-19 for marginalised communities’. We recognise the importance of the issues covered in this report and we will be giving full and proper consideration to each of the recommendations, and how these interact and inform current and planned future activity.

The report itself, and its recommendations, cover a range of issues and areas. We are fully aware that Covid-19 has had a disproportionate impact on certain communities, and work has been ongoing for some time across Government to ensure that we fully understand the impact on those that have been hardest hit, whilst taking forward appropriate action to support marginalised communities. This includes, but is not limited to, our continued efforts to prevent homelessness by strengthening our collaboration between health and homelessness services, whilst similar work is also underway to improve health services for refugees and asylum seekers, ensuring that everyone who is a resident in Scotland is entitled to access high quality, person centred healthcare. The content of this report will further contribute to our learning and our ongoing work, particularly as we work to address the issues and challenges exacerbated by the pandemic.

The report also highlights the valuable insights of those from affected communities, and it is crucial that we listen to those messages, and act on them. The importance of having an ongoing dialogue with impacted individuals and communities has already been emphasised by commitments in both our Programme for Government and Covid Recovery Strategy to further embed lived experience in our policy design.

Question reference: S6W-07339

Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 29 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to improve diagnosis of sarcoma cancer.

The NHS Recovery Plan, published August 2021, commits an additional £20m for the Detect Cancer Early (DCE) Programme, to provide greater public awareness of signs and symptoms of cancer and support the development of optimal cancer pathways to improve earlier diagnosis rates. Research is currently being undertaken to better understand the possible barriers and levers to early diagnosis that any new DCE campaigns should focus on. In addition, our public facing website (getcheckedearly.org) signposts people to the possible signs and symptoms of cancer including sarcoma.

The Scottish Referral Guidelines for Suspected Cancer support primary cancer professionals to ensure those patients with potential symptoms of cancer are swiftly referred into secondary care. In addition we have invested £3m in establishing Scotland’s Early Cancer Diagnostic Centres, providing patients with non-specific symptoms suspicious of cancer access to a fast-track diagnostic pathway.

Question reference: S6O-00939

Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 March 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its discussions with the UK Government to ensure that refugees arriving in Scotland from Ukraine have access to the resources that they need.

Question reference: S6O-00885

Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 March 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking in light of reports of concerns regarding governance at South Lanarkshire College.