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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 243 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6O-00627

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 January 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when it will release its plans for the reopening of Minor Injury Units.

Question reference: S6W-04906

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 23 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government (a) how many and (b) what percentage of people in the NHS Grampian area who were referred for cancer treatment in (a) 2020 and (b) 2021 started treatment within the 62-day target.

Data published by Public Health Scotland covering the period 01 January 2020 to 30 September 2021 shows that in NHS Grampian 83.7 % eligible referrals started treatment within the 62 day standard in 2020 and 78.2% in 2021. Representing 1081 of 1,291 referrals in 2020 and 815 of 1,042 referrals in 2021.

Further breakdown of this data can be accessed at Cancer waiting times - 1 July to 30 September 2021 - Cancer waiting times - Publications - Public Health Scotland .

Boards are continuing to prioritise new cancer patients being referred with a suspicion of cancer - this is closely monitored through weekly performance meetings with officials and reflected in Boards’ Remobilisation Plans.

A refresh of the Framework for Effective Cancer Management is underway and will support clinicians and NHS managers to drive improvements in cancer pathways, providing Health Boards with the tools to effectively manage cancer patients and ultimately recover waiting times.

£10 million of funding has been directed to support cancer waiting times improvements in NHS Scotland across 2021-22, including up-skilling nurses and investing in diagnostic tests to extended working days and weekend working, to increase capacity and see/treat cancer patients as timely as possible. NHS Grampian received £974,000 as a share of the funding.

Question reference: S6W-04904

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 20 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much each NHS board has spent on mental health services in each year since 2018.

Question reference: S6W-04903

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 20 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the NHS spending proposals in the Budget (Scotland) (No.4) Bill, whether NHS Grampian will receive its full share of funding as specified by the NRAC (NHS Scotland Resource Allocation Committee) formula in (a) 2020-21, (b) 2021-22 and (c) 2022-23.

The Scottish Budget provides additional funding of £387 million for frontline NHS Boards in 2022-23 and continues to ensure that no Board is further than 0.8% from its target funding allocation.

In 2022-23, NHS Grampian will receive additional investment of £26.7 million, and this will take the Board’s overall funding in excess of £1 billion for the third consecutive year. Since 2015-16, NHS Grampian has received additional funding of £56 million specifically to support the Board's movement towards NRAC parity.

Question reference: S6W-04907

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 20 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many people convicted of homicide have received as their main penalty a (a) Sheriff Court fine, (b) Justice of the Peace Court fine, (c) fiscal fine, (d) fiscal compensation order, (e) fiscal combined offer and (f) police antisocial behaviour penalty, in each year since 2018.

Under criminal proceedings statistics, the category of homicide contains a wide range of different criminal offences. The offences include murder, culpable homicide through to causing death by careless driving.

Sentencing in any given case is a matter for the independent court within the overall legal framework. The court will take into account the full facts and circumstances of a case before deciding sentence.

The latest available information is for the financial year to 2019-20. Our records show that in 2017-18 and 2018-19 there were 3 people and 6 people respectively, who were convicted of homicide in a Sheriff court who received a fine, as a main penalty. All of these convictions relate to the offence of causing death by careless driving. There were no Justice of the Peace Court fines imposed in respect of homicide offences nor any of the items listed (c) to (f) issued for homicide.

Information on the main penalty issued for a crime prosecuted in a Scottish court can be found in table 8a of the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland statistical bulletin, which can be viewed here: Criminal Proceedings in Scotland statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database

Question reference: S6F-00593

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 December 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 December 2021

To ask the First Minister what discussions she has had with COSLA regarding the local government funding settlement for 2022-23.

Question reference: S6W-04375

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 2 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government which local authorities categorise military compensation as income in relation to applications for benefits for (a) housing and (b) council tax reduction.

(a) As per the guidance on Discretionary Housing Payments and the guidance on the GOV.UK webpage, anyone receiving Industrial Injuries Benefit (and equivalent payments made as part of a War Disablement Pension or the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme) are exempt from the benefit cap. Therefore, all local authorities should disregard this payment as income when assessing applications for housing related benefits.

(b) The Council Tax Reduction Regulations instruct that armed forces independence payments should be fully disregarded as income in the calculation of council tax reduction. Therefore, all local authorities should disregard these payments as income in relation to applications for council tax reduction.

Question reference: S6W-04372

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 1 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has the power to compensate veterans who are in receipt of benefits and who are being financially disadvantaged as a result of receiving military compensation, by topping up their benefits or providing a discretionary payment.

The Scottish Government is not aware of existing scenarios where veterans would be financially disadvantaged as a result of military compensation payments reducing or removing reserved benefit entitlements.

As such, there has not been any examination of whether the Scottish Parliament's existing powers could be used for top-ups or discretionary payments. In scenarios where veterans were being disadvantaged as a result of compensation payments it would be appropriate for this to be remedied at source by the Department for Work and Pensions and the Ministry of Defence.

Question reference: S6W-04370

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 1 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to applications to Social Security Scotland for means-tested devolved benefits, whether military compensation is exempt from being categorised as income, and if this is not the case, under what circumstances could military compensation be categorised as income.

Question reference: S6W-04371

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 1 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has the power to exempt military compensation as normal income from benefits that are primarily “passported” from reserved benefits.