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: S5W-30036

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 June 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 2 July 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the publication of the 2020 decision paper, Prospects for Prices, by the Water Industry Commission for Scotland, in the absence of a hard budget constraint, how the customer interest that they are not charged more than necessary is secured.

Question reference: S5W-30031

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 June 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 2 July 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the publication of the 2019 decision paper, Asset Replacement, by the Water Industry Commission for Scotland, what sums were specifically included for the costs of meeting the net-zero targets, and whether it will publish the analysis that was carried out to arrive at this conclusion.

Question reference: S5W-30030

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 June 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 2 July 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the publication of the 2019 decision paper, Asset Replacement, by the Water Industry Commission for Scotland, whether it will confirm what the aggregate annual cost is of the “prudent”, “reasonable” and achieving “high confidence” assumptions outlined in the paper.

Question reference: S5W-30024

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 June 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 2 July 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the publication of the 2020 decision paper, Prospects for Prices, by the Water Industry Commission for Scotland, whether it is aware of the documentary source of the references made to the work of JASPERS and UKWIR, and whether it will publish any such documentary sources.

Question reference: S5W-30019

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 June 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 2 July 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the publication of the 2020 decision paper, Prospects for Prices, by the Water Industry Commission for Scotland, whether a media release for this was issued and, if so, which media outlets in Scotland it was sent to.

Question reference: S5W-29775

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 June 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 26 June 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the different phases of the route map out of the COVID-19 lockdown and the impact each might have on the R rate.

The roadmap document published on 21 May sets out the criteria for easing restrictions: as we move beyond the first phase, future phases will be based on meeting particular criteria, including those set by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

There have been two approaches to assessment of the impact of easing restrictions on the R value. Firstly, the Scottish Government uses the publicly available Imperial College COVID-19 model adapted to fit the situation in Scotland. This uses data for other nations to estimate the impact on R of different interventions (or groups of interventions) introduced by other nations. The second approach estimates the change in the risk of COVID-19 transmission from options for easing restrictions. This is based on how many people are involved in a particular option and the change in risk of any individual transmitting the virus based on the science available at time of assessment.

Question reference: S5W-29779

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 June 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 26 June 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to roll out COVID-19 antibody testing more widely, and when will these tests will be made available by the NHS to the general public.

Any decision to purchase tests for a large-scale roll-out of antibody testing in Scotland will be led by clinical advice.

Antibody testing has been underway since 6 May in Scotland to support disease surveillance and we are in the process of validating a number of antibody tests to identify which ones carry the right level of efficacy and those which are identified as meeting the required quality standards will be prioritised for purchase.

As new and more reliable tests become validated, we are drawing on clinical and scientific advice to develop plans on how they will be best deployed. However, there are still significant uncertainties about what the presence of antibodies means in terms of a person’s immunity, which means that there are significant limitations in the usefulness of these tests at the current time.

These tests can have a crucial part to play in our response to COVID-19, and we will continue to listen to advice on the emerging scientific evidence on immunity.

Question reference: S5W-29781

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 June 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 26 June 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the COVID-19 outbreak, for what reason local authorities are reportedly continuing to hire agency staff to work in different care homes.

The National Clinical and Practice Guidance for Adult Care Homes in Scotland states that staff should not work in more than one facility and movement between care homes must be restricted. It is recognised that this can be a fine balance in achieving appropriate staffing levels, service sustainability and reducing the risks of transmission.

It is critical that we protect care homes and their residents by using infection prevention and control techniques to reduce the impact of this virus. Health Protection Scotland has published specific guidance for infection prevention and control to support those working in care home settings which is regularly updated on their website.

The Social Care Covid19 Accelerated recruitment portal, to support social care employers should they require additional staff, remains in place to support the resilience of the workforce. This enables those with relevant skills and experience to come forward and support health and social care services at this time of national emergency, reducing the need for agency staff.

Care providers have direct access to this portal if they require support due to staff shortages.

Question reference: S5W-29776

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 June 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 26 June 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many people who have tested positive for COVID-19 have the contact tracers been in touch with so far, and how many of their contacts have the tracers subsequently alerted.

From 28 May to 7 June, 681 index cases have been recorded in the Test and Protect system. From these, 741 contacts have been traced.

An 'index case' is a person with a positive test result recorded in the Test and Protect system. New data will be released weekly, and is available from Public Health Scotland's weekly statistical report: https://publichealthscotland.scot/news/initial-contact-tracing-figures-for-scotland/ .

Question reference: S5W-29777

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 June 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 26 June 2020

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason all care home staff have not yet been tested for COVID-19.

A further expansion of testing for care home residents and workers was announced on 1 May, which again focused on social care workers and care home residents. This includes undertaking enhanced outbreak investigation in all care homes where there are cases; comprehensive surveillance testing in care homes where there are no cases; and, testing across linked or group care homes, where staff may still be moving between homes following an outbreak in one. That same day, the NHS Scotland Chief Performance Officer wrote to all health boards, requesting that they start to implement these policies from 4 May.

In a further measure to protect residents and staff, it was announced on 18 May, that all staff in care homes will be routinely offered testing regardless of whether they are symptomatic. Based on the advice from the Chief Medical Officer, this testing will be routinely carried out every 7 days, regardless of whether there has been a confirmed Covid-19 case in the care home or not. This is in addition to the current measures operating across care homes in Scotland.