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-29123

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 18 May 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 3 June 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will review its advice on PPE for care homes to offer greater protection to staff and residents.

Guidance on PPE for health and social care workers was last updated on 2 April 2020, having been agreed by the four UK Chief Medical Officers and Chief Nursing Officers following a review of the existing guidance against the latest evidence and World Health Organization (WHO) advice on the safest way to protect health and social care staff.

Current guidance outlines what type of PPE frontline health and social care workers should be wearing in different settings and scenarios. It recommends the safest level of PPE to protect health and social care workers and it specifies the type of PPE that should be worn in the various healthcare and social care settings where patients or residents could be cared for.

The guidance clearly explains the PPE required for different common clinical and care scenarios including primary care, outpatient and community care.

Given the recognised sustained community transmission of COVID-19, the guidance includes detailed advice around risk assessing use of PPE, including aprons, gowns, fluid-resistant surgical masks and eye protection in a range of different clinical and care scenarios, including community settings, such as care homes. The guidance also asks that organisations themselves undertake risk assessments to ensure that they provide the correct PPE for the safety of their staff.

A joint statement, published on 9 April 2020 by the Scottish Government, COSLA and the Trade Unions emphasised that social care staff can wear a face mask if they consider doing so necessary.

Question reference: S5F-04109

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 11 May 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 May 2020

To ask the First Minister whether the Scottish Government will follow the STUC’s suggested red lines when easing lockdown restrictions to ensure the safety of workers.

Question reference: S5W-28691

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 24 April 2020
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 11 May 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide details of the correspondence that it has received from manufacturers to deliver (a) ventilators, (b) personal protective equipment (PPE) and (c) other items to assist in the response to the COVID-19 outbreak, and how many of these offers have been (i) accepted and (ii) rejected, broken down by the reason for rejection.

To support NHS National Procurement during the Covid pandemic, a working group has been established under direct Ministerial control. The priority focus of the group is to identify quickly those offers that can supply the largest volumes at the correct quality specifications, and only the best qualified suppliers are passed through to National Procurement specialists for decision.

The Government has received over 2000 pieces of correspondence containing offers to supply NHS Scotland in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. Many suppliers offered to supply more than one type of product and suppliers often submitted multiple offers.

Removing duplicate offers the total number of offers received by 30 April 2020 was 1,347: (a) 186 relating primarily to ventilators, (b) 670 relating primarily to personal protective equipment and (c) 491 other offers.

Supplier offers recorded in the Scottish Government database are not categorised by the terms “accepted” or “rejected”. At 30 April 2020, 413 offers had been closed or placed on hold and the remaining cases were in progress.

Question reference: S5W-28106

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 March 2020
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 15 April 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to measure the uptake of business support schemes offered during the COVID-19 outbreak; whether it will publish this information, and, if so, how often.

Question reference: S5W-28112

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 March 2020
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 11 April 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to introduce a similar lending facility for larger enterprises to that introduced by the Bank of England, which seeks to help support liquidity among larger firms by bridging COVID-19 disruption to their cash flows through loans.

The Covid Corporate Finance Facility (CCFF) was introduced by the UK Government to provide financial assistance to support large businesses experiencing disruption as a result of Covid-19. This scheme is delivered by the Bank of England on behalf of the UK Government and is open to all businesses across the UK which meet the eligibility criteria.

On 2 April the UK Government announced the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS) in response to concerns from a number of quarters, including the Scottish Government, about the level of financial support available for larger businesses which do not qualify for either the CCFF or the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme. CLBILS provides loans of up to £25 million for businesses with an annual turnover of between £45m - £500m and is also available to all business across the UK.

The Scottish Government will continue to engage with the business community to ensure that companies of all sizes receive the financial assistance that they require through the Covid-19 pandemic. The Scottish Government is taking steps to identify any gaps in business support and will work with partners to try to remedy them.

Question reference: S5W-28125

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 27 March 2020
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 9 April 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on its legislative programme, when it now expects to introduce the Continuity (Scotland) Bill, and what impact any delay will have on whether the necessary EU exit preparations relating to environmental principles and governance will be completed by the end of the transition period in December 2020.

The Scottish Government’s priority is responding to the current global and national crisis. We expect our response to the coronavirus outbreak will be sustained over an extended period. For that reason, careful consideration of a date for introduction of the Continuity Bill will take place as part of the wider work being carried out to prioritise essential non-coronavirus related legislation in the government's legislative programme. As part of this consideration, we will assess the impact on future domestic arrangements for environmental principles and governance.

A decision by the UK Government to take sensible steps to negotiate an extension to the implementation period would, of course, have an important bearing on those considerations.

Question reference: S5W-28105

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 March 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 9 April 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to encourage companies to apply for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to ensure that Scotland does not see an increase in unnecessary redundancies.

Our Enterprise Agencies are engaging with businesses to ensure they have information about, and understand how to access, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and the wider package of support announced from both the Scottish and UK Governments to help employers preserve their business, maintain jobs and pay their workers throughout the coronavirus crisis. In addition, Coronavirus advice for businesses in Scotland is available through findbusinesssupport.gov.scot . We are urging all businesses to make use of this.

We are also urging employers, trade unions and staff to work together to reach the right decisions on all workplace issues that arise throughout the Coronavirus outbreak, in line with the Covid-19 Fair Work Principles, announced jointly by the Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Fair Work and Culture and the STUC General Secretary on 25 March.

Question reference: S5W-28045

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 23 March 2020
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 7 April 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-27450 by Michael Matheson on 5 March 2020, how it calculated the 10-minute figure.

Question reference: S5W-27994

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 March 2020
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 31 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the development of the new aluminium factory in Fort William, including how much financial assistance (a) it and (b) Highlands and Islands Enterprise has contributed to the project to date.

In 2016 the Scottish Government supported the GFG Alliance with their acquisition of the Lochaber aluminium smelter. We underwrote this transaction as part of a clear commitment to Scotland’s industrial infrastructure and rural economy and to inclusive and sustainable growth in the West Highlands.

The GFG Alliance remain fully committed to investing in future downstream manufacturing at Fort William. Before making a final decision with regards to the timing of their investment, the GFG Alliance continue to monitor the instability in the UK automotive market and issues relating to Brexit and now the developing COVID19 pandemic.

The financial package extended was provided after seeking and securing the agreement of the Finance Committee.

In relation to the proposed future downstream manufacturing at Fort William, the company have not received financial assistance from the Scottish Government or Highlands and Islands Enterprise.

Question reference: S5O-04315

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 March 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 25 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what training it is putting in place to enable additional staff to support the social care sector during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Staff coming into the sector to provide frontline care will get immediate job-based training from employers, in line with the responsibility employers have to ensure staff have the skills and knowledge they need for the role they are being asked to do. The Scottish Social Services Council, the workforce regulator, is already working with COSLA and NHS Education Scotland to produce a specific Training Development Pack to support those moving to or across care services at this crucial time. This will clarify the minimum training requirements for social services staff and enable the redeployment of staff to other roles if required, so that we maximise the flexibility of the workforce. The intention is to publish the pack this week.