Questions and answers

Question reference: S5W-10097

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 03 July 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 27 July 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-09476 by Fergus Ewing on 28 June 2017, how much is still to be paid to farmers who are waiting for payments from the 2015 tranche of CAP applications.

2015 -

Basic Payment Scheme (including Greening and Young Farmers Payment) – £36,043.81 (0.10%) is unpaid

Rural Development - £0.50 million (1.52%) is unpaid – no loans made for these schemes

LFASS – £6.4 million (10%) is unpaid - of this £5.1 m is covered by loans - £1.3 m not covered by loans.

Scottish Suckler Beef Support Scheme - all eligible claims paid – no loans made for this scheme.

Scottish Upland Sheep Support Scheme - all eligible claims paid – no loans made for this scheme

2016 - not all claims are validated so it is not currently possible to calculate the total amount which is unpaid. Loans to the value of £372.36 million have been issued to provide support to farmers and crofters

2017 – no payments have been made for scheme year 2017 – applications for these payments have just been received via the Single Application Form 2017 and the payments cannot be made until the payment window opens on 1 December 2017.

Question reference: S5W-10096

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 03 July 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 19 July 2017

To ask the Scottish Government when it expects to have validated all the claims from the 2016 tranche of CAP applications.

Question reference: S5W-10098

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 03 July 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 19 July 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many calendar days in took to respond to question S5W-09476.

Question reference: S5W-10163

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 July 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 19 July 2017

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish the Rural Scotland Key Facts publication.

The next edition of the Rural Scotland Key Facts is due to be published in July 2018. Rural Scotland Key Facts follows the publication of the updated Scottish Government Urban Rural Classification. The Scottish Government Urban Rural classification is based on NRS Settlements and Localities data which is due to be published in December 2017. Following this, the 2016-17 Scottish Government Urban Rural Classification will be due in February 2018.

When the exact publication date for Rural Scotland Key Facts is confirmed it will be added to the Forthcoming Publications section of the Scottish Government website: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/ForthcomingPubs

Question reference: S5W-09477

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 May 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 28 June 2017

2015 - 96.8% of total CAP payments paid - £457.18 million

2016 - total CAP payments paid - £251.29 million. As claims are still being validated it is not possible to provide the percentage of eligible claims which this represents at this time.

2017 – no payments have been made for scheme year 2017 – applications for these payments have just been received via the Single Application Form 2017 and payments cannot be made until the payment window opens on 1 December 2017.

Question reference: S5W-09476

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 May 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 28 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the substantive CAP payments for (a) 2015, (b) 2016 and (c) 2017 remains unpaid, also broken down by how much (i) has been subject to loans being paid out and (ii) is not covered by loans.

2015 - Basic Payment Scheme (including Greening and Young Farmers Payment) –£95,798 (0.28%) is unpaid (£38,300 of this has been covered by loans, £57,498 has not been the subject of a loan)

Rural Development - £0.59 million (1.98%) is unpaid – no loans made for these schemes

LFASS – £14.19 million (21.6%) is unpaid - of this £11.19 m are covered by loans - £3 m not covered by loans.

Scottish Suckler Beef Support Scheme - £47,314 (0.15%) is unpaid – no loans made for this scheme.

Scottish Upland Sheep Support Scheme - £50,678 (0.86%) is unpaid – no loans made for this scheme

2016 - not all claims are validated so it is not currently possible to calculate the total amount which is unpaid. Loans to the value of £372.36 million have been issued to provide support to farmers and crofters

2017 – no payments have been made for scheme year 2017 – applications for these payments have just been received via the Single Application Form 2017 and the payments cannot be made until the payment window opens on 1 December 2017.

Question reference: S5O-01136

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 June 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to address the reported shortage of dentists in rural and island communities.

Question reference: S5O-01120

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S5W-09322

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 May 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 31 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question to S5W-06697 by Shona Robison on 24 February 2017, what data on osteoarthritis prevalence (a) NHS and (b) integrated joint boards collect, and what its position is on centralising this.

The information requested is not held centrally and we have no plans to do so.

The Scottish Public Health Observatory website advises that Oesteoarthritis is not found only in older people, but prevalence increases with age. Practice Team Information (PTI) data, recorded from a sample of Scottish general practices, suggests that osteoarthritis rates in Scotland reduced between 2003-04 to 2008-09 but have stabilised in recent years. Rates remain highest in people aged 75 years and over: http://www.scotpho.org.uk/population-groups/older-people/data/clinical-conditions-and-age-in-scotland

The Information Service Division (ISD) website shows the estimated number of patients in Scotland (per 1,000 registered with a practice) who consulted either a GP or practice-employed nurse for osteoarthritis at least once in the year ending 31 March 2013, by gender and age group: http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/General-Practice/GP-consultations/Health-Conditions/Osteoarthritis/

These data were collected for Practise Team Information programme which ended in 2013. A new national GP information system known as the Scottish Primary Care Information Resource (SPIRE) is in development which will supersede and build on the PTI programme.

SPIRE aims to include richer data from a greater number of practices and will help to inform public health surveillance, research and data linkage. Further benefits will see the creation of a mechanism to feedback data analysis to practices and an improved data extraction process

Question reference: S5W-08959

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 24 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 9 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking in light of Marine Scotland seafarers' recent vote in favour of industrial action over pay.

The Scottish Government have committed to undertake a comparison of Marine Scotland seafarer terms and conditions, including pay, with that of other employers of relevant seafarer staff. This review is being undertaken as part of current pay negotiations in partnership with the recognised trade unions. We would encourage Unite to continue to engage positively with management as part of these discussions, the outcome of which will also help inform decisions in relation to the pay supplement allowance currently paid to Marine Scotland seafarer employees.

Chamber and committees