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-26841

Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 January 2020
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 14 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how much financial support it provides to the Celtic Connections festival.

Celtic Connections is a recipient of Creative Scotland’s Regular Funded Organisations (RFO) funding, where it has received £550,000 every three years since 2015. Prior to that between 2012-2015 they were awarded a total of £510,000 from the former Scottish Arts Council. The festival has also received a total of £200,000 of Scottish Government EXPO funding since 2019, with 2019 being the first time Celtic Connections programmed concerts with EXPO funding.

Question reference: S5W-26848

Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 January 2020
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 14 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many tourists are expected to visit Glasgow to attend the Celtic Connections festival.

In 2019, the festival welcomed a total of 38,056 unique visitors (excluding schoolchildren), and a total attendance figure for events of 113,267. This represents a slight increase from the 2016 Economic Impact Assessment in which there were 31,023 unique visitors and a total of 124,746 attendances. Of these visitors, 38.9% came from outside of Glasgow and a total of 15.2% visited from the rest of the UK or overseas. A slight increase in visitor numbers in 2020 is expected to follow this trend.

Question reference: S5O-03985

Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 January 2020
Current Status: Awaiting answer

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to encourage women into agriculture.

Question reference: S5O-03973

Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 December 2019
Current Status: Awaiting answer

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met representatives of SEPA, and what issues were discussed.

Question reference: S5W-25642

Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 October 2019
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Jeane Freeman on 4 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with families of paediatric cancer patients affected by the infection outbreaks at the Royal Hospital for Children and the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.

On Saturday 28 September and Tuesday 1 October 2019 I met with a number of families of paediatric cancer patients, and some young patients themselves who have been treated at the Royal Hospital for Children and Queen Elizabeth University Hospital. I was able to listen directly to their concerns and hear of the impact of the infection outbreaks which have affected some patients at these hospitals.

I am very grateful to the families for their time and for the frank and open way they detailed their concerns and feelings to me and the impact these have on their lives. They raised a number of important issues with me. Some of these will be answered by the Independent Review I commissioned in January and which I expect to report by Spring next year and by the Public Inquiry I announced on 18 September. But many are pressing now and will be answered and resolved in the coming weeks.

The central thread running through the concerns about the current situation, is that families want detailed information on current levels of safety in the environment in which paediatric cancer patients are treated, including work undertaken to determine the cause of an outbreak and the rationale for infection prevention and control measures that are taken. Families also want information on the work under way in the haematology/oncology areas of the Children’s Hospital, the intended outcome in terms of enhanced safety measures from that work and the timeline for completion.

All of this is information they are entitled to and should receive. Whilst this level of detail must come from the Board, families should not be expected to seek it piecemeal from a range of individuals. Nor would it be right that the responsibility for providing this should sit with the clinical teams. That is why, I have appointed Professor Craig White, the Divisional Clinical Lead in the Healthcare Quality and Improvement Directorate at the Scottish Government, to review their concerns and act as their dedicated liaison person and single point of contact for families in respect to these issues. Professor White has worked for the Scottish Government since 2014 and led the Scottish Government’s work on organisational duty of candour. He has established his expertise in a broad range of areas spanning the governance, assurance and improvement processes implicated by the concerns raised by families.

The families raised a number of specific questions and requirements and Professor White will, work with them and the Board to seek to have these addressed, at pace. In addition, I have asked Health Protection Scotland to undertake an external review of the Board’s data on healthcare associated bloodstream infections.

In the coming weeks the Chair and Chief Executive of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde will meet with those families who wish to do so and I expect to see a number of the immediate practical issues addressed and a clear and full information flow to families established. I also expect to see additional steps taken to support all the staff involved who continue to deliver high quality compassionate care in difficult circumstances.

In all of these discussions the families I met were very clear that all the frontline staff they dealt with, in whatever role, were compassionate, caring and skilled. They were clear that they wanted their gratitude recorded together with their thanks. I hope to meet with staff in the near future but want to use this opportunity to record my personal thanks to them. I will continue to take a close interest in the progress made against the issues and concerns families raised.

Question reference: S5W-25268

Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 September 2019
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 24 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what assurances it has had from the UK Government regarding the policing of the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Glasgow in 2020.

The Scottish Government is pleased that Glasgow has been confirmed as the host city of COP26, given its excellent reputation, strong global presence and ambitious plans for climate change.

The Scottish Government is working closely with the United Kingdom Government on security arrangements and to ensure that the hosting of COP26 does not adversely impact Scotland’s public finances in any respect, or impose unfair financial obligations on Scotland.

Question reference: S5T-01797

Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 September 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what support it will offer to staff and customers of Thomas Cook, in light of the company ceasing trading.

Question reference: S5O-03591

Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 September 2019
Current Status: Awaiting answer

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on there being a requirement for a two-thirds majority in any future independence referendum.

Question reference: S5O-03428

Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 20 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what measures are in place to address the housing needs of older people.

This Government champions independent living for older people within their community. Living in the right home with the right support can be the key to enabling people to live safely and independently at home. Last year, in partnership with COSLA, we launched Age, Home and Community: The Next Phase, the refreshed housing strategy for Scotland’s older people, which sets out 22 actions to ensure older people have the right advice, the right home and the right support.

We are investing more than £3.3 billion in affordable housing to deliver at least 50,000 affordable homes over the lifetime of this Parliament. 99% of homes [3,758 of 3,810] built by housing associations and councils in 2017-18 through our Affordable Housing Programme met Housing for Varying Needs standards. That means they are flexible and can be easily adapted to meet the needs of older and disabled people.

Question reference: S5O-03363

Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 June 2019
Current Status: Awaiting answer

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met representatives of FirstGroup.