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: S5O-03005

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 14 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action it takes to promote the use of wearable technology in care home and sheltered living settings to help prevent accidents.

The Scottish Government set up the world leading Technology Enabled Care (TEC) Programme to improve healthy and safe living using technology, including wearables.

The upcoming shift from analogue to digital telephony systems also offers significant opportunity to re-design the existing telecare delivery model to move from an existing model that is largely reactive to one that is more predictive, using wearables and sensor technology in homes, while not compromising on the vital safety net that telecare offers.

Question reference: S5W-21982

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 14 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take to deliver the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030).

The United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030) is currently in the development phase. Professor Colin Moffat, Chief Scientific Advisor Marine for the Scottish Government is fully engaged in that process, specifically he:

contributed to the Multi-stakeholder dialogue and capacity-building partnership event at the UN in New York in January 2019;
is actively engaged in the production of the World Ocean Assessment 2, the underlying report which will be published in 2020;
is working with Professor Ed Hill from the National Oceanographic Network and UK lead to the UNESCO International Oceanographic Commission, with respect to delivering a planning workshop on 9 May 2019;
will attend the 1 st Global Planning Meeting which will be convened 13-15 May 2019, in Copenhagen.

Following each event, updates are provided to the Scottish Government and the wider scientific community.

Question reference: S5O-03021

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 March 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of 2019 being the bi-centenary of the death of James Watt, what it is doing to promote STEM subjects to pupils.

Question reference: S5O-02947

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 February 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its plans to introduce a charge on disposable drinks cups.

Question reference: S5W-21454

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 20 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how much it costs local authorities on average per kilometre to maintain the road surfaces for which they are responsible, and what the equivalent figure is for Transport Scotland to maintain the roads for which it is responsible.

Question reference: S5W-21455

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 20 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether Transport Scotland benchmarks its performance against that of local authority roads departments and, if not, for what reason.

Question reference: S5W-21382

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 01 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 19 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many consultant ophthalmologists are employed in each NHS board; what information it has on the number employed in the private sector in Scotland, and what the (a) level and (b) specialisms are of each consultant ophthalmologist in position.

The number of Consultants specialising in Ophthalmology who are employed by each Board in NHS Scotland is available on the ISD Website: https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/2018-12-04/Medical-and-Dental.asp .

The published data shows two Ophthalmology related specialties: Ophthalmology and Medical Ophthalmology. Numbers of Consultants, or any other medical grade, can be selected and shown by either headcount or whole time equivalent.

ISD does not hold any information on staff who are not directly employed by NHSScotland.

ISD does not hold quality assured data for the final part of the question asking for detail of the “(a) level and (b) specialisms” of each consultant ophthalmologist in position.

Further notes :
Further information on the statistics, including information on how the data are collected and notes to aid interpretation, is given in the 'FAQs' section of the Workforce Statistics website at http://www.isdscotland.org/workforce/ .

Question reference: S5W-21453

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 19 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether Transport Scotland uses wet salt to grit roads instead of dry salt and, if so, for what reason.

Since 2007-08, pre-wetted salting has been used on all our Trunk Road Units.

Pre-wetted salting involves spreading dry salt and brine in the proportion of 70% dry salt to 30% of fully saturated brine with a salt concentration of around 23%. The addition of the brine to the dry salt takes place at the point of spreading and has the following main advantages—

Salt requires to go into solution before it becomes effective in preventing ice formation. The addition of the brine has the effect of reducing, if not eliminating, the time lag before the salt becomes effective after spreading.
The brine minimises the amount of dry salt removed from the carriageway by the draught from the spreading vehicles, road traffic and strong cross winds. More salt adheres therefore to the road surface after spreading and this can increase the length of time the salt lasts without retreatment.
The brine ensures that the “bounce” of salt crystals onto the road side verges during spreading is minimised and that the greater proportion of the salt spread is contained within the carriageway. This leads to reduced corrosion on roadside structures and environmental benefits.

The changeability of the Scottish weather patterns means that even with this best practice method of precautionary salting ice formation on roads can still occur. Motorists should be aware therefore that there will still be times when motorways and trunk roads will not remain completely free of snow and ice.

Question reference: S5W-21059

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 11 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government when the Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Infrastructure and Connectivity last met Peel Ports to discuss the (a) proposals for the regeneration of sites along the River Clyde and (b) city deal proposals for the Inchgreen drydock.

Question reference: S5W-20915

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 6 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what the impact of the proposed rail link between Glasgow Airport and Glasgow city centre will be on the number of daily rail journeys to and from Inverclyde, and what the economic impact of this will be on Inverclyde.

Transport Scotland and Network Rail are continuing to work collaboratively with the Glasgow Airport Access Project team as they reconsider the evidence base and transport appraisal work to address comments raised in an independent audit of the Outline Business Case. The audit highlighted concerns around the potential impact of a Tram / Train option on services using Glasgow Central Station and its approaches, including those to and from Inverclyde and Ayrshire.

It has been clear for some time that introducing a Tram / Train type solution to the very busy heavy rail network south of Glasgow Central Station would be challenging. The recent South Glasgow Timetable Capacity Study, commissioned by Transport Scotland at Ministers request, has concluded that while it may be possible to introduce a Tram /Train service to Glasgow Airport, this would have a detrimental effect on performance of existing and future services using Glasgow Central Station, including those on the busy Inverclyde, Ayrshire, Shotts and East Kilbride lines, and require:

(i) the reduction of current rail services, and/or

(ii) the deferral of future service enhancements, and/or

(iii) significant and high cost infrastructure enhancement at Glasgow Central and on approaches which are currently not funded.

On 30 January I Chaired the Glasgow Airport Access Executive Steering Group which includes the Leaders of both Glasgow City and Renfrewshire Councils and representatives from Glasgow Airport and Network Rail. At this meeting the group heard updates on the progress of the audit close out work including how the significant concerns over the Tram / Train impact, costs and deliverability have been considered and how the other options for improving connectivity to the Airport have been developed. The project team now intend to a present Personal Rapid Transport (PRT) connection to Paisley Gilmour Street within the updated Outline Business Case to the Glasgow City Deal Cabinet in due course.