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-17272

Asked by: David Stewart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 15 June 2018
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 3 July 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to satisfy (a) the four Altmark criteria and (b) state aid rulings in the European Court of Justice since 1 January 2017 in its legal arguments to the European Commission for using Teckal case law to exempt public sector ferry contracts from European procurement legislation.

The Interim Report on the Procurement of Ferry Services published on 20 December 2017 set out the government’s position in relation to Teckal case law. That Interim Report makes clear that the provision of ferry services, whether undertaken in-house or not, is an economic activity for the purposes of the separate State aid rules.

Since publication of the Interim Report, we have been in correspondence with the European Commission about the possibility of making a case that would satisfy the State aid rules and the four Altmark criteria. The European Commission’s most recent letter, of 23 February 2018, has been made available in the Scottish Parliament’s Information Centre. That letter sets out a number of issues in relation to satisfying the State aid rules, including the recent judgement of 1 March 2017 of the General Court in case T-454/13 SNCM v Commission. We will revert to the Commission on these issues as soon as practicable.

Question reference: S5W-17273

Asked by: David Stewart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 15 June 2018
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 3 July 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the ministerial statement of 24 May 2018 on Ferry Services (Northern Isles), what recent assessment it has made of the likelihood of legal action from private operators of ferry routes in Scotland in the event of a successful application to the European Commission for an exemption, using Teckal case law, from European tendering regulations for public contracts for lifeline Scottish ferry services.

It would be a matter for a private operator to consider whether they would seek to raise a legal challenge in the event of a successful application to the European Commission for an exemption from the tendering regulations under Teckal case law.

The European Commission would need to be satisfied that any proposals for a direct award to an in–house operator under Teckal case law also satisfied the State aid rules and the four Altmark criteria.

Question reference: S5W-17182

Asked by: David Stewart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 June 2018
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 29 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S5W-01009 and S5W-12022 by Aileen Campbell on 14 July 2016 and 7 November 2017 respectively, and in light of the comment by the UK Government in its news release of 5 April 2018, Soft Drinks Industry Levy comes into effect, that "all revenues raised through the levy will directly fund new sports facilities in schools as well as healthy breakfast clubs", whether it will confirm how much it expects to receive as a result of the levy, and what its priorities will be for allocating this.

Scotland receives its share of funding through the Barnett formula which is based on UK government spend rather than revenue raised. There is no dedicated link between the money raised by the UK Government through the Soft Drinks Industry Levy and the block funding allocated to Scotland. The Scottish Government spends its money in accordance with the budget that is agreed in the Scottish Parliament.

Question reference: S5W-17270

Asked by: David Stewart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 15 June 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 26 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many people are directly employed as (a) seafarer and (b) shore-based staff at Serco NorthLink in each year of the current contract for Northern Isles Ferry Services.

Question reference: S5W-17271

Asked by: David Stewart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 15 June 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 26 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a list of the sub-contracts that Serco NorthLink has held in each year since June 2012, and how many sub-contractor employees were working to deliver Northern Isles Ferry Services in each year of the current contract.

Question reference: S5O-02291

Asked by: David Stewart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 June 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to increase the funding for and provision of insulin pumps for under-18s.

Question reference: S5W-17181

Asked by: David Stewart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 11 June 2018
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 19 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the use of full-system testing to assess the fire safety of different external cladding systems on high-rise buildings.

Question reference: S5W-17180

Asked by: David Stewart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 11 June 2018
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 19 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the recommendations set out in the paper, Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety: final report.

The report by Dame Judith Hackitt is specific to England and does not directly affect the building standards system in Scotland although the Scottish Government did feed into the report. The report however is one of a number of reports which we can learn lessons from following the Grenfell Tragedy. Although I am confident in our own building standards, I am not complacent which is why the Ministerial Working Group on Building and Fire Safety established two reviews of Building Standards in Scotland.

Question reference: S5O-02251

Asked by: David Stewart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 June 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government which NHS boards offer the Freestyle Libre glucose monitoring system.

Question reference: S5W-16852

Asked by: David Stewart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 May 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 5 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the potential threats to NHS systems from cyber attacks.

The NHS Scotland Information Security Policy Framework requires NHS Boards to have a suitable Information Security Management System (ISMS) and work as close as possible to the ISO2700x standard. Over the last few years NHS Boards have implemented a systematic approach to managing sensitive information and risks are monitored as part of their risk management process. NHS Boards ISMS includes a series of processes, people and systems to manage information security risk, which includes Cyber Security. A number of actions are followed by NHS Boards to minimise the risk of cyber-attacks, from proactively securing systems and ways of working to collaborations with wider partnerships for sharing intelligence about cyber threats (Cyber Security Information Partnership - CiSP) and conducting independent audits of critical infrastructures. Penetrations tests are proactively conducted on a regular basis across NHS Board systems.

The CiSP is a confidential forum for sharing intelligence about cyber threats and vulnerabilities in real time, coordinated by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).

NHS Boards are currently being assessed against Cyber Essentials standards, as part of their compliance of the Public Sector Cyber Resilience Action Plan (PSAP), and this will be a first step towards Cyber Essentials Plus accreditation.