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: S6W-01179

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 19 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on COVID-19 recovery funding support for town centres within the Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley area.

The Scottish Government provides a wide range of Covid-19 recovery funding support for town centres in the Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley area.

To support sustained longer term renewal for our towns, villages and cities we have established a Place Based Investment Programme, backed with £325 million capital investment over five years from 2021-22. The allocation for 2021-22 to East Ayrshire Council is £1.31m. The programme will help to link and align place based funding initiatives and progress our ambitions for town centres, community led regeneration and 20 minute neighbourhoods. It builds on the £34 million economic stimulus for regeneration and towns and other funding specifically for town centres, smaller settlements and Business Improvement Districts delivered in 2020-21.

To further support local businesses and promote keeping local spend local we launched the next phase of the Scotland Loves Local (SLL) campaign on 5 July. The £10m SLL Programme includes a new national platform for the SLL loyalty card scheme that will help revitalise town centres and high streets hit by the pandemic.

Since the start of the pandemic, businesses including those in town centres have directly benefitted from £3.6 billion in support. This includes over £13 million, through the Strategic Framework Business Fund and Restart Grant, to businesses in East Ayrshire (as at 25 June 2021) and we continue to work closely with councils to ensure businesses subject to restrictions for a longer period of time remain supported.

Grants of up to £7,500 for retailers and up to £19,500 for hospitality and leisure businesses were paid in April to help businesses, including town centre businesses, re-open. These one-off re-start grants replaced the Strategic Framework Business Fund payments made between November and March and provided more money up front to help with the costs of re-opening. Data on business support funding and other local authority support schemes are available here .

Local authorities were also empowered to support local businesses through the Discretionary Fund, with over £1.7 million awarded to businesses in East Ayrshire from that Fund.

We have extended 100% Non-Domestic Rates relief for all retail, leisure and hospitality premises for all of 2021-22 – this is a more generous package than the equivalent rates reliefs available in other UK nations. This relief benefited over 500 businesses in East Ayrshire saving them over £11 million in 2020-21, according to the latest data available.

Question reference: S6W-01289

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 15 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what progress is being made with abolishing non-residential care charges.

Question reference: S5W-35560

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 February 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 11 March 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when COVID-19 testing kits will be supplied to standalone nurseries.

Question reference: S5W-35558

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 February 2021
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 11 March 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when it expects to see a significant impact on the COVID-19 pandemic-induced backlog of elective surgery activity and a return to pre-COVID-19 levels of hospital waiting times, in light of the recent announcement of a further £60 million investment in waiting times recovery.

In line with our framework for re-mobilising our health services, Re-mobilise, Recover, Re-design, Health Boards are following national and local clinical advice to safely and gradually prioritise the resumption of paused services, while also retaining sufficient capacity to respond to COVID-19.

To support elective care during the pandemic we published a Clinical Prioritisation Framework for Supporting Elective Care on 16 November 2020 which ensures patients have a clear and realistic expectation of when they will receive treatment that is clinically appropriate to their individual circumstances.

At present we are in the process of assessing Health Boards’ Local Mobilisation Plans which include Boards’ plans for addressing current waiting times levels. We will continue to support Health Boards to ensure they can restart services in a safe and sustainable way. In that regard, we need to also be mindful of the impact on our health and social care staff of over 12 months of significant physical and emotional pressure and ensure we pay full attention to the need to provide time for respite and decompression for them.

Question reference: S5O-05034

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 February 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 February 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how it will develop its international relations in the post-Brexit era.

Question reference: S5W-34559

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 January 2021
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 22 January 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will regularly report the COVID-19 test positivity rate among supermarket and retail staff compared with the general population, and, if it does not collect this information, whether it will consider doing so.

The Public Health Scotland (PHS) dashboard ( Dashboard - Data & intelligence from PHS (isdscotland.org) ) contains a range of management information including some information on likely exposure settings based on interviews conducted with people who have tested positive for Covid-19. This includes those who work in a retail environment and those who have been shopping.

In addition, the Scottish Government participates in the Defra Food Resilience Forum where there has been regular reporting of the absence across the whole of the food and drink sector, including supermarkets. Information is also collected on outbreaks so we are able to identify whether there are issues at particular retail outlets. Scottish Government also engages in regular dialogue with retailers to ensure there is an overview of the impact of Covid-19 on the sector.

Question reference: S5W-34134

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 December 2020
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 18 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish this year’s Annual Energy Statement.

Question reference: S5O-04809

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 November 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what arrangements are in place to allow older people in areas subject to Level 4 restrictions to be visited by their family.

Question reference: S5O-04781

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 November 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on preparations for Scotland hosting the UEFA Euro championships in June 2021.

Question reference: S5O-04766

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Ash Denham on 18 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on progress at the Office of the Public Guardian with respect to the processing of power of attorney applications.

SCTS have increased the Office of the Public Guardian’s operational budget, allowing recruitment of 15 additional permanent staff, and development of a new IT system and an online public register.

It is anticipated that over time these improvements will mean that power of attorney documents can again be processed within the target time of 30 working days following their submission for registration.

Power of attorneys are made as part of sensible future life planning. Where there is an urgent need, the Office of the Public Guardian are continuing to register power of attorney deeds within 5 working days.