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: S6O-00976

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 April 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to help young people at risk from exclusion from mainstream education.

Question reference: S6W-07522

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 11 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made in the development of Hillend junction.

Two junction improvement options have been identified and assessed to identify any impacts they may have on journey times along this corridor. The assessment has also sought to take into account the impacts of emerging development in the area.

Engagement with Midlothian Council which is the responsible authority for adjoining local roads is continuing. The intention is to confirm the preferred option in due course, followed by a detailed design process to finalise the junction layout to take into account the site constraints at this location.

Question reference: S6W-07385

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 8 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on (a) how many NHS hearing aid repair support appointments there have been and (b) what the (i) average and (ii) longest waiting time for an appointment has been in each year since 1999.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

We would advise contacted health boards to obtain this data.

Audiologists are working on reduced capacity due to the remaining covid restrictions, specifically, reduced numbers of patients have access to the service because of additional infection control measures.

All services have seen a surge in referrals since lockdown has begun to ease and GPs have become more accessible. Waiting lists have grown as a result and services have to balance ensuring that patients receive good quality, efficient and effective treatment with managing the waiting list down.

Question reference: S6W-07386

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 8 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the current average waiting time is for someone to receive their hearing aid after submitting it for repair through the NHS.

Question reference: S6W-07378

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 8 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been waiting for cancer diagnostic tests and scans in each NHS board, in each month since January 2020.

Question reference: S6W-07289

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 1 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many people with suspected lung cancer have had a CT scan as part of their diagnosis and treatment in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-07277

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 1 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made on establishing a national hospitals building oversight group; whether such a group has commenced meetings, and, if so, when the group last met.

In the Programme for Government for 2019-20, the Scottish Government committed to establishing a national body with responsibility for the oversight of the design, construction and maintenance of major infrastructure developments within NHS Scotland. The new body, NHS Scotland Assure, is hosted by NHS National Services Scotland and was launched on 1 June 2021. From that date, all NHS Board projects that require review and approval from the NHS Capital Investment Group (CIG) have to be reviewed by NHS Scotland Assure through its key stage assurance review process. Further information on the assurance can be found here: Key Stage Assurance Reviews (KSAR) | National Services Scotland (nhs.scot)

Question reference: S6W-07379

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 31 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what work is being undertaken to investigate sexual trauma and abuse experienced by disabled people.

The Scottish Government is not currently investigating trauma and abuse experienced by disabled people specifically. However, the Scottish Government published our Learning/Intellectual Disabilities and Autism: Towards Transformation Plan in March 2021. The plan looks at the actions needed to shape supports, services and attitudes to ensure that the human rights of autistic people and people with learning/intellectual disabilities are respected and protected and that they are empowered to live their lives, the same as everyone else.

Through the Towards Transformation Plan the Scottish Government, and our partners, have established a Gender Based Violence Steering Group to reduce incidences of violence and empower women with disabilities to have safe and loving relationships. This Gender Based Steering Group is developing an action plan, working with disability organisations to lead and support efforts to eliminate gender-based violence.

Since the publication of Engender's Our Bodies Our Rights: Identifying and removing barriers to disabled women's reproductive rights in Scotland report in 2020, the Scottish Government has refreshed our keys to life strategy.

The keys to life strategy promotes the rights of people with a learning disability to be protected against gender based violence. The NHS Health Scotland Advisory Group has a Gender Based Violence programme which published draft guidelines for frontline staff in 2019. The guidance will help staff identify signs that someone may be at risk of gender based violence and respond appropriately.

Question reference: S6W-07373

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 31 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many Blue Badges have been issued in each local authority area, in each year since 1999.

Since 2003 the number of blue badges issued in each local authority area has been published annually in the Scottish Transport Statistics and can be accessed via the following web link (see chapters entitled “Road Transport Vehicles”):

www.transport.gov.scot/our-approach/statistics/#42763

This information has also been tabulated and placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. Number 63235).

The Scottish Government does not hold the information for years 1999 to 2002.

Question reference: S6W-07374

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 31 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many Blue Badge applications have been rejected in each local authority area, in each year since 1999.