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-17815

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 24 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason referrals to Warmer Homes Scotland have been paused from 31 March 2023 until October 2023.

The current Warmer Homes Scotland contract is drawing to a close and new applications for the scheme have now ended to allow for the current customer journeys to be completed before the end of the contract. All applications received from 1 April 2023 will be assessed by Home Energy Scotland under the eligibility criteria for the successor scheme and will be passed to the managing agent for delivery when the new contract goes live on 2 October 2023. The successor scheme will run for a minimum of 5 years and the contract includes the option to extend a further 2 years which would see the programme run until October 2030.

Warmer Homes Scotland is continuing to provide energy efficiency measures to fuel poor households. Improvements will continue to be installed up until the end of the current Warmer Homes Scotland contract on 29 September 2023.

The successor scheme expands significantly on the offer of the previous scheme with a greater focus on deep, whole-house retrofit and zero emissions heating where this is not detrimental to the fuel poverty objectives. This new approach requires significant preparation from the managing agent and sub-contractors which will take place between now and October.

Scottish Goernment funded support for households is still available through the Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loans Scheme, Area Based Schemes and the Fuel Insecurity Fund.

Question reference: S6W-17247

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 2 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Information Commissioner's Office finding that North Ayrshire Council's use of facial recognition in schools was "deployed in a manner that is likely to have infringed data protection law", whether it will consider a ban on the use of biometric technology in schools.

The introduction of biometric identification systems is a matter for local authorities and schools to decide upon at local level.

Our position is clear that the views of parents, pupils and school staff should be taken into account as part of any decision-making process to introduce and implement biometric identification systems. Furthermore, information collected through a biometric system must, like all personal data, be processed fairly and lawfully in line with data protection law.

Question reference: S6O-02191

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 April 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take to reverse the reported decline of NHS dentistry.

Question reference: S6W-15927

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 13 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 24 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the national service specification for secure transport that it is developing jointly with COSLA, whether it plans to appoint the Care Inspectorate to monitor compliance with the specification.

The Care Inspectorate are members of the working group which is exploring how to address issues facing local authorities in relation to secure transport.

The service specification for secure transport is still in development. Multi-agency discussions are ongoing about how that will be used in local authority commissioning arrangements.

We will consider the implications of changing the legislative and regulatory framework to make it possible to bring scrutiny of secure transport arrangements within the remit of the Care Inspectorate.

Question reference: S6W-15785

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 23 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what funding it has made available to implement the Data Strategy for health and social care; for how long it plans to fund the implementation of the strategy, and by when it expects the actions in the strategy to be implemented.

Scotland's first Data Strategy for Health & Social Care brings together a range of existing activity, along with its associated funding. The Strategy provides a framework for how improvements to data will be driven forward to the benefit of the people of Scotland.

A newly formed Data Board for Health and Social Care will oversee the delivery of the Strategy and any investment cases required to progress specific actions. The Board will also consider what further work is required for the next iterations of the Data Strategy.

Delivering the principles and priorities set out in the Strategy should be seen as a long term commitment of the Scottish Government and COSLA. Implementation of each iteration of the Strategy will be accompanied by a delivery plan.

Question reference: S6O-02076

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 March 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its commitment to deliver superfast broadband to 100% of premises by 2021.

Question reference: S6W-15264

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee's consideration, at its meeting on 7 February 2023, of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (Licensing of Short-term Lets) (Amendment) Order 2023, what assessment it has made of whether the Festivals Edinburgh recommendations, included in its written submission, to (a) exclude home-sharing and home-letting from the scope of the Order for major events and (b) waive requirements for a licence where home-sharing or home-letting activity occurs for less than six weeks each year could undermine the health and safety rationale for the Order.

Question reference: S6O-02057

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6O-02005

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 March 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the recruitment of breast cancer oncologists in NHS Tayside.

Question reference: S6W-14914

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 8 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity) (Scotland) Act 2021, what (a) EU regulations, (b) pieces of EU tertiary legislation and (c) EU decisions have come into effect since the Act was passed by the Scottish Parliament, and in relation to which of those it has (i) considered using and (ii) used the powers in section 1(1) of the Act.

Information relating to EU legislation, regulations, tertiary legislation and decisions that have come into effect since the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity)(Scotland) Act 2021 was passed by the Scottish Parliament and the present is in the public domain and can be found at https://eur-lex.europa.eu/homepage.html

For the period between the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity)(Scotland) Act 2021 coming into effect and 31 August 2021, information relating to the Scottish Government's use or considered use of the section 1(1) power of the Act is in the public domain and can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/-/media/files/committees/constitution-europe-external-affairs-and-culture-committee/correspondence/2022/eu-alignment--continuity-act--6-may.pdf

For the period 1 September 2021 - 31 August 2022 information is also in the public domain and can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/-/media/files/committees/constitution-europe-external-affairs-and-culture-committee/eu-continuity-act--draft-annual-report-for-laying--final--27-oct-2022.pdf

Since 1 September 2022 the Scottish Government has used the section 1(1) power in respect of The Public Water Supplies (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2022. These amended the Public Water Supplies (Scotland) Regulations 2014 to implement partially Directive (EU) 2020/2184 on the quality of water intended for human consumption. Since 1 September 2022 the Scottish Government has not considered further use of the section 1(1) power.