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-08751

Asked by: Fulton MacGregor, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 1 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it is giving to introducing the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training in Learning Disability and Autism for those working in health and social care in Scotland.

Action 12 of our Learning/Intellectual Disability and Autism: Towards Transformation Plan committed to explore the establishment of mandatory autism and learning/intellectual disability training for all NHS staff. We will consider how this applies across multi-disciplinary settings and use the evaluation findings from the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training pilot to inform our approach to learning disability and autism training in Scotland.

The Scottish Government has also commissioned NHS Education for Scotland (NES) to develop the NES autism training framework as a tool for services and learners, alongside funding a Learning Disability Team at NES to improve the knowledge and skills of the health and social care workforce.

Question reference: S6W-08614

Asked by: Fulton MacGregor, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 26 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-07156 by Humza Yousaf on 28 March 2022, whether it will provide a further update on advice provided to NHS boards to enable the routine prescribing of sapropterin for people with phenylketonuria (PKU).

Question reference: S6O-01172

Asked by: Fulton MacGregor, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 May 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to review and address any university funding gap, in light of reports of increasing numbers of international students being offered places, compared with Scottish-domiciled applicants.

Question reference: S6W-08509

Asked by: Fulton MacGregor, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 25 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its consultation on statutory guidance on the affordability of school uniforms.

Question reference: S6W-08385

Asked by: Fulton MacGregor, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 16 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how its guidance on recording incidents of bullying in schools is being implemented by (a) North Lanarkshire Council and (b) other local authorities.

In 2019, we introduced a uniform approach to recording and monitoring bullying incidents in schools, supported by guidance. All local authorities and schools are expected to be using the new approach.

It is the responsibility of school staff and local authorities to decide how to address bullying in their schools. We expect that all local authorities have an anti-bullying policy that covers all of their schools and each school should develop and implement an anti-bullying policy in line with this. The policy should indicate how incidents will be dealt with and recorded.

Therefore, this information would need to be requested from each local authority directly.

Question reference: S6O-01114

Asked by: Fulton MacGregor, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 May 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with North Lanarkshire Council regarding the proposed implementation of a multi-establishment leadership model in schools.

Question reference: S6O-01004

Asked by: Fulton MacGregor, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 April 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to help people experiencing fuel poverty as a result of increased energy bills.

Question reference: S6W-07649

Asked by: Fulton MacGregor, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 19 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether any council tax rebates will be received by households that are not in bands A to D but which qualify for other council tax reductions such as the single person's discount.

Question reference: S6W-07156

Asked by: Fulton MacGregor, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on current considerations regarding advice to NHS boards on the routine use of sapropterin in NHS Scotland.

The first generic version of sapropterin has recently received a Marketing Authorisation from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). Healthcare Improvement Scotland are working to provide updated advice to Boards to enable routine prescribing of Sapropterin. We expect this to be in place in April. In the meantime, doctors can request access to medicines that are not generally available on the NHS on an individual case-by-case basis through local health board medicine governance processes.

Question reference: S6W-07051

Asked by: Fulton MacGregor, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 25 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to retain the confidence of people who are clinically vulnerable as progress is made under the revised Strategic Framework for tackling COVID-19.

Throughout the pandemic we have provided bespoke advice, information and support to help protect the approximately 180,000 people on Scotland’s Highest Risk List.

While we will continue to ensure people at highest risk know where to turn if they need further guidance, clinicians and GPs are the primary source of advice for those on the Highest Risk List. They best know the personal circumstances and conditions of each individual and can advise them on what, if any, precautions to take as they would have before the pandemic, and can provide tailored information and support.

There is strong evidence that people's risk from Covid-19 has significantly changed as a result of the vaccination programme and the time is now right for us to consider who still needs to be on the Highest Risk List. In the meantime, we will:

? continue to respond to scientific and clinical advice regarding COVID treatments, making sure that those who we know will benefit most from them are able to access them; and,

? continue to look at ways to identify people who may be at highest risk, taking emerging evidence into account.

? work with our Clinical Advisory Group to provide support to those who no longer need to be on the list where the evidence indicates that they are no longer at highest risk

Our aim is to ensure that people who have been on the Highest Risk List are supported, empowered, and included throughout this calmer period into a more normal way of living. It has been nearly two years since we asked people to shield, and it is crucial that they are now supported to benefit from the lifting of restrictions as much as everyone else.