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-14891

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 28 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many patients visited a dentist in the NHS (a) Highland and (b) Western Isles area in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-15184

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 28 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much demand it estimates there is for new Changing Places toilets, as referenced in its Changing Places Toilets: Planning guide.

The Scottish Government published the Changing Places Toilets: Planning Guide and an accompanying easy read in November 2022. This guide details practical considerations when considering installing a Changing Places Toilet in both existing and new buildings.

The Scottish Government works closely with Promoting a More Inclusive Society (PAMIS) who are co-chairs and co-founders of the Changing Places Consortium and offer expert advice on Changing Places Toilets to a range of organisations in Scotland. From this work, and drawing on the lived experience that PAMIS brings, we know that there is significant demand for increased provision of Changing Places Toilets across the country.

Question reference: S6W-14787

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what treatment options are available to people living with postural tachycardia syndrome.

The Scottish Government expects NHS Boards to provide high quality, person-centred care for all people, including those with postural tachycardia syndrome.

There are a range of treatment options available on the NHS in Scotland, including self-management and a range of medications based on individual circumstances. The recommendation of any particular treatment is a matter for discussion between a patient and their clinician.

Question reference: S6W-14789

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 28 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-08412 by Lorna Slater on 19 May 2022, how many individual bids have local authorities made to the Recycling Improvement Fund since it was established, broken down by local authority area.

The following figures are correct as at December 2022, when the last Recycling Improvement Fund Board was convened.

Local Authority	Number of Bids
Aberdeen City	6
Aberdeenshire	2
Argyll & Bute	2
City of Edinburgh	1
Clackmannanshire	4
Dumfries & Galloway	1
Dundee	3
East Lothian	1
Falkirk	1
Fife	2
Glasgow	3
Highland	2
Midlothian	3
North Ayrshire	3
North Lanarkshire	2
Moray	1
Orkney	1
Perth & Kinross	1
Renfrewshire	3
South Ayrshire	2
South Lanarkshire	3
Stirling	1
West Lothian	1
Western Isles	2
Total	51

Question reference: S6W-14889

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 28 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government on what date it (a) will publish the results of its survey into an International Culture Strategy, launched on 2 February 2023, and (b) plans to launch the finalised International Culture Strategy.

We will aim to publish a report on the analysis of consultation responses, along with responses that responders have given their consent to share, within 12 weeks of the survey’s closing date. The survey is due to close on 26 April.

A final publication date for the strategy will be determined by the level of returns we receive to the survey, the analytical requirements of processing them and the drafting process.

Question reference: S6W-14790

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 23 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on the number of (a) incidents and (b) emergency service callouts there were for mountaineering accidents in each year since 2011.

Each year, Scottish Government receives a copy of the Scottish Mountain Rescue (SMR) ‘Annual Review’, which includes the total number of ‘incidents’ and ‘callouts’ involving SMR teams; the collated information from the reports, for each year since 2011, is provided in the following table:-

SMR Incidents
Year	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020		2021
Mountaineering	413	381	347	273	331	235	216	239	243	289		345
Non	160	162	239	260	248	201	207	349	259	308		315
Total	573	543	586	533	579	436	423	588	502	597		660

SMR Callouts
Year	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020		2021
Mountaineering	< No breakdown available for these years >										327		395
Non	< No breakdown available for these years >										389		558
Total	859	872	884	795	762	823	686	788	733	716		953

Question reference: S6W-14779

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 22 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-14449 by Neil Gray on 2 February 2023, whether it will publish another Two Year Annual Report on Activities of the National Performing Companies in the future.

As noted in my answer to question S6W-14449, work on the two-year report on the activities of the National Performing Companies was suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

I will consider whether this work should be restarted given the National Performing Companies all publish their own annual reports on their individual websites including information relating to their community and education programmes, financial figures and key artistic achievements.

Question reference: S6O-01924

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 February 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the Deposit Return Scheme.

Question reference: S6W-13325

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 15 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-12504 by Jenny Gilruth on 9 December 2022, in relation to the adjustable car ramp (mezzanine deck) on the MV Hebrides, on what percentage of sailings (a) was the ramp operational during spring and summer 2022 and (b) will the ramp be operational during spring and summer 2023.

Matters about when and whether to deploy the adjustable car ramp are operational ones which CalMac are best placed to respond to, not least in terms of future plans.

The adjustable car ramp allows Cal Mac to increase capacity when the need arises on certain sailings at certain times of the year. CalMac have advised that there has been less need for it to be deployed, as evidenced by the usage during the period of the Summer Timetable 2022 (25 March 22 until 23 October 2022), when MV deployed the Mezzanine Deck on 19.8% of sailings.

Footfall figures for the Tarbert – Lochmaddy – Uig route from March to October 2022 were 134,072, compared to 174,376 for the same period in 2019, an approximate 26% reduction in footfall.

During the spring/summer period of 2023 we will expect CalMac to deploy the ramp as necessary.

Question reference: S6W-14467

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 27 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 13 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on any plans it has to offer a relief package to small and medium-sized enterprises that are facing rising costs to run their businesses.

Recognising the challenging economic circumstances for businesses, the Scottish Budget 2023-24, published on 15 December 2022, delivers a strong non-domestic rates package to support business.

In addition to the lowest poundage in the UK for the fifth year in a row, ensuring that over 95% of properties in Scotland, including all small and medium sized properties, pay a lower tax rate than they would in other devolved nations, the Budget included a package of reliefs worth an estimated £744 million. This includes the UK’s most generous Small Business Bonus Scheme relief which will take 100,000 properties out of rates altogether and also Rural Rates relief which provides up to 100% relief for properties in rural areas.

To incentivise and promote Scotland's Deposit Return Scheme, parts of properties used solely to house reverse vending machines will not be liable to pay rates from 1 April 2023.

Within the powers devolved to the Scottish Parliament, we are delivering support packages for Scottish businesses that are not available elsewhere in the UK.

Given most of the levers to respond to the challenges that businesses are facing are reserved, we continue to urge the UK Government to use all the powers at its disposal to tackle this cost of living crisis on the scale required, including access to borrowing, providing benefits and support to households, VAT on fuel, taxation of windfall profits and regulation of the energy market.