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: S5W-34901

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 February 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 24 February 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to encourage people to quit smoking during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Question reference: S5W-35189

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 February 2021
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 22 February 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether self-employed, home-working travel agents are eligible for current COVID-19 support schemes, where such agents do not pay business rates and own their own property, and what consideration it has given to introducing business support grants for this particular group.

Both the Strategic Framework Business Fund and the £5 million Travel Agent Fund are tied to having a business premises, which reflects the higher overall costs facing premises-based businesses including rent and utilities.

While self-employed, homeworking travel agents are not eligible for these support schemes, they may be eligible for other forms of support, including the UK Government Self Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS). In order to help those who are not able to access SEISS, the Scottish Government have recently relaunched the Newly Self-Employed Hardship Scheme, which makes grants of up to £4,000 available to qualifying self-employed people.

We have also recently increased our Local Authority Discretionary Fund from‎ £30 million to £120 million. Through this fund, councils can target additional support wherever they consider it most effective in the context of their local economy and business community. As such they have the option to provide direct support for self-employed or home working travel agents in their area if they consider it necessary.

Information on available support can be found on the Find Business Support website.

Question reference: S5W-34768

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 25 January 2021
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 10 February 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its plans are for arranging COVID-19 vaccines for patient-facing physiotherapists in the private sector and for arranging subsequent communications to them on this matter.

The Scottish Government also has issued a letter on 28 January, 2020 which provides a pathway for all the Allied Health Professional (AHPs) including the patient-facing physiotherapists to be prioritised during the first phase of the Covid-19 vaccination roll out programme.

The letter provides detail for Third and Independent sector frontline workers to use, to consider their eligibility for COVID-19 Vaccination, in line with JCVI prioritisation. Contact details are also provided for eligible frontline staff to use to make contact with their local health board for vaccine scheduling.

The letter was shared with the all relevant stakeholders such NHS, NSS, Health Boards, SG Chief Allied Health Officers, Allied Health Professional Secretariat, and the Royal College of Podiatry Chair for onward cascade.

You can also view the letter here: Cabinet Secretary for Commonwealth Games Sport Equalities and Pensioners Rights.dot (ccpscotland.org)

Question reference: S5W-34552

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 January 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 27 January 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what financial assistance is available to self-employed sports and fitness coaches whose livelihoods have been impacted by the COVID-19 restrictions.

In November 2020, the UK Government extended the Self Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS) for a further six months. The grant is available to self-employed individuals who were eligible for previous funding under the scheme, although they do not need to have claimed the previous grants. The Scottish Government has set aside funding of £15 million for a second iteration of the Newly Self-Employed Hardship Fund that we introduced in April 2020 in order to mitigate the financial challenges for those who are unable to access the SEISS. We are working to finalise the delivery mechanism and criteria for this fund and will publish more detail shortly.

Question reference: S5W-34558

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 January 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 26 January 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, for what reason the DigitalBoost Development Grant website reported on its launch day on 12 January 2021 that "applications are in excess of the available budget...therefore new applications have been suspended"; by what date it will reopen for new applicants and, in light of the demand for support, whether it will increase the budget for the grants.

Applications were temporarily suspended due to strong demand which quickly exceeded the allocated budget. I am pleased to confirm that I have now doubled the available budget to £20m and, as a result, eligible businesses who had already started their applications will be able to complete the process. I am actively exploring the feasibility of developing a successor scheme for launch in the new financial year.

Question reference: S5W-34047

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 14 December 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 14 January 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance and advice is available for GP practices to enable them to offer face-to-face appointments in a safe way during the current COVID-19 restrictions.

GPs practices follow the advice in Health Protection Scotland's guidance: Novel coronavirus (COVID-19) Guidance for primary care - Management of patients in primary care .

The guidance does allow for face-to-face consultations where that is clinically appropriate, but GP practices are advised to make every effort to triage all patients by telephone to avoid patients presenting at the practice unnecessarily.

Where patients need to attend, they should follow physical distancing guidelines. Physical distancing by staff of 2m should be followed in all areas of the workplace, including non-clinical areas. Where 2m physical distancing cannot be maintained, for example in direct patient contacts, the use of PPE in accordance with guidance will reduce the risk of exposure. Other considerations might include measures such as staggering staff breaks, and toilet use to limit the density of staff in specific areas are required. The use of Perspex (or similar) screens should also be considered to reduce risk in non-clinical encounters.

Question reference: S5O-04886

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 December 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce coronary heart disease mortality rates across all NHS boards.

Question reference: S5W-33736

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 December 2020
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 11 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many tenants facing financial difficulty because of COVID-19 have received support through the Tenant Hardship Loan Fund.

This information is not yet available as the Tenant Hardship Loan Fund, as announced in August’s Programme for Government, opened for applications on Monday 7 December 2020.

The Scottish Government have worked at pace with our loan administrators to develop the application and decision processes, along with the online application portal. We expect statistics on a monthly basis, allowing for the holiday break we would expect the first full statistics to be available from mid-January.

Question reference: S5W-33716

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 December 2020
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 9 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to promote collaborative work between landlords and tenants who are facing difficulties paying their rent.

Since the beginning of the pandemic the Scottish Government has acted swiftly to support both tenants and landlords. Through the Private Rented Sector and Social Housing Resilience groups, made up of Scottish Government and key housing partner organisations, we have promoted support options and awareness raising of rights, to assist in negating the devastating impacts brought by the current crisis. Alongside this work, I wrote to all tenants in the private rented and social rented sectors setting out the available support.

The current Pre-action requirements on private rented sector landlords, introduced temporarily under the Coronavirus (Scotland) Act, are intended to ensure that private landlords work with tenants experiencing difficulties with paying their rent before taking action to seek eviction. It is for the Tribunal to consider evidence as to the extent to which a private landlord has engaged with their tenant to resolve rent arrears as part of the pre-action protocol requirements when they are considering applications for eviction. The implementation of the requirements will be kept under review to assess the effectiveness.

Landlords in the social rented sector are already subject to pre-action requirements for all rent arrear cases. These were introduced by the Housing (Scotland ) Act 2010 and came into effect in 2012 to strengthen the protection for tenants facing eviction for rent arrears. Before an eviction order is granted, social landlords must satisfy the court that they have given tenants in arrears every opportunity to take up help to manage their debts and to agree an affordable and sustainable repayment plan. This means that social landlords must have exhausted all attempts to resolve rent arrears with the tenant before taking action to evict.

Question reference: S5W-33687

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 December 2020
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 9 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what criteria are followed when considering whether to grant the (a) building of new and (b) recommissioning of former intensive poultry units, including how the proposed facilities will be able to control potential (i) diseases, including avian flu and (ii) environmental risks, particularly near residential and/or farming areas.

Planning applications should be determined in accordance with the terms of the development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise, each proposal being considered on its own merits. Planning applications should provide sufficient information to enable a full assessment to be made of the likely effects of a development. This includes the characteristics of the various environmental effects likely to arise and the mitigation that can be provided.

The primary responsibility for dealing with planning applications and local planning matters rests with the local planning authority. It is for the planning authority to interpret and implement relevant planning legislation and guidance as it deems appropriate given the circumstances of a case and to ensure that the provisions of the planning system are applied properly. Planning authorities are required to seek views on applications from relevant statutory consultees, including SEPA.