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-29973

Asked by: Tom Mason, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 June 2020
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 24 June 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to remedy any skills shortages in the construction industry for the delivery of affordable housing in the North East Scotland region, where workers might be attracted by better-paid offshore jobs.

Construction remains a priority for the Scottish Government, with 23% of all Modern Apprenticeship starts in 2019-2020 being in the Construction and related occupational grouping. The Scottish Government continues to recognise the importance of an agile, flexible grouping approach that enables the apprenticeship offer to respond to the requirements of the economy and the sectors within it.

The delivery of affordable housing in the North East continues to be a priority for the Scottish Government and plays a key role in supporting the construction sector. In 2020-21, local authority resource planning assumptions in the North East area, allocated through the affordable housing supply programme, will total £82.244m. (Aberdeenshire - £32.626m, Aberdeen City - £20.658m, Angus - £9.681m, Dundee - £19.279m).

Question reference: S5O-04452

Asked by: Tom Mason, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 June 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 June 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to set out a revised social security programme.

Question reference: S5W-29587

Asked by: Tom Mason, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 June 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 17 June 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how much is being paid to the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland to set up and conduct a 15-month work programme with chronic pain patients, which will have a lived experience reference panel.

Question reference: S5O-04387

Asked by: Tom Mason, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 May 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 June 2020

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it has delayed the deadline for the creation of a nitrogen balance sheet.

Question reference: S5O-04350

Asked by: Tom Mason, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 May 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 May 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of care homes in the NHS Grampian area have reported cases of COVID-19.

Question reference: S5W-28193

Asked by: Tom Mason, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 April 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 20 May 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what arrangements it has made to ensure that rheumatology patients, particularly those diagnosed with Lupus, have sufficient access to the drug, hydroxychloroquine, while it is being used in COVID-19 clinical trials.

Access to medicines should not be affected by the current COVID-19 global pandemic. There are no known current supply issues with hydroxychloroquine and it remains available from manufacturers for community pharmacies to order through wholesalers as usual.

There are a number of established clinical trials to explore whether a number of medicines, including hydroxychloroquine, may provide a potential treatment for COVID-19. Public Health England has secured relatively large volumes of hydroxychloroquine specifically for any NHS clinical trials across the UK, including Scotland, and the NHS has been advised to order through established supply routes so that prescription supplies are not affected.

The Medicines Healthcare and products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has published a reminder that hydroxychloroquine is not licensed to treat COVID-19 related symptoms or prevent infection and that it should only be used for this purpose within a clinical trial. The MHRA has also added hydroxychloroquine to the list of medicines that cannot be parallel exported from the UK in order to protect stock in the country for UK patients.

Question reference: S5W-27614

Asked by: Tom Mason, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 13 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what progress is being made to deliver the 28 outstanding payments under the Less Favoured Area Support Scheme, the oldest of which dates back to 2015.

Question reference: S5O-04259

Asked by: Tom Mason, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 March 2020
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 12 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce speeding on the AWPR.

Road safety is of paramount importance to the Scottish Government. With Police Scotland, we embrace a partnership approach to issues surrounding driver behaviour and we engage regularly with our partners to identify what additional mitigation measures may be appropriate in specific circumstances.

An annual safety camera site prioritisation process is undertaken annually to determine new safety cameras sites across our road network. If the 2020 process identifies the AWPR as meeting minimum site selection requirements, a safety camera deployment will be considered.

Question reference: S5O-04273

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S5O-04182

Current Status: Withdrawn