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-17047

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 15 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what meetings it has had with (a) Western Isles, (b) Highland, (c) Argyll and Bute, (d) Orkney Islands and (e) Shetland Islands Council in relation to Scottish Highly Protected Marine Areas.

During this initial phase of policy development the Scottish Government met with representatives of Comhairle nan Eilean Siar on 17 February 2023, representatives of Highland Council on 20 February 2023, and representatives of Orkney Islands Council on 17 February, 22 February and 4 April 2023.

Further direct engagement will take place during the site selection process, as specific site proposals are being developed, to ensure views can be taken into account regarding any proposed sites in each council area.

Question reference: S6W-17930

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6W-17455

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 12 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has used Facebook as part of any health projects to recruit people as paid patient representatives for particular conditions, and, if so, for which projects it did this, and which conditions the representatives had.

Question reference: S6W-17492

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 12 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the expected value is of any advance payments to Circularity Scotland under section 8.5 of the Producer Agreement from registered drinks producers that are currently liable to make such payments between 16 August 2023 and 1 March 2024.

As Circularity Scotland is a private company, support arrangements they have with their members is a matter for them and it would not be appropriate for the Scottish Government to intervene in such commercial arrangements between private companies. We are grateful to all businesses for the investment they have made in preparing for the launch of the deposit return scheme and this investment will be important for the success of the scheme when it launches on 1 March.

Question reference: S6W-17513

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 12 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action is taking to protect care home residents in the Highlands and Islands region from any risks associated with care home closures.

The Scottish Government has clear standards for the quality of care across our health and social care services and the safety, protection and wellbeing of residents and staff in our care home sector is a priority. We have for each of the last three years provided NHS Highland with funding of £864,800 per year to support their enhanced oversight and support of local care homes to encourage quality improvement and sustainability, and we recently confirmed further funding for 2023-24.

Ultimately the commissioning and provisioning of care home services for local communities to meet needs rests with NHS Highland and the Highland Council. The Scottish Government is in regular contact with NHS Highland, the Highland Council, and providers of social care to understand the challenges they are facing which include the impact of care home closures across the system.

Question reference: S6W-17496

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 12 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-15518 by Kevin Stewart on 17 March 2023, whether it will provide the full-year information regarding the average response time for the Office of the Public Guardian to process (a) Electronic Power of Attorney Registration (EPOAR) submissions and (b) postal power of attorney requests in 2022-23 now that the financial year is complete.

Question reference: S6W-17636

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 12 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that relevant data is collated on the abuse of older people.

As noted in response to S6W-08055 on 10 May 2022, the concept of elder abuse is very broad. Whilst there is no legal definition of elder abuse, the World Health Organisation has defined it as ‘a single or repeated act, or lack of appropriate action, occurring within any relationship where there is an expectation of trust, which causes harm or distress to an older person' ( Elder abuse (who.int) ). The Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Act 2007 is designed to protect people; aged 16 years and over who are unable to safeguard their own well-being, property, rights or other interests; are at risk of harm; and, because they are affected by disability, mental disorder, illness or physical or mental infirmity, are more vulnerable to being harmed than adults who are not so affected.

While the Scottish Government doesn’t hold information on elder abuse, specifically, it does hold information on adults at risk of harm (or who have been harmed) by age; where an Adult Support and Protection investigation commenced. The figures, along with many data quality issues explained, were published on our website on 9 th May 2023. The release indicated that, in 2021/22, about 40% of those subject to an ASP investigation were over the age of 75 (15% were men and 25% were women). These figures are national estimates due to differing local processes.

In addition, there are a number of data developments aimed at strengthening the information available, including:

The Scottish Government has developed an improvement plan for adult support and protection which includes reviewing current ASP data to develop more robust, meaningful and comparable data. The review and development of an ASP minimum dataset is being taken forward by The Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services (IRISS). The minimum dataset will provide a clearer picture of Adult Support and Protection in Scotland.
The Official Statistics on police recorded crime and criminal proceedings do not include details on whether the victim was an older person, or their relationship to the perpetrator. However, the new crime system will allow crime stats by victim age, therefore a measure of recorded crimes against older people.
The Scottish Crime and Justice Survey are developing a new Fraud and Computer Misuse module. This module will help estimate the prevalence of victimisation from these crimes in Scotland for the first time and will allow for a breakdown by age. These new questions will be included in the 2023/24 survey due to go into the field this summer. Users will be kept informed as to when the first results from these questions will be published.
The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act, once in force, will require information about police recorded hate crime and convictions data to be published annually, and with greater detail where known. The Act will – for the first time – introduce new protections against offences aggravated by prejudice towards a person’s age.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Question reference: S6W-16566

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 12 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the announcement that the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has agreed to extend its guidance to valuers in Wales as well as England, what discussions it has had with RICS regarding any potential extension of its guidance to valuers in Scotland, and when it expects that any such agreement will be reached.

The safety of residents and homeowners in Scotland is our priority as we work to tackle cladding safety issues. We are undertaking a programme of work to identify, assess and remediate building with potentially unsafe cladding. The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) are members of the Cladding Remediation Stakeholders Group which meets regularly, the last meeting being on 29 March 2023. Work has been undertaken between the UK Government and UK Finance to develop a solution which reflects the situation in England and we are in urgent discussion with UK Finance about adapting that solution for Scotland as quickly as possible.

Question reference: S6W-17529

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 12 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what (a) models of mobile phones it has purchased and (b) networks it has used for its mobile phones in the past five years.

The Scottish Government does not hold records for all mobile phones purchased in the last 5 years as they are purchased by individual business areas and agencies to meet their requirements. However, through our mobile voice & data contracts we have purchased various models of mobile phone including those from Apple, Motorola and Samsung.

For the past 5 years the Scottish Government has had a mobile voice and data contracts with Vodafone UK.

A contract was in place from 20 January 2016 to 20 September 2020. This was replaced with a new contract via https://www.gov.scot/publications/mobile-voice-and-data-services-framework-2020/ from 21 September 2020 to 20 September 2023.

A small number of connections have also been with EE over the last 5 years.

Question reference: S6W-16517

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 12 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its response to Freedom of Information request FOI/ 202200321870 and the recommendations of the attached Gateway Review documents, whether the Cladding Remediation Programme Board has (a) received and (b) considered a “brief delivery options paper” created from the MACE Consulting report, and, if so, on what date any such paper was submitted to the Board.

	EPOAR	Postal
2018-19	30	39
2019-20	36	43
2020-21	150	154
2021-22	123	135
2022-23	145	137