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-19054

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 12 June 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 23 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to fund the prevention of fractures as a result of osteoporosis through fracture liaison services.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of the Fracture Liaison Service audit and, have provided Public Health Scotland with funding to undertake a provisional organisational audit and scoping exercise.

Following completion of this scoping exercise the Scottish Government has advised the Royal Osteoporosis Society that the funding will be made available for a national fracture liaison service audit. The reporting timescale is expected to be finalised soon.

Question reference: S6W-18939

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 09 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 23 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to a recent NatureScot report that states that the proportion of natural features in favourable condition on protected sites has fallen from 80.4% in 2016 to 76.4% in March 2023.

The statistics are disappointing, and we are working with NatureScot to identify the contributing factors. Key to progress will be tackling negative pressures in areas surrounding protected sites including the proliferation of invasive non-native species and overgrazing. Only through collaborative working at a landscape scale will negative pressures on protected areas be effectively tackled and biodiversity restored.

Later this year we will publish Scotland’s new Biodiversity Strategy. This will set out our vision to halt the loss of biodiversity by 2030 and restore and regenerate biodiversity by 2045. The delivery plan will include a range of actions in support of this vision including actions to drive landscape change and actions to expand, connect and improve our protected areas.

Question reference: S6W-19258

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 23 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has invested to support its hydrogen strategy.

The Scottish Government has an ambition of at least 5GW of hydrogen production capacity by 2030 and 25GW by 2025. The Hydrogen Policy Statement (2020) and the Hydrogen Action Plan (2022) set out how we will work collaboratively with the energy sector to drive progress over the course of this Parliament.

The Hydrogen Action Plan is supported by a programme of capital funding, designed to accelerate and maximise the production of renewable hydrogen in Scotland.

Funding to date includes:

over £7m in grants offered via the Hydrogen Innovation Scheme to 32 projects that will drive innovation in renewable hydrogen production, storage, and distribution;
over £6m awarded via the Just Transition Fund to HydroGlen, a green hydrogen farming pilot;
and £15m awarded via the Energy Transition Fund to accelerate Aberdeen Hydrogen Hub.

The next tranche of the hydrogen investment programme, the Green Hydrogen Fund, will launch later this year. This fund will focus on supporting renewable hydrogen production from Scotland’s abundant renewable energy resources, seeking to give Scotland first-mover advantage.

Question reference: S6W-19192

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 16 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 23 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has carried out an Island Communities Impact Assessment in relation to the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill, and, if not, whether it plans to do so.

Question reference: S6W-19242

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 16 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 23 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that NHS staff do not have to pay for parking at NHS facilities.

Question reference: S6W-19199

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 23 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to recent research by the Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights (CRER), which found that only 2.8% of Scotland’s public sector workforce identify as BME, in light of BME people being over 5% of the working age population.

The Scottish Government welcomes the focus of the research and is committed to increasing the representation of racialised minorities in the public sector. The research estimates that 2.8 per cent of public sector employees identified as belonging to a “black and minority ethnic group”, 76.5 per cent were white and 20.7 per cent were marked as “unknown”, which included “not completed”, “don’t know” and “prefer not to say” responses.

The report acknowledges it does not function as a perfect census of Scotland’s public sector workforce. The Annual Population Survey by the Office of National Statistics notes that from January to December 2022, the proportion of public sector workers in Scotland aged 16 and over who are minority ethnic was 6.2 per cent. This is higher than the proportion of the population aged 16 and over who are from minority ethnic groups (5.5 per cent in 2022).

As an employer, our Race Recruitment and Retention Action Plan published in 2021, supports the Scottish Government and its agencies to increase the representation of racialised minorities, across all grades, to be reflective of the working age population. We are making progress in this regard, with an estimated 4.1% of staff in the Scottish Government and its agencies identifying as a racialised minority (December 2022). This is almost double the figure from 2017 (2.2%).

The Scottish Government published A Fairer Scotland for All: An Anti-Racist Employment Strategy in December 2022 which sets out a series of actions, including those recommended in the report. We will be piloting the use of an anti-racist workplace training framework with employers; supporting employers in their use of positive action measures; and continuing to engage with public sector leadership on recruitment and representation, data and understanding institutional racism.

We are also reviewing the operation of the Public Sector Equality Duty in Scotland with a view to improving the Scottish Specific Duties, including data reporting on ethnicity. We have consulted on proposals which include extending the existing gender pay gap reporting duty to ethnicity and disability, with listed public authorities required to make more evidence-based decisions on the information they publish.

Question reference: S6W-19162

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 23 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what projects are impacted by the reported suspension of the Scottish Capital Investment Manual process.

Question reference: S6W-19055

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 12 June 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 23 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when it last spoke with NHS (a) Lanarkshire and (b) Forth Valley regarding fracture liaison services.

Question reference: S6W-19053

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 12 June 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 23 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that NHS boards are taking a preventative approach to tackling osteoporosis.

Question reference: S6O-02435

Asked by: Meghan Gallacher, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 June 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to Police Scotland’s latest quarterly performance report, which found that there were 1,928 recorded crimes of online child sexual abuse during 2022-23.