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-15421

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 13 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Accountable Officer has raised the possibility of seeking a ministerial direction in respect of the Deposit Return Scheme with the Scottish Ministers.

Question reference: S6W-15416

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 13 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on whether any members of the Executive Team of Circularity Scotland have had any direct experience of running a deposit return scheme.

Question reference: S6W-15863

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6W-14917

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 10 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-14359 by Lorna Slater on 7 February 2023, which states that the "Deposit Return Scheme is an industry-led scheme, delivered by industry, led by the scheme administrator, Circularity Scotland Ltd”, whether it is the case that industry can change the launch date of the scheme, and, if so, by what process.

Question reference: S6W-14961

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 10 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on administering the MCS Certification Fund.

The Scottish Government spent £886 on the MCS Certification Fund in the 2021-2022 financial year, and £14,987 so far over the 2022-2023 financial year as set out in the table below. The total spend since the scheme started until 15 February 2023 is £15,874. This scheme has helped increase the total number of MCS heat pump installers in Scotland by around 10% (calculated using MCS Scottish heat pump installer data from: https://datadashboard.mcscertified.com/InstallationInsights ) with 17 gaining MCS certification through the fund over the scheme’s lifespan.

2021-22

2022-23

(until 15 Feb 2023)

Total

£886

£14,987

£15,874

There are no additional costs for administering the scheme as the fund is currently managed within the Green Heat Installer Engagement Programme team at Energy Saving Trust. The Programme is funded by Scottish Government to support installers in the energy efficiency and heating sectors.

Following the launch of the scheme in September 2021, initial uptake began slowly due to a number of factors, which included the length of time needed for an organisation to become MCS certified. The scheme allows applicants a 6 month window from the date of initial application to successfully gain their certification before funding can be claimed.

Due to successful marketing activity through the Green Heat Installer Engagement Programme and additional promotion through stakeholder organisations, recent demand for the fund has increased considerably. We continue to promote the fund and it is expect that the uptake will continue to grow over the next financial year.

Question reference: S6W-14903

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 10 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many of the 750 additional nurses, midwives and allied health professionals it plans to recruit from overseas, announced in October 2022, have been recruited to date, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S6W-14892

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

To ask the Scottish Government what the current average distance is that patients have to travel to access a dentist in the NHS (a) Highland and (b) Western Isles area.

Question reference: S6W-14718

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 10 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made regarding the effect of staff vacancies on the performance and safety of homecare medicine services.

There were significant capacity constraints across the medicines homecare market in 2022. A key challenge has been recruitment of staff in a challenging labour market, with some providers more adversely affected than others. The situation is improving but continues to be closely monitored.

Certain homecare providers have highlighted issues with nursing capacity in recent months. Where this has been raised as an issue, there has been close working with providers to ensure that available staffing resource is used in a way that helps minimise disruption to service performance.

Homecare providers have not reported any recent issues with staffing within their pharmacy departments.

Several homecare providers have experienced staffing shortages within customer services departments, and this has been a major contributing factor to the capacity constraints experienced.

There have been a small number of instances where there have been delays to the delivery of medicines to patients, which has the potential to impact on patient safety. Medicines homecare providers and Health boards have processes in place to support managing and learning from any patient safety incidents that arise during service delivery.

Question reference: S6W-14983

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 10 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has carried out an impact assessment of its presumption against new oil fields on oil and gas jobs in Aberdeen, and, if so, on what date.

As the draft Strategy sets out, irrespective of the climate imperative, due to the maturity of the North Sea basin, planning for a just transition to a net zero energy system and diversifying employment and economic opportunities for workers is essential. Scotland’s energy transformation is therefore urgent and inevitable.

In establishing a renewed policy position on oil and gas, whilst licensing is reserved to the UK Government, the Scottish Government is consulting on whether, in order to support the fastest possible and most effective just transition, there should be a presumption against new exploration for oil and gas.

The draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan is an open consultation and as such requires statutory assessments to be undertaken. Some assessments have already been published and the others will be available with the final document.

Question reference: S6W-14734

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 10 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) children and (b) adults have received hospital or hospice at home support in each year since 1999.

Public Health Scotland collect Management Information on the number of adults receiving Hospital at Home. However, no data is collected on children receiving this service or on patients receiving a Hospice at home services, although some of the patients receiving hospital at home may be receiving end of life care.

The following table shows the total number of adults (16+) who have been supported through Hospital at Home services by calendar year and Health Board, and shows a 60% increase in patients treated since 2015. A patient could have one or more admission to Hospital at Home services within the year. However, individual episodes are not counted, and the same patient is not counted more than once within the same year.

Health Board	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022 p
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	*	134
NHS Borders	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	41
NHS Fife	174	1,594	1,784	1,679	1,459	1,379	1,285	1,232	937
NHS Forth Valley	-	-	-	-	-	-	*	372	300
NHS Grampian	-	-	-	-	91	*	325	444	636
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	219
NHS Lanarkshire	249	1,631	2,325	2,514	2,527	2,506	2,388	2,329	1,842
NHS Lothian	-	1,084	1,557	1,868	2,060	2,304	2,415	2,423	2,407
NHS Orkney	-	-	-	-	-	*	-	-	-
NHS Tayside	-	-	-	-	-	-	119	218	227
NHS Western Isles	-	-	-	-	-	-	*	*	154
Scotland	423	4,309	5,666	6,061	6,137	6,504	6,584	7,135	6,897

The data was extracted from SMR01_HAH_PI, February 2023.

(*) indicates values that have been suppressed due to the potential risk of disclosure and to help maintain patient confidentiality.

(-) indicates values that are zero.

Figures for 2022 are provisional (p) and subject to change.

Source: Public Health Scotland