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-16465

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Elena Whitham on 4 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is, regarding any impact on Scotland, on the UK Government’s proposal to restrict the sale of nitrous oxide.

The Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 is reserved legislation so any changes made to the classification of substances (such as nitrous oxide) will affect the whole of the UK. We await the outcome of the UK Government’s consultation into the exemptions which will apply for the legitimate uses of nitrous oxide in medical, industry and food production sectors.

Upon the implementation of the classification of nitrous oxide as a Class C drug, Police Scotland will work with colleagues in UK policing to make sure the law is applied in the same way across the UK.

Question reference: S6W-16946

Asked by: Stephanie Callaghan, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Elena Whitham on 4 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the appointment of a new Minister for Drugs and Alcohol Policy, whether it will provide an update on what plans it has to tackle the number of drug deaths in Lanarkshire, in light of reports that the area had the second-highest number of drug deaths in Scotland during the last quarter of 2022.

The Scottish Government remains committed to delivering work across Government, Parliament and beyond, to reduce drug-related deaths throughout Scotland, including Lanarkshire, and our National Mission will help achieve that. The National Mission has reviewed and learned from best practice at home and internationally and concluded that a public health approach to drugs is the most effective way forward.

A key part of that National Mission is the delivery of our Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) standards and in Lanarkshire there is an Oversight and Implementation Group which has been established to oversee the implementation of these Standards. The group meet monthly and has Pan-Lanarkshire representation, including lived experience and family representatives.

They have submitted implementation plans to the Scottish Government, are reporting monthly on their progress, and are working with the Public Health Scotland led MIST (MAT Implementation Support Team) who are supporting areas to implement the standards.

NHS Lanarkshire is one of the highest performing Board areas in Scotland with regards to low waiting times. They continue to meet and exceed the waiting times target that 90% of people referred for help with problematic drug or alcohol use will wait no longer than three weeks for specialist treatment that supports their recovery.

There is a pan-Lanarkshire response to near-fatal overdoses in place via the Scottish Ambulance Service, and they have commissioned third sector outreach organisations to further support those with problem substance use and they have also implemented peer support initiatives. In addition to this work to support people still in active addiction, they also have a strong local recovery communities network.

Question reference: S6W-16848

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 4 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the National Treatment Centre – Highland, whether a booking system is operational for all NHS boards to refer their (a) orthopaedic and (b) ophthalmic patients, and which NHS board is ultimately responsible for overseeing any such booking system; what mechanisms are currently in place for prioritising (i) orthopaedic and (ii) ophthalmic patients on the waiting list, and whether any priority system will be used to order NHS board applications to the (A) orthopaedic and (B) ophthalmic waiting lists, and what the (1) date of the first booking and (2) total number of patients on the waiting list is, broken down by NHS board.

There are currently no plans for a dedicated booking system for the referral of patients to the network of National Treatment Centres (NTCs).

Through on-going engagement with NHS Boards, the Scottish Government’s Planned Care Team actively monitor speciality-by-speciality throughput across NHS Scotland, including patients being seen at the NTCs. NTCs are key in the NHS Scotland approach to tackling the backlog of planned care, and activity going through the centres will be focussed initially to support treatment of the longest waiting patients.

NTC-Highland has been commissioned to support Orthopaedic activity for NHS Grampian, which will provide capacity to treat 434 patients from NHS Grampian who are waiting for Hip and Knee Replacement Surgery.

In line with the national clinical pathway approved for NTCs, NHS Grampian is responsible for providing a list of appropriate patients who have been pre-operatively assessed and NTC-Highland will oversee the booking of patients into both consenting clinics and for surgery. NHS Grampian’s Orthopaedic patients will be referred to NTC-Highland in batches of approximately 50 patients per month. The first batch was referred at the beginning of April for operating from the week commencing 15 May.

Numbers of patients waiting for Orthopaedic and Ophthalmic treatment can be found online on Public Health Scotland's website.

NTC–Highland treated its first patient on 17th April 2023.

Question reference: S6W-16780

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 4 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how the new National Public Energy Agency will work with local government on area-based delivery.

The new National Public Energy Agency – Heat and Energy Efficiency Scotland (HEES) –which is operating in virtual form in-house within the Directorate for Energy and Climate Change aims to work in partnership with a range of key stakeholders, including local government, to provide strategic leadership and co-ordination to accelerate both the pace and scale of heat and energy retrofit across domestic, non-domestic and public sector buildings in Scotland. To support this aim, one of the roles of the Agency will be to improve overall coordination including how it can most effectively work with local government.

COSLA are represented on the HEES independent Strategic Board which has been established to provide support to the design of the future Agency and also more widely on how the virtual Agency can accelerate the roll out of zero emissions heating and evolve our delivery approaches.

The virtual Agency continues to have ongoing engagement with COSLA and local authorities on specific delivery programmes. Since 2013 the Area Based Schemes funded by the Scottish Government and delivered by local councils have helped over 100,000 fuel poor households to benefit from warmer homes and lower energy bills. We have allocated £64 million for energy efficiency improvements through these schemes this year and continue to build upon our partnership approach to delivery.

Question reference: S6W-16831

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 4 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many tasers are currently available for use by Police Scotland officers.

Question reference: S6O-02225

Asked by: Clare Adamson, MSP for Motherwell and Wishaw, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 May 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken to promote free bus travel through the National Entitlement Card scheme, particularly amongst people with a qualifying social security entitlement.

Question reference: S6O-02224

Asked by: Audrey Nicoll, MSP for Aberdeen South and North Kincardine, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 May 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action is being taken to ensure the involvement of Scotland's financial sector in efforts to tackle the climate emergency.

Question reference: S6O-02226

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 May 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with Transport Scotland regarding the Swallow roundabout in Dundee.

Question reference: S6O-02221

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 May 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what measures can be taken to accelerate the prosecution of criminal cases.

Question reference: S6O-02223

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 May 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, prior to the signing by the Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity of the Memorandum of Understanding between NatureScot and financial partners, how much financing it had identified would be required to meet its net zero targets for tree planting.