Questions and answers

Question reference: S6O-02094

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by George Adam on 30 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the Bute House Agreement with the Scottish Green Party.

Question reference: S6W-15965

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 29 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to procure a federated data platform for NHS Scotland.

There are currently no plans to procure a federated data platform for the NHS in Scotland. However, we want to make sure that we have the technology and infrastructure in place to equip health and care professionals to better collect, store and use data.

There are a number of key national developments already underway. This includes the development of National Digital Platform , and its associated National Clinical Data Store which provides the foundation for consistent, access to information. These are being developed in line with the overall ‘Cloud First’ policy, which emphasises the requirement to consider the use of public cloud services first, before other options, when introducing new services or updating existing ones – and we will develop a specific action plan for the use of Cloud technology across health & social care.

Scotland’s first Data Strategy for Health and Social Care – ‘greater access, better insight, improved outcomes: a strategy for data-driven care in the digital age’ was published on 22 February 2023. One of the core ambitions of the Data Strategy is to: empower the people of Scotland by giving individuals clear and easy access to, and the ability to manage and contribute to, their own health and social care data where it is safe and appropriate to do so. To achieve this, we will confirm data sources and data sets that are safe to be consistently shared. For individuals, data access will be enabled through the implementation of the Digital Front Door. This will enable individuals to share their health and care information with those involved in their care and support people to self manage.

Question reference: S6W-15774

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 29 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, for each ferry in the CalMac fleet, how many days each vessel has been out of service or unable to operate in each of the last 10 years because of (a) breakdown, (b) a refit, (c) refit overruns and (d) concerns over performance of the vessel in bad weather.

Question reference: S6W-15773

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 29 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, for each ferry in the CalMac fleet, how much has been (a) budgeted for each vessel’s annual refit, (b) spent on each vessel’s annual refit and (c) spent in total on both the vessel's annual refit and any additional repairs carried out, in each of the last 10 years.

Question reference: S6W-15970

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 28 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether the £26 million of additional funding for colleges, as announced in the Scottish Budget 2023-24, will become core funding in future years.

Question reference: S6W-15859

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 28 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on Transport Scotland's target for rail freight.

Question reference: S6W-16093

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 28 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-15024 by Jenny Gilruth on 21 March 2023, whether (a) the Minister for Transport, (b) CMAL and (c) Transport Scotland officials have held meetings with representatives of Pentland Ferries, from 1 October 2022 to date, regarding the chartering of the MV Alfred for the Clyde and Hebrides network, and, if so, when any such meetings took place.

Question reference: S6W-16135

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 28 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to ban the use of direct emissions heating systems for existing off-gas-grid properties from 2025.

The Heat in Buildings Strategy confirms our intention to introduce legislation (subject to consultation) prohibiting the use of direct emission heating systems in Scotland’s homes by 2045. We plan to introduce such requirements from 2025 and are developing approaches to phasing in these regulations across the housing stock. As committed to in this year’s Programme for Government, we will consult on our proposals for this legislation this year.

Question reference: S6W-16134

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 28 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its commitment to “phasing out the need to install new or replacement fossil fuel boilers in off gas properties from 2025”, as set out in its Heat in Buildings Strategy, whether it plans to offer support to help people move to zero or low emissions heating systems rapidly at points of distress, such as the sudden unexpected failure of a fossil fuel boiler.

The Heat in Buildings Strategy confirms our intention to introduce legislation (subject to consultation) prohibiting the use of direct emission heating systems in Scotland’s homes by 2045. We plan to introduce such requirements from 2025 and are developing approaches to phasing in these regulations across the housing stock. As committed to in this year’s Programme for Government, we will consult on our proposals for this legislation this year.

We offer a range of delivery programmes, provide advice and financial support for householders looking to install zero emission heating systems or make their buildings more energy efficient and affordable to heat. This package of support will evolve over the course of the decade to meet the scale of change required and align with any regulations we introduce.

Question reference: S6W-15596

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by George Adam on 28 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether, under the terms of the Scottish Ministerial Code, a minister who knowingly misleads a member of the public in their capacity as a minister should resign from the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Ministerial Code provides clear guidance to Ministers on how they should act and arrange their affairs in order to uphold the highest standards of propriety and is intended to speak for itself. Ministers are personally responsible for deciding how to act and conduct themselves in light of the code and for justifying their actions to Parliament and the public. The First Minister is the ultimate judge of the standards of behaviour expected of a Minister and of the appropriate consequences of a breach of those standards.

Chamber and committees