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-18416

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 12 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what estimated delivery dates it received from all shipbuilders in relation to its work to establish how quickly it could retender and deliver a vessel as a replacement for vessel 802.

Question reference: S6W-18412

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 12 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether any discussions took place with Ferguson Marine in relation to (a) restarting construction on vessel 802 from the beginning and (b) constructing a replacement for vessel 802 at a different shipyard, and what the outcome was of any such discussions.

Question reference: S6W-18421

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 12 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether any island communities groups or representatives were consulted as part of the process to determine whether vessel 802 should continue to be constructed at Ferguson Marine or whether it should be retendered and built at another shipyard, and, if so, what the outcomes were of any discussions.

Question reference: S6W-18418

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 12 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether any shipyard stated that it could deliver a vessel before the May 2027 date stated by the Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Fair Work and Energy during his ministerial statement on Ferguson Marine on 16 May 2023.

Question reference: S6W-18414

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 12 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what the anticipated final cost is of vessel (a) 801 and (b) 802.

Question reference: S6W-18338

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 9 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it is measuring the impact of the Scottish AI Playbook.

The Scottish AI Playbook is a “one stop shop” for anyone in Scotland embarking on a journey involving AI whether it’s learning, using, developing, deploying or just exploring. It is a shared and living asset, embodying Scotland’s AI Strategy ethos of openness, transparency and collaboration. With this in mind, the Scottish Government has focused on the development of meaningful partnerships within the Playbook to support and demonstrate wider impact.

To date, the Playbook has established partnerships with CyberScotland, Fintech Scotland, the Institution of Engineering and Technology, Jisc National Centre for AI in Tertiary Education and Scotland’s Futures Forum. A further five partnerships are currently in the development phase.

Further collaborative opportunities are in development, namely through the creation of Playbook hubs. The first of these hubs currently in development is focused on Data and AI in the Healthcare space. As part of the development of this hub, a quantitative approach to measuring impact will be initiated, through namely through Google Analytics integration into the Scottish AI Playbook MediaWiki platform.

The Scottish Government also understands that impact can be both felt and measured qualitatively, in the feedback and experiences of Playbook users. With this in mind, the next phase of Playbook development also includes a period of user consultation and feedback in order to measure experiential impact. This will be subject to resourcing and budgetary considerations, as it is recognised that measuring impact in this way, while highly valuable and beneficial, is resource intensive.

While the impact of the Scottish AI Playbook either is or will be measured in several different ways, it is noted that an overarching approach to impact and impact measurement is currently in development by the Scottish AI Alliance. Once this impact measurement approach and associated framework is in hand, it is likely to have an effect on the way in which the impact of the Scottish AI Playbook is measured.

Question reference: S6W-18364

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 9 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many GP surgeries there are; what percentage of those have dedicated mental health professionals, and how many (a) additional mental health professionals in GP surgeries have been recruited under Action 15 of the Mental Health Strategy 2017-2027 and (b) mental health professionals in total are based in GP surgeries, as of 1 May 2023.

There were 905 general practices in Scotland at 1 April 2023( General practice list size and demographics information - General practice data - General practice - Our areas of work - Public Health Scotland ).

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the percentage of general practices with dedicated mental health professionals; or on the total number of mental health professionals based in GP surgeries.

However, at 31 st March 2022, nearly 80% of GP practices across Scotland had access to a Mental Health Worker under either the Primary Care Improvement Fund (PCIF) and/or Action 15. Under Action 15, an additional 958.9 whole time equivalent (WTE) mental health roles had been filled by the end of the commitment in March 2022, including 356.1 WTE posts in GP practices. The final Action 15 figures up to 01 April 2022, were published on 12 July 2022 ( Mental health workers: quarterly performance reports - gov.scot(www.gov.scot).

We have allocated over £107 million since 2018-19 to enable recruitment to these posts and will continue to provide the necessary funding to ensure that these posts are protected in 2022-23 and beyond.

Under the PCIF, a total of 259.9 WTE mental health workers had been recruited at March 2022 ( Primary Care Improvement Plans: Summary of Implementation Progress at March 2022 ). PCIF data to March 2023 will be published in summer 2023.

There are also mental health professionals directly employed by general practices in addition to those employed under the PCIF and Action 15. These professionals are not separately identifiable within the published GP in-hours workforce survey results . We expect numbers to be relatively small.

Question reference: S6W-18330

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 9 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what work it has undertaken with its partners to align Scotland's Artificial Intelligence Strategy with other national technology initiatives and programmes.

During the creation of the Scottish AI Strategy, the Scottish Government worked closely with colleagues across the SG and further afield, to ensure that we move forward in a joined up manner. We have continued to offer input to the development of related strategies both internally and nationally.

For example, as part of the development of the Digital strategy we specifically focused on the ethical considerations key to delivery of an ethical digital nation, and we worked more widely to consider how the emerging use of AI could help us deliver more focused and effective public services and economic benefit as part of the Scottish National Strategy for Economic Transformation. We have also both contributed to and taken direction from the Scottish Innovation Strategy. We have considered the types of support required by innovative and new businesses, whilst also supporting training and upskilling opportunities for those working in the technology sector.

In terms of UK wide developments we have engaged closely with UK Government colleagues around the creation of their draft white paper and we will continue to input to this discussion as the regulation of AI technologies continue.

Question reference: S6W-18179

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 9 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has issued sanctions to any local authorities that have not achieved the pupil teacher ratio since it was established.

Question reference: S6W-18310

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 9 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what estimate it has made of the number of prisons fitted with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete, and what funding has been made available to fix any such buildings.